Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 43 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

ERRAND OF MERCY Raikes got out of it, some- how. He crammed on full power. The minnow slowed, stopped, rose again, with steam swirling around the tail fins. The fuel tank indi- ~ cator needle moved visibly— back. He cut the main jets, let one side-jet give an abrupt stab.. On its thrust the min- now arced to the bank, its thin, jointed shock-absorber legs scrabbling for a foothold as though it were a falling spider. The legs only partly ab- sorbed the shock. It was a smacker. Each of the crew felt they’d fallen off a house. The leg nearest the river had stamped its pancake-like foot into the earth a mere yard from the verge. Here the bank was steep, a miniature cliff—the river rushed by a dozen feet below. “Sorry,” said Raikes. A black bruise was appearing on his chin. “Think nothing of it,”’ said Hacking. “I don’t. Neither - does Lewes here.”’ Lewes certainly thought 71 nothing of it, nor of anything else. He was out. His skull had rebounded from the cabin ceiling. The ceiling was of steel. He came round just in time to hear the skipper in- quiring, for the second time, if he were happy. Hacking was bathing his head for him. Raikes was still trying to fix the sending part of the radio. ““Confound it,” said Raikes. *“We seem to have spares for everything except that valve.” “‘What about Jenny’s set?” asked Hacking. ““Wrong type valves,” an- swered Raikes, shortly. “I mean, won't it get through on its own?” “Doubt it,’ said Raikes. “It only transmits on long waves. We know there’s a kind of double Heaviside layer up there. Ten thousand doubloons to a fag it won’t penetrate.” “T’ll take you.” “Okay.” Raikes took a small battery radio from its compartment, tuned it to the auxiliary long-wave fre- connicloooks.com