Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 42 — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

ARISTOTLE happen. Pop wants to get rid of him. I think he’s scared.” Jake left to scurry into his own tank as the King himself strode in, his muscle men behind him. The Princes saluted their father. John, watching him acutely, saw his nervous look towards his eldest son and the calm con- tempt with which it was re- ceived. There would be a change all right. There wasn’t much hope that they would capture the Hawkins’ palace... and the failure might well spark and blow up. There would be a new King Patrick very soon. When J am King John, he thought suddenly, J shall make sure none survives to be strong enough to threaten me. He had no doubts at all that he would be a king even- tually. The lights flickered and died at this point and the whole gigantic tank garage was sud- denly lit by the eerie illumina- tion of the mechanics’ torches. Trouble with the generators again ; probably the oil. Lately the faults had become in- creasingly numerous; despite having the chief. electrician ceremoniously scourged to death the previous month there had been no improve- ment. In the darkness Prince 85 John reflected that it would be wiser to scourge all the elec- tricians, but not to the point of death. After all, they were useful. The lights came up. Ahead of them the great steel doors swung open revealing daylight. At the King’s signal all the tank engines began to roar. The troop started to move, in close formation, up the ramp to the outside world. At the age of sixteen, excited, tense and confident, Prince John proceeded for the first time beyond the palace walls. At first he was concerned for the most part with controlling - his tank and keeping it in for- mation with the rest. The tanks of the soldiers, smaller again and less efficient than those of the princes, split into two wings about the royal centre. John counted thirteen on the left and twelve on the right. One of the latter came to a sputtering halt less than twenty yards from the palace and an- other tank moved over from the left to balance its absence. The troop moved in its own dust cloud down through the valley to the east. King Patrick’s strategy was cunning and simple. He had no fantastic ideas of making a frontal assault; all the power comiclbooks.cormn