Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 71 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

THE LITTLE CORPORAL having drifted that much. They often did, for it was a curious fact that you were never safer than when you had just passed a patch. Black was in his room, but he iooked up with an ex- pression that said so plainly he wanted solitude that Winter left him and closed the door quietly. . Despite his efforts, Shaw was going to have a bad time of it. It was a pity he could not tell everyone that Shaw was only the scapegoat for Barker. Shaw knew that Bar- ker had worked the course, but he didn’t, couldn’t, have any idea that Barker had known about the black moss. Barker had given him the course he wanted; he had accepted it in his indolent way, though he still checked it to make sure—but how could Shaw guess that Barker had seen his chance and taken it? Even Winter couldn’t be quite sure. But it all fitted neatly. Barker had once been an explorer, among the thous- and other things, and though he had faithfully reported everything else, he had learned about that patch of black moss and stored away the information—perhaps even then with his purpose already clear==. -It was hardly human. It was typical Barker. Winter checked his climb back to the control room for a moment, suddenly amazed that he had known Barker only for such a tiny part of his life. He could hardly remember when he had not known Barker. Like an egg dropped in water to see if it is fresh, the tiny ovoid carrier floated down to the broken surface of the asteroid and settled gently on one end. It landed on a spur, so that when it opened Winter had to jump outward and downward to reach the ground. At first he floated down even more slowly than the carrier, then gradually gathered momentum and landed at a speed which looked much more dangerous than it was. The man he was replacing stood ready, and waited while © the five men standing about the telephone post checked that it was safe for him to — : 3 ae —S comiciooks.con