Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 89: what you’re looking at

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

THE MOON IS HEAVEN ~ 87 are part of another world, a model world Jaid out on the floor. You know that if you switched on the radio and called for help, they would all come running, But somehow you look upon this as your own job. Something you’ve got to do alone. There’s no reason for it. You just feel it that way. Then suddenly, you come up on a fairly “wide ledge. Schnabel is standing on it, his back to the rising cliff behind him, a small boulder in an upraised hand. ‘‘ Don’t come any farther, Mike,’’ he says over the radio. “ This little stone would make a pretty hole in your helmet.” You rather doubt it, but you don’t want to make the experiment just yet. So you switch on the microphone and talk to him, “*You’d do that to me, would you, Schnabel ?’’ He laughs unpleasantly. ‘‘ With pleasure, Mike. I still have one or two aches and pains that were caused by you. I should enjoy killing you.’’ A question comes into your mind. You voice it. ‘‘ Then why the hell don’t you do it?”’ ‘* Because, Mister Reporter, I want you to know a few things before you die. I shall get even more enjoyment from that!’’ Same old stuff, you think. The killer must tell his victim what a great and clever guy he is. All part of the-megalo- mania, you suppose. And in the way that such things work out, a part of your mind goes wandering off on a line’ of its own. It starts mulling round the old theory of yours that psychological states are inherited according to the rules of continuous variation. Just as there are infinite degrees of height between the two extremes, so there are infinite degrees of manias, phobias and complexes. And just as some people grow taller after they should have reached their own par- ticular maximum, so some people take on psychological gtowths after they should have reached mental maturity. comicbooks.com