Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

you later.” The child was delirious. The father and mother hovered in the background as Harmon sat down beside the bed. Bowser crouched in the corner and wet himself and whimpered as if he sensed the presence of something here in this room that frightened him down to the bottom of his puppy soul. For thirty minutes, Dr. Harmon sat beside the bed, while the mother and father slowly went frantic. “What is it, Doctor? What is it?” “Some infection I do not understand.” “What can we do?” “I gave her penicillin. Apparently this organism is penicillin-resistant. I can try some other antibiotic but if penicillin does not even check the infection, I am afraid we have run into something that no antibiotic will stop.” “Noctor—’’ “If you believe in prayer, now is the time to pray.” The mother’ went silently from the room. . In the corner, the puppy whimpered. On the bed, the little girl moaned and twisted. She was not in contact with this world but with some other world in which strange shapes came and went like ghosts across a wasteland. In this other world were sights that frightened her. Harmon shook his head. Suddenly he realized that he had not sneezed since he left the medicine show tent. At the realization, something inside of him came unhinged. For an instant—and it was an instant of pure madness—panic such as he had never known blew through him with hurricane force. He caught the panic, righted it, and knew what he wanted to do. It blew up again, with more than hurricane violence, as he con- sidered the possible consequences to him of doing what he wanted to do. “I don’t care what happens to me he said. The panic, for this time at least, sub- sided. He lifted the child in his arms. Donna’s parents went with him. Get- ting out of his car in front of his office, 10 _ ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION gay over his shoulder to Yanvro, “I'll see - Harmon carried the child across the street toward the tent of the medicine show. Many people were on the lot now. There was a stir and a flurry among them. Coming out of the tent was a pro- cession of four men, Dr. Lapham, Yanvro, the spieler, and the sheriff. On the sheriff's hip, the gun was clearly visible. Yanvro- and the spieler were in handcuffs. The child in his arms, Harmon walked up to Dr. Lapham. “Get out of my way, you young fool. These men have been arrested. The war- rant, I assure you, is legal.” “IT have a sick child here,” Harmon said. “So I see.” Lapham’s eyes widened. “Harmon, you don’t mean that you were bringing her to a medicine show for these charlatans to treat?” “I mean exactly that,” Harmon answered. He was ice and iron inside, with no panic anywhere. The sheriff moved forward and looked at the child in Harmon’s arms with bewildered con- cern, then looked at her parents. “Sam, what’s wrong with Donna?” the sheriff said. “Some kind of an infection,” the father answered. “Bad? 39 “Yes. Very bad.” The crowd on the lot formed a circle around them. “It’s a good thing I’m here,” Lapham said. “Harmon, if you had let these char- latans treat this child while she was under your care, I would have been forced to ask for a cancellation of your license to practice medicine.” Harmon turned to Donna’s father. “Hold her, will you?” The twisting child went. into her father’s arms. “My license to practice medicine is hanging on the wall of my office,” Har- mon, said. “If I let this child die without doing everything in my power to save her life, I'll tear up my license myself, Dr. Lapham.” Something like a gust of wind moved through the listening crowd. Yanvro’s watching face was suddenly alive with t. “Release this man,’ Harmon said. He pointed to Yanvro. COMMIClAOOKS Eo