Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 43 — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION ‘er than mine, Colonel,” Mr. Helstrom said, “if grief were capable of measurement.” The colonel made himself a bit more erect. He put a hand on the shoulder of the other man, clumsily. The minister looked across the utter flatness of the space- port, to the sandy, pastel hills far beyond. “Mars is much like Earth, in many ways,” he said. “Do you know this book that I have? It was in my sister’s room. It is a great book, of which I had heard. I suppose it might be called the Martian Bible. Mary kept it next to the King James version of our own Book. “There is a verse which I found in it. I have memor- ised it: 130 ““When the righteous men = came to the great hall Where the slain were laid to rest | The grey face of death looked up from the silence And mocked the conceit of language, The delusion of colour, cause and cabal. The slayers and the slain became as one.” They walked on in silence a little way longer. “Perhaps it is of no com- fort to you, as it is to me. “Mary had the passage marked.’’ The minister looked up into the Martian sky. “It is too long for her headstone. I think that will say merely: ““*Mary Helstrom, born 1977, died 2023, in goodness and mercy.’ ” conmicloooks.comnn