Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

ye Re NE A MISSION OF GRAVITY following machines made no effort to avoid. The crew of the target ship escaped the effects of the vapor, but in a matter of seconds their tail con- trols burned away. The glider’s nose dropped and it fluttered down to the beach, pilot and crew leaping free just before it touched. The two aircraft which had flown into the smoke also went out of control as the hydrogen chloride fumes incapacitated their personnel, and both settled into the bay. All in all, it was one of the great anti-aircraft shots of history. Barlennan did not wait for the last of the victims to crash, but ordered the sails set. The wind was very much against him, but there was depth - enough for the centerboards, and he began to tack out of the fiord. For a moment it looked as though the shore personnel were about to turn their own crossbows on the ship, but Kren- doranic had loaded another of his frightful missiles and aimed it toward the beach, and the mere threat sent them scampering for safety—upwind ; they were sensible beings for the most art. : Reejaaren had watched in silence while his bodily attitude betrayed blank dismay. Gliders were still in the air and some were climbing as though they might attempt runs from a higher altitude; but he knew perfectly well that the Bree was relatively safe from any such attempt, excellent though his aimers were. She was riding a choppy sea as the wind bucked the current from up the fiord, and her speed and course were both far too variable to make a satisfactory target. One of the gliders did make a run at about three hundred feet, but another trail of smoke whizzing past spoiled his aim badly and no further attempts were made. The machines drifted in wide circles well out of range while the Bree slipped on down the fiord to the sea. 115 “What has been happening Barl?’’ Lackland, unable to restrain himself longer, decided it was safe to speak as the crowd on shore dwindled with distance. “I haven’t been butting in for fear the radios might spoil some of your plans, but please let us know what you’ve been doing.” Barlennan gave a brief resumé of the events of the last few hundred days, filling in for the most part the conversations his watchers had been unable to follow. The account lasted through the minutes of darkness and sunrise found the ship almost at the mouth of the fiord. The interpreter had listened with shocked dismay to the conversation between captain and radio; he assumed, with much justice, that the former was reporting the results of his spying to his superiors, though he could not imagine how it was being done. Apparently the nation this shipmaster represented had abilities that transcended anything he had ever imagined; and as Barlen- nan had suspected, the realization actually forced upon -him collapsed his morale completely. With the coming of sunrise he asked to be put ashore in a tone completely different from any he had used before ; and Barlennan, taking pity on a creature who had probably never asked for a favor in his life from a member of another nation, let him go over- board from the moving vessel fifty yards from the beach. He did not dare come to a stop or take the ship ashore, for the gliders were still in evidence and might not have been able to resist the temptation of a motionless target. Lackland saw the islander dive into the sea with some relief; he knew Barlennan quite well, but had not been sure just what course of action he would consider proper under the circumstances. ‘Bari,’ he said after a few moments silence, “do you suppose you could Connicloooks com