Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 43 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC S€IENCE FICTION still with an expression of abstract disinterest. He used no patter whatsoever, stood _ still on the stage in a brilliant white spot, with a girl in a black evening gown to hand him his apparatus. After a truly fantastic trick, in which he casually picked up a samurai sword and then, without pausing, switching swords or using a frame or other concealment, chopped through a broomstick and the neck of his assistant, dividing the broomstick and leaving the girl unharmed. Then he discarded his equip- ment and sat down on a chair in the centre. of the stage. When he spoke, for the first time, to an interested audience among whom even Michel was paying attention, his voice was flat and as bored as his face. His assistant came down among the audience. The magician said: “I shall now proceed to read your minds. If you wish me to give a demonstration of my powers, please signal to my assistant and hand her some 26 small object which is invisible to me. Cover it with the cloth she is holding before you hand it to her if you like. I shall tell you what it is.” He succeeded with several items—a watch, a ring, a pipe, a knife, a diary—and then offered to read written mes- sages of not more than a dozen words. He succeeded with all of them, word for word, without more than a slight frown of concentration. Michel felt his interest rise. He was being impressed in spite of himself. He could see how the first trick was worked—an imperceptible ges- _ ture from the girl or a key word in the acknowledgment she made to those offering things to her, but the messages were something altogether dif- ferent. He stood up, waved aside the girl when she came up with pencil and paper, and spoke directly to the man on the stage. “You claim to read minds,” he said, conscious both of the eyes of the audience fixed on him and of the fact that his comiclooks.conn