Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 50 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION sulphur - powder into the teeth-marks. The kid wasn’t crying, he saw, and that fact alone made some crazy sense out of the bedlam_ that erupted around him. The woman had not moved after she had warned her son. “Pipe down, pop,” Jarril said roughly. “If your dog is in the habit of biting chil- dren then it must. be destroyed.” “T told sonny not to touch it,’ the woman said unex- pectedly. “He won’t touch that dog again.” “What sort of mother are you?” demanded Jarril. Be- fore he could receive a reply the youngster had darted away from him, running in- side the dome. The old man with the chess-piece shook it under Jarril’s nose, laughed, and said: “I’m an old man, son. You must expect me to have a little fight still left. Which reminds me: I’ve Danny’s queen forked. He’ll lose a game rather than lose his queen.” With the disappearance of the boy, and now the rapid retreat of the old man, Jarril was left facing the woman. 2: ing D He noticed the strength of her limbs and_ shoulders, and realised that all these people were well-built and healthy. There was none of the mal- nutrition and _half-starved struggle for existence so often found on frontier planets. ‘“‘Where do you get ail your food, ma’am?” Jarril en- quired. “Grow some,” the woman answered unconcernedly. “Buy some from _ traders. Why?” “Well—that is, oh, just thinking.” Jarril walked away quickly, amazed at his own chaos of thought. It was high time he carried out some searching self-analysis. He felt there was a forty per cent. chance that he had suffered some deeper physiological damage when the _ lifeboat crashed; he had been too quick to blame his below par activity onto the sandstorm. The trouble was that he was up against something, something here in this settle- ment, that he could not rationalise. He couldn’t get to grips with the situation. There was no _ clear-cut obstacle, the answer to which 33 comicloooks.com