Avon Fantasy Reader No. 14 — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

by Ray Cummings Ray Cummings, one of the ptoneers of modern sclence-fiction, made his first hits with two series of stories: tales of “The Scien- tific Club” whose best-known productions were the novels of the Golden Atom, and stories of the scientific adventures of a plump young man named Tubby. The “Tubby” stories were quite excel- lent little lessons in basic science, told with a sugar-coating that endeared them to early readers. “The Three Eyed Man’ is a Tubby story dealing with the mysteries of sight and dimensional perception—and manages to bring in a tantalizing glimpse of the Fourth Dimension as well. UBBY raised himself up in the neat little hospital cot. The bandage covered his left eye completely, but his right one was unimpaired, and with it he stared at his friend aggressively. “That ain’t so,” he declared, “That ain’t so nohow.” “T ain’t sayin’ it is—I’m tellin’ you what he said. With one eye you can only see things in two dimensions. That’s what he said.” “You're right, Jake,” agreed the second man. “That’s what he said.” Tubby relaxed hopelessly. “Well, it ain’t so. Bunk. Abso-/ute-ly bunk!” The first man was unabashed. “Well, that’s what he said. A one eyed man sees everything flat. Length an’ breadth, but no thickness. A world of only two dimensions.” He rolled this statement off his tongue impressively. “Bunk!” muttered Tubby. Then abruptly he sat up again—so abruptly that a red hot pain darted through his injured eye under the bandage and made his head swim. His twisted ankle and his shoulder also hurt him badly, but he ignored them all. “Ain't I got only one eye now?” he demanded. The first man nodded reluctantly. Tubby persisted: “An’ if you put your hand over your left eye, then ain’t you a one eyed man?” The second man essayed this experiment. “He’s right, Jake. That makes us one eyed.” “What you gettin’ at?” the first man demanded. Tubby’s single eye gleamed with anticipatory tiumph. “Keep that left eye covered.” His two friends followed the command. “Now listen here. You see that table?” Even with only one eye working, the thing was perfectly visible. 30 comiclooks.com .