Avon Fantasy Reader No. 12 — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

a: ee had seen in hyperspace. He tried to recollect the order in which the various shapes had appeared to him, and laid them in rows in that order. Late into the night he modeled and arranged and stared and studied. Near midnight the professor poked his head in the door. “She’s really gone,” he moaned, “She hasn't come home. She's no- where!” He turned on the haggard Heagey. “The policemen are on the job, so don’t try to get away. But I'm ollering five thousand dollars to anyone who brings Sheila Back.” Heagey snatched a few hours’ sleep on the floor. In the morning when the professor opened the door, he was arranging clay balls an clubs into rows and staring at them. As soon as the professor's head appeared, he shouted: “['ve got it! The biggest photographs you can get of Sheila. Head and full-length both. And fast! Hurry!” He now tured his attention to the object in the canvas sack. He untied the repe from the fourtcen-ounce duck, tied the corners of the canvas together, inserted a stout stick (obtained by breaking the leg off a chair), and twisted it, squeezing the small ball of flesh unmerci- fully. At first sight it was a crucl looking procedure, but there was method in it. The thing began to jump back and forth excitedly. He loosened the bulk of his pressure, Mt kept up a steady, firm tension. His strength was sufficient to hold it fairly steady. Suddenly he loosened all pressure. The mass of flesh suddenly prew larger and the satisfied expression in Heagey’s facc showed that was what he was working for. Just as when you push hard against someone and then suddenly let go: he falls toward you. He persisted steadil along this line. When the cross-section in- creased in size he held it loosely, patted it genUy, and even talked soothingly. As soon as it started to decrease, he screwed up his stick and bore down on it remorselessly. For an hour he wrestled. Then the professor entered with two 16 by 20 photographs taken out of frames. “Wait!” shouted [eagey pcremptorily. “Stand there and hold ’cm.” He twisted up his stick again, held it, and loosened it; and was re- warded py secing the barrel-shaped mass appear, then two long, cylindrical bodies beside it, covered with metal-mesh. “What's your idea?” the professor asked. “Don’t bother me!” Lleagey panted iritatedly. “And dou't move. 1 might need you any minute. Finally the thing decreased in size again; but this time Heagey seemed satisfied with it. He removed the canvas sack. There was an irregular sphere the size of a bucket. Over its surface were queer patches, glass places, and iridescent, rainbow-like spots that changed icolor and looked deep. “Quick now, the pictures!” Heagey set up the pictures in of the thing, as if to show them comichbooks.com