Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 160: what you’re looking at

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

iP Hare! iv Ne ely eh Ye y Wht vig y halt @ 194 I had discovered the place by accident, while on an airplane trip to an isolated mountain community immediately after the war, for the purpose of conferring decorations on the first company which had stood its ground against the onslaught of the ant- men. The walls of the island rise sheer some nine parastads from the water’s edge, save where in one spot the sloping sward runs through a cleft in the rocks to a sandy beach. The interior of the island slopes gently from the cliffs down from all sides to a little pond in the center, and is about equally divided between lawn and stately grove. Here Lilla and I plan to build. Here we spent many golden days, swim- ming and fishing and climbing, but mostly just looking into each other’s eyes. At our first dip in the water, I was hor- ribly embarrassed. In the first place, I had to shed my headset, which always puts me at a disadvantage. And, in the second place, my wings came unstuck and fell off, and my matted hair exposed my ears, se that I stood before her an earth-man, with all my horrible earthly deformities. Yet, still she loved me. Our honeymoon was idyllic and ideal. But all good things must end, and we finally had to return to the city to take up my duties, for added to my honors was a place in the Royal Cabinet as Minister of Play, the former incumbent having died during my absence. I have various projects in hand for my adopted country. Already a network of radio stations is going up throughout the land. A systematic extermination of the whistling bee is under way by means of anti-aircraft artillery. Various earth de- vices are being tested out in our laboratories as fast asI can recall them to memory. And J have resumed, but with great precautions, my experiments on the wireless transmission of matter, in which work Toron is assisting. Lilla and I occupy her old suite in the palace, and entertain constantly; among our most frequent guests are my eld friend Poblath and his completely tamed wife. But often I wonder what has become of THE ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, | Doggo and Yuri. In spite of present pros- perity, Cupia is not safe, if the renegade prince still lives on the planet. But I hope that Doggo survives, and that we shall meet again. Fate now seems to be through with its hard knocks. Bvt, happy as I am, I occasionally wonder what is going on in dear old Boston, whether the Germans ever paid up, whether America ever joined the League to Prevent Future Wars, whether the American Legion ever forgave Jack Dempsey, etc., etc. And I occasionally have a yearning to write home. Of course, the obvious step for me was to attempt communication by radio, so I built a particularly powerful sending set with long wave length. But the lack of any reply convinced me that my signals were not being received on earth. So recently I got together my old com- mittee of five: Hah Babbuh, Buh Tedn, Ja Babbuh, Toron and myself; and together we designed -a super gun and a streamline projectile, and computed the necessary powder-charge and principles of aiming, so that we could shoot that projectile to the earth. 7 Then I prepared this manuscript in quadruplicate, with three of which copies I shall try to reach the world. For this pur- pose, each copy will be placed in a gold cylinder and be swathed in the fur of the fire-worm, that peculiar creature which dares to live almost at the edge of the boil- ing seas, because its matted fur is the most perfect insulator against heat known on Poros. 7 The swathed cylinder will then be packed into the interior of the projectile, and a covering put on, especially calculated to re- sist the devouring heat of passage through the atmospheres of the two planets. The projectile will be weighed, its center of gravity will be determined, and its moments of inertia will be tested, the firing data being corrected accordingly. It will be placed in the gun. Then, at exactly the appointed time, the gun will be discharged, and may God speed my message on its way to you, my earth-brethren. | Myles S. Cabot. END a <= J EComicbooks — —} —< — con US