By Fritz Leiber the SECOND O L of F
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FEBRUARY • 35 CENTS by Fritz Leiber THE SECOND o L OF F ERE ARE nine great novelettes from the first six years of IF Magazine! Like The First World of IF, which received such enthusi astic response from science fiction readers allover America, this is a volume of exceptional interest-distin guished examples of fine science fiction writing by such authors as Charl es Beaumont, James Blish, Phillip K. Dick, Gordon Dickson, Charles L. Fon tenay, James E. Gunn, Ray mond F. Jones, Bryce Wal ton and Robert F. Young in an exciting variety of mood, idea, theme and pace. And if you missed The First World of IF, containing 20 really outstanding short stories from the first five years of IF, there are still a few copies available ... Just send 50¢ a copy for either the "First World" or the "Second World" to IF Magazine, Kingston, New York, and your copy wi II be mailed at once. WORLDS OF - ...=:::;: SCIENCE FICTION FEBRUARY 1959 == All Stories New and Complete· === ;;;; Publisher: JAMES L. QUINN § - = Editor: DAMON KNIGHT ~1I1I1I"IIIIIIUIIIIUUIIilIUlIIIllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUlUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIliDS § 5 ~ i ; SHORT STORIES I ~ PIPE DREAM by Fritz Leiber 2 ~ 14 _~==_~ THE WIND PEOPLE by Marion Zimmer Bradley 2• ::r::==! THE GOOD WORK by Theodore L. Thomas ;;;: § THE MAN WHO TASTED ASHES by Aigis Budrys 38 § i LOVE AND MOONDOGS by Richard McKenna 50 I I THE LAST DAYS OF L.A. by George H. Smith 60 I ~ VIRGIN GROUND by Rosel George Brown 78 § I DISCIPLINE by Margaret St. Clair 86 I :=§=- IN THE JAG-WHIFFING SERVICE by David R. Bunch 99a5 ====_, = STAR OF REBIRTH by Bernard Wall - i NO, NO, NOT ROGOVr by Cordwainer Smith 106 i ~ ~ i= FEATURE =~ 5 5 TH;:~~~NB:E :~I:h:r:::~o~lIustrating ~I= I IN Pipe Dream 7S . Illustrations by Ed Emsh and Paul Orban I• 5 ~ i iOIl1l11l1llllllllllDllnlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllUlIlIlIlIIlIlIlIIlIIlIlIlIIlIIlIIlIlIlIlIlIlII1I11111111111111111 IIIII1111111111111111 IIIIIlIlIIUlUnlil1i IF is published bi-monthly ~ Quinn Publishing Co.k. Inc. Vol. 9, No.2. Copyright 1958 bj' Quinn Publishing Co., Inc. Omce of publication 8 Lord Strt-et, Buffalo, N.Y. Entered as Second Class Matter at Post Office, Buffalo, N.Y. Subscription $3.50 for 12 issues in U.S. and Posses sions; Canada $4 for 12 issues; elsewhere $4.50. AU stories are fiction; any similarity to actual persons is coincidental. Not ~p~msible for unso licIted artwork or manuscripts. 35c a copy. Printed in U.S.A. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES. KINGSTON. NEW YORK Next (April) issue on sale February 14th PIPE DREAM By FRITZ LEIBER T WASN'T until the mermaid I turned up in his bathtub that Simon Grue seriously began to won der what the Russians \vere doing on the roof next door. The old house next door together Simon Grue found a two-inch with its spacious tarpapered roof, which held a sort of pent-shack, a cylindrical old water tank, and sev mermaid zn his bathtub. It eral chicken-\\'ire enclosures, had always been a focus of curiosity in this region of Greenwich Village, especially to whoever happened to had arms, hips, a finny tail, be renting Simon's studio, the north window-cum-skylight of which looked down upon it-if you were and (here the real trouble be- exceptionally tall or if, like Simon, you stood halfway up a stepladder and peered. gan) a face that reminded him During the 1920's, old-timers told Simon, the house had been owned by a bootlegger. \\rho had installed irresistibly of Grushenka Stul- a costly pipe organ and used the water tank to store hooch. Later there had been a colony of shaven nikov-Gurevich ... headed Buddhist monks, who had strolled about the roof in their orange and yellow robes, meditat ing and eating raw vegetables. There had followed a con71nedia dele OTIc theatrical group, a fenc ing salon, a school of the organ 2 (the bottlegger's organ was always brothers-Vasily-at a neighboring one of the prime renting points of art gallery, came to believe that they the house), an Arabian restaurant, were both Red and White and several art schools and silvercraft something more-solid, complete shops of course, and an Existential Slavs in any case, Double Dostoev ist coffee house. sky Russians if one may be per The last occupants had been two mitted the expression. They ordered bony-cheeked Swedish blondes who vodka, caviar, and soda crackers by sunbathed intenninably and had the case. They argued intenninably built the chicken-wire enclosures to (IQudly in Russian, softly in Eng cage a large number of sinister lish) , they \vent on mysterious silent smoke-colored dogs-Simon de errands, they gloomed about on the cided they were breeding were roof, they made melancholy music wolves, and one of his most success with their deep harmonious voices ful abstractions, "Gray Hunger", and several large guitars. Once had been painted to the inspiration Simon thought they even had the of an eldritch howling. The dogs bootlegger's organ going, but there and their owners had departed had been a bad storm at the time abruptly one night in a closed van, and he hadn't been sure. without any of the dogs ever having They were not quite as tight been offered for sale or either of the lipped as the Swedish girls. Gradu girls having responded \vith any ally a curt front-sidewalk acquaint thing more than a raised eyebrow to ance developed and Simon came to Simon's brave greetings of "'Skoal!" know their names. There was The Russians had taken posses Vasily, of course, who wore thick sion about six months ago-four glasses, the most scholarly-looking brothers apparently, and one sister, of the lot and certainly the most who never stirred from the house bibulous-Simon came to think of but could occa~ionally be seen peer Vasily as the Vodka Breather. Oc ing drealllily from a window. A casionally he could be glimpsed white card with a boldly-inked holding Erlenmeyer flasks, trays of "Stulnikov-Gurevich" had been culture dishes, and other pieces of thumbtacked to the peeling green biological equipment, or absent painted front door. Lafcadio Smits, mindedly wiping off a glass slide the interior decorator. told Sinlon with his beard. that the newcomer~ were clearly Then there \vas Ivan, the dourest White Russians; he could tell it by of the four, though none of them their bushy beards. Lester Phlegius save Vasily seemed very amiable. maintained that they were Red Simon's private names for Ivan Russians passing as White, and were the Nihilist and the Bomber, talked alanningly of spying, sabo since he sometimes lugged about tage and suitcase bombs. \vith him a heavy globular leather Simon, who had the advantages case. With it and his beard-a of living on the spot and having square black one-he had more been introduced to one of the than once created a mild sensation 4 FRITZ LEIBER in the narrow streets of the Village. never ventured on the roof but she Next there was Mikhail, who often sat in the pent-shack. As far wore a large crucifix on a s~lver as Simon could make out, she al chain around his neck and looked ways wore some dark Victorian cos.. like a more spiritual Rasputin. tUlne-at least it had a high neck, However, Simon thought of him long sleeves, and puffed shoulders. less as the Religious than as the Pale-faced in the greenish gloom, Whistler-for his inveterate habit she would stare for hours out of the of whistling into his straggly beard pent-shack's single wjndow, though a strange tune that obeyed no com never in Simon's direction. Occa mon harmonic laws. Somehow sionally she would part and close Mikhail seemed to carry a chilly her lips, but not exactly as if she breeze around with him, a per were speaking, at least aloud-he petual cold draught, so that Simon thought of calling her the Bubble had to check himself in order not Blower. The effect was as odd as to clutch together his coat collar Mikhail's whistling but not as un whenever he heard the approach pleasant. In fact, Simon found him of the eerie piping. self studying Grushenka for ridicu Finally there was Lev, beardless, lously long periods of time. His shorter by several inches, and cer mild obsession began to irk him and tainly the most elusive of the one day he decided henceforth to brothers. He always moved at a stay away altogether from his north scurry, frequently dipping his head, window and the stepladder. As a so that it was some time before result he saw little of the alterations Simon assured himself that he had the Russians began to make on the the Stulnikov-Gurevich face. He roof at this point, though he did did, unmistakably. Lev seemed to notice that they lugged up among be away on trips a good deal. On other things a length of large his returns he was frequently ac diameter transparent plastic piping. companied by furtive but impor tant-looking men-a different one on each occasion. There would be O MUCH FOR the Russians, much bustle at such times-among Snow for the mermaid. Late one other things, the shades would be night Simon started to fill his bath drawn. Then in a few hours Lev tub with cold water to soak his would be off again, and his man brushes and rags-he was working about-town companion too. with a kind of calcimine at the. time, And of course there was the in experimenting with portable murals doors-keeping sister.