Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

THE MOON IS HEAVEN 9 Atah sighs. He’s got a lot on his plate without all this, you reckon. But he’s not the kind to shirk or delegate. If it’s his job, he does it himself. ‘All right,’’ he grunts at last. ‘‘ Let it go. It’ll give the London Circle enough time to get out here.’’ ‘‘ They’re on their way already,’’ you announce. ‘“‘ Had a cable from Sed Linell today. About thirty of them. Should be here in a day or two.”’ You like the smile that creeps over Atah’s face. A smile that tokens pride, the real, true kind of pride. He’s glad the Circle are coming, you can see that. ‘“*Good,”’ he says. ‘‘ They won’t clutter anything up. I’ll be pleased to see ’em again, too. 'They’re good boys.”’ Yes, they’re good boys, you agree. And the thought takes you ‘both back a few years, so that you are both silent, both knowing that you’re thinking about the same things. The London Circle. A small group of people who met regularly to talk about space flight and astronautics mingled inextricably with the more imaginative types of fiction. _ And Atah had been the link between fiction and fact, so that some who began as pure fictionists came to realise the solid scientific foundation for space flight—and were fired with the concrete idea of reaching the Moon. Of course, there had been one or two pessimists among them. But the pessimists were part of it all, and were accepted by the Circle as an inevitable offshoot of something requiring faith and an impersonal approach, And Atah had always been there. At every meeting, he “was around to tell you how fast you must go, what fuel you nzed and hundreds of other things that lots of people would charge for. Slowly and softly he had made everyone see the utter necessity of reaching the Moon, until quite un- conscicusly they were supporting him to the limit—with their eyes wide open. Atah had converted them simply by telling them the truth. ; It’ll be good to have them along. So that they can be in at the peck point, actually see the rocket leave and comicbooks.com