Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 54 — page 62: what you’re looking at

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

MAN IN A MAZE Tyler shrank back. He was in a narrow cul-de-sac formed by the bench and two walls. His eyes flickered about trying to assess the chances of escape. Sweet took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “You were playing along with another crank of your kind at the time,” he went on. ““His name was Sparks. He died before I could get hold of him, but I got his papers— his precious ‘reports.’ Lord, how you people document these evidences of your crack- brainedness! There were two hundred sheets concerned with how he trained cats to pull boxes along by strings!” Sweet put on a childish mimicking voice. “‘‘Tibs pulled the box 33 centimetres due north, then paused to wash. With her leg (left, rear) cocked at an angle of 80 degrees to the floor, she seemed to think (time, nine - seconds), then pulled the box another 27 centimetres in a south-westerly direction .. .’ That sort of thing. Note every detail—it might be important. Note every detail—but don’t notice that horses have been 61 pulling carts for hundreds of years, or what goes on at a flea circus—or any circus. Scientists!” The fat man spat. Then continued: “From further reams of Sparks’ lucu- brations I learned how he and you persuaded my rich and foolish father to let you experiment on me for the good of science. In particular, how you monkeyed with my parathyroids and upset the whole chemistry of my body, so that I became gross and ridden by tremors, an object for pity—or ridicule. Yet I had been a well-formed child 020" He trailed off, looking into space. Then, suddenly, hesnapped: “Oh, what the hell use would > it be trying to make you understand ‘the pangs of despised love’? There was a. girl I broke my heart over. She was even wealthier than I—I couldn’t buy her. She didn’t laugh at me. She was sorry for me. But not all that sorry. My condition repeiled her. It repels all women. And, heaven help me, women are my life! I buy and buy—but I COMMGEIOOKSACOm