Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 48 — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION stranger’s replies, “C,” “E,” rhs © sake There isn’t any danger along the beam track; it was planned that way, carefully surveyed. It’s away from the track that you strike trouble. I suppose I was concentrating so hard on keeping that shadow just right, so I wouldn’t walk in circles, and on hearing the letters and listening for the beam, I never thought of the crevasses. They're a _ bit like the crevasses on Earth glaciers— only instead of being covered in snow, that damned dust fills them and covers them; they look no different from the rest of the desert. It came so suddenly I just didn’t know what was hap- pening. I even uttered the letter “W” quite automati- cally as I went down, and re- member hearing the stranger’s “X” before something hit me and I passed out. I suppose my helmet struck the side of the crevasse. I must have been uncon- scious about two minutes. It was black as the inside of a cow when I came to; I was | buried in the light dust filling the crack, and my knees and back were wedged against the sides. Very cautiously, I moved my hand and switched on the headlight, and at the same time heard the stranger’s - voice, coming nearer, I thought: “Where are you? Mark VII, come in. Mark VIII speaking. Where are you?” “Stop. Stop where you are, Mark VIII. I’m down’ a crevasse. Stop before you fall in, too. Did you hear the beam?” “Not out my way. I went about two hundred yards from where we parted, then suddenly your signal cut out. I am now five hundred yards from there, walking with my back to the sun.” “You must be pretty close, then. Stand fast for the moment. Don’t happen to have a rope, do you?” ‘“No—but I can make a cable from my suit-wiring—” “Don’t be crazier than you 100 comiclooks.comn 3 $ | . E