Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

eS. ae Ll ee. AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION not to be blasted with a hand gun; that would be out of character, for such weapons were rare; no burglar would be expected to own one. A knife-thrust was doubtful, for I might just possibly be wearing link-armour. So I was to be enticed into the outer room by burglar-like noises and there battered to death. In the morning my corpse lying there would tell its own story. I thought then that my life had nearly run its course, but I did not propose to go walking to meet it. I stayed where [I was, dizzy with drink, swaying on my feet. I was not allowed much time to wait. Since I did not rush out to them, the un- known men saw they must come in and finish me quickly, before I could find a weapon or think of some means of calling for help. Into the room they crept. I saw the two dark shapes pass through the doorway. I saw the clubs swinging in their hands. “We shouldn’t have turned the light off here,’ one of them “muttered in a thick accent. The other turned back and touched a button in the outer room and a glow 14 of light spread through the room again. They saw me then. They muttered to each other and moved cautiously towards me. Too late, I thought of my sword hanging in the recess, behind the men who were advancing upon me. Then James moved out of his corner. He acted with a mathematical economy of motion but swiftly. A long arm took down my sword, caught it by the tip and spun it, whistling and glittering, across the room so that it fell with a thud, point first, into the floor at my feet, and stood there upright, swaying. Even before it struck he had stalked stiffly across from his corner towards my assailants. One of them turned and aimed a blow at him. The blow fell fair and square on the robot’s shoulder with a ring of metal. It had as much effect as a fly. The robot took one more step towards the man and drove a metal fist Straight into his face. The arm came forward like a piston—there was a sound of crunching bone .. . the man dropped. I had whipped my sword up out of the floor boards before it stopped swaying, comicloooks.conn