Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 46 — page 127: what you’re looking at

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

Different things have different values in different places— and for different people. ' THE MERCHANTS purply-blue sky Ned Brad- ley could see the tiny points of incandescence which were the braking jets of the approaching spaceship. Im- patiently he jogged the con- trols of the little hover-plane, already travelling all out, as his eyes anxiously swept the ground below him. Away to the north was a tiny cloud of dust. Quickly he scanned the map, then relaxed. That would be his convoy. Miles of heavy tankers lumber- ing at the limit of their speed towards the ship’s predicted landing point. Far to the east was another dust cloud; that would be Gulsworth’s lot. He stiffened slightly as a third white puff caught his eye, rather nearer, if anything, than the other two. Who the devil was that? Surely Guls- worth and himself were the only two left in this hemis- phere. It had been over six months now since the last trading ship had called at Earth, and one by one the Prerpiy-des against the by D. R. DAVIES others had dropped out. Six months of anxious waiting with colossal overheads; why, the radar chain alone—— With an effort he jerked his mind away from that tack. The new Anti-Recessional Act treated bankruptcy as treason. It took a brave man to go over the edge as he had done. Ora fool. If this ship hadn’t turned up— Abruptly he put the *plane into a steep dive, down to where the three roads inter- sected and continued as one broad highway. He flew along it for a while, radioing back information to his convoy. When he reached it, the ship had swollen to a huge, inert mass. He could have landed on it, if it hadn’t been for the thermal agitation set up by the heated hull. Instead he put the *plane down as near as he could. Gulsworth was already there. Tall, im- maculate, and smoothly ef- ficient, he greeted Bradley with a controlled friendliness. Bradley ignored the needle of irritation generated inside him 126 conmmicloooks.comn)