Avon Fantasy Reader No. 12 — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

} puncturing the little man’s business-like air. “I talked with the pilot . before we crashed, big boy.” “Well? Well?” demanded Jobnson. “There’s nothing here. Nothing!” Millet said. “No villages. No cities. ) No railroads. No radios. Nothing! This part of Canada Fas been life- » Tess since way back in 2036.” (~The three were silent, and for that moment the air was colder and - the wind blew with added sharpness. The men shivered and moved / together for more warmth. | “Eskimos?” Johnson asked, “there must be Eskimos around bere. » We'd get food, blubber, fat and all that sort of thing.” - Millet slapped his hands together to keep the blood circulating © and laughed loudly. “Point one for civilization!” he said. “Three citizens of New Democ- racy looking for primitive Fskimos to save them! Ha!” Ife suddenly sobered and looked about him, and Jistened to the howling wind. “There are no Eskimos here,” he said, “When the War Discase came we survived. But the Eskimo is extinct.” “Have we got food?” Jobnson asked. “None,” Millet said curtly, to dispel all false hopes. “I am not sure,” Weaver said slowly, “but five minutes before we crashed I—I’m sure I saw a thin line of smoke coming up from a valley. That valley there.” He pointed toward a mountain range. “Nonsense!” Millet muttered, looking at the inhospitable icy peaks. “Nonsense?” Johnson shouted, “What do you mean nonsense? Who Fare you to say it's nonsense! Maybe there are explorers here, an expe- dition of some sort. We've nothing to lose. If there’s a village we're * saved. If not—’ “If not?” Millet asked, smiling. Johnson ignored him. He drew his meagre overcoat more tightly ‘about him and went out into the whirling snow. The three took one P final look at the wreckage of the plane and the bodies that were P already covered by a white mantle. Jobnson Ied the way and Weaver followed, his arm ra vidly becoming numb. Millet, face down to avoid ) the bite of the wind, brought up the rear, © = The sun was already overhead when they reached the mountain b top and saw before them in the valley the strange city. It was a city, - in the midst of the svow and the wind of arctic winter, and long spirals of grey smoke from snow-covered factories rose up into the heavens. Dumbfoended, Millet stared at the city in the valley. _ ( “There!” Johnson said triumphantly, “and you said this part of Can- ada was uninhabited. That's an industrial city of more than twenty thousand people!” “In the arctic?” Millet asked, almost talking to himself, “So far 117 iW 1 comicbooks.com