Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

62 THE MOON I8 HKAVEN Says I am fiot a good chemist, not a chemist at all. That the trip would have been better without me. Mike, I could not help myself. I strike him. Hard. He falls to the ground. I come away and climb the rocks. Now I think that perhaps he was right. The trip may have been better without me.”’ “Tripe,’’ you say. ‘‘ Utter tripe. God, man, what the devil would we do for air if you weren’t here? You don’t think that fool of a technologist could do it, do you? Bea little realistic, Clavier. And don’t let him get at you. That’s what he’s after. To get you annoyed. Don’t let him.” Clavier chuckles, and it does you good to hear it. ‘‘ What- ever he was after, he got something else!’’, “Sure he did, and serve him right but—I wouldn’t do it again unless it’s really necessary. It takes a lot of water to bathe his wounds!”’ Clavier jumps up. ‘‘ Water! My water! They are aati my water to wash that pig of a Schnabel?’’ ““ Now calm down, Clavier. What else should they do? Let him bleed to death or get impetigo or something?’’ Clavier stares at you with round eyes. ‘‘ Impetigo? Could he really get that, Mike? - Just from a little cut like that?”’ Crazy as it is, this seems to be the way to handle it. ‘‘ You never know, Clavier. Little cuts lead to serious things some- times. Impetigo, asthma, pyorrhcea—anything.’”’ He claps your shoulder with a heavy glove. ‘‘ Mike, I will do it no more. It is too serious!’’ “Okay, then. Let’s get back. I’d like some food. How about you?”’ “‘T’m starving,’ he admits. You lead him back down the rocks to the plain. Then across the plain to the dome. You hope everything’s going to be all right. Schnabel might want to get a bit of return for that cut head. But once inside the dome, you see that it isn’t so. Whereas the other three are standing around sipping tea and munch- ing food, the technologist is sitting by himself in a corner, comicbooks.com