Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 41 — page 138: what you’re looking at

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

KIDS’ GAME “He can fool the psychiatrist just as we’ve always done. We've all taken ink-blot CESES Sty But the other shook his head. “Not after the leap from the train. He will be considered suicidally inclined —desperate. Eventually the psychiatrist will use shock or deep narco-therapy on him.” ““Not necessarily,” pro- tested Phil, without quite knowing why he defended the boy he had not seen for years. “You knew Stephen Clary well, didn’t you, Philip? It was you, I recall, who main- tained that he was one of our species.” ual 1 ag ad “I commend you for your perception.” Turning to ad- dress the others, the older boy continued: “It was a regrettable mistake. Perhaps if we had known we could somehow have prevented his going to New York. Or made it easier for him to live alone without our help—per- _ haps wecould have maintained contact with him. *“Apparently we have lost a great mind. Somehow it ap- pears this boy managed to 137 deduce his identity—and even ours. It would seem that even his very sketchy acquaintance with us was enough. But that is not important now.” “What .. .?” began Phil. The others maintained a shocked silence. The puppy squealed in its owner’s arms. The boy quickly covered its small mouth with his hand. “Do you concur in my feel- that Stephen Clary must be— silenced?” They stirred and avoided meeting each other’s glances. ““Jake—maybe we could try hypnosis, like we did on each new boy that came in.” The boy who had made the sugges- tion evaded the leader’s look and lapsed into silence. “Stephen Clary is probably under guard at the hospital. Hypnosis, such as he would require to silence him, would have to be given in a whole series. Even then he could not be trusted to resist shock treatment.” There were no more com- ments. Phil sat in a daze, overwhelmed by the implica- tion of what the youth had said. econmicloooks.com