Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 50 — page 116: what you’re looking at

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

THE ped to the floor, suddenly quiet. We stood there for a minute, me, the Doc and the two remaining cops. And then; Ferguson drew a revolver with blurring speed and fired, point blank, at the Kid’s back. The slug slammed the Kid to the floor, where he writhed in agony. He turned his head and glanced up at Ferguson, his eyes filled with pain and hate. | Ferguson screamed sud- denly, and clutched at his head. And so help me. I saw a thing I shall never forget. Smoke rose from his head, and then, horribly, his skull split open with an audible rip. The corpse thudded to the floor like a sack of coal, spluttering brains, blood and gore over the carpet. I was frozen with horror, my stomach heaving with -threatened nausea. The Kid turned to look at me, eyes blazing, then sagged suddenly inert. But not be- fore a sudden, terrible pain KID knifed through my head, bringing me to my knees. When I climbed groggily to my feet it clearea as suddenly as it had appeared. The others were staring in horror at the corpses of the sergeant and Ferguson, the remaining cop reiching up his breakfast. Later, the bodies of Kruger, the sergeant and Ferguson were examined, especially the brains. All were found to be cremated. It was as if they had been seared with un- imaginable heat. The greatest puzzle was the Kid. The bullet that Ferguson fired hadn’t killed him. His brain was also in a cooked condition. The Doc couldn’t figure this. It didn’t make sense—in fact nothing made sense. The poor Doc was going crazy trying to figure what he would show on the death certificate. I had a theory, a crazy one. It took imagination to. ap- preciate it, so I didn’t say anything to the Doc about it. I sensed he would laugh at me, and have serious doubts 115 comiclooks.conm