Avon Fantasy Reader No. 13 — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

fell in behind me. A virtual prisoner, I marched between them, through the vast crowd that made way grudgingly to let us pass. I have seen the people of most of the planets of the known Universe. Many of them, to Earth notions, are odd. But these people, so much like us in many respects, were strangely repulsive. Their heads, as Ame Baove had recorded, were not round like ours, but possessed a high bony crest that ran from between their lashless, browless eyes, down to the very nape of their necks. Their skin, even that covering their hairless heads, was a dull and papery white, like parchment, and their eyes were abnormally small, and nearly round. A hateful, ugly people, per- petually scowling, snarling: their very voices resembled more the growl of wild beasts than the speech of intelligent beings. Ja Ben led the way straight to the low but vast building of dun-colored stone that I knew was the administration building of the Control City. We _ marched up the broad, crowded steps, through the muttering, jeering multi- tude, into the building itself. The guards at the doors stood aside to let us hnuch and the crowd at last was left behind. A swift, cylindrical elevator shot us upward, into a great glass-walled labo- ratory, built like a sort of penthouse on the roof. Ja Ben walked quickly across the room towards a long, glass-topped table; the other four closed in on me silently but suggestively. “That is unnecessary,” I said quietly. “See, I am unarmed and com-. pletely in your power. I am here as an ambassador of the —— Council, not asa warrior. “Which is as well for you, * grinned Ja Ben. “What I bike to show you, you can see quickly, and then depart.” From a great cabinet in one corner of the room he took a shining cylinder of dark red metal, and held it up before him, stroking its sleek sides with an affectionate Pt “Here it is,’ he said, chuckling. “The secret of our power. In here, safely imprisoned now, but capable of being released at our command, is death for every living thing upon any planet we choose to destroy.” He replaced the great cylinder in the cabinet, and picked up in its stead a tiny vial of the same metal, no larger than my little finger, and not so long. “Here,” said, turning again towards me, “is the means of proving our power to you, Come closer!” With my bodyguard of four watching every move, I approached. he Ja Ben selected a large hollow hemisphere of crystal glass and placed it upon a smooth sheet of flat glass. Next he picked a few blossoms from a bowl that stood, incongruously enough, on the table, and threw them under the glass hemisphere. “Flora,” he grinned. Hurrying to the other end of the room, he reached into a large flat metal cage and brought forth three small rodent-like animals, natives of that world. These he also tossed carelessly under the glass. “Fauna,” he grunted, and picked up the tiny metal vial. One end of the vial unscrewed. He turned the cap gently, carefully, a 2 Oo : Eom C boo a 4 (eo) 8-253" crmweuns ~ ror meavens sake. an't Keep from Crying e Ginn Ma Marty Robbins: | Coul B-2525 | , “ote : ~~ wis @WY3aTu, Jo Stafford: Make Lave ta Mo ce Euch, Ak ne, Nw rw