Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition), April 1944 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

24 Turn around, his mind said. But his feet went on unheeding, down and down. He stumbled. He fell. And got up again. He made the narrow hairpin turn that led to the lighter corridor almost unseeing. And he was actually stepping across the entrance before the reality of it smashed at him. With a single, mindless plunge, Pendrake dived behind a big up-jut of rock. He lay there quivering, so weak, so ill from re- action that for minutes his only thought was: The end had come. Recovery came hard. His nervous energy, that extraordinary reservoir of his great strength, was a worn and tattered thing. But after a while his spirit surged once more into life. Cautiously, he peered over the needle of rock behind which his space- suit-clad body slumped. He was crazy of course to think that he had seen moving shapes in the distance, but— The corridor stretched before his gaze on a gradual downward slant. His first in- tense glance showed that it was empty of life. It took a long moment after that to grasp that it wasn’t lighted by electric bulbs, and that his initial impression, that light meant Nazis, was wrong. He was alone in an old cave deep inside Earth’s satellite, like a worm that had crawled along a dried-out artery of some- body’s crumbling flesh. Only no worm had ever suddenly run into a tunnel the walls of which shed a dull radiance. The lighting was not even in texture, nor was it spaced according to any distinguish- able pattern. As he walked cautiously for- ward, points and splashes of light shone at him. There was a long, trembly line on the right wall, and a rough crescent on the left, and other shapeless and meaningless forms glowed and blinked along the cor- ridor as far as the eye could see. Pendrake thought sharply: Some kind of radiant ore which might be harmful— Harmful! His laughter echoed Homeric inside his headpiece, cut new cracks into his thirst-swollen lips, and ended abruptly as the pain grew unbearable. A man on the verge of death didn’t have to worry about new dangers. He plunged on, for a while heedless. And then slowly the presence of the light pene- trated anew. The truth burst upon him sud- denly as he paused at a turning and found himself staring down a long slant at a corridor of light that faded into a point of distance. ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION The corridor was arificial! ' And old! Incredibly, fantastically old. So old the walls, that must have been as smooth as glass and harder than anything human beings had ever made, walls radiant in every element, had crumbled before the relentless pressure of ten, twenty, thirty million years. Crumbled; and this sheltered, twisted,light-splotched tunnel was the result. He stumbled on; and the curious cun- ning thought came that the radiance would enable him to save his flashlight. For some obscure reason that seemed immensely im- portant. He began to giggle. It seemed suddenly irresistibly comic that he who was about to die had happened at this ultimate moment of his life upon an underground universe where beings had once lived. His giggling became a wild, uncontrol- lable glee. Finally, however, it ended from sheer exhaustion, and he leaned weakly against the wall, staring down at the tiny river that washed across the cave, burbling out of a big crack in the rock and whirling out of sight into a hole in the opposite wall. “T’ll just cross that stream,” he told him- self confidentially, “and then—”’ | Stream!!! His mind did a somersault so terrible in the nausea it brought, so physical that he staggered and fell like a stunned animal. The crash of metal and plastic on rock resounded in his ears; and the shock, the clangor brought back a measure of his sanity. : He grew more alert, more conscious, came further out of his terrible stupor. Water! The surprise of its presence struck him more sharply. The thought, the comprehension grew so big that it projected clear through his brain and down into his muscles, and was still too big. Water! And running! Come to think of it there hadn’t been any cold for a long time. Have to get his head free, air or no air. Somehow he’d survive if he got the water. It— He climbed unsteadily to his feet, and saw the men coming toward him. He blinked at them, thought finally in a frown- ing astonishment: No armor, no_ head- pieces! Queerly dressed, though. Funny! Before he could think further, there was a scramble of footsteps behind him. He whirled to see a dozen men bearing down from that direction. Instantly, knives flashed. A raucous voice yelled: “Kill the dern critter. Dirty furrin’ spy!” “Hey!’’ Pendrake breathed hoarsely. Ccomiclbooks.c©