Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 71 — page 138: what you’re looking at

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

YOU DO TAKE IT WITH YOU We agreed readily. “Tell him thanks, we'll be right over,” said George. He caught the astronaut’s eye and waved a greeting, and _ shovelled away the last of his helping of _ thick cream sponge. He fol- lowed my glance to his paunch with a sardonic eye and chuckled. “‘Guess you and I _wouldn’t do for space, Ted. I couldn’t stand living on sucked tea and concentrate for months at a time. It must be like that poet chap’s bit about the ‘ante-room of death,’ with one foot in the grave and the other on the spatial equivalent of a banana skin. Still, come on, let’s go and swap space news with Graves. _ I bet the old geyser’s forgotten more than a couple of earth- bound troglodytes like us will ever know.” 3 So that’s how we found ourselves in the small Venus room, with its softly lit ceil- ing that duplicated space as seen from the second planet, and its magnificent sweep of plexiglass windows that gave a better-than-average view of the distant pits. We had the room to ourselves. George ‘seems to be a law unto him- 137 self, and works and lunches when he feels like it. I had coptered up to the club on a business discussion and was in no hurry to get back to Johannesburg, that city of tireless frustration. And Graves, of course, could do as he liked. The old astronaut looked a lot older than when I had seen him last. But he still had his space figure—a piece - of skin stretched over a sinew—and also the clear, rather disconcerting eye remi- niscent of the ancient and obsolete mariners of the twen- tieth. He greeted us warmly. “You look well, Merton,” he said to me, courteously. And to George: “‘How’s your boy? Still on the Mars run?’ _ “Oh, Joe’s doing alright, I | suppose,” said George dif- fidently. His pride and his fear were almost hidden, but Graves nodded as though he understood. ““Today’s ships, Davis, and Youth! They'll see ° more of the system than we ever did, for all the adventur- ous ballyhoo of the 60’s and 70’s.”” conmiclsooks.com