Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 127: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION It went on. It called him weak, ineffectual. Boy-man! Man whose salvation appar- ently came from tagging along behind this girl, perhaps im- peding her progress. And yet, in a way, these feelings were good. They were entirely new. He had never before realised the magnitude of his weakness and emascula- tion. He now knew its depths. And there was something else: Tab. At first he denied the fact of it. But now he faced it. For, despite his allergy, Tab had been a part of his life. Once over the first violence of the reaction he had found a kind of peace in Tab. It eased pain, fatigue, fraught memories, and des- tructive ideas. Did he need Tab now? Well, he did want it. Might as well face the fact, affirm it. He would affirm it as. Lilian Four seemed to affirm the negative things of their jour- ney. Affirm, feel the pain, do not shun or hate it, but salvage and use it. “Rest, George,” the girl said, breaking softly into his thoughts. “What you are going through is very usual 126 and necessary. I have seen a hundred... .” George Three’s mind at- tached itself to that. Yes, he thought, it had to be thus. He could hardly expect that she could have been attracted to him alone or to him for what he was. He forced himself to ask the question. ‘“‘Lilian—why did you come to my room this morning? Why did you risk warning me?” “Because I needed you.” “But why me? There must be hundreds of others ... peter 35" : There was just enough light coming into the room in the gathering evening for him to see her face. It was flushed, beautiful... “There are others, George,”’ she said, very quietly. “But none of them is quite like you. And none of them is, for me, George Three.” “But why anyone?’ he pursued. “Alone you could have .\. °” “.... done nothing,” she interrupted. ‘““There are two reasons why I came for you, George. One is... personal. One is not.” comiclooks.cormn