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diff --git a/29963.txt b/29963.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72d34ae --- /dev/null +++ b/29963.txt @@ -0,0 +1,670 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Goodbye, Dead Man!, by Tom W. Harris + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Goodbye, Dead Man! + +Author: Tom W. Harris + +Illustrator: Becker + +Release Date: September 12, 2009 [EBook #29963] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOODBYE, DEAD MAN! *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Mattup had killed a man, so it was logical + he should be punished. It was Danny who came up + with the idea of leaving him with the prophecy-- + + Goodbye, Dead Man! + + _by Tom W. Harris_ + + +It was Orley Mattup's killing of the old lab technician that really made +us hate him. + +Mattup was a guard at the reactor installation at Bayless, Kentucky, +where my friend Danny Hern and I were part of the staff when the +Outsiders took everything over. In what god-forsaken mountain hole they +had found Mattup, and how they got him to sell out to them, I don't +know. He was an authentic human, though. You can tell an Outsider. + +Mattup and Danny and I were playing high-low-jack the night Uncle Pete +was killed, sitting on the widewalk where Mattup had a view of the part +of the station he was responsible for. High-low-jack is a back-country +card game; Danny had learned it in northern Pennsylvania, where he came +from, and Mattup loved the game, and they had taught it to me because +the game is better three-handed. The evening sessions had been Danny's +idea--I think he figured it might give him a line on Mattup. + +On the night in question, Mattup was on a week's losing streak and was +in a foul humor. He was superstitious, and he had called for a new deck +twice that evening and walked around his seat four different times. His +bidding was getting wilder. + +"You'd better cool down," Danny told him. "Thing to do is ride out the +bad luck, not fight it." + +Orley picked his nose and looked at his cards, "Bid four," he growled. + +Four is the highest possible bid. Tim played his cards well and he had +good ones. He had sewed up three of his points when we heard somebody +moving around down on the reactor floor. It was old Uncle Pete Barker, +one of the technicians. + +[Illustration] + +"What you want down there?" bawled Mattup. + +"Just left my cap by the control room," said Uncle Pete, "and thought +I'd go get it." + +"You keep the hell away from there," grunted Mattup. + +Uncle Pete stopped and stood gazing up at us. We went on playing. It was +the last card of the hand, and would either win the game for Mattup or +lose it for him. Orley slapped his card down; it was a crucial card, the +jack. Danny took it with a queen and Mattup had lost the game. + +I felt like clearing out. Mattup's face was purple and his eyes looked +like wolves' eyes. He glared at Danny, making a noise in his throat, and +then I saw his gaze leave Danny and go to something down by the reactor. + +It was Uncle Pete, shuffling along toward the control room. + +Mattup didn't say a word. He stood up and unholstered the thing the +Outsiders had given him and pointed it at Uncle Pete. There was a +ringing in our ears and Uncle Pete began to twist. Something inside him +twisted him, twisting inside his arms, his legs, head, trunk, even his +fingers. It was only for a few seconds. Then the ringing stopped, and +Uncle Pete sunk to the ground, and there was the silence and the smell. + +Mattup made us leave the body there until we had played two more hands. +Danny won one; he was a man with good nerves. When we were back in our +room he said, "That did it--I'm going to get that guy." + +"I hate his big thick guts," I said, buttoning my pajama shirt, "but how +are you going to get him?" + +"I'll get him," said Danny. "Meanwhile, we'll keep playing cards." + +Things went on almost normally at the Bayless reactor. It was a +privately-owned pool-type reactor, and we were sent samples of all sorts +of material for irradiation from all over the country. Danny was one of +the irradiation men; I generally handled controlling. The Outsiders had +filled the place with telescreens and guards, and all mail was opened, +but there was no real interference with the work. I began to worry a +little about Danny. Almost every afternoon he spent an hour alone in our +room, with the door closed. + +Mattup kept getting worse; an animal with power. He used to go hunting +with the damnable Outsider weapon, although the meat killed with it +wasn't fit to eat, and he used it on birds until there wasn't one left +anywhere near the plant. He never killed a bluebird, though. He said it +was bad luck. Sometimes he drank moonshine corn liquor, usually alone, +because the Outsiders wouldn't touch it, but sometimes he made some of +us drink with him, watching sharply to see we didn't poison him and +craftily picking his nose. When he was drunk he was abusive. + + * * * * * + +One night we were in our room, dead for sleep after a long game, and +Danny said, "Let me show you something." + +He shuffled the cards, I cut, and he dealt me an ace, king, queen, jack, +ten and deuce of spades. He shuffled again and dealt me the same in +hearts. + +"Watch as closely as you can," he grinned. "See if you can catch me." + +I couldn't. + +"I've been practicing," he said. "I'm going to get Mattup." + +"What good will it do to beat him in cards? You'll only make him sore." +I was relieved to learn what Danny had been doing, alone in our room, +but this card-sharp angle didn't make much sense to me. + +"Who says I'm going to beat him at cards?" smiled Danny. "By the way, +did you hear the rumor? They're going to break up the staff, Outsider +policy, send us to Oak Ridge, Argonne, Shippingport, send new people +down here." + +"That doesn't leave you much time," I said. + +"Time enough," said Danny. + +The next night Mattup began a fantastic streak of luck. It seemed he +couldn't lose, and he was as unpleasant a winner as he was a loser. + +"You boys don't know what card-playin' is," he'd gloat. "Think you're +pretty smarty with all that science stuff but you can't win a plain old +card game. You know why you can't beat me, boys?" + +"Because you're too smart, I guess," said Danny. + +"Well, yeah, and somethin' else. I dipped my hands in spunk water, up on +the mountain where you can never find it, and besides that I spit on +ever' card in this deck and wiped it off. Couldn't lose now to save my +life." + +"Maybe you're right," said Danny, and went on dealing. + +In a few days the rumor of moving was confirmed; I was being sent to Oak +Ridge, Danny to Argonne. Mattup kept winning, and "suggested" that we +raise the stakes. By the day that we were to leave we owed him every +cent we had. + +I paid up soberly; I wouldn't give Mattup any satisfaction by +complaining. It looked as though Danny wasn't going to "get" Mattup +after all. But Danny surprised me. + +"Look, buster," he wheedled. "If I pay you seventy-five bucks I won't +have a cent left. How about me paying half now and the rest later?" + +"No good," said Mattup. "You got it--pay me. If you can't pay cash gimme +your watch. I know you got one." + +"Look, buster--" + +"Quit callin' me buster." + +"What am I going to live on until I get paid again?" + +"What do I care?" + +It went on like that until the busses for the airport were nearly ready +to leave and both men seemed angry enough to kill each other. + +"Let's go," I begged Danny. "Pay him and leave." + +"All right then!" Danny snapped, and pulled out his wallet. He counted +out all his bills into Mattup's hand. + +"You're a buck short," said Mattup. + +"Why not forget the buck?" said Danny. "You can spare it." + +"You're a buck short," repeated Mattup, scowling. + +Danny dashed his wallet to the ground. "You're even taking my change!" +He got his jacket from the back of a chair--it was a hot day--and +emptied change from the side pocket. + +There were two quarters and a half dollar, and he paid them over. "I +have eleven cents left," he said. "Hell, take that too. I don't give a +damn." + +Mattup grinned. "Sure I'll take it--if you weren't lying when you said I +could have it." + +"It'll break me," said Danny. + +"I know it," said Mattup. "Gonna break your promise?" + +The bus driver was honking. "The hell with you," Danny said to Mattup, +and gave him a dime and a penny. He looked Mattup in the eye with a +strange expression. "Now, I gave you that and you didn't win it. You +took it of your own free will. I offered it to you and you took it. +Right?" + +"Right," said Mattup. "Sucker." + +We scrambled on the bus and as it pulled away Danny yelled "Hey, Buster, +look!" Mattup looked, and Danny stuck his right arm out the window, +pointing at Mattup with his right forefinger and his little finger stuck +out straight and parallel, the thumb tucked under. A strange, disturbed +look came over Orley. He turned his back as the bus roared out of the +drive. + +At the airport Danny popped into a phone-booth and got Orley on the +line--nobody seemed to care, either Outsiders or guards--and he let me +listen. + +"Spent your money yet, dead man?" purred Danny. + +"Whacha mean, dead man?" gruffed Orley's voice. "You crazy or +something?" + +"You know that eleven cents extra you took?" gloated Danny. "It's gonna +kill you, Buster, for killing Uncle Pete, and for everything else you've +done. I know. I've been talking nights to Uncle Pete. You're a dead +duck, Orley Mattup! Dead!" + +"That's--I don't believe it, it's baloney! I'm going to spend that +eleven cents and get rid of it." + +"You do exactly that, Buster. I locked the curse on it, and I made the +sign on you, and you have to keep that eleven cents the rest of your +life. If you spend it--or if you lose it, and you will lose it--that's +the end of you." + +"I'll come out there and pound the hell out of you!" yelled Mattup. + +"Too late, Buster, our planes are leaving. Goodbye, dead man!" + +And we had to run for our planes. Danny's pitch sounded pretty weak to +me, even though Orley was superstitious, but I didn't get to tell Danny +that until nearly five years later. + + * * * * * + +"I think I got him," said Danny. "You don't know the whole thing." + +A hotel clerk had been listening. "You mean Orley Mattup, the guard? He +got sick, and said he had a hex on him, and took off one day and a lot +later they found him up on the mountain. He was dead." + +"Any money on him?" asked Danny. + +"Jest some change. They buried it with him; they heard the hex was +locked onto that money." + +"Congratulations," I told Danny. "I didn't think it'd work. You scared +him to death." + +"Not quite," said Danny. "I scared him into hanging onto the money. That +money would have killed anybody that carried it much longer than the few +minutes I handled it. I'd been keeping the stuff in the reactor beam +tubes. It was radioactive as hell." + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Imagination Stories of Science and + Fantasy_ April 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence + that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor + spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Goodbye, Dead Man!, by Tom W. 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