Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 41 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

THE PHOENIX NEST and for Rudolph Strothmeyer, discoverer of immortality. “Perhaps, Sir Winston,” he said, ““while you are convales- cing, you may be planning your next political career.” Churchill was almost asleep, but he mumbled: “Oh, no, Doctor. I think I’ve had enough of that. This life, I’d rather be a painter. Great beauty in painting, you know. Always wanted to devote more time to it...” He drifted off to sleep. Strothmeyer rushed back to the laboratory to tend to Pro- fessor Knaut. Runningthrough the hall, he felt a twinge of guilt at his wish that the old man might die, but when he reached the laboratory, he felt another and stronger emotion. Professor Knaut-.was gone! The lab was empty of human form, except for the corpse of Churchill One—but from the cold, still chest of that once vital body there protruded the handle of a surgical knife which someone had snatched from the tray and driven home with brutal strength. “Oh, my God!” Stroth- meyer said aloud. “Knaut’s 39 gone mad!” He raced out into the hall, his thoughts in a whirl. He had to find the professor before anyone else did, or there would be hell to pay! If Knaut were insane, that would be troublesome enough. But if he should re- cover, he might resume com- mand of the experiment, and then Strothmeyer’s discovery of immortality would go by the boards—as might Stroth- meyer himself. Knaut would have his own explanation of what had hap- pened in the pheenix lab, and it would not be an explanation which would make a great man out of Strothmeyer. If the old man should take over again, ~all Strothmeyer’s quick think- ing would have been for nothing. His theory would fall upon deaf ears. He opened door after door, off the main hall of the phenix floor, surprising cloistered researchers in their white smocks and disturbing janitors and students, but Knaut was nowhere to be found. Probably he was al- ready at the centre of some group, ranting against Stroth- meyer and blaming him for COMIC HOOKS .COm