Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

CAT UP A TREE ‘‘What do you think they were like?’’ she asked one night. ‘Which ?” “The Martians. They say the femur they found was a yard long.”’ Drew recollected as much as possible of the miscella- neous items he had been hearing. “‘Must have been big,”’ he contributed, not very sagely. ““Did I hear somebody say they had tested the bone ?”’ ‘And it turned out to be only a million years old!”’ “Only i thd ‘A million years is nothing, Drew. A hundred million would almost certainly have meant the Martians were extinct. But that bone is so recent there’s a good chance that there might be a few still eking out an existence somewhere on the planet.” Drew couldn’t keep up with Janie’s empirical way of think- ing. He bent his matter-of-fact mind to the subject. “The bone signifies nothing,’ he said. “It does seem to indicate that there may have been Martians at some time, but it may be a bone from the very last one to die.” Janie opened her mouth to interrupt, but Drew forged ahead. “‘Furthermore, if there are any still around, why must you assume that they have to eke out an existence? Women always jump to——” Janie sneaked into the con- versation again, tapping out her points on her fingers. “One, there are Martians— and living ones. Two, if there were a lot of them more evidence would have been found. Three, since there aren’t a lot of them, they must be eking, etcetera.” “Phooey!” With the index finger of her right hand still poised on the third finger of the left, Janie © grinned triumphantly. She tapped her fourth finger. “‘And four,” she said. ‘““Four—you didn’t hear this tit-bit, Mrs. Henley told me this evening— they’ve seen a Martian!” “I don’t believe it.” “Ask her yourself. Or ask Ferguson. He told Pam Henley. Her husband was one of the men who saw the Martian, and since he’s still working down at the equator, Ferguson thought he should tell Pam what her husband 119 comicloooks.conrn