Astounding Science Fiction (British edition) — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

SHARE OUR WORLD TI She frowned a little and changed the subject. ““Do you think they left because they’re hungry?” He followed her in watching them. They were in two huddles, twenty meters or so off from the tables; and, as before, messengers made frequent trips between the two. “If they were that hungry, they’d just take off into the woods and eat. No, they’re prob- ably digesting the information they’ve picked up.” “And planning what to discuss with us next,’ Chang added. “You know, there must be a practical limit to how many of them can touch snouts at once; I’m sure they’d all get into one big conference now if they could.” “Sure. Shall we break out a short length of copper wire so they can?” “TI thought we’d wait on that. They've got enough new to think about.” “All right. Listen, Chang, we shouldn’t relax now. We should record what we’ve done while it’s still fresh in our minds.” She was disappointed again, but she agreed: “I guess so.” They went back to their tables and spoke into their mikes for a good quarter hour. Shadow slowly flooded the clearing and washed upward, submerging the blue-gold of the forest wall. Even though there was a full hour left be- fore sunset, the objects around Chang ' American Magazines | were lighted nondirectionally, dusk- like. Then the nibblies returned to them. Chang switched her communicator on again, prepared herself for another lesson—and got the biggest surprise of all. The nibblies, she realized immedi- ately, were teaching her to add. There was no doubt about it, be- cause one of them stood apart from the rest and demonstrated visually. He used tally marks scratched on the bare ground for his numbers, and the “plus” and “‘equal’’ signs just learned from Balch. The signals on the scope, of course, were not familiar to Chang, but she found she could pick them up almost as fast as the nibblies could produce them—and indicate to them that she was doing so. From ar‘th- metic they went on to other subjects. Whole avenues of communication, which Balch had opened up with diffi- culty, were opened to her in minutes, almost without effort. And she slowly became aware of something else. Something in the nib- blies’"—attitude. It bothered her at first. She was sure it wasn’t unfriendly ; she was sure that having participated in conferences with them she was their friend, completely. But some- thing about the signals was odd. Suddenly there appeared on the screen a new, subject-changing pat- tern: the symbols “human” and American publications, if they are of a technical or educational nature, may still be obtained over here by means of an annual subscription. The following are representative of the many fine magazines available : FLYING MODELS SCIENCE DIGEST MECHANICS ILLUSTRATED - 25/- MODEL AIRPLANE NEWS- - 28/- POPULAR SCIENCE - - - - 30/6 31/3 Annual Rate RADIO-ELECTRONICS = = = 32/6 POPULAR MECHANICS ~ = - 32/6 AMERICAN RIFLEMAN - = - 37/6 METRONOME PHOTOGRAPHY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ~ = 60/- All prices include postage. Kindly send remittance with order. ATLAS PUBLISHING & DISTRIBUTING CO. 18 Bride Lane, London, E.C.4 LTD. conniclbooks.conn