Avon Fantasy Reader No. 12 — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

When I signal by jerking it six times, Adkins, you throw the switch again the same way.” That was all. Without another word Adkins threw the switch. There was the same crash, instantancously muflled and almost suddenly fading away as at a distance. There was a momentary sensation of agitation, though nothing really moved. Heagey was gone. The loose end of the rope that had tied him lay on the floor. [t was certainly a breathless thing. The professor stared with a sort of vacant expression on his face, as though the solid ground had suddenly dropped from beneath his feet. It dawned upon him that perhaps Sheila iad really disappeared that way. Beemer picked up the end of the rope. It was not an end; it merely looked that way. There was a strong tension on it; in fact it soon began to slip through his hands, aud coil after coil was drawn off the pile on the floor, and siinply vanished. For a while it stopped and then went on unwinding. The policemen gazed blankly. They were unable to understand what had happeucd. The man they were to arrest had suddenly melted from sight. They mumbled astonished monosyllables to cach other. But they were not as astonished as was Professor Mathers. They did not grasp the enormity of what was going on, as he did. It upset his whole mental universe. He sat a while and then paced nervously up and down the vast room, IIe came and looked at the rope. Then he looked at the canvas sack. The sack lay loose as though the con- tents had escaped. He felt of it and found that it contained three soft baseball-sized objects. He jumped back and shrank away from it, The time seemed interminable. He waited and waited. Besides an occasional mumble between the policemen or a short exclamation from Adkins or Beemer, there was no conversation. Becmer watched the rope closely. There was a tense nervous strain created largely by the professor’s distracted movements. Then, after what secmed hours, though in reality less than one hour, there were six short tugs on the rope. Adkins threw his switch, and out of the crash aud tremor Ifecagey tumbled out ou the floor, all tangled up in coils of rope. He was breathless, haggard, wild-eyed. He lay for a moment on the floor, parting. Then he sprang up and gazed fiercely, wildly about. He seemed suddenly to perceive where he was. An expression of relief came over his face; he sighed deeply and sank down to a sitting position. He looked exhausted; his clothes were disarranged and ripped in some places, and were covered with dust. The five people looked at him in silent amazement. He looked from one to the other of them; it was a long time before he spoke. “Good to be back here, I can hardly believe I'm really back. Never again for me.” 73 comichbooks.com