Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

THE MOON IS HEAVEN 49 You leave Clavier and Reina fiddling with the tanks and things, and get yourselves each a bag from the pile of equip- ment. They are roomy’ and tough, but lighise ‘than most feathers. . Atah catches sight of you. “ Hi!’’ he calls, ‘‘ My. bags! What are you doing with my specimen bags?”’ Leeson waves to him and drawls out the answer. ‘‘ Col- lecting snow! As Schnabel would say: air or specimens, suit yourself !’’ A jumble of voices comes over the 44%. Atah’s and Schnabel’s. The technologist is saying something about sar- casm, Atah is giving you the green light. You make the jumble worse by laughing into your mike and swing away towards the rocks. The radio clears and Clavier chimes in with directions. ‘* Right down the gap where the ship is. Then turn right. The snow is a few dozens of feet away. Bring a lot of it!” Simplest thing in the world, you think. Dive down a canyon and haul out half-a-hundredweight of snow. Easy.. However, it’s got to be done. Anyway, at the edge of the crevice you find it’s not, going to beso bad getting down. The sides of the canyon are very rough, full of footholds. Leeson goes down first, switching on his suit-lamp. It’s uncanny how no beam appears. Just a circle of light on the walls. You know that’s because there’s no air with dust particles to disperse the light, but it’s still uncanny. You have your own lamp on and see that Leeson has reached the bottom. Immediately, the beams become visible, glancing off the dust particles his feet stir up on the ground. Particles that settle so slowly. ‘Here it is,’’ Leeson exclaims. “‘ Here’s the snow!” ’ He has been working his way ahead along the canyon, avoiding the smaller crevices leading down out of this one, and now his lamp shines on a patch of scintillating whiteness. Impulsively he steps forward on to it—and immediately sinks from view. comicbooks.com