as a matter of course. Such is the case in this very
short but memorable story about an ambitious
salesman who decides to impress his supervisor by
selling merchandise to the “gnoles.” The gnoles
have a bad reputation, and they live in their little
house isolated from the rest of the world on the
edge of unknown territories. Mortensen, the sales-
man, studies the principles of salesmanship assidu-
ously until he believes he thoroughly understands
the process of acceptance that takes place in the
mind of the customer, but he is less careful about
paying attention to the list of attributes of the suc-
cessful sales person and fails to properly assume the
degree of awareness that is recommended.
No one ever visits the gnoles, so they are un-
derstandably surprised when Mortensen shows up
on their doorstep. Although the gnoles are not re-
motely human, Mortensen refuses to react to their
disturbing physical appearance or their distinctive
odor. He is a bit disconcerted when he discovers
the gnoles have no ears to hear him with, but he
remains determined to sell them some rope. Pa-
tiently he lays out samples from his case along with
written descriptions and pricing information while
the gnoles looks on enigmatically. When a gnole fi-
nally indicates interest in placing a large order,
Mortensen is pleased with himself and even con-
templates trying to approach the even less-human
“gibbelins” next.
Unfortunately, Mortensen is unobservant and
unintentionally offends his host, who responds by
hustling him down into the basement. The rope
might have been a convenience, but fresh meat for
the larder is, after all, much more valuable. Most
of St. Clair’s other fiction is technically science fic-
tion, but her unique view of reality inserted a
touch of magic into much of that as well.
The Man Who Was Magic Paul Gallico
(1966)
Paul Gallico was a flexible writer who contributed
to a variety of genres, including spy stories, humor,
adventure, and mundane fiction. His short The
Snow Goose(1941) is marginally fantasy, and his
novel The Abandoned(1950, also published as Jen-
nie) is about a young boy who is transformed magi-
cally into a cat, in which body he has several
amusing adventures. Gallico wrote other children’s
fantasies, as well as two novels, Too Many Ghosts
(1959) and The Hand of Mary Constable(1964),
which lead the reader to believe that they involve
the supernatural, although the unusual events are
eventually rationalized. There actually is a ghost in
The House That Wouldn’t Go Away(1979), but it is
not one of his better books.
Gallico’s single significant fantasy is The Man
Who Was Magic,a good-natured story cast almost
in the form of a fairy tale, sophisticated enough for
adult readers but straightforward and suitable for a
much younger audience. The setting is the hidden
city of Mageia, where the Guild of Master Magi-
cians holds sway. None of the members of the guild
actually knows any magic; they achieve all of their
effects through trickery, a secret known only to
themselves. Enter Adam Simple, a stranger from
the outer world, who arrives accompanied by
Mopsy, his talking dog, hoping to join the guild.
They react haughtily at first, but their attitude
changes when they discover that Adam does not
resort to tricks and that he really does have the
ability to perform magic.
The story progresses straightforwardly, even
predictably. The false magicians feel threatened
and eventually conspire against Adam, hoping to
drive him away and preserve their authority. Al-
though they act villainously, none of them is actu-
ally evil, and Adam eventually eludes their efforts
to entrap him. The novel enjoyed considerable
popularity when it first appeared, but Gallico wrote
fantasy at such great intervals that he never ac-
quired a significant following.“The Mark of the Beast”Rudyard Kipling
(1891)
Rudyard Kipling’s experiences in British India pro-
vided material for some of his most famous fiction,
including this, one of his best tales of the supernat-
ural. The story concerns an Englishman named
Fleete who, while unusually drunk, disfigures a
statue in a temple to Hanuman, the god of the
monkeys. As the reader might expect, this brings
down the god’s curse on Fleete, effected by a mys-
terious leper. His companions are initially puzzled
by the lack of reprisals on the part of the priests,“The Mark of the Beast” 229