Avon Fantasy Reader No. 12 — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

to it. The professor stared at him as he would at a silly child. Heagey suddenly hit himself in the side of the head with his fist. “What a prize fool! I keep on being a fool!” he shouted. He turned savagely to the professor: “Get me the two best fellows out of the fine-arts department. Quick! Sculptors!” If the professor thought Heagey was crazy, nevertheless some glim- mer of hope of rescuing Sheila lent him willingness and speed of thinking. He scolded rapidly into the telephone for a few minutes, repeating the word emergency several times. Then he started down the driveway, taking a policeman with hirn. Heagey was feverishly busy. He seemed to be bringing every object in the room that could be convenicntly carried, to set before the un- varthly specimen he had there. He seemed to be showing it things. He acted for all the world like some ignorant, superstitious savage, bringing things to his god. Books, chairs, hats and coats, mathematical medals, hammers and wrenches, one thing after another; he held them up in front of it for a while and tossed them aside on the eTow- ing heap. When the two sculptors arrived, he barked his directions at them, and continued what seemed his silly efforts to entertain the object in front of him by showing it everything he could find. At least it remained quiet and unchanged. The sculptors, infected with his determination, worked rapidly. First there was a model of a heavy, bulging man, with his foot caught in a hole like a coal-chute, and held fast by a square lid. Then from the pictures a model of Sheila; considering the speed with which it was made, it was a wonderful thing, with her pointed chin and curly hair all true to life. Then a rough model of Heagey. Heagey set the models down in front of the iridescent, patchy Thing and played puppets with the models; went through a regular dra- matic performance with them. The models of Sheila and himself stood near the inan caught in the trap-door. The imprisoned man struggled and knocked Sheila over and she rolled away; she fell down off the surface of the block to a lower level. The imprisoned man continued to struggle, and the model of Tleagey searched around, but could not get past the edge of the block. Then, very impressively motioning toward the Thin g, as though he really believed it was looking, Heagey made the model of the im- prisoned man lean over and pick up Sheila, aud hand her over to the model of himself. The model of himself held on to Sheila, and raised the trap-door that imprisoned the bulging man, who hopped out of the hole and hastencd away. That was the little slow that Heagey put on with the yard-high clay models. The patchy sphere changed suddenly. First it shrank and then it 78 comichbooks.com