Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 43 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION woman talk with Mary, and this troubled his vanity. But he was bothered, not only in his lieutenant’s bars, by Lania’s genuine interest in a mere enlisted man. He became gradually aware of something else—that his first interest in her had grown into a kind of obsession for Lania which he could not control, and which his snobbery could not accept. The greater frequency of his visits to Mary’s place were frightening indications of the degree of his passion. for the Martian girl. It might have been mere coincidence, of course, that for a week running Corporal Joe Brewster found himself either on detail at night, or restricted to the post for having been gigged at in- spection. But then Cole made another play for Lania. When he was sure JoAnn was watching, he asked Lania something in a condescending, insulting way, as his eyes travelled up and down her 116 slender body—and Lania spat in his eye. JoAnn ran out of the room in humiliation. Mary was around the bar and across the floor to the table in three seconds. Cole started to rise from his chair and reach toward his holster as Lania turned her back and walked off. Mary grabbed the lieu- tenant’s right arm and eased him back into his seat. She was smiling and her voice was soothing, but her grip was steel. Cole sat back and put his hands on the table. But Mary, thinking back to that moment, later, believed it was then that Lieutenant Jeffrey Cole stopped being a sane human being. He paid his check, and left soon afterward. He didn’t return until the night of Mary Hell’s New Year’s Eve party. He came early, alone, and with two bottles. He drank steadily. And as he drank, he brooded. See a comicbooks.com ©