Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

© . ra Won7e AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION The Head looked at his face, and took to puffing his cigar fiercely so that great clouds of sweet-smellingsmoke _ filled the low room and smoked against the panelling. “Never mind, Brown. Just remember, tomorrow is finals day. And I want you to do well.” “Til try, sir. All the others, their mothers and fathers— that is—if you want me to try, sir, I will.” He picked up the large, official envelope with the red seals and wide blue pencil marks which made it look like the lid of a chocolate box. He sat for a moment, holding it in his hand. Then he put it down again. His sigh almost died in the room, but Orfie heard most of the words, and did not understand them. “If only they’d thought more—if only ’'d known.” He waited there, small in the middle of the room before the great desk that was like the judgment desk of Solomon. The Head coughed and took the rocket from his mouth. “All tight, Brown. You can run along now. But, re- member.’ The Head’s words 72 went through him like sleet tearing down a spider’s web. “Try your very best to- morrow. For me. And for yourself. And—for the stars.” YS, Sits The door closed behind him. He walked down the passage. Already evening shadows were rustling in over the quadrangle, enfolding the oaks, and pieces of the shadows flew up in sing-song notes as the birds found their nests. He was very quiet that even- ing. But he had always been quiet, almost, it might have seemed, as though he were trying to remember a mother and father he had never known. He had come to the college when he was six, and now he was fourteen, and he could remember nothing of any life before this. Life had begun for him here, in the college, with the other happy, laughing members of families, boys. And he wanted to be a rocket pilot! It was so funny it made him want to cry. His thin arms and legs, and pale, shining, almost death- lily features, out there in the cold, tough, blustering wild- conmmiclooolks.com