Terrors Read Free

them.
    He took his medicine and ate some breakfast, part of a pancakeand a slice of bacon. Then Dr. Goldsmith arrived and examined Arlie the way he did every day. He didn’t smile exactly the way he did most days.He did say, “Keep it up and you’ll be playing halfback one of these days,” but when he left Arlie’s room with Aunt Cora he wasn’t even humming “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
    Dr. Goldsmith and Aunt Cora talked for a long time, mostly in Old Country language,before Dr. Goldsmith left. Aunt Cora opened the door of Arlie’s room partway and looked in at him. He lifted his hand and waved to her. She didn’t say anything, she just closed the door. Arlie thought that was odd.
    Even with light coming from outside around the window shade, it seemed that the dark place on Arlie’s wall near the radiator was especially dark today. Arlie looked into the dark placeas hard as he could. He wasn’t sure if he could see the tunnel. He knew there were no lights inside. Still, this was the first time he’d even thought he might see the tunnel in the daytime.
    He reached over and turned on the radio but he fell asleep before he could hear the news.
    When Arlie woke up Aunt Cora was sitting on a wooden chair next to his bed watching him. He could tell it was afternoonby the way the light came around the window shade. He asked Aunt Cora if it was lunch time and she said that it was, yes, and what would he like for lunch?
    He said a cheeseburger on a roll and French fries and Aunt Cora said she would make that for him and he heard her for a while in the kitchen. He could smell the food cooking and while Aunt Cora made his lunch Arlie tried to see the dark placeagain and see if he could make out anything inside the tunnel but there was too much light in the room.
    A train went by, though, and he was able to make believe it was taking him to the Black Forest where he would ride in his father’s tank and blow up Nazis. Then Aunt Cora brought his lunch and he ate part of it. He asked his Aunt Cora what she was having for lunch and she said the same thinghe was, he didn’t eat so much and there was enough left for her.
    In the afternoon he made believe that he was in a Crimson Wizard story with the Crimson Wizard. The Crimson Wizard wore a big hat with a point on top and a wide brim that hid his face from his enemies so they wouldn’t learn his secret identity and attack him when he wasn’t in his Crimson Wizard identity. Nobody ever saw the CrimsonWizard’s face because he could never tell when an enemy might be lurking nearby, even when he was at home or in his secret lair working on a new and more potent potion or spell.
    Arlie imagined that the Crimson Wizard needed an assistant and that he asked Arlie to be his assistant. They might even change the name of the comic book from
Crimson Wizard Comics
to
The Crimson Wizard and Arlie
, andArlie would get to share the Crimson Wizard’s adventures in the comics and on the radio, too.
    He had his nap and when he woke up he could tell that it was getting dark outside. He turned on the radio and listened to
Ace Larson Space Explorer
and to
The Crimson Wizard
.
    Ace Larson managed to unlock the emergency equipment kit on board the
Isis
and get out oxygen masks for himself and for BettyBlanton. Once they had their oxygen masks in place Ace Larson Space Explorer was able to land the
Isis
safely on the surface of the Poison Planetoid.
    But that was just the beginning of Ace Larson and Betty Blanton’s latest and most exciting adventure. Ace Larson asked Betty Blanton to look outside and see what kind of place the
Isis
had come down in. Ace Larson meant that Betty should look outsidethrough one of the
Isis’s
portholes but Betty didn’t understand and she opened the hatch. A dozen scaly monsters rushed through the doorway, ray-rifles blazing, just as the day’s episode came to an end.
    The Crimson Wizard was facing his arch foe the fiendish Dr. Mephisto. Not only was Dr.