THE MAGAZINE OF- fantosv AND Science Including Venture Science Fiction The Secret Songs FRITZ LEIBER 5 The Golden Flask KENDELL F. CROSSEN 15 Salmanazar GORDON R. DICKSON 19 · The Voyage Which Is Ended DEAN MCLAUGHLIN 27 Mumbwe Jones FRED BENTON 40 The Top GEORGE SUMNER ALBEE 43 Science: The Light Fantastic ISAAC ASIMOV 53 Books AVRAM DAVIDSON 64 Fruiting Body (tJovelet) ROSEL GEORGE BROWN 71 :rhe Roper (verse) THEODORE R. COGSWELL AND JOHN JACOB NILES 88 Spatial Relationship RANDALL GARRETT 90 The Stupid General J• T. MCINTOSH 99 What Price Wings? H. L. GOLD 110 Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman HARLAN ELLISON 116 The Gumdrop King WILL STANTON 121 Ferdinand Feghoot: LIII GRENDEL BRIARTON 126 Editorial 127 In this issue ... Coming soon 4 F&SF Marketplace 129 Cover by Ed Emsh (illustrating "The Secret Sotzgs") The 11-l.rga::ine of Fautasy and Science Fictiou, Volume 23, No. 2, Whole No. 135, Allfl. 1962. Publislred monthly by Mercury Press, Inc., at 40t a copy. Annual subsaittiv11 ¥4.511 in U. S. a.•t! Possessiou~, $5.00 in Canada and the Pan American Unfou ,: $5.50 sn ,,l/ other cou11trus. Publrcatton office, 10 Ferr;y Sfl·ect, Co11cord, N. H. Ed1torral a11d ge11rral tnail should be se11t to 347 East 53rd St, Ne-.v York 22, N. Y. Secoud Class postage paid at Concord, N. H. Printed in U. S. /1, © 1962 by Mercury Press, lttc. All rights, including tra~rslations into other languages, rest;n:ed. Snbn&issious must be accom· pa11ied b)• stamped, self·addressed envelopes; the Publisher assumes. no respollsibilil)' for return of unsolicited manuscripts. Joseph W. Fcrmall, PUBLISHER Avram Davidso11, EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ro/>crt P. llfi/ls, CONSULTING EDITOR Edward L. Ferman, MANAGING EDITOR Isaac Asimo"<', CO:STRIBUTING SCIENCE EDITOR In this issue ... arc, by our count, five straight Science Fiction stories, five straight Fantasy stories, and three stories of Science Fantasy. It is impossible to classify fiction with even the approximate accuracy of an egg-candler, and no doubt many of you would not only come up with a different count but would deny that some of the stories belong in any of these categories; thou art free-GORDON R. DICK­ soN, a master of definitive SF, is here with definitive F; so is HARLAN ELLISON, SO is newcomer FRED BENTON, and the seasoned THEODORE R. COGSWELL; while DEAN MCLAUGHLIN and RAND­ ALL GARRETT present unquestionable space travel SF for your self­ improvement and amusement. So far, so simple. But in which category go the very special FRITZ LEIBER story, KEN CROSSEN'S scientific variation on a fantastic theme, ROSEL BROWN's curious discourse on fungus and female? Fortunately, it is more important for us to publish than to label them. But why label at all? For one thing, because we aim at keeping a certain preponderance of SF in The 1\fagazine, experience having taught us that readers prefer it so. "Give us stories of real Science Fiction," they write; "with a strong story line, vigorously believable characters, and lots of action. When you have done that," they say, "give us some good Fantasy­ Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, Tolkien, T. H. White, Richard Matheson, L. Sprague deCamp, and names like that. This is what we would like," they conclude. To which we reply, "So would we." From time to time, we can promise, some of these names will appear here, though not so often as we would like. There is a wry but pleasant tale of a young soldier who deserted the British Army when the Revolutionary \Var was over, and settled in the United States. Until he was close to a hundred he used to appear at Fourth of July celebrations, and make the same brief remark. "I fought hard for this country," he would say; "-hut I didn't get it." Coming soon . , . in fact, next month, is our special THEODORE STURGEON Issue, with a special cover by ED EMSH, special articles on The Master by JAMES BLISH and JUDITH MERRIL, and a special story by Himself. 4 Burton, De Quincey, Waugh, Huxley, and others have ex· plored areas of the world through which Fritz Leiber (drama· tic actor, motion picture star, gentleman, and beloved com· panion of those fortunate enough to number him among their friends) now takes us on an expedition; but none of the above, in their reports, have excelled the beautiful, frightening, heartwarming, and haunting details of THE SECRET SONGS by Fritz Leiber PROMPTLY AFTER SUPPER, BE· tall young cowpoke, father and fore Gwen had cleared away the son, were gazing out across broad dishes, Donnie began the Sleep acres framed bv distant .:noun· Ritual. He got a can of beer from tains. Gwen tu~ed her ears and the refrigerator, selected a science­ after a bit she could faintly n<!ar fiction magazine, and shut off the what they were saying. TV sound. THE OLD RANCHER: Aim to "The picture too?" he asked. plant her to hemp and opium pop· "Might as well." py, Son, with benzedrine bushes Gwen smiled at him as she l·etween the rows. shook her head. With the gesture of THE YOUNG COWPOKE: one who eats peanuts she threw Yeah, but what legal crop ')'Oil her right hand to her mouth, fixin' to raise, Dad? swallowed, then dropped her hand THE OLD RANCHER: (smil­ with the tiny bottle it held back ing like God): Gonna raise babies, to the pocket of her smock. Son. Donnie sighed, shrugged his Gwen looked away quickly from shoulders, settled himself in the the screen. It never paid to try to easy chair, opened his magazine, hear too much too soon. and began to read and sip rapidly. Donnie was studying her with a Gwen, who had been ignoring teasing grin. the TV, now began to study the "I bet you imagine all sorts of screen. A kindly old rancher and a crazy things while you watch it," 5 6 FANTASY AND SCIE:-oCE. FICTION he said. ''Those terrible bennies get back to the TV. There was a com­ your mind all roiled up." mercial on now, first a white-on­ Gwen shrugged. "You won't al­ black diagram of the human body low any noise while you're putting with explosions of bubbles occur­ yourself to sleep. I have to have ing in sequence at various points, something," she said reasonably. then a beautiful princess in a vast "Besides," she added, "you're !lav­ bathroom, then a handsome police­ ing orgies out in space with those man. Gwen expertly retuned her girls in fluorescent bikinis." ears. "That shows how little you VOICE OF MEDICAL EX­ knmv about science fiction," uon­ PERT: Benzedrine strikes at hid­ nie said. "They dropped the -;ex den rleepinessl Tones musclesl angle years ago. Now it's all ;Jhil­ Streugthens the heartl Activates osophy and stuff. See this old guy?" sluggish wahe centers • • • One He held up the magazine, :-eep­ ... Two . .. Threet ing his place with his forefinger. On THE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS the cover was a nicely drawn pic­ (looking depressed): Yesterday l ture of a smiling intelligent-look­ was overweight, listless, intensely ing young man in a form-fitting unhappy. Mother called me The futuristic uniform and standing Ugly Dumpling. Notv (becoming beside him, topping him by a ltmg radiant) l build 11eauty with ben­ head, a lean green-scaled momter zedrine{ with a large silver purse slung THE HANDSOME POLICE­ over his crested ·shoulder. The mon­ MAN (flashing badge with huge ster had a tentacle resting in com­ "N" for Narcotic Squad): You're radely fashion across the young all under arrest! Grrr • • . aar­ man's back and curling lightly rarrgghhht past his feather epaulet. Gwen quickly looked away. It "You mean that walking croco­ was the only thing you could do dile ?" Gwen asked. when you got static or the wrong Donnie sniffed. "That walking voice channel. She began to carry crocodile," he said, "happens to be the supper dishes to the sink. a very wise old member of a civili­ Donnie winced violently with­ zation that's far advanced beyond out putting down his beer can or man's." He lifted his other hand looking up from his page. "Don't with two fingers pressed together. clank them," he said. Gwen re­ "Him and me are like that. He moved her shoes and began to do tells me all sorts of things. He even the dishes as if she were a diver in tells me things about you." the silent world under the surface "Science fiction doesn't interest of the sea, ghosting between table, me," Gwen said lightly, looking sink and cupboard. THE SECRET SOl'\GS 7 She was still lost in this rather "A three-grain amytal," Donnie fascinating operation and even be­ persisted, "would cancel those ben­ ginning to embroider it with little nies and still have enough left over arabesques when Donnie contin­ to make you nice and dozy. We'd ued the Sleep Ritual by opening his go to sleep together and I wouldn't second can of beer, this time a worry about noises." warm one by choice. Before taking "You don't want to go to sleep the first sip he swallowed a blue until you know everyone else is capsule of amytal. At the kerzingl asleep," Gwen said. "Just like my of the opener Gwen stopped to mother. If I took one of your pills, watch him. She carefully dried the you'd watch me sleep and you'd suds off her right hand, popped on­ gloat." to her tongue another benzedrine 'Well, isn't that what you do to tablet from the bottle in her smock me?'' pocket, and still watching him ''No, I do other things.