Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN WITH A THOUSAND LEGS 5] scriptions are pale) and I’ve seen some skinny people, but I never have-seen _ anyone as thin and pale as the young man. that stood before me. “Good heavens!” I said, and shut the book. : The young man’s lips were twisted into a sickly smile. “Sorry to bother you, he’says. “But I’m in a bad way. I’m in desperate need of medical at-. tention!” “What can I do to help you?” I says. He looks at me very solemnly, as if he were making up his mind whether he could trust me. “This is really a case for a physician,” he says. “It's against the law for us to handle such cases,” I told him. Suddenly he held out his hand. I gasped. The fingers were smashed into - a bloody pulp, and blood was running down his wrist. “Do something to stop the bleeding,” he says. “I'll see a physician later.” Well, I got out some gauze and bound the hand up as best I could. “See | a doctor at once,” I told him. “Blood- poisoning will set in if you’re not care- ful. Luckily, none of the:bones are fractured.” He nodded, and for a moment his eyes flashed. “Damn that woman!” he muttered. “Damn her!” “What’s that?” I asked, but he had got himself together again and merely smiled. “I’m all upset,’ he said. “Didn’t know just what I was saying—you must pardon me. By the way, I’ve got a little gash on my scalp which you might. look at.” He removed his cap and I noticed that his hair was dripBing wet. He parted it with his hand and revealed a nasty abrasion about an inch wide. I examined it carefully. “Your friend wasn’t very careful when he cast that plug,” I says at length. “T never believe in fly- fishing when there’s two in the boat. A friend of mine lost an eye that way.’ “It was made by a fish-hook,” he confessed. “You re something of a Sher- “lock Flolmes, arent you?) ~: I brushed aside his compliment with a careless feuai and turned for the bottle of carbolic acid which rested on the shelf behind me. It was then that I heard something between a growl and a gulp from the young man. I wheeled abruptly, and caught him in the act of springing upon me. He was foaming at the mouth and his eyes bulged. I reached forward and seized him by the shoulders and in a moment we were engaged in a desper- ate struggle upon the floor. He bit and scratched and kicked at me; and I was obliged to silence him by pummeling his face. It was at that moment that I noticed a peculiar fishy odor in the room, as if a breeze from the sea had entered through ‘the open door. For several moments I struggled and fought and strained and then some- thing seemed to give suddenly beneath me. The young man slipped from