Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 66 — page 141: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION changed to a rusty brown and the doctor seemed pleased with the result. Afraid to interrupt Sullevan, Lena asked Sam: ‘‘What was all that about ?”’ **A test for oxygen. It must be a long time since the old boy did any photography. And just as well—they don’t use pyro as a reducing agent any more. That was a positive reaction he got, incidentally.” The old man handed the glass and syringe into Lena’s hands without so much as looking at her. He was back in harness and anybody standing around was there only to give and receive articles as he required. A trifle imperiously, he said: “Sphygmomanometer next.” Sam knew that one. He handed over the instrument with its bulb, rubber tubing and mercury scale. The doctor whipped the flat tubing round the arm of the suit where it ballooned most, and began pumping the rubber bulb. When the inflated sleeve col- 140 lapsed under the tubing, he unwound the.rubber, wrapped it around the rest of the instrument and walked over to the window. There he stood gazing up into the wedgewood sky, moving his lips as he calculated silently. He turned and announced: “It’s oxygen—at about six- teen pounds pressure. The suit can be removed without the risk of asphyxiating him.” To Lena in particular, he added: “It will be messy from here on. Would you like to leave?’ She declined his offer with a slight shake of her head. It was more than messy. So much blood covered the alien’s body that it seemed useless to hope he could still be alive. Yet the old man was quick to detect a faint heart- beat. With more doggedness than courage, Lena helped to wash the unconscious stran- ger. When the welter of blood was cleared and the savage chest wound was visible, only the urgency of the situation, the desperate need to keep the comicloooks.con