Avon Fantasy Reader No. 12 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

Her scream, cut suddenly short, still rang in his ears. And she was gone! Suddenly vanished from in front of him! He groped about, ecling for her in the empty air, but there was nothing anywhere. There lay the watermelon-like lump of flesh that he had first’seen. It was on the floor and lay quite still And she was gone! He held his head distractedly. The door opened and Professor Mathers, Sheila’s father, came in, “What's going on here?” he demanded, blinking his eyes, Heagey stared blankly, trying to think, “This thumping and screaming?” the professor continued. “I think I begin to understand,” Heagey began. “Think you understand!” the professor shouted. “What have you done to my daughter? She docsn’t scream for nothing.” He caught sight of the ovoid lump of flesh. He turned pale and stopped as if frozen. Some terrible thou en crossed his mind, connect- ing it with his daughter; had some nefarious experiment turned her into that thing? “What's that?” he snapped savagely. “Something’s got to be done,” Heagey said, chiefly to himself. “We've got to bring her back here. I'm afraid to manipulate the thing too many times; the Lord only knows what else it may dip up.” The professor glared. “You sound like a first-rate manic-depressive crazy man——” “Wait till I shut that thing up,” Heagey said, getting a hold on him- self; “and ['ll explain all I know about this. I was getting ready to try to rotate a dog out of space, and so I have a new, strong dog-cage here.” He set the dog-cage down beside the lump of flesh; very gently, very slowly, he pushed it in. His touch recoiled at the warm, soft feel of it; but he got it into the cage and locked the door. Then he set out a chair for the professor, but his hand shook, for his mind was ou Sheila. He sat down facing the professor, his back to the cage. Suddenly the professor’s face fell, anit his eyes stared ahead with a look of utter blankness. Heagey whirled around and looked at his “specimen.” It was out of the cage! There hadu’t been a sound. ITis eyes had not been off it for ten seconds. The cage was still locked. There it lay, three feet away from the cage, only it wasn’t the same. There were two pieces of it now, long, cylindrical, rounded at the ends. Like a couple of legs without knees or feet. Heagey got up and unlocked the cage, noting that it re- quired fiftcen seconds. He felt around inside the cage with his hands, but found nothing. “After all,” he sighed, “it is very simple.” The professor stared at him, now thoroughly convinced that he was 70 comichbooks.com