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Fantascience Digest, v. 3, issue 1, whole no. 12, January-February 1940
Page 30
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Page 30 FANTASCIENCE DIGEST ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VENEMOUS REPTILE By Ralph Milne Farley ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I am writing this, lying flat in bed, quite ill. Cradled on a table beside me is a coiled serpent, ever alert, ever ready to strike. Its name is "telephone". There is no escaping it. Even when I close my eyes, I know that it is still there, poised. The fact that, like a rattle-snake, it will warn me before striking, merely increases my terror. Far away in space is some as yet unknown malevolent human being whose mere recital of a magic incantation will rouse the reptile into action. Just think! The mere breathing of the mystic words and number, "South Milwaukee 286" will spell my doom! Is there no escape? The agile mind in my listless body runs frantically over all that I have learned of magic lore. I seem to remember that a sorceror's own charm can sometimes be flung back in his own teeth with prophylactic effect. So, suddenly reaching out with my fever-wasted right arm, I seize the creature by the neck, drag him from his cradle, and shout at him. "Two-eight-six." The effect is electrical. From distant cavernous space comes the answer -- a gasp of surprise. But the monster's mystic mistress is equal to the emergency. Her sweet voice murmurs far away: "Line is busy." Click! Thwarted, I replace the shiny black body in its cradle. Br-r-r-r-r! What I feared has now at last come. But better this actuality than the constant shuddering dread which has obsessed me for so long. Again I grab the creature by the neck, and hold it poised above me. "Mr. Farley," speaks a stern voice, which I recognized as that of Mr. Baldwin, the telephone's master-of-all-masters, "you have got fresh with the operator just once too often. We are discontinuing your service." Exhausted, yet triumphant, I sink back amid the pillows. My counter-charm has won! I am free! Free!
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Page 30 FANTASCIENCE DIGEST ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VENEMOUS REPTILE By Ralph Milne Farley ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I am writing this, lying flat in bed, quite ill. Cradled on a table beside me is a coiled serpent, ever alert, ever ready to strike. Its name is "telephone". There is no escaping it. Even when I close my eyes, I know that it is still there, poised. The fact that, like a rattle-snake, it will warn me before striking, merely increases my terror. Far away in space is some as yet unknown malevolent human being whose mere recital of a magic incantation will rouse the reptile into action. Just think! The mere breathing of the mystic words and number, "South Milwaukee 286" will spell my doom! Is there no escape? The agile mind in my listless body runs frantically over all that I have learned of magic lore. I seem to remember that a sorceror's own charm can sometimes be flung back in his own teeth with prophylactic effect. So, suddenly reaching out with my fever-wasted right arm, I seize the creature by the neck, drag him from his cradle, and shout at him. "Two-eight-six." The effect is electrical. From distant cavernous space comes the answer -- a gasp of surprise. But the monster's mystic mistress is equal to the emergency. Her sweet voice murmurs far away: "Line is busy." Click! Thwarted, I replace the shiny black body in its cradle. Br-r-r-r-r! What I feared has now at last come. But better this actuality than the constant shuddering dread which has obsessed me for so long. Again I grab the creature by the neck, and hold it poised above me. "Mr. Farley," speaks a stern voice, which I recognized as that of Mr. Baldwin, the telephone's master-of-all-masters, "you have got fresh with the operator just once too often. We are discontinuing your service." Exhausted, yet triumphant, I sink back amid the pillows. My counter-charm has won! I am free! Free!
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