Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8 — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN WITH A a LEGS. , Be With as much boldness as I could muster I raised my revolver and ad- vanced upon the thing. “I don’t know what you’ re talking about,” I cried. _ “But ?’m going to blow this monster to atoms.’ “For heaven’s sake don’t!” he shrieked. “That would be murder. We’re a human being.” A flash of scarlet frre answered him. Almost unconsciously I had pressed upon the trigger, and now my weapon was speaking again. “I'll blow it to tatters!” I muttered between my teeth. “The vile, crawling devil!” “Don’t! don’t!” shrieked the young man, and then an unearthly yell made the night obscene. I saw the thing before me quiver in all its folds, and then it suddenly rose up and: towered above me. Blood spurted from its huge, bloated body, and a crimson shower descended upon me. High above me, a hundred feet in the air, I saw the pale, agonized face of the young man. He was screaming blasphemies. He appeared to be walking on stilts. “You can’t kill me,” he yelled. “Pm stronger than I thought. I’ll win out yet.” I raised my revolver to fire again, but before I could take aim the thing swept by me and plunged into the sea. It was perhaps fortunate for me that I did not attempt to follow it. My knees gave beneath me and I fell flat upon my face. When I came to so far as to be able to speak I found myself between clean white sheets and staring into the puzzled blue eyes of a government inspector. 7 “You've had a nasty time of it, lad,” he said. “We had to give you stimu- lants. Didja have a shock of a sort?” “OE a sort, yes,” I replied. “But it came out of the Arabian Nights.” as 6. The Marvelous Boy [Curious Manuscript Found in a Bottle] I was the marvelous boy. My genius amazed the world. A magnificent mind, a sublime destiny! My enemies . . . combined to ruin me. A punctured balloon... . . A little box, and I put a dog under it. He changed . . . Jelly! Etheric vibrations generate curious changes in living cells . . . Process starts and nothing can stop it. Growth! Enormous growth! Keeps sending out shoots— legs! arms! Marvelous growth! Human being next. Put a little girl under it. She changed. Beautiful jellyfish! It kept getting larger. Fed it mice. Then I destroyed it. So interesting. Must try it on myself, I know how to get, back. Will- -power. A child’s will is too weak, but a man can get back. No actual change in cell- content. Connmiclooolkks.c© im