Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9 — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

When I drew near the central wave station of the Martians I saw that my other four ships had arrived on schedule, and ordered the attack. We were discovered almost instantly, and a thousand red rays were flashed at us, but we were able to neutralize these by laying down a barrage of green rays. Then a number of Martian ether ships, reserved to guard the central station, arose and attacked us from above. One.of their rays pierced our upper barrage and one of our ships, with her controls destroyed, plunged dizzily groundward, but was disintegrated by the red rays before she had fallen half way. With this ship gone my barrage was weakened, and I knew that it would only be a matter of minutes until we should all meet a like fate. As cer- tain death faced us, I thought quickly, and as quickly gave orders, resolving that in our passing we should at least cripple the central wave station of the enemy. My ships instantly responded to my command, and in a moment all] were plunging directly downward, temporarily protected abave and below y our green ray barrage—our objective the glass dome of the central wave station. It was my hope that when we crashed through this dome to our death we might destroy, or at least cripple this station, and thus hamper the Mar- | tians and give my father the time he needed to fit out other ships with atmos- phere destroyers, thus assuring the victory of Magong. But the Martians were too wise for me. They must have suddenly focused their lines of magnetic force on our ships, forming a contracting vortex a short distance above the dome, for we lost control of all of them simultancous- ly. They revolved about each other for a moment, and then crashed together. With that crash I lost consciousness. . . . : When I recovered my senses once more I was lying on a metal bench to which my hands and feet had been bound. Standing over me with a sneering smile on his pale face was Lido Kan, Supreme Ruler of Mars. “What happened?” I asked, bewildered. “Where are my men?” “All died but you,” he replied, “when we brought your ships to the ground. I had thought to bring them down gently, but the rage of my operator got the better of him, and he wrecked all four. I cannot understand how it hap- pened that you lived through that crash. It was a miraculous escape.” - "Perhaps I have been saved for a purpose,” I replied. “The Supreme Ruler of the Universe is all-knowing.” “I, at least, have kept you for a purpose,” replied Lido Kan, savagely. “Lying here on your back, you shall witness the destruction of your world.” He pressed a lever and a curved metal plate slid back from the ceiling, disclosing a great dome-like lens which looked out into space. “The empire of P’an-ku is doomed,” he continued. “While this side of our planet is turned toward Magong, you shall witness its destruction through this lens. As soon as we turn away the lens will become a mirror which will give you the battle scenes as witnessed from our station on the other side. I pride myself that this is a rather clever invention of mine.” _ I made no reply, but looked eagerly out toward Magong. Already the once 66 coniicbooks.conn}