Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 50 — page 65: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION Books with thin yellow pages and disintegrating bindings; books with hard covers and some with long - vanished paper. Outside the door an armed guard kept constant watch, and _ others stood ready in the street below. For this was the treasure house of Kalin. At the table an old man sat reading by the guttering light of a single wick floating in a bowl of fat. He squinted as he read, holding the faded paper close to his watery blue eyes, his matted white beard stirring as if with inner life as he painfully mumbled the words. e . the intermediate fre- quency amplifier, a diode valve, is incorporated in the circuits, and this ts supplied with voltages at the inter- mediate frequency. BEG hoe He sighed and set down the book, rubbing his weak eyes and frowning at the damp- stained wall. “FP requency?” He shook These his head. “Diode? Circuit?” He mouthed the words with painful care, repeating them as a man would repeat the meaningless words of some ritual, and the guttering flame flared briefly, throwing writhing shadows crawling over the time-stained pages of the book. Outside the sagging door the guard rasped a harsh challenge, was answered, and the door scraped open to admit a young man. Like the other occupant of the room, he wore a coarse, toga-like garment of filthy homespun. Crude sandals were lashed to his naked feet, and a matted fleece was slung over one shoulder. He, too, was bearded, and as he walked he trailed his left foot lansing behind him. “Good day, Reader,” he said respectfully, and _ set down the wooden bowls of stew he carried. “How comes the work?” “Slowly, my son.” The Reader dipped his spoon into the stew and began to eat comiclooks.corn