Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 53 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

CONSPIRACY away with his confidence. Nowshe said: “Wait a minute. The fruit machine business— how do you get over that? I saw it myself.” “Yes,” Dr. Morenberg said. “T found that very interesting. My first impulse, of course, was to wonder if you yourself were not the victim of illusions —in fact, to wonder whether your friend really existed at all. People make up strange surroundings for themselves when they find the real ones unbearable. But the theory wouldn’t hold water. You are a pre-eminently sane young woman, Miss Steyrette— above average in that respect, and I assure you that it is a matter of averages.” “How do you account for it, then—the fruit machine stuff?” Dr. Morenberg tapped his pad thoughtfully. ““There are a lot of things we’re beginning to realise we don’t understand much about. To hit the jack- pot on a fruit machine con- sistently and at will would involve what we call tele- 33 kinesis. Scientists claim to have demonstrated something like that in a laboratory. I would be very interested to meet your friend, from that point of view alone.” **And you could cure him?” “We could certainly try. I’ve warned you—unless you can persuade him to accept treatment, he will get worse.” She thought he might be angry at her interference, and the first meeting afterwards she could not bring herself © to tell him about the visit to Dr. Morenberg. She got it out the next time, on a bright November morning as they sat in the park together, and looked at him, half-frightened, waiting for his reaction. He shook his head, sadly reproving, but he smiled at her, “You should have told me, Jenny, before going to see someone like that. I could have told you what he would have said—exactly what he would have said. Do I sound crazy—look crazy?” comiclooks.conn