Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

naled my father. His face appeared in the disc. I told him what his mes- senger had done, and tears streamed from his eyes. “Just another sacrifice to the rapacity of Lido Kan,” he said. “Get into your craft now, and I’ll turn on the rays once more.” ee I lost no time in getting back to the little craft and away from Mars. I was making swift progress toward Magong, when suddenly I happened on the remnants of the two battle fleets. There were only three of our ships left, — and they were beleaguered by four enemy craft. Both flagships were still intact, and at the time, dueling with their enormous ray projectors——green against red. As I approached them, one of our ships was cut in two by a red ray, the halves hurtling out through space. 7 I had one small ray projector on my forward deck—a puny weapon indeed against those of the huge battleships, but I determined to enter the unequal contest. Selecting the helmsman’s turret of the nearest enemy ship, I plunged toward it. My approach in the tiny craft was apparently unperceived, and I did not turn on my green ray until within less than a thousand feet of my target. When the ray struck it, the turret instantly collapsed, and the ship, - out of control, swung broadside, scattering her ray barrage and leaving her null unprotected. I instantly turned the nose of my craft upward and passed _ over her, noting as I did so that she had been broken up by the huge green _ tays from our two remaining battleships. Without pausing to give the enemy a chance to understand just what had happened, I quickly plunged at the helmsman’s turret of the next ship. Once again my tiny ray threw a mighty ship out of control, and it was destroyed by the green rays of Hia Ku. This time, however, I did not escape unscathed, for one of the red rays of the second ship, shooting wildly upward as she went out of control, had carried off part of my forward deck. I tried to close the safety plate beneath my instrument board, to keep my air-and warmth from escaping into outer space, but it stuck, and a cold that _ Closely approached absolute zero swept over me. With numbed hands I pulled frantically at the recalcitrant plate, and in a moment more had it in place. In the meantime, however, my small, swift craft had hurtled away uncon- trolled to a position nearly a thousand miles from the four remaining com- batants.. : I swung her to, and steered for the battle scene once more. Then I saw something which wrung a gasp of horror from my lips—a huge meteor cluster from Mars rushing straight at the four ships. I had no time to signal them—to do anything, in fact. A moment later it struck them, and all four combatants disappeared in a blinding flash of light without appearing to have had the slightest effect either on the path or the mass of the projectile. With a heavy heart, I turned my ship toward Magong. A short time after, i saw the projectile strike. There was a small chart on board, and on referring to it, I found that it had destroyed one of our atmosphere disintegrating ray stations. : | - A two-hour run took me to Magong, during which time, four more 70 (©) COMIcdooks