Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER NINE Ambush It doesn’t make sense to begin with. As you get off the bunk and stagger over to the electrolysis tank to take a better, but still hazy, look, you keep remembering that every- thing was all right when you went to sleep. The air was good—Atah had remarked on it—and the bubbles were coming up nicely. Now there is no water in the tank and no bubbles of life-giving oxygen. You swing your head round crazily and stare at the carbon dioxide extractor, That isn’t working, either. The atmosphere must be choked with the respiratory product. ' Suddenly the vagueness clears away as you realise how poisonous carbon dioxide is. You take a befuddled stride across the dome and drag the space suit.on to yourself. With the helmet in place and the valve on, you start to feel a little better. But you don’t sit and congratulate your- self. Instead, you spring across the dome and shake the others. When you have stirred them all up, you come back to Reina and force her into a suit. You look round and find the others have followed your example, swiftly realising that something’s wrong with the air. “Only when Reina’s helmet is securely on her head do you fiop down on the bunk and start to think. And then it comes home to you with a wham. You went around shaking them all into wakefulness., ‘But you didn’t do it to Schnabel. Because Schnabel wasn’t there, Atah has-been examining the tank, with Leeson and Clavier clustered round him. He looks up with a frown plainly visible through his helmet. — 7 comicbooks.com