Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

AGAIN very base of the ship they waited, until a hoist came swinging down. The man and Farak-Ay were raised up to the first entrance which he had seen from far off. Here they stood, where lights glowed from the walls of dark metal, and many working sounds rang, and all were of metal upon metal. He was the only flesh and blood. The smell of things inside came to his nostrils and stirred at his mind, but he was not afraid. “There are things to be done in the order laid down,” - said Farak-Ay. ‘“‘Parak said so. I feel so.” “ach word you say,” an- swered Farak-Ay—and it was almost as though feeling were present in a voice where no feeling could be—“‘each word shows me that Farak was the greatest man who ever lived.” *“‘And the last—in a way he was the last.” It was as if words had been put into his mouth. They mounted the height of the ship in a silent-running lift. They saw robots working in repair shops, silent of movement, black, efficient, 97 and in the levels of the laboratories, too. They passed one place where there was a great commotion being made —a room for the growing of plants was being torn out and rebuilt into something very new and strange. Then the lift stopped. They got out, and went along a narrow corridor. Farak-Ay opened a door. The man walked in, and stood amid the relics of some- one’s past life. The room held couches, and blankets, and there was clothing about the place, and papers were on the table. The smell was of man—his smell. ‘What do you feel?’’ asked the robot. ‘““There—there is a know- ing,”’ replied the man, “‘but it is not clear. All this is as you were told to do, isn’t it?’ **Ves.’’ The man’s gaze went to a chair on which lay a picture. It was of the head and shoulders of a creature like himself, yet not like himself— with longer hair and finer features. The robot whipped the picture out of sight before he could glimpse it clearly. comicbooks.com