Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

ADDICT “Tt is,” replied the girl. “But you can get through if you know the way. They have to be able to get in.” George Three watched a leg twitch in the low sun. Above a battered shoe a filthy bare leg extended into the darkness of a doorway. It continued to twitch for some minutes. Then a skele- ton-like hand of grey flesh slowly grew from the shadow alongside the leg. The hand clenched clawlike and very slowly began to scratch the leg. “We'll have to stay here tonight, George. The search- ing parties will still be in the harbour district.” “Searching parties—after one person—you ?”’ The girl smiled very slightly with a touch of bitterness. “No, not just me, George— though they have sent parties after a single person. There are others. The raid in which my parents were killed ... was only a part of the campaign against the Abstainers.”’ And now, thought George Three, I am one of them. It amazed him that therealisation 123 carried not shame, but almost exhilaration. “But is it safe—here?’’ he asked. “They don’t bother with Bugtown,” sneered the girl. “These men are too nearly dead to interest them.” “But...thesemen... You, a girl. .?” “T have you, George.” HOW THE TINDER-LIKE aban- - doned building could remain this long without burning to an ash George Three could not guess. They climbed the ancient frame of a staircase in short, deft leaps that carried them over holes that must drop down to the basement. They reached the dark, second floor and glanced cautiously up and down a long, dismal hall. Many rooms opened off the hall. “Try this one,” Lilian Four said in a whisper. George Three poked his head into the darkness beyond the half-opened door. There was no sound, none of the snores or heavy breathing that issued from the others. At first he could not see across the room. But finally his comicloooks.corn