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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:56:38 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:56:38 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31893-8.txt b/31893-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b59245 --- /dev/null +++ b/31893-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9899 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories, June, 1931, by Various + +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: Astounding Stories, June, 1931 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 5, 2010 [EBook #31893] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JUNE, 1931 *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + ASTOUNDING + + STORIES + + 20¢ + + + _On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month_ + + + W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher + HARRY BATES, Editor + DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor + + +The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees + + _That_ the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading + writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by + the Authors' League of America; + + _That_ such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American + workmen; + + _That_ each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit; + + _That_ an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages. + + +_The other Clayton magazines are:_ + +ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS +MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, +WESTERN ADVENTURES, and WESTERN LOVE STORIES. + +_More than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand +for Clayton Magazines._ + + * * * * * + + +VOL. VI, No. 3 CONTENTS JUNE, 1931 + + +COVER DESIGN H. W. WESSO + + _Painted in Water-Colors from a Scene in "Manape the Mighty."_ + + +THE MAN FROM 2071 SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT 295 + + _Out of the Flow of Time There Appears to Commander John Hanson + a Man of Mystery from the Forgotten Past._ + + +MANAPE THE MIGHTY. ARTHUR J. BURKS 308 + + _High in Jungle Treetops Swings Young Bentley--His Human Brain + Imprisoned in a Mighty Ape._ (A Complete Novelette.) + + +HOLOCAUST CHARLES WILLARD DIFFIN 356 + + _The Extraordinary Story of "Paul," Who for Thirty Days Was Dictator + of the World._ + + +THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN R. F. STARZL 375 + + _There is Foul Play on Mercury--until Danny Olear of the Interplanetary + Flying Police Gets After His Man._ + + +THE EXILE OF TIME RAY CUMMINGS 386 + + _Larry and George from 1935, Mary from 1777--All Are Caught up in the + Treacherous Tugh's Revolt of the Robots in the Time World of 2930._ + (Part Three of a Four-Part Novel.) + +THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 416 + +_A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories._ + + * * * * * + +Single Copies, 20 Cents In Canada, 25 Cents Yearly Subscription, $2.00 + +Issued monthly by The Clayton Magazines, Inc., 80 Lafayette Street, +New York, N. Y. W. M. Clayton, President; Francis P. Pace, Secretary. +Entered as second-class matter December 7, 1929, at the Post Office at +New York, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered as a +Trade Mark in the U. S. Patent Office. Member Newsstand Group. For +advertising rates address The Newsstand Group, Inc., 80 Lafayette +Street, New York; or The Wrigley Bldg., Chicago. + + * * * * * + + + + +The Man From 2071 + +_By Sewell Peaslee Wright_ + +[Illustration: _He clutched at the gangway--and fell._] + +[Sidenote: Out of the flow of time there appears to Commander John +Hanson a man of mystery from the forgotten past.] + + +Perhaps this story does not belong with my other tales of the Special +Patrol Service. And yet, there is, or should be, a report somewhere in +the musty archives of the Service, covering the incident. + +Not accurately, and not in detail. Among a great mass of old records +which I was browsing through the other day, I happened across that +report; it occupied exactly three lines in the log-book of the +_Ertak_: + + "Just before departure, discovered stowaway, apparently + demented, and ejected him." + +For the hard-headed higher-ups of the Service, that was report enough. +Had I given the facts, they would have called me to the Base for a +long-winded investigation. It would have taken weeks and weeks, filled +with fussy questioning. Dozens of stoop-shouldered laboratory men +would have prodded and snooped and asked for long, written accounts. +In those days, keeping the log-book was writing enough for me and +being grounded at Base for weeks would have been punishment. + +Nothing would have been gained by a detailed report. The Service +needed action rather than reports, anyway. But now that I am an old +man, on the retired list, I have time to write; and it will be a +particular pleasure to write this account, for it will go to prove +that these much-honored scientists of ours, with all their tremendous +appropriations and long-winded discussions, are not nearly so +wonderful as they think they are. They are, and always have been, too +much interested in abstract formulas, and not enough in their +practical application. I have never had a great deal of use for them. + + * * * * * + +I had received orders to report to Earth, regarding a dull routine +matter of reorganizing the emergency Base which had been established +there. Earth, I might add, for the benefit of those of you who have +forgotten your geography of the Universe, is not a large body, but its +people furnish almost all of the officer personnel of the Special +Patrol Service. Being a native of Earth, I received the assignment +with considerable pleasure, despite its dry and uninteresting nature. + +It was a good sight to see old Earth, bundled up in her cottony +clouds, growing larger and larger in the television disc. No matter +how much you wander around the Universe, no matter how small and +insignificant the world of your birth, there is a tie that cannot be +denied. I have set my ships down upon many a strange and unknown +world, with danger and adventure awaiting me, but there is, for me, no +thrill which quite duplicates that of viewing again that particular +little ball of mud from whence I sprang. I've said that before; I +shall probably say it again. I am proud to claim Earth as my +birth-place, small and out-of-the way as she is. + +Our Base on Earth was adjacent to the city of Greater Denver, on the +Pacific Coast. I could not help wondering, as we settled swiftly over +the city, whether our historians and geologists and other scientists +were really right in saying that Denver had at one period been far +from the Pacific. It seemed impossible, as I gazed down on that blue, +tranquil sea, that it had engulfed, hundreds of years ago, such a vast +portion of North America. But I suppose the men of science know. + + * * * * * + +I need not go into the routine business that brought me to Earth. +Suffice it to say that it was settled quickly, by the afternoon of the +second day: I am referring, of course, to Earth days, which are +slightly less than half the length of an enaren of Universe time. + +A number of my friends had come to meet me, visit with me during my +brief stay on Earth; and, having finished my business with such +dispatch, I decided to spend that evening with them, and leave the +following morning. It was very late when my friends departed, and I +strolled out with them to their mono-car, returning the salute of the +_Ertak's_ lone sentry, who was pacing his post before the huge +circular exit of the ship. + +Bidding my friends farewell, I stood there for a moment under the +heavens, brilliant with blue, cold stars, and watched the car sweep +swiftly and soundlessly away towards the towering mass of the city. +Then, with a little sigh, I turned back to the ship. + +The _Ertak_ lay lightly upon the earth, her polished sides gleaming in +the light of the crescent moon. In the side toward me, the circular +entrance gaped like a sleepy mouth; the sentry, knowing the eyes of +his commander were upon him, strode back and forth with brisk, +military precision. Slowly, still thinking of my friends, I made my +way toward the ship. + +I had taken but a few steps when the sentry's challenge rang out +sharply, "Halt! Who goes there?" + +I glanced up in surprise. Shiro, the man on guard, had seen me leave, +and he could have had no difficulty in recognizing me. But--the +challenge had not been meant for me. + + * * * * * + +Between myself and the _Ertak_ there stood a strange figure. An +instant before, I would have sworn that there was no human in sight, +save myself and the sentry; now this man stood not twenty feet away, +swaying as though ill or terribly weary, barely able to lift his head +and turn it toward the sentry. + +"Friend," he gasped; "friend!" and I think he would have fallen to the +ground if I had not clapped an arm around his shoulders and supported +him. + +"Just ... a moment," whispered the stranger. "I'm a bit faint.... I'll +be all right...." + +I stared down at the man, unable to reply. This was a nightmare; no +less. I could feel the sentry staring, too. + +The man was dressed in a style so ancient that I could not remember +the period: Twenty-first Century, at least; perhaps earlier. And while +he spoke English, which is a language of Earth, he spoke it with a +harsh and unpleasant accent that made his words difficult, almost +impossible, to understand. Their meaning did not fully sink in until +an instant after he had finished speaking. + +"Shiro!" I said sharply. "Help me take this man inside. He's ill." + +"Yes, sir!" The guard leaped to obey the order, and together we led +him into the _Ertak_, and to my own stateroom. There was some mystery +here, and I was eager to get at the root of it. The man with the +ancient costume and the strange accent had not come to the spot where +we had seen him by any means with which I was familiar; he had +materialized out of the thin air. There was no other way to account +for his presence. + + * * * * * + +We propped the stranger in my most comfortable chair, and I turned to +the sentry. He was staring at our weird visitor with wondering, +fearful eyes, and when I spoke he started as though stung by an +electric shock. + +"Very well," I said briskly. "That will be all. Resume your post +immediately. And--Shiro!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"It will not be necessary for you to make a report of this incident. I +will attend to that. Understand?" + +"Yes, sir!" And I think it is to the man's everlasting credit, and to +the credit of the Service which had trained him, that he executed a +snappy salute, did an about-face, and left the room without another +glance at the man slumped down in my big easy chair. + +With a feeling of cold, nervous apprehension such as I have seldom +experienced in a rather varied and active life, I turned then to my +visitor. + +He had not moved, save to lift his head. He was staring at me, his +eyes fixed in his chalky white face. They were dark, long +eyes--abnormally long--and they glittered with a strange, uncanny +light. + +"You are feeling better?" I asked. + +His thin, bloodless lips moved, but for a moment no sound came from +them. He tried again. + +"Water," he said. + +I drew him a glass from the tank in the wall of my room. He downed it +at a gulp, and passed the empty glass back to me. + +"More," he whispered. He drank the second glass more slowly, his eyes +darting swiftly, curiously, around the room. Then his brilliant, +piercing glance fell upon my face. + +"Tell me," he commanded sharply, "what year is this?" + + * * * * * + +I stared at him. It occurred to me that my friends might have +conceived and executed an elaborate hoax--and then I dismissed the +idea, instantly. There were no scientists among them who could make a +man materialize out of nothingness. + +"Are you in your right mind?" I asked slowly. "Your question strikes +me as damnably odd, sir." + +The man laughed wildly, and slowly straightened up in the chair. His +long, bony fingers clasped and unclasped slowly, as though feeling +were just returning to them. + +"Your question," he replied in his odd, unfamiliar accent, "is not +unnatural, under the circumstances. I assure you that I am of sound +mind; of very sound mind." He smiled, rather a ghastly smile, and made +a vague, slight gesture with one hand. "Will you be good enough to +answer my question? What year is this?" + +"Earth year, you mean?" + +He stared at me, his eyes flickering. + +"Yes," he said. "Earth year. There are other ways of ... figuring time +now?" + +"Certainly. Each inhabited world has its own system. There is a master +system for the Universe. Who are you, what are you, that you should +ask me a question the smallest child should know?" + +"First," he insisted, "tell me what year this is, Earth reckoning." + +I told him, and the light flickered up in his eyes again--a cruel, +triumphant light. + +"Thank you," he nodded; and then, slowly and softly, as though he +spoke to himself, he added, "Less than half a century off. Less than a +half a century! And they laughed at me. How--how I shall laugh at +them, presently!" + +"You choose to be mysterious, sir?" I asked impatiently. + +"No. Presently you shall understand, and then you will forgive me, I +know. I have come through an experience such as no man has ever known +before. If I am shaken, weak, surprising to you, it is because of that +experience." + + * * * * * + +He paused for a moment, his long, powerful fingers gripping the arms +of the chair. + +"You see," he added, "I have come out of the past into the present. Or +from the present into the future. It depends upon one's viewpoint. If +I am distraught, then forgive me. A few minutes ago, I was Jacob +Harbauer, in a little laboratory on the edge of a mountain park, near +Denver; now I am a nameless being hurtled into the future, pausing +here, many centuries from my own era. Do you wonder now that I am +unnerved?" + +"Do you mean," I said slowly, trying to understand what he had babbled +forth, "that you have come out of the past? That you ... that you...." +It was too monstrous to put into words. + +"I mean," he replied, "that I was born in the year 2028. I am +forty-three years old--or I was a few minutes ago. But,"--and his eyes +flickered again with that strange, mad light--"I am a scientist! I +have left my age behind me for a time; I have done what no other human +being has ever done: I have gone centuries into the future!" + +"I--I do not understand." Could he, after all, be a madman? "How can +a man leave his own age and travel ahead to another?" + +"Even in this age of yours they have not discovered that secret?" +Harbauer exulted. "You travel the Universe, I gather, and yet your +scientists have not yet learned to move in time? Listen! Let me +explain to you how simple the theory is. + + * * * * * + +"I take it you are an intelligent man; your uniform and its insignia +would seem to indicate a degree of rank. Am I correct?" + +"I am John Hanson, Commander of the _Ertak_, of the Special Patrol +Service," I informed him. + +"Then you will be capable of grasping, in part at least, what I have +to tell you. It is really not so complex. Time is a river, flowing +steadily, powerful, at a fixed rate of speed. It sweeps the whole +Universe along on its bosom at that same speed. That is my conception +of it; is it clear to you?" + +"I should think," I replied, "that the Universe is more like a great +rock in the middle of your stream of time, that stands motionless +while the minutes, the hours, and the days roll by." + +"No! The Universe travels on the breast of the current of time. It +leaves yesterday behind, and sweeps on towards to-morrow. It has +always been so until I challenged this so-called immutable law. I said +to myself, why should a man be a helpless stick upon the stream of +time? Why need he be borne on this slow current at the same speed? Why +cannot he do as a man in a boat, paddle backwards or forwards; back to +a point already passed; ahead, faster than the current, to a point +that, drifting, he would not reach so soon? In other words, why can he +not slip back through time to yesterday; or ahead to to-morrow? And if +to to-morrow, why not to next year, next century? + + * * * * * + +"These are the questions I asked myself. Other men have asked +themselves the same questions, I know; they were not new. +But,"--Harbauer drew himself far forward in his chair, and leaned +close to me, almost as though he prepared himself to spring--"no other +man ever found the answer! That remained for me. + +"I was not entirely correct, of course. I found that one could not go +back in time. The current was against one. But to go ahead, with the +current at one's back, was different. I spent six years on the +problem, working day and night, handicapped by lack of funds, +ridiculed by the press--Look!" + +Harbauer reached inside his antiquated costume and drew forth a flat +packet which he passed to me. I unfolded it curiously, my fingers +clumsy with excitement. + +I could hardly believe my eyes. The thing Harbauer had handed me was a +folded fragment of newspaper, such as I had often seen in museums. I +recognized the old-fashioned type, and the peculiar arrangement of the +columns. But, instead of being yellow and brittle with age, and +preserved in fragments behind sealed glass, this paper was fresh and +white, and the ink was as black as the day it had been printed. What +this man said, then, must be true! He must-- + +"I can understand your amazement," said Harbauer. "It had not occurred +to me that a paper which, to me, was printed only yesterday, would +seem so antique to you. But that must appear as remarkable to you as +fresh papyrus, newly inscribed with the hieroglyphics of the ancient +Egyptians, would seem to one of my own day and age. But read it; you +will see how my world viewed my efforts!" There was a sharpness, a +bitterness, in his voice that made me vaguely uneasy; even though he +had solved the riddle of moving in time as men have always moved in +space, my first conjecture that I had a madman to deal with might not +be so far from the truth. Ridicule and persecution have unseated the +reason of all too many men. + + * * * * * + +The type was unfamiliar to me, and the spelling was archaic, but I +managed to stumble through the article. It read, as nearly as I can +recall it, like this: + + Harbauer Says Time + + Is Like Great River + + Jacob Harbauer, local inventor, in an exclusive interview, + propounds the theory that man can move about in time exactly + as a boat moves about on the surface of a swift-flowing + river, save that he cannot go back into time, on account of + the opposition of the current. + + That is very fortunate, this writer feels; it would be a + terrible thing for example, if some good-looking scamp from + our present Twenty-first Century were to dive into the past + and steal Cleopatra from Antony, or start an affair with + Josephine and send Napoleon scurrying back from the front + and let the Napoleonic wars go to pot. We'd have to have all + our histories rewritten! + + Harbauer is well-known in Denver as the eccentric inventor + who, for the last five or six years, has occupied a lonely + shack in the mountains, guarded by a high fence of barbed + wire. He claims that he has now perfected equipment which + will enable him to project himself forward in time, and + expects to make the experiment in the very near future. + + This writer was permitted to view the equipment which + Harbauer says will shoot him into the future. The apparatus + is housed in a low, barn-like building in the rear of his + shack. + + Along one side of the room is a veritable bank of electrical + apparatus with innumerable controls, many huge tubes of + unfamiliar shape and appearance, a mighty generator of some + kind and an intricate maze of gleaming copper bus-bar. + + In the center of the room is a circle of metal, about a foot + in thickness, insulated from the flooring by four truncated + cones of fluted glass. This disc is composed of two + unfamiliar metals, arranged in concentric circles. + + Above this disc, at a height of about eight feet, is + suspended a sort of grid, composed of extremely fine silvery + wires, supported on a frame-work of black insulating + material. + + Asked for a demonstration of his apparatus, Harbauer finally + consented to perform an experiment with a dog--a white, + short-haired mongrel that, Harbauer informed us, he kept to + warn him of approaching strangers. + + He bound the dog's legs together securely, and placed the + struggling animal in the center of the heavy metal disc. + Then the inventor hurried to the central control panel and + manipulated several switches, which caused a number of + things to happen almost at once. + + The big generator started with a growl, and settled + immediately into a deep hum; a whole row of tubes glowed + with a purplish brilliancy. There was a crackling sound in + the air, and the grid above the disc seemed to become + incandescent, although it gave forth no apparent heat. From + the rim of the metal disc, thin blue streamers of electric + flame shot up toward the grid, and the little white dog + began to whine nervously. + + "Now watch!" shouted Harbauer. He closed another switch, + and the space between the disc and the grid became a + cylinder of livid light, for a period of perhaps two + seconds. Then Harbauer pulled all the switches, and pointed + triumphantly to the disc. It was empty. + + We looked around the room for the dog, but he was not + visible anywhere. + + "I have sent him nearly a century into the future," said + Harbauer. "We will let him stay there a moment, and then + bring him back." + + "You mean to say," we asked, "that the pup is now roaming + around somewhere in the Twenty-second Century?" Harbauer + said he meant just that, and added that he would now bring + the dog back to the present time. The switches were closed + again, but this time it was the metal plate that seemed + incandescent, and the grid above that shot out the streaks + of thin blue flame. As he closed the last switch, the + cylinder of light appeared again, and when the switches were + opened, there was the dog in the center of the disc, howling + and struggling against his bonds. + + "Look!" cried Harbauer. "He's been attacked by another dog, + or some other animal, while in the future. See the blood on + his shoulders?" + + We ventured the humble opinion that the dog had scratched or + bit himself in struggling to free himself from the cords + with which Harbauer had bound him, and the inventor flew + into a terrible rage, cursing and waving his arms as though + demented. Feeling that discretion was the better part of + valor, we beat a hasty retreat, pausing at the barbed-wire + gate only long enough to ask Mr. Harbauer if he would be + good enough, sometime when he had a few minutes of leisure, + to dash into next week and bring back some stock market + reports to aid us in our investment efforts. + + Under the circumstances, we did not wait for a response, but + we presume we are persona non grata at the Harbauer + establishment from this time on. + + All in all, we are not sorry. + +I folded the paper and passed it back to him; some of the allusions I +did not understand, but the general tone of the article was very clear +indeed. + + * * * * * + +"You see?" said Harbauer, his voice grating with anger. "I tried to be +courteous to that man; to give him a simple, convincing demonstration +of the greatest scientific achievement in centuries. And the fool +returned to write _this_: to hold me up to ridicule, to paint me as a +crack-brained, wild-eyed fanatic." + +"It's hard for the layman to conceive of a great scientific +achievement," I said soothingly. "All great inventions and inventors +have been laughed at by the populace at large." + +"True. True." Harbauer nodded his head solemnly. "But just the same--" +He broke off suddenly, and forced a smile. I found myself wishing that +he had completed that broken sentence, however; I felt that he had +almost revealed something that would have been most enlightening. + +"But enough of that fool and his babblings," he continued. "I am here +as living proof that my experiment is a success, and I have a +tremendous curiosity about the world in which I find myself. This, I +take it, is a ship for navigating space?" + +"Right! The _Ertak_, of the Special Patrol Service. Would you care to +look around a bit?" + +"I would, indeed." There was a tremendous eagerness in the man's +voice. + +"You're not too tired?" + +"No; I am quite recovered from my experience." Harbauer leaped to his +feet, those abnormally long, slitted eyes of his glowing. "I am a +scientist, and I am most curious to see what my fellows have created +since--since my own era." + +I picked up my dressing gown and tossed it to him. + +"Slip this on, then, to cover your clothing. You would be an object of +too much curiosity to those men who are on duty," I suggested. + +I was taller than he, and the garment came within a few inches of the +floor. He knotted the cincture around his middle and thrust his hands +into the pockets, turning to me for approval. I nodded, and motioned +for him to precede me through the door. + + * * * * * + +As an officer of the Special Patrol Service, it has often been my duty +to show parties and individuals through my ship. Most of these parties +are composed of females, who have only exclamations to make instead of +intelligent comment, and who possess an unbounded capacity for asking +utterly asinine questions. It was, therefore, a real pleasure to show +Harbauer through the ship. + +He was a keen, eager listener. When he asked a question, and he asked +many of them, he showed an amazing grasp of the principles involved. +My knowledge of our equipment was, of course, only practical, save for +the rudimentary theoretical knowledge that everyone has of present-day +inventions and devices. + +The ethon tubes which lighted the ship, interested him but little. The +atomic generators, the gravity pads, their generators, and the +disintegrator-ray, however, he delved into with that frenzied ardor of +which only a scientist, I believe, is capable. + +Questions poured out of him, and I answered them as best I could: +sometimes completely, and satisfactorily, so that he nodded and said, +"I see! I see!" and sometimes so poorly that he frowned, and +cross-questioned me insistently until he obtained the desired +information. + +In the big, sound-proof navigating room, I explained the operation of +the numerous instruments, including the two three-dimensional charts, +actuated by super-radio reflexes, the television disc, the attraction +meter, the surface-temperature gauge and the complex control system. + +"Forward," I added, "is the operating room. You can see it through +these glass partitions. The navigating officer in command relays his +orders to men in the operating room, who attend to the actual +execution of those orders." + +"Just as a pilot, or the navigating officer of a ship of my day gives +his orders to the quartermaster at the wheel," nodded Harbauer, and +began firing questions at me again, going over the ground we had +covered, to check up on his information. I was amazed at the uncanny +accuracy with which he had grasped such a great mass of technical +detail. It had taken me years of study to pick up what he had taken +from me, and apparently retained intact, in something more than an +hour, Earth time. + + * * * * * + +I glanced at the Earth-time clock on the wall of the navigating room +as he triumphantly finished his questioning. Less than an hour +remained before the time set for our return trip. + +"I'm sorry," I commented, "to be an ungracious host, but I am +wondering what your plans may be? You see, we are due to start in less +than an hour, and--" + +"A passenger would be in your way?" Harbauer smiled as he uttered the +words, but there was a gleam in his long eyes that rather startled me, +and I wondered if I only imagined the steeliness of his voice. "Don't +let that worry you, sir." + +"It's not worrying me," I replied, watching him closely. "I have +enjoyed a very remarkable, a very pleasant experience. If you should +care to remain aboard the _Ertak_, I should like exceedingly to have +you accompany us to our Base, where I could place you in touch with +other laboratory men, with whom you would have much in common." + +Harbauer threw back his head and laughed--not pleasantly. + +"Thanks!" he said. "But I have no time for that. They could give me no +knowledge that I need, now; you have told me and showed me enough. I +understand how you have released atomic energy; it is a matter so +simple that a child should have guessed it, and man has wondered about +it for centuries, knowing that the power was there, but lacking a key +to unfetter it. And now I have that key!" + +"True. But perhaps our scientists would like, in exchange, the secret +of moving forward in time," I suggested, reasonably enough. + +"What do I care about them?" snapped Harbauer. He loosened the cord of +the robe with a quick, impatient gesture, as though it confined him +too tightly, and threw the garment from him. + + * * * * * + +Then, suddenly, he took a quick stride toward me, and thrust out his +ugly head. + +"I know enough now to give me power over all my world," he cried. +"Haven't you guessed the reason for my interest in your engines of +destruction? I came down the centuries ahead of my generation so that +I might come back with power in my hand; power to wipe out the fools +who have made a mock of me. And I have that power--here!" He tapped +his forehead dramatically with his left hand. + +"I will bring a new regime to my era!" he continued, fairly shouting +now. "I will be what many men have tried to be, and what no man has +ever been--master of the world! Absolute, unquestioned, supreme +master!" He paused, his eyes glaring into mine--and I knew from the +light that shone behind those long, narrow slits, that I was dealing +with a madman. + +"True; you will," I said gently, moving carelessly toward the +microphone. With that in my hand, a slight pressure on the General +Attention signal, and I would have the whole crew of the _Ertak_ here +in a moment. But I had explained the workings of the navigating room's +equipment only too well. + +"Stop!" snarled Harbauer, and his right hand flashed up. "See this? +Perhaps you don't know what it is; I'll tell you. It's an automatic +pistol--not so efficient as your disintegrator-ray, but deadly enough. +There is certain death for eight men in my hand. Understand?" + +"Perfectly." What an utter fool I had been! I was not armed, and I +knew that Harbauer spoke the truth. I had often seen weapons similar +to the one he held in the military museums. They are still there, if +you are curious--rusty and broken, but not unlike our present atomic +pistols in general appearance. They propelled the bullet by the +explosion of a sort of powder; inefficient, of course, but, as he had +said, deadly enough for the purpose. + + * * * * * + +"Good! You are a good sort Hanson, but don't take any chances. I'm not +going to, I promise you. You see,"--and he laughed again, the light in +his long eyes dancing with evil--"I'm not likely to be punished for a +few killings committed centuries after I'm dead. I have never killed a +man, but I won't hesitate to do so now, if one--or more--should get in +my way." + +"But why," I asked soothingly, "should you wish to kill anyone? You +have what you came for, you say; why not depart in peace?" + +He smiled crookedly, and his eyes narrowed with cunning. + +"You approve of my little plan to dominate the world?" he asked +softly, his eyes searching my face. + +"No," I said boldly, refusing to lie to him. "I do not, and you know +it." + +"Very true." He pulled out his watch with his left hand, and held it +before his eyes so that he could observe the time without losing sight +of me for even an instant. "I doubted that I could secure your willing +cooperation; therefore, I am commanding it. + +"You see, there are certain instruments and pieces of equipment that I +should like to take back to my laboratory with me. Perhaps I would be +able to reproduce them without models, but with the models my task +will be much easier. + +"The question remaining is a simple one: will you give the proper +orders to have this equipment removed to the spot where you first saw +me, or shall I be obliged to return to my own era without this +equipment--leaving behind me a dead commander of the Special Patrol +Service, and any other who may try to stop me?" + + * * * * * + +I tried to keep cool under the lash of his mocking voice. I have never +been adept at holding my temper when I should, but somehow I managed +it this time. Frowning, I kept him waiting for a reply, utilizing the +time to do what was perhaps the hardest, fastest thinking of my life. + +There wasn't a particle of doubt in my mind regarding his ability to +make good his threat, nor his readiness to do so. I caught the faint +glimmering of an idea and fenced with it eagerly. + +"How are you going to go back to your own period--your own era?" I +asked him. "You told me, I believe, that it was impossible to move +backward in time." + +"That's not answering my question," he said, leering. "Don't think +you're fooling me! But I'll tell you, just the same. I can go back to +my own era: that is, back to my own actual existence. I shall return +just two hours after I leave; I could not go back farther than that, +and it's not necessary that I do so. I can go back only because I came +from that present; I am not really of this future at all. I go back +from whence I came." + +"But," I objected, thinking of something I had read in the clipping he +had showed me, "you're not going back to your own era. You cannot. If +you returned, you would put your project into execution, and history +does not record that activity." I saw from the sudden narrowing of his +abnormally long eyes that I had caught his interest, and I pressed my +advantage hastily. "Remember that all the history of your time is +written, Harbauer. It is in the books of Earth's history, with which +every child of this age, into which you have thrust yourself, is +familiar. And those histories do not record the domination of the +world by yourself. So--you are confronted by an impossibility!" + + * * * * * + +My reasoning, now, sounds specious, and yet it was a line of thought +which could not be waved aside. I saw Harbauer's black brows knit +together, and mounting anger darken his face. I do not know, but I +believe I was never nearer death than I was at that instant. + +"Fool!" he cried. "Idiot! Imbecile! Do you think you can confuse me, +turn me from my purpose, with words? Do you? Do you believe me to be a +child, or a weakling? I tell you, I have planned this thing to the +last detail. If I had not found what I sought on this first trip, I +would have taken another, a dozen, a score, until I found the +information I sought. The last six years of my life I have worked day +and night to this end; your histories and your words--" + +My plan had worked. The man was beside himself with insane anger. And +in his rage he forgot, for an instant, that he was my captor. + +Taking a desperate chance, I launched myself at his legs. His weapon +roared over my head, just as I struck. I felt the hot gas from the +thing beat against my neck; I caught the reeking scent of the smoke. +Then we were both on the floor, and locked in a mad embrace. + +Harbauer was a smaller man than myself, but he had the amazing +strength of a Zenian. He fought viciously, using every ounce of his +strength against me, striving to bring his weapon into use, hammering +my head upon the floor, racking my body mercilessly, grunting, +cursing, mumbling constantly as he did so. + +But I was in better trim than Harbauer. I have never seen a laboratory +man who could stand the strain of prolonged physical exertion. Bending +over test-tubes and meters is no life for a man. At grips with him, I +was in my own element, and he was out of his. I let him wear himself +out, exerting myself as little as possible, confining my efforts to +keeping his weapon where he could not use it. + +I felt him weakening at last. His breath was coming in great sobs, and +his long eyes started from their sockets with the strained effort he +was putting forth. And then, with a single mighty effort, I knocked +the pistol from his hand, so that it slid across the floor and brought +up with a crash against a wall of the room. + +"Now!" I said, and turned on him. + + * * * * * + +He knew, at that moment when I put forth my strength, that I had been +playing with him. I read the shock of sudden fear in his eyes. My +right arm went about him in a deadly hold; I had him in a grip that +paralyzed him. Grimly, I jerked him to his feet, and he stood there +trembling with weakness, his shoulders heaving as his breath came and +went between his teeth. + +"You realize, of course, that you're not going back?" I said quietly. + +"Back?" Half dazed, he stared at me through the quivering lids of his +peculiar eyes. "What do you mean?" + +"I mean that you're not going back to your own era. You have come to +us, uninvited, and--you're going to stay here." + +"No!" he shouted, and struggled so desperately to free himself that I +was hard put to it to hold him, without tightening my grip +sufficiently to dislocate his shoulders. "You wouldn't do that! I must +return; I must prove to them--" + +"That's exactly what must not happen, and what shall not happen," I +interrupted. "And what will not happen. You are in a strange +predicament, Harbauer; it is already written that you do not return. +Can't you see that, man? If it were to be that you left this age and +returned to your own, you would make known your discovery. History +would record it. And history does not record it. You are struggling, +not against me, but against--against a fate that has been sealed all +these centuries." + + * * * * * + +When I had finished, he stared at me as though hypnotized, motionless +and limp in my grasp. Then, suddenly, he began to shake and I saw such +depths of terror and horror in his eyes as I hope never to see again. + +Mechanically, he glanced down at his watch, lifting his wrist into his +line of vision as slowly and ponderously as though it bore a great +weight. + +"Two ... two minutes," he whispered huskily. "Then the automatic switch +will close, back in my laboratory. If I am not standing where ... where +you found me ... between the disc and the grid of my time machine, where +the reversed energy can reach me, to ... to take me back ... God!" + +He sagged in my arms and dropped to his knees, sobbing. + +"And yet ... what you say is true. It is already written that I did +not return." His sobs cut harshly through the silence of the room. +Pitying his despair, I reached down to give him a sympathetic pat on +the shoulder. It is a terrible thing to see a man break down as +Harbauer had done. + +As he felt my grip on him relax, he suddenly shot his fist into the +pit of my stomach, and leaped to his feet. Groaning, I doubled up, +weak and nerveless, for the instant, from the vicious, unexpected +blow. + +"Ah!" shrieked Harbauer. "You soft-hearted fool!" He struck me in the +face, sending me crashing to the floor, and snatched up his pistol. + +"I'm going, now," he shouted. "Going! What do I care for your records +and your histories? They are not yet written; if they were I'd change +them." He bent over me and snatched from my hand the ring of keys, one +of which I had used to unlock the door of the navigating room. I tried +to grip him around the legs, but he tore himself loose, laughing +insanely in a high-pitched, cackling sound that seemed hardly human. + +"Farewell!" he called mockingly from the doorway. Then the door +slammed, and as I staggered to my feet, I heard the lock click. + + * * * * * + +I must have acted then by instinct or inspiration. There was no time +to think. It would take him not more than three or four seconds to +make his way to the exit, stroll by the guard to the spot where we had +found him, and--disappear. By the time I could arouse the crew, and +have my orders executed, his time would be up, and--unless the whole +affair were some terrible nightmare--he would go hurtling back through +time to his own era, armed with a devastating knowledge. + +There was only one possible means of preventing his escape in time. I +ran across the room to the emergency operating controls, cut in the +atomic generators with one hand and pulled the Vertical-Ascent lever +to Full Power. + +There was a sudden shriek of air, and my legs almost thrust themselves +through my body. Quickly, I pushed the lever back until, with my eye +on the altimeter, I held the _Ertak_ at her attained height--something +over a mile, as I recall it. Then I pressed the General Attention +signal, and snatched up the microphone. + +Less than a minute later Correy and Hendricks, fellow officers, were +in the room and besieging me with solicitous questions. + + * * * * * + +It had been my idea, of course, to keep Harbauer from leaving the +ship, but it was not so destined. + +Shiro, the sentry on duty outside the _Ertak_, was the only witness to +Harbauer's fate. + +"I was walking my post, sir," he reported, "watching the sun come up, +when suddenly I heard the sound of running feet inside the ship. I +turned towards the entrance and drew my pistol, to be in readiness. I +saw the stranger we had taken into the ship appear at the exit, which, +as you know, was open. + +"Just as I opened my mouth to command him to halt, the _Ertak_ shot up +from the ground at terrific speed. The stranger had been about to leap +upon me; indeed, he had discharged some sort of weapon at me, for I +heard a crash of sound, and a missile of some kind, as you know, +passed through my left arm. + +"As the ship left the ground, he tried to draw back, but he was off +balance, and the inertia of his body momentarily incapacitated him, I +think. He slipped, clutched at the gangway across the threads which +seal the exit, and then, at a height I estimate to be around five +hundred feet, he fell. The _Ertak_ shot on up until it was lost to +sight, and the stranger crashed to the ground a few feet from where I +was standing--on almost exactly the spot where we first saw him, sir. + + * * * * * + +"And now, sir, comes the part I guess you'll find hard to believe. +When he struck the ground, he was smashed flat; he died instantly. I +started to run toward him, and then--and then I stopped. My eyes had +not left the spot for a moment, sir, but he--his body, that +is--suddenly disappeared. That's the truth, sir, for I saw it with my +own eyes. There wasn't a sign of him left." + +"I see," I replied. I believe that I did. We had gone straight up, and +his body, by no great coincidence, had fallen upon the spot close to +the exit of the _Ertak_ where we had first found him. And his machine, +in operation, had brought him, or rather, his mangled body, back to +his own age. "You have not mentioned this affair to anyone, Shiro?" + +"No, sir. It wasn't anything you'd be likely to tell: nobody would +believe you. I went at once to have my arm attended to, and then +reported here according to orders." + +"Very good, Shiro. Keep the entire affair to yourself. I will make all +the necessary reports. That is an order--understand?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then that will be all. Take good care of your arm." + +He saluted with his good hand and left me. + + * * * * * + +Later in the day I wrote in the log-book of the Ertak the report I +mentioned at the beginning of this tale: + + "Just before departure, discovered stowaway, apparently + demented, and ejected him." + +That was a perfectly truthful statement, and it served its purpose. I +have given the whole story in detail just to prove what I have so +often contended: that these owlish laboratory men whom this age +reveres so much are not nearly so wise and omnipotent as they think +they are. + +I am quite sure that they would have discredited, or attempted to +discredit, my story, had I told it at the time. They would have +resented the idea that someone so much ahead of them had discovered a +principle that still baffles this age of ours, and I would have had no +evidence to present. + +Perhaps even now the story will be discredited; if so, I do not care. +I am much too old, and too near the portals of that impenetrable +mystery, in the shadow of which I have stood so many times, to concern +myself with what others may think or say. + +I know that what I have related here is the truth, and in my mind I +have a vivid and rather pitiful picture of a mangled body, bloody and +alone, in the barn-like structure the ancient paper had described; a +body, broken and motionless, lying athwart the striated metal disc, +like a sacrificial victim--a victim and a sacrifice of science. + +There have been many such. + + + + +Manape the Mighty + +A COMPLETE NOVELETTE + +_By Arthur J. Burks_ + + +CHAPTER I + +_Castaway_ + +[Illustration: _There, the words were written._] + +[Sidenote: High in jungle treetops swings young Bentley--his human +brain imprisoned in a mighty ape.] + + +Lee Bentley never knew how many others, if any, lived on after the +_Bengal Queen_ struck the hidden reef and sank like a stone. He had +only a hazy memory of the catastrophe, and recalled that when she had +struck and the alarm had gone rocketing through the great passenger +boat--though no alarm was really necessary because she went to pieces +so fast--that he had leaped far over the rail and swam straight out, +fast, in order to escape being dragged down by the suction of the +sinking liner. + +The screaming of frightened women and children would ring in his ears +until the day the grave closed over him--screaming that was made all +the more terrible by the crashing roar of the raging black seas which +came out of the darkness to make the affair all the more hideous, and +to bear down beneath them into the sea the feeble struggling ones who +had no chance for their lives. Lifeboats had been smashed in their +davits. + +Bentley swam straight away after he was satisfied at last that he +could do nothing more. He had helped men and women reach bits of +wreckage until he could scarcely any longer keep his wearied arms to +the task of keeping his own head above water. He knew even as he +helped the white-faced ones that few of them would ever live through +it, but he was doing the best he knew--a man's job. + +When absolutely sure that he could do nothing further, when he could +no longer hear cries of distress, or discover struggling forms in the +sea which he might aid, he had turned his back on the graveyard of +the _Bengal Queen_ and had struck for shore. He remembered the +direction, for before sunset that evening, in company with several +ship's under officers, he had studied the navigation charts upon which +each day's run of the _Bengal Queen_ was shown. Ahead of him now was +the coast of Africa, though what part of it he knew but in the haziest +way. He might not guess within a hundred miles. + + * * * * * + +One thing only he remembered exactly. The second officer had said, +apropos of nothing in particular: + +"This wouldn't be a happy place to be shipwrecked. This section of the +coast is a regular hangout of the great anthropoid apes. You know, +those babies that can pick a man apart as a man would pluck the legs +off a fly." + +Bentley had merely grinned. The second officer's remarks had sounded +to him as though the fellow had been reading more than his fair share +of lurid fiction of the South African jungles. + +However, apes or no apes, the shore would look good to Lee Bentley +now. And he fully intended making it. He knew he could swim for hours +if it became necessary, and he refused to think of the possibility of +sharks. If one got him, well, that was one of the chances one had to +take when one was shipwrecked against one's will. + +So he alternately swam toward where he expected to find land, and +floated on his back to rest. + +"A swell ending to a great life, if I don't make it," he told himself. +"I wonder how the old man will take it when the world reads that the +_Bengal Queen_ went down with all on board? He'll be relieved, maybe, +for he was about ready to wash his hands of me if I can read signs at +all." + + * * * * * + +It might be said that Bentley was his own worst critic, for he really +was not a bad sort of a fellow. He was a good American, over-educated +perhaps, with a yen to delve into forbidden places usually avoided by +his own kind, and of digging into books which were better left with +the pages unturned. There were strange ruins in Africa, he knew. He +had gathered a weird fund of information from such books as he could +unearth relative to ancient ruins and vanished races, to the lurid +accounts of strange deaths of the various scientists who had taken +active part in the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen. + +There were queer things in the heart of darkest Africa, and such +things intrigued him. He could take whatever chances with his life he +saw fit, for his only relative was a father, and he had never attached +himself to any woman nor permitted any woman to attach herself to +him--because he could never be sure that her interest might not +primarily be in his bank account. + +"If, as, and when," he told himself as he rode the waves through the +night, "I reach the coast I'll be tossed into black Africa in a way I +was not expecting. Anyway, if I live through, I can at least go about +my work without the governor interfering. I only hope it won't be hard +on the old fellow. He isn't a bad egg at all, and I guess I have given +him plenty to think about and worry over." + +He turned on his stomach again and struck out. He had managed to rid +himself of all of his clothing except his underwear. They had only +weighed him down, and he recalled, with a wry grin, that Africa as a +whole went in but little for the latest in men's sport wear. + + * * * * * + +It must have been a good hour since he had lost the _Bengal Queen_ +back there in the raging deep, that he heard the faint call through +the murk. + +"Help, for God's sake!" + +He listened for a repetition of the call, minded to believe that his +ears had tricked him. He fancied it had been a woman's voice, but no +woman could have lived so long in those raging seas, in which any +moment Bentley himself expected to be overwhelmed. For himself he +regarded death more or less philosophically, but a woman out there, +crying for help, was a different matter entirely. It tore at his +heartstrings, mostly because he realized his inability to be of +material assistance. + +He was sure that he had been mistaken about the cry, when it came +again. + +"For God's sake, help!" + +It came from his left and this time it was unmistakable, piteous and +unnerving. Lee Bentley had the horrible fear that he would never reach +her in time to help--though what help he could give, when he could +barely manage to keep himself afloat, he could not forsee. + +He was swimming down the side of a monster wave. He could see +something white in the trough, and he struggled manfully to make +headway, while the angry waters tossed him about like a bit of cork +and seemed bent on defeating his most furious efforts. He saw the bit +of white ride high on the next wave, pass over it and vanish. He dived +straight through the wave as it towered over him. He came up, gasping, +his hands all but clutching at a pair of hands that reached out of the +waters and grasped with a last desperate effort at the sky. + +Ahead of the hands was a broken piece of oar. Those hands had just +despairingly relinquished their grip on the one chance of safety, if +any chance there could possibly be in that mad midnight waste. + +He pulled on the wrists and a white face came to view. Wild, staring +eyes looked into his. Black hair flowed back from a face whose lips +were blue and thin. + +"Take it easy," he counseled. "Turn on your back and rest while I see +if I can get back your life-boat." + + * * * * * + +He captured the oar, and found it practically useless to sustain any +appreciable weight, but he clung to it because it was at least better +than nothing at all. It had held the girl afloat for over an hour and +might be made to serve again somehow. With his left hand under the +woman's head and his right grasping the oar he turned on his back to +regain his breath. He was deep in the water because the woman was now +almost on top of him; but her face was above water. He knew +instinctively that she had fainted, and he was a little glad. If she +were the usual hysterical woman her fighting would drown them both. As +a dead weight she was easier to handle. + +They drifted on, and hope began to mount high in the heart of Lee +Bentley--the hope that they might yet reach land. When, hours later, +he could hear the roaring of breakers he was sure of it--if the +breakers could be passed in safety. After that their fate was in the +lap of the gods. + +The girl too must have heard, for she turned at last in Bentley's arms +and began to swim for herself. She was a strong swimmer and the period +during which she had been out of things had revived her amazingly. She +even managed a smile as she swam beside Bentley into the creamy +breakers behind which they could make out the blackness of shore. + +They were so close together that at times their hands touched as they +swam, and could make themselves heard by dint of shouting, though they +both husbanded their strength and their breathing for swimming. + +"I'm not dressed for company," he told her. "I left my tuxedo aboard +the _Bengal Queen_!" + +It was then that her lips twisted into a smile. + +"I wouldn't even allow my maid into my stateroom if I were dressed as +I am at the moment," she answered strongly, "but we're both grown up I +think, and there are times when conventions go by the board. We'll +pretend it doesn't matter!" + +Then mutually helping each other they fought through the breakers into +the calmer water behind, and managed at last to stand in water hip +deep, with the undertow dragging at their limbs. They looked at each +other and clasped hands without a word. They strode to the sandy beach +beyond which the jungle reached away to some invisible horizon, and +continued on until they were at last beyond the reach of the waves. + + * * * * * + +They did not look at each other again, though Bentley did notice that +her garb was as scanty almost as his own, consisting mostly of a slip +which the water had pasted fast against her flesh. Beyond noting that +she seemed to be young, Bentley did not intrude. Nor did he think of +the future. It was enough for the moment that they had escaped the +might of angry Neptune, god of the seas. + +They dropped to the sands side by side, and the sands were warm. That +the jungle behind them might be alive with wild beasts they did not +pause to consider. Bentley had gazed at the jungle a moment before +dropping down. + +He had noticed but one thing--a moving light somewhere among the +tangled mass, a light as of a monster firefly erratically darting +through the deeper gloom. + +The girl--he had noted she was as much girl as woman--dropped to the +sand and stretched herself out. Bentley looked about him for a +moment, just now realizing what he had been through. Then he dropped +down beside the girl, and put one arm over her protectively, an +instinctive movement. The two were alone in an alien world, and even +this slight contact gave Bentley a feeling of companionship he found +at the time peculiarly appealing. + +The girl was in a drugged sort of sleep, but she stirred at the touch +of his arm, and her hand came up so that her fingertips touched his +cheek. + +He slept heavily, while outside on the raging deep the storm swept on +along the coast, bearing with it the secret of the rest of those who +only last night had looked forward to a pleasant voyage aboard the +_Bengal Queen_. + +The last thought in Bentley's mind was of that flickering light he had +seen. It was not important, but memory of it clung, and followed him +into his sleep with his dreams--in which he seemed to be following a +darting, erratic light through a jungle without end. + +He wakened with the sun burning his face and torso, and turned on his +stomach with a groan. The heat ate into his back unbearably and he +finally sat up, rubbed his eyes and stared out to sea. Then it all +came back and he looked about him for the girl. She had disappeared. + +He rose to his feet and shouted. + +An answering cry came back to him, and after a moment the girl +appeared around a bend in a shoreline where she had been masked by a +wall of the jungle and came toward him. She was carrying something in +her hands. When she stood at last before him he noted that she carried +a bundle of cloth that was dripping wet. + +"We need something to cover us," she said simply. "I was tempted to +garb myself, but I did not wish to seem like a simpering prudish +female, which I'm not at all. So I brought my findings here so that we +could get together and fix up something to protect us from the sun." + +"You're a sensible woman," said Bentley. "I've never understood why +people should be so sensitive about their bodies. Mine isn't bad and +yours, if you'll pardon me, is superb. That's not a compliment, just a +statement of fact--which will help us to understand each other better. +I've a hunch we're going to be some time in each other's company and +we may as well know things about each other. My name's Lee Bentley." + +"Mine is Ellen Estabrook." + +Solemnly they shook hands. And their hands clung convulsively, for as +though their handshake had been a signal there came a strange sound +from the jungle behind them. + +A burst of laughter that was plainly human--and another sound which +caused the short hair at the base of Bentley's skull to rise, shift +oddly, and settle back again. + +The sound was like the beating of a skin-tight drumhead by the fists +of a jungle savage. But if such it was the drum was a mighty drum, and +the savage was a giant, for the sound went rolling through the jungle +like an invisible tidal wave of sound. + +Both the laughter and the drumming ceased as suddenly as they had +sounded. + +The man and woman laughed jerkily, dropped to the sand side by side +and considered the necessity of clothes. + + +CHAPTER II + +_Into the Jungle_ + +They had to smile together at the results achieved with the bedraggled +bits of cloth. Bentley suspected that they had been taken from bodies +washed ashore as gruesome reminders of the catastrophe which had +befallen the _Bengal Queen_, and because he did suspect this he did +not ask questions that might cause Ellen to remember any longer than +was necessary. Not that he doubted her courage, for she had proved +that sufficiently; and she had proved that she was sensible, with none +of the notions of the proprieties which would have made any other girl +of Bentley's acquaintance a nuisance. + +Their next concern was food, which they must find in the jungle, or +from other wreckage cast ashore from the _Bengal Queen_. Now, hand in +hand--which seemed natural in the circumstances--they began to walk +along the shore, heading into the north by mutual consent. + +As they walked Bentley kept pondering on that strange laughter he had +heard and on the sound of savage drumming. The laughter puzzled him. +If there were anyone in the jungle back of them, why had he or they +failed to challenge them? + +As for the drumming sound--Bentley remembered what the second officer +had said about this section of the coast. It was a bit of jungle +inhabited by the great apes in large numbers. So, that drumming had +been a challenge, the man-ape's manner of mocking an enemy by beating +himself on his barrel chest with his huge fists. But that the ape had +not been challenging Bentley and the girl Bentley felt quite sure, as +the brute would certainly have shown himself in that case. + +They trudged on through the sand, while the sun beat down unmercifully +on their uncovered heads. Ellen Estabrook strode along at Bentley's +side without complaint. + + * * * * * + +After perhaps an hour of this unbearable effort, when both felt as +though the sun had sucked them dry of perspiration, they encountered +a rough footpath leading into the jungle. The path suggested human +habitation somewhere near. The inhabitants might be hostile natives, +even cannibals perhaps, but in this unknown land they would have to +take a chance on that. + +With a sigh of relief, and refusing to look ahead too far, or try to +guess what lay in wait for them in the black mystery of the jungle, +they turned into the footpath. The jungle was fetid and sweaty, but +even this was a relief from the intolerable sun which could not reach +them here because the jungle had closed its leafy arms over the trail +instantly. One could not tell from the path whether it had been made +by natives or by whites, for it was packed hard. It led straight away +from the shoreline. + +"We'll have to keep a sharp lookout for possible poisoned spring +darts, Ellen," said Bentley. + +"I'm not afraid, Lee," she answered stoutly. "Fate wouldn't allow us +to come through what we have only to end things with poisoned darts. +It just couldn't happen that way!" + +Thus simply they addressed each other. It seemed as though years had +been squeezed into a matter of hours. They knew each other as well as +they would, in other circumstances, have known each other after a year +of constant association. Here barriers of conventions were razed as +simply and naturally as among children. + + * * * * * + +They had pressed well into the gloom of the jungle when the first +sound came. + +Not the laughter they had heard before, but the drumming. It was ahead +and somewhat to the left, and as they stopped without speaking they +could distinctly hear the threshing of a huge body through the +underbrush. The sound seemed to be approaching and for a minute or so +they listened. Then the sound was repeated off to the right, a trifle +further away. + +"Can you climb, Ellen?" asked Bentley simply. "This section is filled +with anthropoid apes, according to the second officer of the _Bengal +Queen_. We may have to take to the trees." + +"I can climb," she said, "but from what I've studied of the habits of +these brutes they do a great deal of bluffing before they actually +charge, and may not molest us at all if we pay no attention." + +Bentley felt almost nude because he had no weapons save his own fists. +And he would not have admitted even to himself how deeply he was +concerned over the girl. As far as he knew, this section might be +entirely uninhabited. It might be given over entirely to the +anthropoids. In this case he shuddered to think of what might happen +to Ellen Estabrook if he were slain. + +He quickened his pace until Ellen kept stride with him with +difficulty. The object uppermost in Bentley's mind was to get as far +away as possible from the ominous drumbeats. + +They rounded a bend in the trail and stopped stock-still. + +Within fifty yards of them, blocking the trail, was a brute whose +great size sent a thrill of horror through Bentley. It towered to the +height of a big man, and must have weighed in the neighborhood of four +hundred pounds. It was larger by far than any bull ape Bentley had +seen in captivity. + +It had been waiting for them, silently, with almost human cunning; but +now that it was discovered the shaggy creature rose to his hind legs +and screamed a challenge, at the same time striking his chest with +blows of his hairy fists which rolled in a dull booming of sound +through the jungle. At the same time the creature moved forward. + + * * * * * + +Bentley whirled to run, his hand clasping tighter the hand of Ellen +Estabrook. But they had not retreated ten steps down the pathway when +their way was blocked by another of the great shaggy brutes. And they +could hear others on both sides. + +Bentley's face was chalk-white as he turned to the girl. Her calm +acceptance of their predicament, an attitude in which he could read no +slightest vestige of fear, helped him to regain control of his own +nerves, which had threatened to send him into a panic. She even +smiled, and Lee felt a trifle ashamed of himself. + +Now the crashing sounds were closing in. The two brutes before and +behind on the trail were pressing in upon them. But no general +headlong charge had yet begun. Bentley looked around him, seeking a +tree with limbs low enough for them to reach and thus climb to safety. + +"There's one!" cried Ellen. Tugging at his hand she began to run. + +At the same moment the great apes bellowed and charged. + +But the charge was never finished, for through the drumming of their +mighty fists on mighty barrel-like chests, through the sound of their +charge, through the crackling underbrush came again that sound of +laughter. There was fierce joy in the laughter, and the laughter was +followed by words of a strange gibberish which Bentley could not +recall as being from any language he had ever heard. + +The great apes paused. Out of the jungle to the right of the fugitives +burst a white man. He was well past middle age, for his white hair +hung almost to his shoulders, which were stooped with the weight of +years. He was a wisp of a man whose smooth shaven face was apple-red. +His eyes were black and expressionless as obsidian, and when Lee +encountered the full gaze of them he was conscious of that feeling +which he had experienced at various times in his life when he knew +that some deadly reptile was close by. + +"Stand still a moment!" cried the old man. His voice was strangely +high-pitched and cracked. + + * * * * * + +From his right hand a whip with a long lash uncurled like a snake. + +This he swung back and hurled to the front, and the snap of it was +like a pistol shot. The great ape on the path ahead cowered back, +bearing his fangs, roaring in anger. But that he feared the whip of +the old man was plain to be seen. The crashing sound in the jungle +died away rapidly, immediately the first report of the whip lash +sounded in the trail. + +Fearlessly the little man dashed upon the first of the great brutes +the castaways had seen. His lash curled about the great beast's body, +and the animal bellowed with pain. It clawed at the lash, but was not +fast enough to capture it. In the end the brute broke and fled. + +The animal which had blocked their path in the rear had already +disappeared. + +Now the little man came back to face the fugitives, and his lips were +parted in a cordial smile. He coiled his whip and tucked it under his +arm. He was dressed in well worn corduroy with high boots that were +rather the worse for wear. Bentley saw that his lips were too +red--like blood--and somehow he disliked the man instantly. + +"Welcome to Barterville," said the old man. "It has been years since I +have seen any of my own kind. People avoid this section of the +jungle." + +"I don't wonder," said Bentley, sighing deeply with relief. "Those +brutes would make anybody keep away from here, if they knew about +them. I thought they had us for a few minutes. They planned an ambush +almost as well as human beings could have done it--but that's absurd +of course, merely a coincidence." + + * * * * * + +"Coincidence?" snapped the old man, a hint of asperity in his words. +"Coincidence? I see you do not know the great apes, sir. I have always +maintained that apes could be trained to do anything men can do. I +have maintained that they have a language of their own, and even ways +of communicating without words, a sort of jungle writing which men of +course have never yet learned. I've devoted my life to learning the +secrets of the great apes, their life histories, and so forth. I am +Professor Caleb Barter!" + +"Professor Caleb Barter!" ejaculated Ellen Estabrook. "Why I've heard +of him! He went on an expedition among the great apes ten years ago +and was never heard of again." + +"I am Caleb Barter," said the old man. "I decided to disappear from +the world I knew, to let other fool scientists think me dead in order +that I might continue my investigations without molestation. And now I +have almost reached the place where I can go back to civilization with +information that will startle the world. There yet remains one +experiment. Now I hope to make that experiment. No! No! Don't ask me +what it is. It is my secret and nobody will ever wrest it from me." + +Bentley studied the old man. He seemed slightly demented, Bentley +thought, but that might be merely the mental evolution of a man who +had made a hermit of himself for so many years--if this chap actually +were Professor Barter. + +"Professor Barter," went on Ellen, "was the scientific leader of his +day. Others followed where he led. He made greater strides in surgery +and medicine, and in unravelling the mysteries of evolution, than +anyone else up to his time. Of course I believe you are Professor +Barter. My name is Ellen Estabrook, and this gentleman is Lee Bentley. +We believe ourselves to be the only survivors of the _Bengal Queen_. +Perhaps you can lead us to food and water?" + +"Yes, oh yes! Indeed. One forgets how to be hospitable, I fear. I am +sorry to hear there was a wreck and that lives were lost--but it may +mean a great gain to the world of science. I am happier to see you +than you can possibly know!" + + * * * * * + +Bentley felt the cold chills racing along his spine as he listened to +the old man's flow of words. He behaved well, but Bentley could feel +in spite of that, that there was a hidden current of menace in the old +man's behavior. He wished that Ellen would keep him talking, would +somehow make sure of his identity. Perhaps the same thought was in her +mind, for it had scarcely come to him when the girl spoke again. + +"Before he disappeared Professor Barter wrote a learned treatise on--" + +"I am Professor Barter, I tell you, young woman. But if you wish proof +the title of the treatise was 'The Language of the Great Apes.'" + +Ellen turned quickly to Bentley and nodded. She was satisfied that the +man was the person he claimed to be. He didn't ask how Ellen happened +to know about him, and Bentley himself considered the proof entirely +lacking in conclusiveness. Anyone might know about the last treatise +of Barter. + +However, they could but await developments. + +They followed Barter along the trail. Now and again apes challenged +from the jungle, and Barter answered them with that strange laughter +of his, or with a flow of gibberish that was like nothing human. + +Bentley shivered. Barter, by his laughter, was identifying himself to +the great anthropoids. But with his gibberish was he actually +conversing with them? + +"This experiment of yours," said Bentley when the period of silence +became unbearable, "--won't you tell us about it?" + +The old man cackled. + +"You'll know all about it--soon! You'll know everything, but the +secret will still rest with Caleb Barter. Do not be too curious, my +friends." + +"We are anxious to reach civilization, Professor," said Bentley, +deciding to be placative with the old man. "Perhaps you can arrange +for guides for us?" + +Barter laughed. + +"I could not permit you to leave me for some time," he said. "I want +you to witness my experiment. The world would never believe me without +the evidence of reliable witnesses." + +Barter laughed again. + + * * * * * + +They entered a clean clearing which was a riot of flowers. At the +further edge was a log cabin of huge proportions. The whole thing had +a decidedly homely appearance, but it was a welcome sight to the +castaways. There were cages in which strange birds chattered shrilly +in their own language at sight of the three. A pair of tame monkeys +chased each other on the roof of the house, whose corners were almost +hidden by climbing vines whose growth one could almost see. + +Barter led the way at a swift walk across the clearing and into the +house. + +Bentley gasped. Ellen Estabrook exclaimed with pleasure. + +The reception room was as neat as though it received the hourly +attentions of a fussy housewife. It was cozily furnished, yet it was +evident that the furniture had been made on the spot of rough wood +and skins of various animals. Deep skin rugs covered the floor and +walls. There were three doors giving off of the reception room, all +three of which were closed. + +"You are not married?" he asked the two. + +"No!" snapped Bentley. + +"That center door leads to your room, Bentley. The one next to it is +for the young lady. The other door? Ah, the other door my friends! +That door you must never open. But to make sure that curiosity does +not overcome caution, let me show you!" + + * * * * * + +They followed him to the door. He swung it open. + +Both visitors started back and a gasp of terror burst from the lips of +Ellen Estabrook. Beads of perspiration burst forth on Bentley. + +They saw a huge room. In one corner was a bed. The other held a great +cage--and in the cage was an anthropoid ape larger even than the great +brute they had met on the trail! + +Barter laughed. He stepped into the room, uncoiled his whip and hurled +the lash at the cage. A great bellowing roar fairly shook the house, +while the brute tore at the bars which held him prisoner until the +whole massive cage seemed to dance. Barter laughed and continued to +goad him. + +"Barter," yelled Bentley, "stop that! If that beast should ever happen +accidentally to get free he'd tear you to pieces!" + +"I know," said Barter grimly, "and that's part of the experiment! Now +we shall eat, and you, young lady, shall tell me what other fool +scientists had to say about me after I disappeared--to escape their +parrot-like repeating of my discoveries!" + +Bentley started to offer protest as Barter began preparation for the +meal, which obviously was to be taken in the room which held the cage +of the giant anthropoid, but Ellen put her fingers to her lips and +shook her head. Her eyes were dancing with excitement. + + +CHAPTER III + +_A Night of Horror_ + +The meal consisted of various fruits, some meat which Bentley could +not identify, and wild honey which was delicious. The bread tasted +queer but was distinctly edible. The castaways ate ravenously, but +even as he ate Bentley noticed that Ellen's face was chalky pale, and +that in spite of a distinct effort of will she simply had to look at +intervals toward the great beast in the cage. + +Caleb Barter sat with his back to the animal. Bentley sat at the left +of the old scientist, Ellen Estabrook at his right. The great beast +was quiet now, but he squatted within his prison and his red-rimmed +eyes swerved from one person to the other in the room with a peculiar +intentness. + +"I'd swear that beast can almost read our thoughts!" ejaculated +Bentley at last, after he had somewhat sated his appetite. + +Barter smiled with those too-red lips of his. + +"He can--almost. You'd be surprised to know how nearly human the great +apes are, and how nearly human this particular one is. Ah!" + +"What do you mean, this particular one?" asked Bentley curiously. "He +doesn't look any different to me from the others I've seen except that +he is far and away the largest." + +"I don't see why you should be so curious," said Barter testily. "It's +none of your business you know--yet." + +"What do you mean?" demanded Bentley, nettled by Barter's tone. + +"Lee, hush," said Ellen. "Professor Barter is not on trial for any +crime." + +Bentley looked at her in hurt surprise, inclined to be angry with her +for the tone she was taking, but he saw such a look of appeal in her +eyes that he choked back the words that rushed to his lips for +utterance. He was decidedly on edge, more, he felt, than he should +have been despite what they had gone through. When their eyes met he +saw her glance quickly toward the ape, and noted a frown of worry +between her brows. + + * * * * * + +Bentley glanced at the ape. The brute now was staring at the girl in a +way that made Bentley's flesh crawl. It was preposterous of course, +but he had the feeling, something which seemed to flow out of that +mighty cage like some evil emanation from a dank tarn, that the ape +knew the girl's sex--and that he desired her! It was horrible in the +extreme to contemplate, yet Bentley knew when he glanced swiftly at +the girl that she had sensed the same thing and was fighting to keep +the natural horror she felt at such a ghastly thought from being +noticeable. It was absurd. The ape was a prisoner. But.... + +"Professor Barter," said Bentley, "you're accustomed to being with +this brute, but it isn't so nice for us, especially for Miss +Estabrook." + +Barter now frowned angrily. + +"My dear Bentley," he said with that odd testiness which he had +assumed toward Bentley before, "I refuse to have any interference with +my experiment. This is part of it." + +"You mean--" began Bentley. + +"I mean that I'm training that ape--I call him Manape--to behave like +human beings. How better can he learn than by watching our behavior?" + +"Just the same," said Bentley, "I don't like it." + +"It's all right, Lee," said Ellen quickly. "I don't mind." + +But Bentley knew that it wasn't all right, and that she did mind, +terribly. + + * * * * * + +Barter finished eating. Bentley had noticed that despite the long +years he had been a virtual hermit, Barter ate as fastidiously as he +probably had done when he had lived among his own kind. He pushed back +his chair with a swift movement. + +Instantly the roaring of Manape rang through the room. The great brute +rose to his full height and grasped the bars of his cage, shaking them +with savage fury. He glared at his master and bestial rage glittered +from his red-rimmed eyes. He was a horrible sight. Ellen Estabrook, +with no apology, stepped around the table and crouched wide-eyed in +the arm of Lee Bentley. + +"Lee," she said, "I'm terribly afraid. I almost wish we had trusted +ourselves in the jungle." + +"I'll look out for you," he whispered, as Barter turned his attention +to the great ape. + +But Bentley was watching the animal. So was Barter. The eyes of the +scientist were shining like coals of fire. For the moment he appeared +to have forgotten his guests. + +"It is a success!" he cried. "As far as it goes, I mean!" + +What did Barter mean? Seeking some answer to the enigma, Bentley +studied the ape anew. Now he was positive of another thing: Manape was +scarcely concerned with Barter, whom he appeared to hate with an +utterly satanic hatred. His beady eyes were staring at Bentley +instead! + +"The brute is jealous of me!" thought Bentley. "Good God, what does it +mean, anyway?" + +Barter turned back to them and all at once became the genial host. + +"Shall we return to the other room?" he asked politely. + + * * * * * + +It was a relief to the castaways to put that awful room behind them. +Barter closed and barred the door with deliberate slowness. + +Why had this old man shut himself away from civilization like this? +How long had he held this great ape in captivity? What was the purpose +of it? What experiment was he performing? What part of it had the +castaways been witnessing that they had not recognized? Bentley, +recalling the distinct impression that the ape had stared at Ellen +almost with the eyes of a lustful man, and had even appeared to be +jealous of him because the girl had gone into his arms--Bentley felt a +shiver of revulsion course through him as it struck him now how +_human_ the regard and the jealousy of the creature had been! + +He felt like clutching at the girl and racing with her into the +hazards of the jungle. But he remembered the anthropoids out there, +and Barter's peculiar domination of the brutes. + +Barter was now watching the two with interest, studying them in turn +speculatively, unmindful of the impertinence of his studious regard +and silence. + +"I have it!" he said. "Will you two be good enough to excuse me? You +will need rest, I am sure. I am going away for a little time, but I +shall return shortly after dark. Make yourselves at home. But +remember--don't enter that room!" + +"You need not worry," said Bentley grimly. "I sincerely hope we take +our next meal in some other room." + +Barter laughed and passed out of the door without a backward glance. + +From the jungle immediately afterward came the drumming of the great +apes, and now and again the laughter of Barter--high-pitched at first, +but dying away as Barter apparently moved off into the jungle. + + * * * * * + +"Ellen," said Bentley quickly, "I don't know what's going on here, but +I'm sure it's something sinister and awful. Let's take a look at our +rooms. If there isn't a door between them which can be left open, +then you'll have to spend the night in my room while I remain awake on +guard." + +"I was thinking of the same thing, Lee," she whispered. "This place +gives me the horrors. Barter's association with the apes is a terrible +thing." + +Hand in hand they stepped to the door Barter had designated as that of +Ellen Estabrook's. Bentley opened it cautiously, heaving a sigh of +relief to find it empty. He scarcely knew what he had expected. There +was a connecting door between the two rooms, open, and they peered +into the chamber Bentley was to occupy. + +Back they came to her room, to stand before a window which gave onto a +shadowed little clearing in the rear of the cabin. + +"Look!" whispered Ellen. + +There was a single mound of earth, with a white cross set over it, on +which was the single word: Mangor. + +It might have been a word in some native dialect. It might have been +some native's name. It might have been anything, but, whatever it was, +it added to the sinister atmosphere which seemed to hang like an evil +mist over the home of Caleb Barter. + +"That settles it, Ellen," he said. "You'll spend the night in my +room." + +Ellen retired in Bentley's room, closing the door which led to the +adjoining room, and Bentley walked back and forth in the reception +room, waiting for Barter to return. When darkness fell he lighted the +lamps he had previously located. Their odor caused him to guess that +the fuel they used was some sort of animal fat. In the strange glow +from the lamps, his shadow on the walls, as he walked to and fro, was +grotesque, terrible--and at times a grim reminder of the great apes. +It caused him to consider how, after all, human beings were akin to +gorillas and chimpanzees. Somehow, now, it was a horrible thought. + + * * * * * + +The night wore on and Bentley's stride became faster. Now and again he +peered into the girl's room. She was sleeping the sleep of utter +exhaustion and he did not waken her. Bentley felt it was near midnight +when Barter returned, his return heralded by a strange commotion in +the clearing, and the frightful drumming of the great apes--or at +least _one_ great ape. Bentley shuddered as the animal behind the +locked door answered the drumming challenge with a drumming thunder of +his own. + +Barter came in, and Bentley accosted him at once. + +"See here, Barter," he began. "I don't like it here. There's something +strange going on in this clearing. Miss Estabrook and I wish to leave +immediately in the morning! And that grave behind the cabin, who or +what is it?" + +Barter studied the almost trembling Bentley for all of a minute. + +"That grave?" he said at last, with silken softness. "It's the grave +of a jungle savage. He died in the interest of science. As for you, +you'll leave here when I bid you, and not before, understand? I've a +guardian outside that would tear both of you limb from limb." + +But Bentley caught and held fast to certain words the scientist had +spoken. + +"The savage died in the interest of science?" he said. "What do you +mean?" + +Barter smiled his red-lipped smile. + +"I took the savage and Manape, who wasn't called Manape then, and +administered an anesthetic of my own invention. You've heard that I +was a master of trephining? No matter if you haven't heard, the whole +world will know soon! While the native and the ape were under +anesthesia I transferred their brains. I put the black man's brain in +the skull pan of the ape, and the ape's brain in that of the savage. +The ape lived--and he is Manape. The savage, with the ape's brain, +died, and I buried him in that grave you asked about!" + + * * * * * + +With a cry of horror Bentley turned and fled from Barter as though the +man had been His Satanic Majesty himself. He entered the room with +Ellen and barred the door behind him. He likewise barred the door +which led to that other room. Now in total darkness it was all he +could do from clambering on the bed where Ellen slept, and begging her +to touch him--anything--if only to prove to him that there still were +sane creatures left in a mad world. + +Outside Barter laughed. + +"Oh, Bentley," he called after a long interval of silence, "do you +like the odor of violets? Goodnight, and pleasant dreams!" + +What had Barter meant? + +Again assuring himself that the connecting door could not be opened if +anything or anybody tried to enter that way, Bentley flung himself +down before the door which gave on the reception room. He had no +intention of sleeping. But in spite of himself he dozed off, though he +fought against sleep with all his will. + +Strange, but as he gradually slipped away into unconsciousness he was +cognizant of the odor of violets--like invisible tentacles which +reached through the very door and wrapped themselves gently about him. + +His last conscious thought was of Manape, the ape with the brain of a +jungle savage. But in spite of the vague feeling of horror he could +not fight off the desire for sleep. + + +CHAPTER IV + +_Grim Awakening_ + +Bentley returned to consciousness with a dull headache. He rose to a +sitting posture and looked dully about him. Dimwittedly he tried to +recall all that had passed since he had last been awake. He knew he +had gone to sleep under the door in the room where Ellen had slept. +Yet he was not there now. He peered about him. + +He recognized the room. + +Yonder was the table where they had eaten last night, or yesterday +afternoon. Yonder was the bed he guessed Barter customarily used, and +he shuddered a little as he fancied a man sleeping in the same room +with that ghastly travesty which was neither ape nor human--Manape. +The creature's name was simple, being simply "man" and "ape" joined +together to fit the creature perfectly--too perfectly. Barter's bed +had been slept in, but Barter was nowhere to be seen. Where was he? +How came Bentley in this room? Barter had forbidden him to enter the +place at all, on any pretext whatever. Had he walked in his sleep, +drawn by some freak of his subconscious mind into the room of Manape? + +Slowly, afraid to look yet forced by something outside himself, he +turned his eyes toward the corner where the beast's cage was. + +The cage was empty! + +The door of it was open! + +Stunned by his discovery, wondering what had happened during the +night, Bentley looked about him. He noticed the long narrow table at +the end of the cage, and the white covering it bore. He recognized it +instantly as an operating table, and wondered afresh. + +Where was Barter? + + * * * * * + +Bentley raised his voice to shout the scientist's name. But before he +could himself recognize the syllables of the scientist's name, through +the whole room rang the bellowing challenge of a giant anthropoid ape. +Bentley cowered down fearfully and looked around him. Where was the +ape that had uttered that frightful noise? The sound had broken in +that very room, yet save for himself the room was empty. + +Bentley turned his head as he heard someone fumbling with the door. + +Barter entered, and his face was a study as his eyes met those of +Bentley. Bentley noticed that Barter held that whip in his hand, +uncoiled and ready for action. + +What was this that Barter was saying? + +"I warn you, Bentley, that if anything happens to me you are doomed. +If I am killed it means a horrible end for you." + +Bentley tried to answer him, tried to speak, but something appeared to +have gone wrong with his vocal cords, so that all that came from his +lips was a senseless gibberish that meant nothing at all. He recalled +the odor of violets, Barter's enigmatic good-night utterance with +reference to violets, and wondered if their odor, stealing into the +room where he had gone on guard over Ellen, had had anything to do +with paralyzing his powers of speech. + +"I see you haven't discovered, Bentley," said Barter after a moment of +searching inspection of Bentley. "Look at yourself!" + +Surprised at this puzzling command, Bentley slowly looked down at his +chest. It was broad and hairy, huge as a mighty barrel, and his arms +hung to the floor, the hands half closed as though they grasped +something. Horror held Bentley mute for a moment. Then he raised his +eyes to Barter, to note that the scientist was smiling and rubbing his +hands with immense satisfaction. + + * * * * * + +Bentley started across the floor toward a mirror near Barter's bed. He +refused to let his numbed brain dwell upon the instant recognition of +his manner of progress. For he moved across the floor with a peculiar +rolling gait, aiding his stride with the bent knuckles of his hands +pressed against the floor. + +He fought against the horror that gripped him. He feared to look into +the mirror, yet knew that he must. He reached it, reared to his full +height, and gazed into the glass--at the reflection of Manape, the +great ape of the cage! + +Instantly a murderous fury possessed him. He whirled on Barter, to +scream out at the man, to beg him to explain what had happened, why +this ghastly hallucination gripped him. But all he could do was +bellow, and smash his mighty chest with his fists, so that the sound +went crashing out across the jungle--to be answered almost at once by +the drumming of other mighty anthropoids outside, beyond the clearing +which held the awful cabin of Caleb Barter. + +He started toward Barter, still bellowing and beating his chest. His +one desire was to clutch the scientist and tear him limb from limb, +and he knew that his mighty arms were capable of ripping the scientist +apart as though Barter had been a fly. + +"Back, you fool!" snarled Barter. "Back, I say!" + +The long lash of the whip cracked like a revolver shot, and the lash +curled about the chest and neck of Bentley. It ripped and tore like a +hot iron. It struck again and again. Bentley could not stand the awful +beating the scientist was giving him. In spite of all his power he +found himself being forced back and back. + + * * * * * + +He stepped into the cage, cowered back against its side. Barter darted +in close, shut the door and fastened it. Then he stood against the +bars, grinning. + +"Nod your head if you can understand me, Bentley," he said. + +Bentley nodded. + +"I told you I would yet prove to the world the greatness of Caleb +Barter," said the scientist. "And you will bear witness that what I +have to tell is true. Would you like to know what I have done?" + +Again, slowly and laboriously, Bentley nodded his shaggy head. + +Barter grinned. + +"Wonderful!" he said. "You see, you are now Manape. Yesterday you had +the brain of a black man, and to exchange your brain with Manape's of +yesterday would not have served my purpose in the least. So I had to +find an ape of more than average intelligence. That's why I spent so +much time in the jungle yesterday. I needed a brain to put in the body +of Lee Bentley's--an ape's brain. Your body is a healthy one and I did +not think it would die as the savage's did. I was right. It is doing +splendidly. It would interest you to see how your body behaves with an +ape's brain to direct it. Your other self, whom I call Apeman, is +unusually handsome. Miss Estabrook, however, who does not know what +has happened, has taken a strange dislike to the other you! Splendid! +I shall study reactions at first hand that will astound the world! + +"But remember, whatever your fine brain dictates that you do, don't +ever forget that I am the only living person who can put you to rights +again--and if I die before that happens, you will continue on, till +you die, as Manape!" + + * * * * * + +Barter stopped there. Bentley stiffened. + +From the room where he knew Ellen Estabrook to be came her voice, +raised high in a shout of fear. + +"Lee! Please! I can't understand you. Please don't touch me! Your eyes +burn me--please go away. What in the world has come over you?" + +Bentley listened for the reply of the creature he knew was in the +other room with Ellen Estabrook. + +But the answer was a gurgling gibberish that made no sense at all! His +own body, directed by the brain of an ape, could not emit speech that +Ellen could understand, because the ape could not speak. The ape's +vocal cords, which now were Bentley's, were incapable of speech. + +How, if Barter continued to keep Ellen in ignorance of what had +happened, would she ever know the horrible truth--and realize the +danger that threatened her? + +"Don't worry for the moment, Bentley," said Barter with a smile. "I am +not yet ready for your other self to go to undue lengths--though I +dislike intensely to leave the marks of my whip on that handsome body +of yours!" + +Barter slipped from the room. + +Bentley listened, amazed at the clarity with which he heard every +vagrant little sound--until he remembered again that his hearing was +that of a jungle beast--until he knew that Barter had entered that +other room. + +Then came the crackling reports of the whip, wielded mightily by the +hands of Barter. + +A scream that was half human, half animal, was the result of the +lashing. Bentley cringed as he imagined the bite of that lash which he +himself had experienced but a few moments before. + +"Professor Barter! Professor Barter!" distinctly came the voice of +Ellen Estabrook. "Don't! Don't! He didn't mean anything, I am sure. He +is sick, something dreadful has happened to him. But he wouldn't +really hurt me. He couldn't--not really. Stop, please! Don't strike +him again!" + +But the sound of the lash continued. + +"Stop, I tell you!" Ellen's voice rose to a cry of agonized entreaty. +"Don't strike him again. See, you've ripped his flesh until he is +covered with blood! Strike me if you must strike someone--for with +all my heart and soul I love him!" + + +CHAPTER V + +_Fumbling Hands_ + +Now Bentley was beginning to realize to the full the horrible thing +that had befallen himself and Ellen Estabrook. He knew something else, +too. It had come to him when he had heard Ellen's words next +door--telling Barter that she loved the creature Barter was beating, +which she thought was Lee Bentley. That creature was Lee Bentley; but +only the earthly casement of Lee Bentley. The ruling power of +Bentley's body, the driving force which actuated his body, was the +brain of an ape. + +As for Bentley himself, that part of him of which he thought when he +thought of "I," to all intents and purposes, to all outer seeming, had +become an ape. His body was an ape's body, his legs were an ape's, +everything about him was simian save one thing--the "ego," that +something by which man knows that he is himself, with an individual +identity. That was buried behind the almost non-existent brow of an +ape. + +In all things save one he was an ape. That thing was "Bentley's" +brain. In all things save one that creature in the room with Ellen +Estabrook was Bentley. Bentley, driven to mad behavior by the brain of +an ape! + +The horror of it tore at Bentley, as he still thought of himself. + +"If I were to get out of this cage," he told himself voicelessly, "and +were to enter that room with Ellen, she would cower into a corner in +terror. She would fly to the arms of that travesty of 'me,' for she +thinks it is 'I' in there with her because it _looks_ like me." + +Now that Ellen was beyond his reach, more beyond his reach than if she +had been dead, he realized how much she meant to him. In the few mad +hours of their association they had come to belong to each other with +a possessiveness that was beyond words. Thinking then that the +travesty in there with her--with Bentley's body--was really Bentley, +to what lengths might she not be persuaded in her love? It was a +ghastly thing to contemplate. + + * * * * * + +But what could Bentley do? He could not speak to her. If he tried she +would race from him in terror at the bellowing ferocity of his voice. +How could he tell her his love when his voice was such as to frighten +the very wild beasts of the jungle? + +Yet.... + +How could he allow her to remain with that other Bentley--that body +which perhaps was provided with a man's appetites, and the brain of a +beast which knew nothing of honor and took what it wished if it were +strong enough? + +There was one ray of hope in that Barter had hinted he would protect +Ellen from the apeman. That meant physically, with all that might +indicate; but who could compensate her for the horror she must be +experiencing with that speechless imbecile she thought was Bentley? If +this thing were to continue indefinitely, and Ellen were kept in +ignorance, she would eventually grow to hate the "thing"--and if ever, +as he had hinted, Barter were to transfer back the entities of the man +and the ape, Ellen would always shudder with horrible memories when +she looked at the man she had just now admitted she loved. + +Bentley was becoming calmer now. He knew exactly what he faced, and +there was no way out until Barter should be satisfied with his mad +experiment. Bentley must go through with whatever was in store for +him. So must the ape who possessed his body--and in the very nature +of things unless Bentley could train himself to a self-saving +docility, both bodies would repeatedly know the fiery stinging of that +lash of Barter's. Bentley could control himself after a fashion. The +ape might be cowed, but long before that time arrived, Bentley's body +would be made to suffer marks they would bear forever to remind him of +this horror. + +"I must somehow manage to continue to care for Ellen," he told +himself. "But how?" + + * * * * * + +He scarcely realized that his great hands were wandering over his +body, scratching, scratching. But when he did realize he felt sick, +without being able to understand how or where he felt sick. If he felt +sick at the stomach he thought of it as his own stomach. When he +thought of moving the hairy hands he thought of his hands. He grinned +to himself--never realizing the horrible grimace which crossed his +face, though there was none to see it--when he recalled how men of his +acquaintance during the Great War, had complained of aching toes at +the end of legs that had been amputated! + +He was learning one thing--that the brain is everything that matters. +The seat of pain and pleasure, of joy and of sorrow, of hunger and of +thirst even. + +Bentley waddled to the door of the cage. He studied the lock which +held him prisoner, and noted how close he must hold his face to see at +all. All apes might be near-sighted as far as he knew; but he did know +that this one was. Perhaps he could free himself. + +He tried to force his massive hands to the task of investigating the +lock. But what an effort! It was like trying to hypnotize a subject +that did not wish to be hypnotized. A distinct effort of will, like +trying to force someone to turn and look by staring at the back of +that someone's neck in a crowd. It was like trying to make an entirely +different person move his arm, or his leg, merely by willing that he +move it. + +But the great arms, which might have weighed tons, though Bentley +sensed no strain, raised to the door and fumbled dumbly, clumsily. He +tried to close the gnarled fingers, whose backs were covered with the +rough hair, to manipulate the lock, but he succeeded merely in +fumbling--like a baby senselessly tugging at its father's fingers, the +existence of which had no shape or form in the baby's brain. + +But he strove with all his will to force those clumsy hands to do his +bidding. They slipped from the lock, went back again, fumbled over it, +fell away. + +"You must!" muttered Bentley. "You must, you must!" + +He would discover the secret of the lock, so that he would be able to +remove it when the time was right--but so slow and uncertain and +clumsy were the movements of his ape hands, he was in mortal fear that +he would unlock the door and then not be able to lock it again, and +Barter would discover what he had in mind. + + * * * * * + +But he struggled on, while foul smelling sweat poured from his mighty +body and dripped to the floor. He concentrated on the lock with all +his power, knowing as he did so that the lock would have been but a +simple problem for a child of six or seven. It was nothing more than a +bar held in place with a leather thong. But the powerful fingers which +now were Bentley's were too blunt and inflexible to master the knot +Barter had left. + +Bentley paused to listen. + +From Ellen's room came the sound of weeping. From the front room came +Barter's pleased laughter as he talked with the thing which so much +resembled Bentley. That was a relief--to know that his other self had +been at least temporarily removed from any possibility of injuring +Ellen. + +In Bentley's mind were certain pictures of Barter. He saw him plainly +on his knees begging for mercy, while Bentley's ape hands choked his +life away. He saw him tossed about like a mere child, and casually +torn apart, ripped limb from limb by the mighty hands of Manape. + +"God," he told himself, refusing to listen to the slobbering gibberish +which came from his thick lips when he addressed himself, "I can do +nothing to Barter--not until he restores me properly. If he is slain, +it is the end for me, and for Ellen! He is a master, no doubt of that. +He anesthetized me through the door with something of his own +manufacture that smelled like violets, and put my brain in Manape +after removing from Manape the brain of the savage. Then he removed an +ape's brain from a second ape and put it in my skull pan--all within +the space of a few hours! Yet his knowledge of surgery and medicine is +such that even in so short a time I suffer little from the operation, +save for the dull headache which I had on awakening, and which I now +scarcely feel at all." + + * * * * * + +He straightened, close against the bars, and began again to fumble +with the leather thong which held him prisoner. In his brain was the +hazy idea that he might after all make a break for it, and carry Ellen +away to a place of safety, taking a chance on finding his way back +here to force Barter to operate again and restore him to his proper +place. But would not Ellen die of fright at being borne away through +the jungle in the arms of an ape? Was there any possibility of forcing +Barter to perform the operation? No, for under the anesthetic again, +Barter, angered by the thwarting of whatever purpose actuated him, +might do something even worse than he had done--if that were possible. +Again, even if he reached civilisation with Ellen, every human hand +would be turned against him. Rifles would hurl their lead into him. +Hunters would pursue him.... + +No, it was impossible. + +Bentley, Ellen, and the Apeman--his own body, ape-brained--were but +pawns in the hands of Barter. Barter might be actuated by a desire to +serve science, that science which was alike his tool and his god. +Bentley scarcely doubted that Barter believed himself specially +ordained to do this thing, in the name of science; probably, +unquestionably, felt himself entirely justified. + +Plainly, now that Bentley recalled things Barter had said, Barter had +waited for an opportunity of this kind--had waited for someone to be +tossed into his net--and Ellen and Lee, flotsam of the sea, had come +in answer to the prayer for whose answer Barter had waited. + +It was horrible, yet there was nothing they could do--at least, to +free themselves--until it pleased Barter to take the step. It came +then to Bentley how precious to them both was the life of Caleb +Barter. He could restore Bentley or destroy him--and with him the +woman who loved him. + +Suppose, came Bentley's sudden thought, Barter should think of +performing a like operation on Ellen--using in the transfer the brain +of a female ape? God!... + +He prayed that the thought would never come to Barter. He was afraid +to dwell upon it lest Barter read his thought. He might think of it +naturally, as a simple corollary to what he had already done. Bentley +then must do something before Barter planned some new madness. + + * * * * * + +He sat back and bellowed savagely, beating his chest with his mighty +hands. + +Instantly the outer door opened and Barter came in. + +Bentley ceased his bellowing and chest pounding and sat docilely +there, staring into the eyes of Barter. + +"Have you discovered there is no use opposing me, Bentley?" said the +professor softly. + +Bentley nodded his shaggy head. Then by a superhuman effort of will he +raised the right arm of Manape and pointed. He could not point the +forefinger, but he could point the arm--and look in the direction he +desired. + +"You want to come out and go into the front room?" + +Bentley nodded. + +"You will make no attempt to injure me?" + +Bentley shook his head ponderously from side to side. + +"You would like to see the Apeman?--the creature that looks so much +like you that it will be like peering at yourself in the mirror? Or, +rather, as it would have been yesterday had you looked into a mirror?" + +Bentley nodded slowly. + +"You understand that no matter what the Apeman does, you must not try +to slay him?" + +Bentley did not move. + +"You understand if you destroy Apeman's body, you are doomed to remain +Manape forever, because the true body of Lee Bentley will die and be +eventually destroyed?" + +Bentley nodded. He felt a trickle of moisture on the rough skin about +his flaring nostrils and knew that he was weeping, soundlessly. + + * * * * * + +But there was no pity in the face of Barter. He was the scientist who +studied his science, to whom it was the breath of life, and he saw +nothing, thought of nothing, not directly connected with his +"experiment." + +"You give me your word of honor as a gentleman not to oppose me?" + +It was odd, an almost superhumanly intellectual scientist asking for +an ape's word of honor, but that did not occur to Bentley at the +moment, as he nodded his head. + +Barter still held his lash poised. He unfastened the leather thong +which held Bentley prisoner and swung wide the door. Then he turned +his back on Bentley and led the way to the door. + +Bentley followed him on mighty feet and bent knuckles into the room +which had first received Lee and Ellen when they had entered the cabin +of the scientist. + +Bentley would have gasped had he been capable of gasping at what he +saw. + +In a far corner, cowering down in fear at sight of Barter and his +coiled whip--was the Bentley of the mirror in his stateroom aboard the +_Bengal Queen_, and before that. + +It was an uncanny sensation, to stand off and peer at himself thus. + +Yonder was Bentley, yet _here_ was Bentley, too. + + * * * * * + +Then he noted the difference. The face of that Bentley yonder was +twisted, savage. _That_ Bentley had seen Manape, and the teeth were +exposed in a snarl of savage hatred. There a man ape stared at another +man ape, and bared his fangs in challenge. The white hands of Bentley +began to beat the white chest of Bentley--to beat the chest savagely, +until the white skin was red as blood.... + +The Bentley buried within the mighty carcass of an anthropoid ape +watched and shuddered. That thing yonder was dressed only in a +breech-clout, and the fair flesh was criss-crossed in scores of places +with bleeding wounds left by the lash of Barter. The Apeman's brows +were furrowed in concentration. The human body made ape-like +movements. + +Bentley knew that soon that creature, forgetting everything save that +he faced a rival man ape, would charge and attempt to measure the +power of Manape--fang against fang. The white form rose. + +Barter caused his whiplash to crack like an explosion. + +"One moment," he said. "Back, Apeman! I'll bring Miss Estabrook. +Perhaps she can placate you. She has a strange power over you both!" + +Bentley would have cried out as Barter crossed to unlock Ellen's door, +but he knew that he could not stop Barter, and that his cry would +simply be a terrible bellow to frighten the woman he loved when she +entered the room. + +The door opened. White, shaken, her eyes deep wells of terror, circled +with blue rings which told the effect of the horror she had +experienced, Ellen Estabrook entered. + +And screamed with terror as she saw the hulking figure of Manape. +Screamed with terror and rushed to the arms of the cowering thing in +the corner! + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Puppets of Barter_ + +The thing that Barter then contrived was destined to remain forever in +the memory of Bentley as the most ghastly thing he had ever +experienced. Ellen hurried into the arms of that thing in the corner. +Gropingly, protectively, the white arms encompassed her. But they were +awkward, uncertain, and Bentley was minded of a female ape or monkey +holding her young against her hairy bosom. + +Barter turned toward Bentley and smiled. He rubbed his hands together +with satisfaction. + +"A success so far, my experiment," he said. "The human body still +answers to primal urges, which are closely enough allied to those of +our simian cousins that their outward manifestations--manual gestures, +expressions in the eyes et cetera--are much the same. When the two are +combined the action approximates humanness!" + +That travesty yonder pressed its face against Ellen, and she drew +back, her eyes wide as they met those of the white figure which held +her. + +"I am all right," she managed, "please don't hold me so tightly." + +She tried to struggle away, but Apeman held her helpless. + +"Barter," yelled Bentley, "take her away from that thing! How can you +do such a horrible thing?" + +At least those were the words he intended to shout, but the sound that +came from his lips was the bellowing of a man ape. That other thing +yonder answered his bellow, bared white teeth in a bestial snarl. +Barter turned to Bentley, however. + +"You want me to take her away from Bentley and give her to you?" + +Bentley nodded. + +His bellowing attempt at speech had sent Ellen closer into the arms of +Bentley's other self--henceforth to be known as Apeman. Bentley had +defeated his own purpose by his bellow. + + * * * * * + +"Miss Estabrook," said Barter softly, "nothing will happen to you if +you stand clear of your sweetheart...." + +Nausea gripped Bentley as he heard Apeman referred to as Ellen's +sweetheart, but now he remembered to refrain from attempting speech. + +"But," went on Barter, "Manape has taken a violent dislike to Bentley, +and may attack him if you do not stand clear. Manape likes you, you +know. You probably sensed that last evening?" + +Ellen visibly shuddered. She patted the shoulder of Apeman and +stepped away, toward a chair which Barter thrust toward her. + +She pressed her hands to her throbbing temples, visibly fighting to +control herself. Her whole body was trembling as with the ague. + +"Professor Barter," she said at last. "I am terribly confused, and +most awfully frightened. What has happened here? What dreadful thing +has so awfully changed Lee? I talk to him and he answers nothing that +I understand. Is it some weird fever? At this moment I have the +feeling that that brute Manape understands more perfectly than Lee, +and the idea is horrible! I love Lee, Professor. See, he hears me say +it, yet I cannot tell from his expression what he thinks. Does he +despise me for so freely admitting my love? Has he any feeling about +it at all? Has his mind completely gone?" + +"Yes," said Barter, with a semblance of a smile on his lips, "his mind +has completely gone. But it is only temporary, my dear. You forget +that I am perhaps the world's greatest living medical man, and that I +can do things no other man can do. I shall restore Lee wholly to +you--when the time comes. It is not well to hasten things in cases of +this kind. One never knows but that great harm may be done." + +"But I can nurse him. I can care for him and love him, and help to +make him well." + + * * * * * + +Barter looked away from Ellen, his eyes apparently focussed on a spot +somewhere in the air between Apeman and Manape. + +"Would that be satisfactory to Bentley, I wonder?" he said musingly, +yet Bentley recognized it as a question addressed to him. Bentley +looked at the girl, but her eyes were fixed--alight with love which +was still filled with questioning--on Apeman. Bentley shook his head, +and Barter laughed a little. + +"You know, Miss Estabrook," he went on, "that a strange malady like +that which appears to have attacked Lee Bentley should be studied +carefully, in order that the observations of a savant may be given to +the world so that such maladies may be effectually combatted in +future. This is one reason why I do not hasten." + +"But you are using a sick man as you would use a rabbit in a +laboratory experiment!" she cried. "Can't you see that there are +things not even you should do? Don't you understand that some things +should be left entirely in the hands of God?" + +"I do not concede that!" retorted Barter. "God makes terrible mistakes +sometimes--as witness cretins, mongoloid idiots, criminals, and the +like. I know about these things better than you do, my dear, and you +must trust me." + +"Oh, if I only knew what was right. Poor Lee. You lashed him so, and +his body is awful with the scars. Was that necessary?" + +"Insane persons are not to blame for their insanity," said Barter +soothingly. "Yet sometimes they must be handled roughly to prevent +them from causing loss of life, their own or others." + + * * * * * + +Now the eyes of Ellen came to rest on Manape. + +They were fear filled at first, especially when she discovered that +the little red eyes of Manape were upon her. But she did not turn her +eyes away, nor did Manape. She seemed dazed, unable to orient herself, +unable to distinguish the proper mode of action. + +"That ape in repose is almost human," she said wearily, her brow +puckered as though she sought the answer to some unspoken question +that eluded her. "I am not afraid of him at this moment, yet I know +that in a second he can become an invincible brute, capable of tearing +us all limb from limb." + +"Not so long as I have this whip," said Barter grimly. "But Manape is +docile at the moment, and it is Bentley who is ferocious." + +Apeman was still snarling at Manape, lending point to Barter's +statement. Barter went on. + +"You know," he said, "apes are almost human in many respects. Manape +likes you, and I doubt if he would attempt to hurt you. If he knew +that you cared for Bentley there, he would most assuredly try to be +friendly to Bentley also. Perhaps you can manage it. Apes are capable +of primitive reasoning, you know. Go to Manape. He won't injure you, +at least while I am here. Stroke him. He will like it. He is a friend +worth having, never fear, and one never knows when one may need a +friend--or what sort of friend one may need." + +Ellen hesitated, and her face whitened again. + +Barter went on. + +"Go ahead. It is necessary that Manape and Bentley remain here +together for a time. Manape will be locked up, but if he happens to +break loose there is nothing he might not do. With Bentley in the +condition he is he would be no match for Manape. But if Manape thought +you desired his friendship for Bentley...?" + + * * * * * + +There he left it, while Bentley wondered what new horror Barter was +planning. He yearned for Ellen to come to him. But, if he strode +toward her now, how would Barter explain that Manape had understood +his words? No, Ellen must take the step, and each one would be +hesitant, as she fought against her natural revulsion at touching this +great shaggy creature which was Manape to her, and Bentley to himself. + +Slowly, almost against her will, Ellen rose and moved across the floor +toward Bentley. Apeman growled ominously. He rose to his feet, his +arms writhing like disjoined, broken-backed snakes across his scarred +chest. + +Apeman took a step forward. Barter did not notice, apparently, for he +was watching Manape as Ellen approached. + +She came quite close. Slowly she put forth her hand to touch the +shaggy shoulder of Manape. Bentley, seeking some way, _any_ way, to +reassure her, put his great shaggy right arm about her waist for the +merest second. + +Then Apeman charged, bellowing a shrill crescendo that was half human, +half simian. + +Before Bentley could realize Apeman's intentions, Apeman had clutched +Ellen about the waist and dashed for the door of the cabin. He was +gone, racing across the clearing with swift strides, bearing the girl +with him. + +Bentley whirled to pursue, but Barter had beaten him to the door and +now blocked it, whiplash writhing, twisting, curling to strike. + +"Back, Bentley! Back, I say! In a moment you may follow--as part of my +experiment. But remember--the end must be here in this cabin, and you +must remember everything, so that you can tell me all--when you are +restored!" + +Bentley cowered under the lash. His whole shaggy body trembled +frightfully. + +From the jungle toward which Apeman was racing come the roaring +challenge of half a dozen anthropoids. + + +CHAPTER VII + +_Lord of the Jungle_ + +Apeman, never realizing that his actual strength was that of but a +puny human being, was racing with Ellen Estabrook into the very midst +of animals which would tear him to bits as easily as they would tear +any human being to pieces. Apeman, being but an ape after all, would +merely think that he was joining his own kind, bearing with him a mate +with white skin. + +But to the other apes he would be a human being, a puny hairless +imitation of themselves which they would pounce upon and tear asunder +with great glee. Apeman would not know this: would not realize his +limitations. He would try to take to the upper terraces of the jungle, +to swing from tree to tree, carrying his mate--and would find the body +of Bentley incapable of supporting such an effort. Apeman would be a +child in the hands of his brethren, who could not know him. Apeman +could probably speak to them after a fashion, but his gibberish would +come strangely perhaps unintelligibly, through the mouth of Bentley. +They would suspect him, and destroy him, and with him Ellen Estabrook, +unless other apes discovered also her sex and took her, fighting over +her among themselves. + +Bentley made good time across the jungle clearing. Behind him came the +voice of Barter in final exhortation. + +"Your human cunning, hampered by your simian body, pitted against the +highly specialized body of your former self, in turn hampered by the +lack of reasoning of an ape--in a contest in primitive surrounding for +a female! A glorious experiment, and all depends now upon you! You +will save the girl who loves you and whom you love, but you must +return to me and be transferred before you can make your love known. I +shall wait for you!" + +In Bentley's brain the shouted words of Barter rang as he hurried into +the jungle in pursuit of Apeman. Ellen Estabrook was crying: "Hurry, +Lee, hurry!" + + * * * * * + +Yet she was really yelling to Apeman, the man-beast which carried her, +bidding him race on to escape the pursuit of Manape, in whom she +would never recognize the man she loved. She must have thought that +Bentley had taken a desperate chance to escape the clutches of Barter, +and that Barter had set his trained ape to pursue them. What else +could she think? How could she know that she was actually in the power +of an ape, and that her loved one actually pursued to save her? With +every desire of her body she was urging Apeman to take her away from +Manape. But she must also have heard the challenges of the man apes in +the jungle ahead. She was looking back over Apeman's shoulder, +wondering perhaps if Barter would again come out to save them from the +anthropoids. + +Bentley could guess at her thoughts as he raced on in pursuit of +Apeman. + +Would he be in time? Even if he were, Apeman himself would turn +against him. If he were to try to aid Ellen she would fight against +him, believing him an ape. And how could he fight? Would his brain be +able to direct his mighty arms and his fighting fangs in a battle with +the apes of the jungle? + +As he thought of coming to grips with the apes on equal terms, +something never in this world before vouchsafed to a human being, he +felt a fierce exaltation upon him. He felt a desire to take part in +mortal combat with them, to fight them fist and fang, and to destroy +them, one by one. He had their strength and more--he had the cunning +of a human being to match against the dim wits of the apes. He had a +chance. + +But he must protect not only Ellen, but Apeman. Both Ellen and Apeman +would be against him. Ellen would fear him as an ape that desired her. +Apeman would fight against him as a rival for the favors of a she.... + +And he must harm neither. His own body, which Apeman directed, must +be spared, must be kept alive--while every effort of Apeman would be +to force Bentley to slay! + +It was a predicament which--well, only Caleb Barter had foreseen it. + + * * * * * + +The bellowing of the apes was a continuous roar on all sides now. +Bentley felt a fierce sensation of joy welling up within him and he +answered their bellowing with savage bellows of his own. His legs were +obeying his will. His knuckles touched the ground as he raced on all +fours. + +He could hear the shriek of Ellen there ahead, and knew that Apeman +and the girl were surrounded--that he must make all possible speed if +he were to be in time. + +Apeman and his captive were on the trail, trapped there just as Apeman +had started into the jungle. Apeman had lifted Ellen so that her hands +might have grasped a limb; but the girl had refused to attempt to +escape by the trees if her "lover" remained behind. She had crumpled +to the ground, and Apeman, snarling, smashing his chest which was so +sickly white as compared to the chests of the other apes, had turned +upon his brethren. They hesitated for a moment as though amazed at the +effrontery of this mere human. + +Then a man ape charged. Apeman met him with arms and fangs, and +Bentley saw Apeman's all too small mouth snap out for the vein in the +neck of Apeman's attacker. The ape whose brain reposed in Apeman had +been a courageous beast, that was plain. But he was fighting for his +she. + +And he did not know his limitations. Apeman was bowled over as though +he had been a blade of grass, and the great ape was crouched over him, +nuzzling at his white flesh when Bentley-Manape arrived. + +With a savage bellow, and with a mighty lunge, Bentley leaped upon +the attacker of Apeman. His arms obeyed him with more certainty now, +perhaps because the matter was so vitally urgent. Bentley's brain knew +jiu-jitsu, boxing, ways of rough and tumble fighting of which the +great apes had never learned, nor ever would learn. + + * * * * * + +He hurled himself upon the animal that was on the point of pulling +Apeman apart as though he had indeed been a fly, and literally +flattened him against the ground. His mighty hands searched for the +throat of the great ape, while he instinctively pulled his stomach out +of the way of possible disemboweling tactics on the part of his +antagonist. But the great ape twisted from his grasp, struggled erect. + +And, amazed at what he was doing, surprised that he, Lee Bentley, +could even conceive of such a thing, he launched his attack with bared +and glistening fangs straight at the throat of his enemy. His mouth +closed. His fangs ripped home--and the great ape whose throat he had +torn away, whose blood was salt on his slavering lips, was tossed +aside as an empty husk, to die convulsively, a dripping horror which +was humanlike in a ghastly fashion. Bentley felt like a murderer. Not +like a murderer, either, but like a man who has slain unavoidably--and +hates himself for doing so. + +Ellen was backed against the tree into which Apeman had tried to force +her. + +Apeman was up now, moving to stand beside her. Apeman had discovered +that he was not the invincible creature he had thought himself. + +Bentley moved in closer to the two, as other apes charged upon him +from both sides, smothering him, giving him no time. He was a +stranger, seemingly, an upstart to be destroyed. + +And he was forced to fight them with all his ape strength and human +cunning, while Apeman, whimpering, caught up Ellen and darted away +with her, straight into the jungle. + +For Bentley this was a sort of respite. Ellen was not afraid to go +with Apeman, thinking him Bentley. The great apes were bent on +destroying this strange ape which had come into their midst and had +already destroyed one of their number, perhaps their leader. + +He must be destroyed. + + * * * * * + +Bentley fought like a man possessed. His arms were gory with crimson +from the slashing fangs of his enemies. His mouth was dripping with +red foam as he slashed in turn, with deadly accuracy. A great arm +clutched at the hair of his chest--and fell away again, broken in two +places, as Bentley snapped it like a pipe stem because he knew +leverages and was able to force his ape's body to obey the will of his +human mind. + +One ape whimpering, rolling away to lick at his wounds; whimpering +oddly like a baby that has burned its fingers. A great ape weighing +hundreds of pounds, crying like a child! Yet that "child," with his +arm unbroken, could have taken a grown man, no matter how much of a +giant, and torn him to pieces. + +Two other apes were out of the fray, one dead, the other with only +empty eye-sockets where his red-rimmed eyes had been. + +Bentley guessed that Apeman had gone at least a mile into the jungle, +heading directly away from the dwelling of Caleb Barter. He must get +free and pursue. There was nothing else he could do. If he were slain, +Ellen was doomed to a fate he dared not contemplate. Apeman would +never be accepted by the apes because to all outward seeming he was a +man. His body would never stand the hardship of the jungle, yet Apeman +would never guess that, and would be slain. Bentley must prevent +that. + +He must make sure that Apeman's body at least remained sufficiently +healthy that it could become his own again without the necessity of a +long sojourn in some hospital. Ellen must not be left alone with +Apeman, who was still an ape, running away with a she. + +A ghastly muddle. + + * * * * * + +Now the apes broke away from Bentley. They broke in all direction into +the jungle. Some of them seemed on the trail of Apeman. One of them +took to the trees, swinging himself along with the speed of a running +man, flying from limb to limb with no support save his hands. + +Bentley stared after the fleeing ape, and then gave chase. He felt +that the ape was on the trail of Apeman. Bentley did not know that he +himself could follow the spoor of Apeman, for he had not yet analyzed +all of his new capabilities. But while he was discovering, he would +follow something he could see--the fleeing ape, who would overhaul +Apeman as though Apeman were standing still. + +So, in a manner of speaking, Bentley essayed his wings. + +He took to the trees after the fleeing ape, and was amazed that his +great arms worked with ease, that he swung from limb to limb as easily +and as surely as the other apes. He climbed to the upper terrace, +where view of the ground was entirely shut off. His eyes took note of +limbs capable of bearing his weight--after he had made one mistake +that might easily have proved costly. He had leaped to a limb that +would have supported Bentley of the _Bengal Queen_, but that was a +mere twig under the weight of Manape. It broke and he fell, clutching +for support; and fate was kind to him in that he found it, and so +clambered back and swung easily and swiftly along. + +In his nostrils at intervals was a peculiar odor--a peculiarly human +odor, reminding him of the work-sweat of a man who seldom bathed. He +knew that for the odor of Apeman, and a thrill of exaltation +encompassed him as he realized that he was following a spoor by the +cunning of his nostrils. + + * * * * * + +There was a great leap across space. The ape ahead of him made it with +ease. Bentley essayed it without hesitation, hurling himself into +space, all of a hundred feet above the ground; with all the might of +his arms--and almost overshot the mark, almost went crashing once more +through the branches. But the tree swayed, and held, and Bentley went +swinging on. + +It was wildly exhilarating, thrilling in a primitive way. Bentley +remembered those dreams of his childhood--dreams of falling endlessly +but never striking. Racial memories, scientists called them, relics of +our simian forebears. Bentley thought of that and laughed; but his +laughter was merely a beastly chattering which recalled him to the +grim necessity of the moment. + +Fifteen minutes passed, perhaps. Twenty. Half an hour. He was +following a trace which led away from the coast, and further away from +the cabin of Caleb Barter. But with his jungle senses, and his human +memory, Bentley was sure he could return when the time came. + +Had Barter foreseen all that? Was Barter smiling to himself, back +there in his awful hermitage, waiting for the working out of his +"experiment"? + +But Apeman had jungle knowledge, and must have forced Bentley's body +to the limit of its endurance, for it was near evening when Bentley, +who had lost the ape ahead of him, but had continued on the spoor of +Apeman by the smell, came to swift pause on his race through the +trees. + + * * * * * + +He had heard the voice of Ellen Estabrook, and the voice was pleading. + +"Lee! Lee! If you love me try to regain control of yourself. Please do +not stare at me like that. Oh, your poor body! The brush and briars +have literally torn you to bits." + +But the answer of "Lee" was a bestial snarl, and traveling as quietly +as he could, Manape dropped down so that he could gaze upon his +beloved, and the thing she believed she loved. + +Ellen was unaware of him. But he had scarcely dropped into view before +Apeman became aware of him, and rose weakly to tottering limbs, to +beat his bruised and bleeding chest in simian challenge. Apeman was +simply an ape that had run until he was finished, and now was turning +to make a last stand against a male who was stronger--a last bid for +life and possession of the she he had carried away. + +Then Ellen saw Manape, screamed, and for the first time since she had +been saved from the deep by Bentley, fainted dead away. + +The two so strangely related creatures faced each other across her +supine body--and both were savagely snarling. Apeman weakly but +angrily, Manape with a sound of such brute savagery that even the +twittering of birds died away to awed silence. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_Struggle for Mastery_ + +It was Apeman who charged. Pity for Apeman welled up in Bentley. That +was his own body which Apeman was so illy using. His own poor bruised +and bleeding body, which Apeman had all but slain by forcing it far +beyond human endurance. It must be saved, in spite of Apeman. + +But there was something first to do. Bentley bent over Ellen, caught +her under his arm, and returned to the trees, with Apeman chattering +angrily and futilely behind him. Bentley found a crotch in the tree +where he could place Ellen, made sure that she was safely propped +there and that no snakes were near, and hurried back to the contest +with Apeman which could not be avoided. + +He did not fear the battle he knew he must fight. He hurried back +because Apeman might realize himself beaten and escape into the +jungle. In his weakened condition he could not travel far and would be +easy prey for any prowling leopard, easy prey for the crawling things +whose fangs held sure death. Or would the cunning of Apeman, denizen +of the jungle, warn him against any such? His ape brain would warn +him, but would his human strength avail in case of necessity, in case +of attack by another ape, or a four-footed carnivore? + +Bentley hurried back because Apeman must be saved, somehow, even +against his will. Apeman hated Manape with a deadly hatred. Yet to +subdue the travesty of a human being, Manape must take care that he +did not destroy his own casement of humanity. Any moment now and a +great cat might charge from the shadows and destroy Apeman. + + * * * * * + +Apeman, snarling, beating his puny chest with his puny hands, was +waiting for Manape his enemy. + +Manape found himself thinking of the line: "'O wad some power the +giftie gie us, to see oursilves as ithers see us,'" and adding some +thoughts of his own. + +"If that were actually 'I' down there, my chance of preserving the +life of myself, and that of Ellen against the rigors of the jungle, +would be absolutely nil. How helpless we humans are in primitive +surroundings! The tiniest serpent may slay us. The jungle cats destroy +us with ease, if we be not equipped with artificial weapons which our +better brains have created. As Manape, Barter's trained ape, I am +better fitted to protect Ellen than if I were Bentley--the Bentley of +the _Bengal Queen_. Yet she will cower away from me when she wakens." + +Now Bentley was down, and Apeman was charging. He charged at a +staggering run. He stepped on a thorn, hesitated, and whimpered. But +he possessed unusual courage, for he still came on. Apeman knew the +law of the jungle, that the weakest must die. Death was to be his +portion if he could not withstand the assaults of Manape, and he came +to meet his fate with high brute courage. + +Apeman was close in. His hands were swinging, fists closed, in a +strange travesty of a fighting man. Apeman was snarling. He groped for +the throat of Manape with his human teeth--which sank home in the +tough hide of Manape, hurting him as little as though Apeman were +toothless. + +"As Bentley I would have no chance at all against a great ape," said +Bentley to himself. + + * * * * * + +How could he take the pugnacity out of Apeman without destroying him? +If he struck him he might strike too hard and slay Apeman--which was +the equivalent of slaying himself. So Manape extended his mighty +hands, caught Apeman under the armpits and held him up, feet swinging +free. Yet Apeman still struggled, gnashed his teeth, and beat himself +on the chest. + +How utterly futile! As futile as Bentley in his own casement would +have been against a great ape! Apeman might destroy himself through +his very rage. How could Bentley render the travesty unconscious and +yet make sure that Apeman did not die? + +If he struck he might strike too hard and slay. + +What should he do? + +A low coughing sound came from somewhere close by. From the deeps of +his consciousness Bentley knew that sound. He clutched Apeman in his +right arm, swung back to the tree and up among the branches. He was +just in time. The tawny form of a great cat passed beneath, missing +him by inches. + +But while he had saved himself and Apeman, he had been clumsy. He had +struck the head of Apeman against the bole of the tree, and Apeman +hung limp in his arm. Bentley, fear such as he had never before known +gripping him, pressed his huge ear to Apeman's heart. It was beating +steadily and strongly. With a great inner sigh of relief he climbed to +safety in the tree, bearing Apeman with him. + + * * * * * + +He reached the crotch where Ellen rested, and disposed Apeman nearby, +his own gross body between them. He even dared to gather Ellen closer +against him for warmth. His left hand held tightly the wrist of the +unconscious Apeman, so that he should not fall and become prey of the +night denizens of the jungle. + +So, the two who seemed to be human--Apeman and Ellen, passed from +unconsciousness into natural sleep, while Bentley-Manape remained +motionless between them, afraid to close his eyes lest something even +more terrible than hitherto experienced might transpire. But his ears +caught every sound of the jungle, and his sensitive ape's nostrils +brought him every scent--which his man's mind strove to analyze, +reaching back and back into the dim and misty past for identification +of odors that were new, or that were really old, yet which had been +lost to man since they had left forever the simian homes of their +ancestors and their senses had become more highly specialized. + +The questions which turned over and over in Bentley's mind were these: + +How shall I tell Ellen the truth? Will she believe it? + +What is the rest of Barter's experiment? How shall I proceed from this +moment on? How shall I procure food for Ellen? What food will Apeman +choose for my body to assimilate? + +And jungle night drew on. Once Ellen shivered and pressed closer to +Manape as she slept. + +What would morning bring to this strange trio? + + +CHAPTER IX + +_Fate Decides_ + +Morning brought the great apes of the jungle--scores of them. They had +approached so silently through the darkness that Bentley had not heard +them, and his ape's nostrils had not told his human brain the meaning +of their odor. It appeared too that his ape's ears had tricked him. +For when morning came there were great apes everywhere. + +Bentley still held the wrist of Apeman, whose chest was rising and +falling naturally, though the body was limp and plainly exhausted, and +exuded perspiration that told of some jungle fever or other illness +perhaps, induced by hardship and over-exertion. The ape's brain of +Apeman had driven Bentley's body to the uttermost, and now that body +must pay. + +Bentley wondered how far he was now from the cabin of Caleb Barter. + +He doubted if Apeman could stand the return journey, though Bentley's +ape body could have carried Apeman's with ease. But would Apeman +stand the journey? Apeman, Bentley knew, was going into the Valley of +the Shadow, and something must be done to save him. But what? + +And the great apes constituted a new menace, though they were making +no effort to molest the three in the tree. Apeman must be placed in a +shady place and some attention paid to his needs. But the human body +with the ape's brain could not tell how it hurt or where. + +The first task was to get the two beings down from the tree, and much +depended upon chance. To the apes Bentley was another ape, one +moreover which had slain a number of them. But Apeman was a human +being, as was Ellen Estabrook. The whole thing constituted a fine +problem for the brain of Manape. + + * * * * * + +If Manape were to attempt first aid for Apeman, how would such a sight +react upon Ellen Estabrook? If Manape were to attempt to take Apeman +back to Caleb Barter, leading the way for Ellen, would she follow, and +what would his action tell her? She would think herself demented, +imagining things, because a great ape did things which only human +beings were supposedly capable of doing. + +If she knew, of course, it would make a difference. But she did not, +and Bentley had no means by which to inform her. That was a problem +for the future. Ellen was sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion and +he felt that he could safely leave her for the moment while he swung +Apeman down from the tree. He must work fast, and return for Ellen +before the great apes discovered the helpless Apeman at the foot of +the tree. He hoped to get Ellen down while she slept, knowing that she +would be in mortal fear of him if she wakened and found herself in his +power. + +Bentley got Apeman down, and looked about him. No apes were close +enough, as far as he could tell, to molest Apeman before Bentley could +return with Ellen. He raced back into the tree, lifted Ellen so gently +that she scarcely altered the even motion of her breathing--and for a +moment he hesitated. So close to him were her tired lips. So +woe-begone and pathetic her appearance, a great well of pity for her +rose in the heart of Bentley--or what was the seat of this emotion +within him? Was the brain the seat of the emotions? Or the heart? But +Bentley's true heart was in Apeman's human body, so there must be some +other explanation for the feeling which grew and grew within Bentley +for Ellen. + +He leaned forward with the intention of touching his lips to the tired +thin lips of Ellen Estabrook, then drew back in horror. + +How could he kiss this woman whom he loved with the gross lips of +Manape, the great ape? + +He could, of course, but suppose she wakened at his caress and saw the +great figure of the jungle brute, with all man's emotions and desires, +yet with none of man's restraint--bending over her? Women had gone +insane over less. + + * * * * * + +He hurried down with Ellen, and placed her beside Apeman. + +By now the great apes had discovered the strange trio and were coming +close to investigate. There was a huge brute who came the fastest and +seemed to be the leader of the apes, if any they had. But even this +one did not offer a challenge, did not seem perturbed in the least. +But he did seem filled with childish curiosity. The apes themselves +were like children, children grown to monstrous proportions, advancing +and retreating, staring at this trio, darting away when Apeman or +Ellen made some sort of movement. + +Bentley could sense too their curiosity where he was concerned. Their +senses told them that Bentley was a great ape. Their instincts, +however, made them hesitate, uncertain as to his true "identity"--or +so Bentley imagined. + +Ellen still slept, but she must have sensed the near presence of +potential enemies, for she was stirring fitfully, preparing to waken. + +What would her reaction be when she opened her eyes to see Manape near +her, standing guard over Apeman, with the jungle on all sides filled +with the lurking nightmare figures of other great apes? + +A moan of anguish came from Apeman. He stirred, and groans which +seemed to rack his whole white bruised body came forth. The brain of +the ape was reacting to the suffering of Bentley's body--and a brute +was whimpering with its hurts. The advancing apes came to pause. They +seemed to stare at one another in amazement. They were suddenly +frightened, amazed, unable to understand the thing they saw and were +listening to. Bentley crouched there, watching the apes, and he +fancied he could understand their sudden new hesitancy. + + * * * * * + +He did not know, but he guessed that the moans and groans of Apeman +were comprehensible to the great apes. They knew that this strangely +white creature was an ape, though he looked like a man. Already they +had wondered as much as they were capable, about Manape. They had +sensed something not simian about him which puzzled them. + +But from the lips of Apeman, to add to their mystification, came the +groans and moans of an ape that was suffering. Bentley held his +position, wondering what they would do. That they meant no harm he was +sure, else they would long since have charged and overborne the +three--unless they remembered the super-simian might of Manape and +were afraid to attack again. Bentley hoped so, for that would make +things easier for them all. + +Now the nearest apes were almost beside the body of Apeman, which was +still covered with agony sweat. The lips emitted moans and faint blurs +of gibberish. Bentley noted that the leading ape was a great she. The +female came forward hesitantly, making strange sounds in her throat, +and it seemed to Bentley that Apeman answered them. For the she came +forward with the barest trace of hesitancy, stared for a moment at +Manape, with a sort of challenge in her savage little red eyes, then +dropped to all fours beside Apeman and began to lick his wounds! + +The she knew something of the injuries of Apeman and was doing what +instinct told her to do for him. Now the rest of the apes were all +about them--and Ellen wakened with a shrill cry of terror. + +Bentley remained as a man turned to stone. If he moved toward the +woman he loved she would flee from him in terror--out among the other +apes and into the jungle where she would have no slightest chance for +life. If he did nothing she might still run. + + * * * * * + +Wildly she looked about her. She screamed again when she saw the she +bending over the travesty she thought to be Bentley, and licking the +poor bruised body. Ellen cast a sidelong look at Manape, and there was +something distinctly placating in her eyes. She recognized Manape, and +wanted his friendship. What thoughts crowded her brain as she realized +that she was in the center of a group of anthropoids who could have +destroyed her with their fingers in a matter of seconds! + +She did the one thing which proved to Bentley that she was worthy of +any man's love. The great she who licked the wounds of Apeman was +thrice the size of Ellen. Yet Ellen crawled to Apeman, little sounds +of pity in her throat. Instantly the snarling of the she sent her +back. The she had, for the time being at least, assumed proprietorship +of Apeman, and was bidding Ellen keep her distance. And the she meant +it, too. For she bared her fighting fangs when Ellen again approached +close enough to have touched the body of Apeman. + +This time the she advanced a step toward the girl, and her snarl was a +terrible sound. Ellen retreated, but no further than was necessary to +still that snarl in the throat of the she. Manape moved in quite close +now, into position to interfere if the she tried to actually injure +Ellen Estabrook. If only, Bentley thought, there were some way of +making himself known to Ellen! But how could she believe, even if a +way were discovered? + +"What shall I do?" moaned Ellen aloud, wringing her hands. "Poor Lee! +I can't move him. That brute won't let me touch him. Oh, I'm afraid!" + +Bentley wanted to tell her not to be afraid, but had learned from +experience that when he tried to speak his voice was the bellowing one +of a great ape. And if he were to enunciate words that Ellen could +understand, what then? English from the lips of a giant anthropoid! +She would not believe, would think herself insane--and with excellent +reason. Slowly, as matters were transpiring, she had already been +given sufficient reason to believe that her mind was tottering. + + * * * * * + +Manape stood guard over her. A she had adopted the thing she thought +was Bentley. A score of great apes, which only three days ago had +tried to destroy both Bentley and herself, now surrounded Bentley and +Ellen with all the appearance of amity--crude, true, but +unmistakable. Certainly this was sufficiently beyond all human +experience to make Ellen believe she were in the throes of some awful +nightmare. What would she think if an ape began to address her in +English, and "Bentley" suddenly held speech with the great apes? + +Add to this possibility, suppose she were suddenly confronted with the +truth--that the essential entities of Bentley and Manape had been +exchanged, and the whole thing were explained to her from the gross +lips of Manape himself, while "Bentley" looked on and chattered a +challenge in ape language while Manape talked? + +No, at first she might have understood. Now it would have been even +more horrifying for her to hear the truth. She must think what she +would, and be allowed to adjust herself to the astounding state of +affairs. Apeman could not be moved for some time. Ellen would not +leave him, naturally. Nor would Manape. And the apes apparently +intended to remain with them. Which made the problem, after all, a +simple one. The trio must remain for the time being among the great +apes. They needed one another in a strange way, and they needed the +apes themselves, which were like a formidable army at their backs, as +protection against the other beasts of the wilds. + +Bentley watched the great she continue her rude first aid for Apeman. +Apeman was still moaning, though less fitfully, like a child that +nuzzles the milk bottle, but is drifting away into sleep. The she gave +the travesty her full attention. There was something horribly human +about her maternal care of this creature before her. Her great arms +held Apeman close while her tongue caressed his wounds. Bentley knew +that that tongue was an excellent antiseptic, too. All animals licked +their own wounds, and those wounds healed. Only human beings knew the +dangers of infection, because they had departed from Nature's +doctrines and had tried to cheat her with substitutes. Only the +animals, like that great she, still were Nature's children, healing +their own wounds in Nature's way. + + * * * * * + +Satisfied that the apes would not molest Ellen, so long as she kept +her distance from Apeman, Bentley decided to seek food, which Ellen +must sorely need. The need for water was urgent, too. Bentley knew the +danger of drinking water found in the jungle--but an ape could +scarcely be expected to build a fire with which to boil the water, nor +to produce a miracle in the shape of something to hold it in over the +fire. + +Here were many makeshifts indicated, then. Bentley smiled inwardly, +the only way he could smile. He must feed himself, too. He must go +wandering through the woods, feeding the body of Manape with grubs, +worms and such nauseous provender, because it was the food to which +Manape was accustomed. Apeman, when he was well enough to eat, would +sicken the body of Bentley with the same sort of food, because the +brain of Apeman would not know what was good or bad for the body of a +human being--nor even would understand that his body was human. What +_did_ Apeman think of his condition, anyway? + +That question, of course, would never be answered--unless Barter could +really speak the language of the great apes and somehow managed to +secure from Apeman, if Apeman lived, a recital of these hours in the +jungle. + +What food should Manape secure for Ellen? What fruits were edible, +what poisonous? How could he tell? He watched the other apes, which +were scattering here and there now, tipping over rocks and sticks to +search for grubs and worms--to see what fruits they ate, if any. They +would know what fruits to avoid. + +An hour passed before Bentley saw one of the brutes feed upon anything +except insects. A cluster of a peculiar fruit which looked like wild +currants, but whose real name Bentley did not know. Now, feeling safe +in his choice, because the ape was eating the berries with relish, +Bentley searched until he found a quantity of the same berries, and +bore them back to Ellen Estabrook. + + * * * * * + +Beside Apeman, who now was awake and exchanging crazy gibberish with +the she who had licked his wounds, Ellen Estabrook, trying to be +brave, did not cry aloud. But her face was dirty, and her tears made +furrows through the grime. + +Manape dropped the berries beside her. The she snarled as Ellen +reached for the berries. Manape flung himself forward as the she +strove to take the berries before Ellen could grasp them--and cuffed +her over backward with a cumbersome but lightning-fast right swing. + +"Manape," said Ellen, "if only you could talk! I feel that you are my +friend, and my fears are less when you are with me. I'll pretend that +you can understand me. It helps a little to talk, for one scarcely +seems so much alone. How would you feel, I wonder, Manape, if you were +suddenly taken entirely out of the life you've always known, and +forced to live in another world entirely? It would not be easy to be +brave, would it? Suppose you were taken out of the wilds and dropped +into a ballroom?" + +Bentley could have laughed had the jest not been such a grim one. What +would Ellen think if he were to answer her: + +"I would be much more at home in that ballroom than that thing on the +ground that you love--as matters are at this moment!" + +She would not understand that. + +Nor did she understand when the she went away for a time and came back +with a supply of worms and grubs--which nauseous supply vanished with +great speed under the wolfish appetite of Apeman. There was little +wonder that Ellen found it difficult to orient herself. + +"I must tell her somehow," thought Bentley, "and that soon. Surely +enough has been done to satisfy the devilish curiosity of Caleb +Barter." + +Toward evening the apes began to drift further into the jungle. The +she gathered Apeman in her arms and moved off with him. There was +nothing for Manape to do but follow, and nothing for Ellen to do but +follow, too--if she loved the thing she thought was Bentley. She did +not hesitate. + +With unfaltering courage she followed on, and the lumbering forms of +the great apes drifted further away from the sea, seemingly headed +toward some mutely agreed upon jungle rendezvous. Everything depended +for the time upon the return to health of Apeman. All other matters +depended upon that. Each in his own way, Manape and Ellen, realized +this. Caleb Barter had schemed better than he could possibly have +foreseen. + + +CHAPTER X + +_Written in Dust_ + +As Apeman was borne deeper into the jungle in the great arms of the +she, what was more natural in the circumstances than that Ellen keep +close to her only remaining link with the world she had left--Manape, +the trained anthropoid of Caleb Barter? A natural thing, and one that +filled Manape with obvious pleasure. + +Once she touched his hand, rested her own small one in his mighty palm +for a moment--and Bentley was afraid to return the pressure of her +palm with the hand of Manape, lest he crush every bone in her fingers. +Thereafter at intervals, while the whole aggregation drifted deeper +into the jungle, Ellen clung to Manape; depended upon him. Was it her +woman's intuition which told her that Manape was a safe guardian? + +Bentley refused to dwell on that phase of this wild adventure however, +for there were other things to think about. It required many hours for +him to discover the truth, but he knew it at last. He, Manape-Bentley, +was the lord of the great apes! Before his capture, or before the +capture of Manape by Caleb Barter, Manape had been leader of these +apes. Now he had returned and was their ruler once more. Upstarts had +taken his place, and he had slain them--back there when Apeman had +tried to escape into the jungle with Ellen in his arms. To the apes +this must have seemed the way it was. + +Bentley was putting things together, hoping and believing that they +made four--yet not sure but that he was forcing them to equal four +when in actuality they were five or six. If Manape--the original ape +of Barter's capture, whose body now was Bentley's--had been the leader +of the great apes, that explained why the animals remained constantly +in the vicinity of Barter's dwelling. Barter had needed them in his +plans, and had made certain their remaining near by making their +leader captive. And of course only an ape sufficiently intelligent to +rule other apes would have suited the evil scheme which must have been +growing for years in the mind of Caleb Barter. Barter had merely +waited with philosophic calmness for human beings to drift into this +territory--and the _Bengal Queen_ had obligingly gone down off the +coast, throwing Ellen Estabrook and Lee Bentley into Barter's power. + + * * * * * + +What was Barter doing now? Would he not be striving to watch the +course of his experiment? Would he not think of details hitherto +overlooked and plan further experiments, or an enlarging of this +experiment of which three creatures were the victims? Surely Barter +would not remain quietly at Barterville while the subjects of his +experiment went deeper into the jungle with the great apes. Barter was +too thorough a scientist for that. Somehow, Bentley was sure, Barter +would know what was happening, even at this very moment. + +He would wish to know how a modern woman would conduct herself if +suddenly forced to live among apes. Therefore he would try in some +manner to keep watch over the conduct of Ellen Estabrook. He would +wonder how a modern man would conduct himself if he suddenly found, +himself the leader of that same group of apes, and how an ape would +behave if he suddenly discovered himself a man. It was a neat +"experiment," and Bentley was beginning to believe that there was +probably far more to it than there first had seemed. + +Barter would wish to know how all three creatures would conduct +themselves in certain circumstances--Apeman, Ellen and Bentley. He +would not leave it to chance, for Bentley now realized that Barter +himself did not feel inimical to either Ellen, Apeman or Bentley. To +him they were merely an experiment. Barter would not wish for Apeman +to die, and thus deprive Barter of a certain knowledge relative to one +angle of his unholy experiment. He would not wish for Manape-Bentley +to remain forever as Manape-Bentley, lacking the power of speech, +either human speech or the gibberish of the apes. + +No, all this was not being left to chance. Bentley believed that +Barter was directing the destination of these three subjects of his, +as surely as though he were right with them at this moment, driving +them to his will with that awful lash which had made him feared by the +great apes. + + * * * * * + +Yes, Barter was still the master mind. It made Bentley feel awfully +helpless. Yet--he was the leader of the great apes. That, too, Barter +must have foreseen. Would Barter try in any way to discover how +Bentley would behave in an emergency as leader of the apes? Would he +wish to know sufficiently to create an emergency? From Bentley's +knowledge of the twisted genius of Caleb Barter, he fully believed +that Barter planned yet other angles to his experiment. + +If he did, then what would he do next? + +It was not until the storm broke over the strange aggregation of great +apes, who seemed to be holding two white people prisoners, that +Bentley understood that from the very beginning he should have been +able to see the obvious denouement--the mad climax which even then was +preparing in the jungle ahead, simply waiting for the great apes to +drift, feeding as they went without a thought of danger, into the trap +set for them. + +Ellen now kept her hand in the great palm of Manape. She wept on +occasions, when she thought of the apparent hopelessness of her +position, but for the most part she was brave, and Bentley grew to +love her more as the hours passed--even as he grew more impatient at +his inability to express his love. If he tried he could simply +frighten her--fill her with horror because, gentle though he was with +her and he was a great ape, a fact which nothing could change. Nor +could anybody change the fact, except Caleb Barter. Where was the +scientist? What would be his next move if he were not leaving the +working out of his experiment entirely to chance, which seemed not at +all in keeping with the thorough manner of his experiment thus far. + +The future was a dark, painful obscurity, in which all things were +hidden, in which anything might happen--because Caleb Barter would +wish for it to happen. + + * * * * * + +How long would Barter wait before making his next move? Long enough +for Ellen to accustom herself to life among the apes? Long enough to +discover whether her natural intelligence would guide her to eke out +existence among hardships such as human beings never thought of, +except perhaps in nightmares? Long enough to allow the brain of +Bentley to discover what miracles intellect might do with the body of +Manape? Long enough for Apeman to be well of his illness, so that he +might observe what havoc an ape's brain might work with a human body? + +Certainly when one gave the hideous experiment full thought, its +possible angles of development, its many potential ramifications, were +astounding in the extreme. Was it not up to Bentley then to do +something besides mope and pine for the impossible, and thus hasten +the hour when Barter should be wholly satisfied with his experiment? + +What would Apeman do, how would he behave, when the white body of +Bentley was well again? Would that body grow well faster when guided +by an ape's brain than when a human brain was in command? Certainly +Caleb Barter must have listed all these questions and hundreds of +others which had not as yet occurred to Bentley. If he had he would +not transfer the two intelligences back to their proper places until +all of his questions were answered to his satisfaction. Bentley +himself must somehow force an answer to some of them. + +To do this he must try to guess what sort of questions Barter would +have listed, and try to work out their answers--assuming all the time +that Barter, from some undiscovered coign of vantage would be watching +for the answers he hoped his experiment would provide. + +Bentley arrived at a decision. Ellen must long since have become +numbed to the horror which encompassed her. Bentley knew that a human +brain could stand only so much, beyond which it was no longer +surprised or horrified. He guessed, noting the pale face of his +beloved, that Ellen had well nigh reached that stage. + +He decided to take a tremendous risk with her sanity, hoping thereby +to do his part in working out the details of Barter's experiment. + + * * * * * + +The sun was creeping into the west when the roving apes came to pause +in a sort of clearing. Some of them curled up in sleep. The she who +carried Apeman squatted with Apeman in her arms, and licked his wounds +again. + +That Apeman was recovering was plainly evident, and when he saw it +filled Bentley with an odd mixture of thankfulness and revulsion. +Apeman was essentially an ape. With all his strength back he would +revert to type, and what if he forced the body of Bentley to do +horrible things that Ellen would never be able to forget or +condone--even when she at last knew the truth? What if Apeman +selected, for example, a mate--from among the hairy she's? For Apeman +that would be natural, for Bentley horrible. + +Yet it might easily transpire. Apeman might relinquish the white she +to a successful rival--which he would regard Manape as being--and +content himself with a choice from the ape she's. Somehow that unholy +thing must not happen. That was up to Manape-Bentley. + +Or, with his strength fully returned, Apeman might again desire Ellen, +and force the issue with Manape for her possession--which seemed +equally horrible to the brain of Bentley. + +Ellen remained as close to Apeman as the she would permit her. +Manape-Bentley crouched close by. After a time Apeman slept, and +Bentley was pleased to notice that the agony sweat no longer beaded +Apeman's body, and that Apeman was recovering with superhuman +swiftness--thanks to the ministrations of the unnamed she who had +taken charge of him. Apeman now rarely groaned, sleeping or waking. + +Ellen watched the sleeping Apeman with her heart--and her fears--in +her eyes. Satisfied that he slept, and that his sleep was healthy, +Ellen again approached the creature she knew as Manape, Barter's +trained ape. + +"If only you could talk," she said to him. "If only you were able to +give some hope. If only there were some way I could cause you to +understand my wishes--understand and help me." + + * * * * * + +Bentley did not answer. He knew that to be useless. But his brain +remembered something. His brain recalled that moment in the cage in +the dwelling of Barter, when his human brain had tried to force +obedience from the great clumsy hands of Manape, when he had tried to +force those mighty fingers to unfasten the knots which held the cage +door secure. + +Could he force those hands to something else? + +Did he dare try? + +It was a terrible risk to take with Ellen's sanity, but Bentley felt +it must be taken. She was watching him hopelessly, and her lips moved +as though she prayed for a miracle--as though by some weird necromancy +she might force Manape to understand her words, and to answer her, +allaying her fears, destroying her hopelessness. + +When Ellen watched him, Bentley searched about nearby until he found a +dried stick perhaps eight feet in length. He held it up, sniffed at +it, fumbled it with his heavy, grotesque fingers. He focussed the +attention of Ellen upon that stick, while his excitement mounted and +mounted, and his fear of possible consequences kept pace with his +excitement. + +Then, his decision reached, he began again that species of hypnosis +which seemed necessary to compel the hands and fingers of Manape to do +things no ape's hands had ever done before, no ape's brain had ever +thought of doing. + +He pressed one end of the stick against the ground at his sprawling +feet. With his left palm he smoothed out an area of dust several feet +in either direction--a rough dusty rectangle. + +Interested, her brows puckered in concentration. Ellen watched as +Manape went through these gestures which were so strangely, terribly +human. + +Her eyes were watching the end of that twig which the trained ape was +so clumsily clutching in both hands. + +She saw the marks the twig made in the dust as Manape caused it to +move--slowly, horribly, fearfully, from left to right across the area +of dust. + + * * * * * + +Fear began to grow in her face, but Bentley forced himself on. Again +the fetid odor of ape sweat covered him. This awful concentration, +this awful task of forcing Manape to write English words was in itself +a miracle, more miraculous even than Ellen would have thought of +praying for. + +Her eyes were glued to the sprawling, uneven, misshapen marks in the +dust with hypnotic fascination. Bentley dared not look at her, because +it required all his will to force the clumsy hands of Manape to his +bidding. + +He could only watch the marks in the dust, and will with all the power +of his human intelligence that the hands of Manape make their shape +sufficiently plain that Ellen might read them--and hope besides that +this terrible thing would not send the sorely harassed girl into the +jungle, madly shrieking for deliverance from a nightmare. + +There, the words were written--and Ellen was staring at them, her eyes +wide and unblinking, her body as rigid as stone, and her face as cold. +Only three words were possible without an interval of rest, but those +three words, among all Bentley might have selected, were the most to +the point, the most unbelievable, the most black-magical. + +_"I am Lee!"_ + +Minutes went into eternity as Ellen stared at the words. Silence that +it seemed would never be broken hang over the clearing. The bickering +of the apes passed unnoticed as Ellen stared. Then, slowly, she tried +to raise her eyes to meet those of Manape. + +She failed. Her body went limp and she slid forward on her face in the +dust. Manape-Bentley gently turned her on her side and waited. What +would he see in her beloved eyes when she regained consciousness? + + +CHAPTER XI + +_Barter Acts_ + +Bentley remained motionless, awaiting Ellen's return to consciousness. +He waited in fear and trembling. How would she react to the horrible +thing he had told her? + +Now there was possibility of converse between them. If she knew and +realized the meaning of his revelation. But would her mind stand up +under the awfulness of it? He had thought so, else he would not have +taken the chance he had taken. Much now depended upon Ellen, and all +he could do was wait. + +Slowly she began to move. Moans escaped her lips, little pathetic +moans, and the name of Lee Bentley. + +At last her eyes opened, and widened with horror when they met those +of Manape. Bentley knew that there were tears on the face of +Bentley-Manape. Manape, it seemed, cried easily, like a child. + +Her eyes still wide with horror. Ellen Estabrook slowly turned them +until she gazed at the dust rectangle in which presumably a great ape +had written words in English. But Bentley-Manape had rubbed out the +words. She turned and looked at Manape again, and her lips writhed and +twisted. She was seeking for words, shaping words, to ask questions +such as none in all the world's history had ever asked of a giant +anthropoid, with any hope of receiving answers. + +"You tell me you are Lee," she began slowly, hesitantly, as though the +words were literally forced from her against her will. "I cannot grasp +the meaning of that. You say you are Lee, yet I recognize you as +Manape, Caleb Barter's great ape. Yet Manape could not have written +those words. Yet, if you are Lee Bentley, who or what is that?" + + * * * * * + +She turned and pointed a trembling finger at Apeman. Bentley of course +could not answer her in words, yet his mind was busy conceiving of +some way in which he might answer her. She turned back to him after a +long look at Apeman and studied him. His huge barrel chest, the mighty +arms, the receding forehead--the outward seeming of a giant ape. + +Again that hesitant, horribly difficult task, of forcing the arms of +Manape to perform actions which were not natural to the arms of a +great ape. Bentley managed to raise the right arm in the gesture of +pointing. + +He pointed at the other apes, some of which slept, some of which ate +of grubs and worms, or bickered savagely among themselves over +whatever childish trifles seemed important to the ape mind. + +"You mean," said Ellen huskily, "that Lee Bentley there is really an +ape?" + +Manape nodded, ponderously. + +Ellen's face became animated. She was beginning to understand how to +hold speech with Manape. + +"You tell me he is a great ape, yet he has the body of Lee Bentley. +You tell me you are Bentley, yet I see you as Manape. Caleb Barter's +trained ape. How am I to understand? Are my eyes betraying me, or is +this a nightmare from which I shall waken presently? I see the shape +of Manape, who writes in the dust that he is Lee. How can I know? None +of you I can see is Lee Bentley. What part of you that I cannot see is +Lee?" + + * * * * * + +Again the effort of forcing the hands of Manape to obedience. + +Manape-Bentley tapped his receding forehead with his knuckles, and a +gasp burst from the lips of Ellen Estabrook. + +"You mean your brain is Bentley's brain, and that Bentley's body holds +the brain of a great ape?" + +Manape nodded clumsily. + +"But how? You mean--Caleb Barter? I remember about him now. A master +surgeon, an expert on anesthesia--a thousand years ahead of his time. +You mean then that we three are part of an experiment? You, Manape, +have the brain of Bentley, and Bentley has the brain of a great ape?" + +Bentley nodded. + +The face of Ellen Estabrook writhed and twisted. Her eyes studied the +person of Manape the great ape. She could not believe the thing she +had been told, yet she was thinking back and back--back to when Apeman +had carried her away, his subsequent behavior, his behavior in the +house of Barter, and his interest in the she ape who had licked his +wounds. + +She remembered how Manape in the beginning had looked at her with the +eyes of a lustful man--and how later all his attitude had been +protective. There seemed evidence in plenty to support the statement +Manape had mutely managed to give her. She was forced to believe. + +"But, Lee,"--she came closer to Manape as she spoke--"we must do +something for that creature there--that thing with the ape she which +looks like the man I love. You've heard me say that I love Lee +Bentley?" + +Manape nodded. + +"Does Lee Bentley love me?" + +Again Manape nodded, more vehemently this time. Ellen smiled. Then, +quickly, she came to Manape, thrust her fingers against his skull and +examined it closely. Her brows were furrowed in concentration. She +left Manape and strode to Apeman. The she growled at her but she +ignored the beast as much as possible, though plainly cognizant of the +fact that she dared not touch her hands to Apeman on pain of being +torn asunder by the fighting fangs of the ape she. + + * * * * * + +Then Ellen came back. + +"The evidence is there, Lee," she said. "There are the marks of a +surgeon's instruments. Marvelous. One is almost inclined to forget the +horror of it in the realization that a miracle has been performed. The +operation was perfect. But what did he use for anesthesia? How did +Barter manage to complete his operation and cause his two patients to +feel no-ill effects, to be to all intents and purposes well in mind +and body--all within less than twelve hours? However, that does not +matter now. Something must be done. Since Caleb Barter was the only +man who could perform this unholy operation, he is the only one who +could repeat it restoring each of you to your proper earthly +casements. So we must play in with him. I suppose you've long since +decided that way, Lee?" + +How strange it seemed to Ellen to discuss such matters with Manape. +But behind his brutish exterior was the brain of the man whom she +loved. + +"And there is one other thing," Ellen almost whispered, and her face +flushed rosily. "No harm must come to the body of Lee, you understand? +He must never be permitted to do anything of which Lee Bentley of +after years may have cause to feel ashamed." + +Manape nodded. He understood her, and despite the grotesquerie of the +whole thing there was something intimate and sweet about this +interchange. A man and woman loved. Just now that love was mentioned +more or less in the abstract, discussed on purely a mental basis--but +both Bentley and Ellen Estabrook were thinking of the future, and were +as frank with each other as they perhaps ever would be again. + + * * * * * + +Now the apes were beginning to stir themselves. It was time to be on +the move again. Eyes were turned toward Manape, who was plainly +intended to lead them further into the jungle. Ellen and the white +body of Bentley were already being accepted as a matter of course. + +If the great apes wondered why their returned lord did not jabber with +them in the gibberish of the great apes, there was no way of telling, +for there was no way in which Manape could make himself understood, +nor any way the great apes could tell their thoughts to Manape. + +Then, without warning, the blow fell. + +The storm broke, and even as the uproar started Bentley was sure that +he could sense behind it the fine hand of Caleb Barter--still working +out his "experiment," with human beings and apes as the pawns. + +The apes were on the move, entering a series of aisles through the +gloomy woods when the blow fell--in the shape of scores of nets, in +whose folds within a matter of seconds the great apes were fighting +and snarling helplessly. They expended their mighty strength to no +avail. They fought at ropes and thongs which they did not +understand--and only Manape made no effort to fight, knowing it +useless. + +Scores of black folk armed with spears danced and yelled in the brush, +frankly delighted at the success of their grand coup. Barter was +nowhere to be seen, and there was a possibility that he knew nothing +about this. Yet Bentley knew better. Perhaps, in order to stimulate +the blacks, he had offered them money for great apes taken alive. +Anyhow, scores of the apes were taken, and now exhausted themselves in +savage bellowing and snarling, as they fought for freedom. + +A half dozen to each net, the blacks gathered in their captives. They +made much over Ellen Estabrook. They pawed over Apeman despite his +snarls and bellowings, and laughed when Apeman played the ape as +though to the manner born. They scented some mystery here, a white man +raised by the apes, perhaps. But that Ellen and Apeman were prisoners +of blacks, Bentley could plainly understand. He scarcely knew which +was the more horrible for her--to be prisoner of the apes or the +blacks. + +But for the moment there was nothing he could do. And the blacks were +not torturing either Apeman or Ellen, though there was no mistaking +what he saw in the faces of the blacks when they looked at Ellen and +grinned at one another. + +Darkness had fallen over the world when the blacks went shouting into +a village of mud-wattled huts, bearing the trophies of their ape hunt. +Still in their nets for safety's sake, the great apes were thrown into +a sort of stockade which had plainly just been built for their +reception--proof to Bentley that this decision to make an attack +against the passing band of anthropoids had been a sudden one. What +did that indicate? + +Someone had caused the blacks to react in a way that never would have +occurred to them ordinarily. + +Caleb Barter? + +Bentley thought so. What now was Bentley supposed to do? What did +Barter expect him to do? What did Barter expect Ellen to do? What did +he expect Apeman to do? + +There was no question, as Bentley saw it, but that Caleb Barter still +pulled the strings, and that before morning this jungle village was to +witness a horror it should never forget. + +But at the moment Bentley had but one thought: to escape quietly with +Ellen and Apeman, and return to the dwelling of Caleb Barter. + + +CHAPTER XII + +_Jungle Justice_ + +Again that grim concentration on the part of Bentley, forcing the +unaccustomed great hands of Manape to perform things they had never +done before. He must release himself from the rope net which held him. +For the hands of a human being the task would have been easy. For the +hands of Manape, even though guided by the will of Bentley, the task +was far from easy. + +But he persevered. + +An hour after the apes had been dumped in the stockade, Bentley had +released himself from the rope net and was resting after the awful +ordeal of forcing the hands of Manape to do his bidding. He pressed +himself against the uprights of the stockade, and carefully tested +them with his strength. The strength of Bentley would never have +availed against the stout uprights of the stockade. Yet Manape-Bentley +knew that with the arms of Manape he could tear the uprights out of +the ground as easily as though they had been match-sticks. What should +he do now? + +His first impulse of course was to release the rest of the great apes. +The brutes still fought at their bindings and were utterly insane with +rage. What would they do when they were released? What was his duty +where they were concerned? If they went wild through the native +village, slaying and laying waste, would Bentley be responsible for +loss of life? If he left the apes in the hands of the natives, what +then? He would never afterward forgive himself. He knew them as +children of the wilds, carefree and happy brutes of the jungle. Now if +held captives indefinitely they would either die or spend the rest of +their lives in cages. + +No, he would release the animals, one by one. The natives would have +to take their chances. + + * * * * * + +A white figure loomed out of the darkness, coming from the direction +of a great bonfire which showed all the jungle surrounding in weird, +crimson relief. The white figure, all but nude, was Apeman! Following +him were several natives, who laughed and prodded Apeman with the +butts of their spears. + +Bentley understood that. They thought Apeman a demented white man, +and to these natives a demented one was a butt of jokes. They did not +even suspect the horror of the possible revenge that was growing in +the brain of the ape which controlled the body of Apeman. + +Twice or thrice Apeman tried to dart into the jungle, but always the +blacks prevented, heading him toward the cage where the apes were held +prisoners. Bentley wondered where Ellen was and what was happening to +her. + +A celebration of some sort seemed going forward in the village. Was +Caleb Barter somewhere near, perhaps on the edge of the jungle, +grinning gleefully at this thing he had brought about as part of his +unholy experiment? There was no way of knowing of course, yet. + +But.... + +Apeman reached the side of the stockade and snarled back at his +annoyers, while his white hands grasped the uprights and tore at them +with futile savagery. A strange situation. Inside the stockade a score +of brutes who could rip the stockade to bits. Outside, one of them +free, but hampered by the puny strength of a human being. + +The blacks shouted to Apeman but of course Bentley could not +understand what they said. Apeman turned after snarling at them for a +few moments, and began to chatter in that gibberish which appeared to +be Apeman's only mode of speech--ape language on the lips of a man! +This was the only time it had ever happened. + +The apes stirred fitfully as Apeman chattered, and began to renew +their attacks on their bonds. The blacks, after watching Apeman for a +few moments turned back toward the bonfire, evidently satisfied that +this strange demented creature would not run away. Apeman chattered +and the apes made answer. + +The she who had nursed Apeman managed to reach the side of the +stockade, and for several moments Bentley listened to the horrible +grotesqueries--an ape she and a man talking together in brutish +gibberish, and with hellish intimacy. + +Now, wondering just how matters would work themselves out, Bentley set +himself the task of releasing the apes. They would at least create a +furor in the village, during which Bentley could escape into the +jungle with Apeman and Ellen Estabrook before the natives could +reorganise themselves and give chase. + +His plan was hazy, and he figured without the savagery of Apeman who +occupied that white body which had been Bentley's. His one thought was +to free the apes, set them upon the village, and escape with Apeman +and Ellen. Just that and no more; but he did not know the great apes, +nor how thoroughly they followed the lead of their lord whom they knew +as Manape, though how he was named in their brains he was never to +know. + +One by one he released the apes. They seemed to sense the necessity +for stealth, for they began to ape the cautious behavior of Manape. +Apeman, outside, seemed to be advising them, telling them what to do. + + * * * * * + +One by one as Manape released them, the apes squatted side by side, +their red angry little eyes watching his every move. Bentley knew of +course what a fearful racket his own appearance would cause when he +strode out of the gloom among the blacks, seeking Ellen. But he knew +that surprise for a few precious moments would render the blacks +incapable of stopping him until he got away. At least he hoped so. + +Beyond that he had no other plan. All depended upon the behavior of +the apes and the reaction of the blacks who were holding a devil's +dance about the mighty fire in the center of their village. Bentley +did not even yet dare guess what the apes would do when they saw what +Manape-Bentley did. Would they follow him? Or would they race for the +jungle to escape? + +A few minutes now would tell the tale. He had released the last of the +great apes, who now lined the side of the stockade, apparently holding +angry converse with Apeman. Bentley was reminded of the old fashioned +mob of pioneer days--angrily muttering yet lacking a leader to direct +their efforts. Well, he had done his duty as he saw it. From now on +things must take their course. + +But Bentley waited, watching the dancing figures about the fire. As +far as he could tell the dance was approaching some sort of a climax. +The figures leaped higher as they danced, and the noise of their +shouting raced and rolled across the jungle. They appeared to be drunk +with some sort of excitement, perhaps helped by native liquor, perhaps +because of superstitious frenzy. + +If he waited for their excitement to die down a bit, for some of them +to go to sleep, his chances of releasing Ellen would be better. It +would not be hard for him to find her--not with Manape's sensitive +nose to lead him to her. + + * * * * * + +But time passed and the apes, though apparently being urged to +something by Apeman, watching Manape sullenly, apparently waiting for +him to make some move. + +Then, sharp as a knife, cutting through the other noises of the +village, came Ellen's voice. + +"Help, Lee! Help me!" + +The scream was broken short off as though a hand had clutched the +girl's throat, but Bentley waited for no more--and Manape-Bentley flew +into action. His great hands went to the uprights of the stockade. +His mighty shoulders heaved and twisted and the uprights were ripped +apart. + +The apes followed his lead, and the cracking of the stockade's +uprights was like a volley of pistol shots. The great brutes fairly +walked through the green saplings which formed the prison. Manape was +leading the charge, and the apes, once through, did not hesitate. If +their leader charged the blacks they would follow--and did, while +among them danced, cavorted and gibbered the travesty, Apeman. + +He was Bentley's lieutenant, and Bentley-Manape was the lord of the +apes. Just now he forgot that he was more ape than man. Just now he +was happy that his strength was the strength of many men. He was +hurrying to the assistance of the woman he loved. + +Behind him came the great apes, following like an army of poorly +trained recruits, yet armed as no army has ever been armed since the +days when men fought with fist and fang against their enemies. Bentley +lumbered swiftly toward the sound of Ellen's voice, aided in his +journey by the odor of her which came to his sensitive ape's nostrils. + + * * * * * + +The blacks never saw the approach of the apes, until, led by Manape +the Mighty, the great apes were right among them. Bentley did not +pause. A black man saw him and shrieked aloud in terror, a shriek +which seemed to freeze the other blacks in all sorts of postures. +Sitting men remained where they sat, and some of the motionless ones +saved their lives by their immobility. Dancers paused in midstride, +and those who did not, died. + +For the hands of the great apes clutched at everything that moved, and +the great shoulders bulged, and the mighty muscles cracked, and men +were torn asunder as though they had been flies in the hands of +vengeful boys. + +The black who had shrieked hurled a spear, purely a reflex, +perhaps--an action born of its habitual use. It missed Bentley by a +narrow margin, but passed through the stomach of the she who had +nursed Apeman. Snarling, snapping at the thing which hurt her, the she +tore the weapon free--then waddled forward swiftly, caught the man who +had hurled the spear, and tore his head off with a single twisting +movement of her great hands. + +Next moment her blood was mingling with that of her slayer as she fell +above him. But her hands, in the convulsions of death, still ripped +and tore, and the black whom she held was a ghastly thing when the she +was finally dead. Bentley did not see the ghastly end of the spearman, +for he was seeking Ellen, and at the some time keeping a close watch +on Apeman. + +Apeman seemed to be urging the apes to the attack, bidding them rip +and tear and gnash, and the apes were doing that, making of the +village a crimson shambles. But they did it in passing, for Manape was +their leader, and him they followed--and he was seeking Ellen +Estabrook. + + * * * * * + +The door of the hut in which his nostrils told him she would be found, +gave before his mighty chest as though it had been made of paper. +Inside, in the glow of the native lamp, a huge black man cowered +against the further wall of the hut, with spear poised. + +But the black man seemed frozen with terror. + +"Lee! Lee!" + +Bentley essayed one glance at her. In the other corner she was, with +the upper part of her clothing almost torn from her body. + +Then the spearman hurled his weapon. Bentley strove to force the huge +bulk of Manape's body to dodge the spear; but that body was slow in +doing so--and took a mortal wound! + +But it was a wound that would mean slow death. An aching, terrible +wound. Then Manape-Bentley had grasped the body of the black, lifted +it high above his head, and crashed it to the hard packed floor of the +hut. The hut fairly shook with the thud of that fall. At once Manape +stooped, caught the black by the ankles and pulled in opposite +direction with all his terrific might. + +Then he whirled, masking what he had done from Ellen's sight with his +huge, sorely wounded body. + +He tried to send her a message with his eyes, but it was not +necessary. She knew Manape, Barter's trained ape. She followed close +at his heels. Outside the hut's door Apeman still urged the apes to +destruction of men and property, of women and children. The village of +the blacks had become a place of horror. + +"Hurry, Lee!" gasped Ellen. "You've been grievously wounded, and if +Manape dies, nothing can save _you_--and I shall not care to live!" + +But Bentley knew. His brain could sense the approach of death, and +what he now must do was very plain. + +He charged at Apeman and caught the struggling, snarling travesty up +in his mighty arms. Then, with Ellen at his heels, he leaped into the +jungle and began the race for the house of Caleb Barter. + + * * * * * + +Life was going from him, yet his brain forced onward the body of +Manape. Behind came the great apes, following their leader. Now and +again they screamed and snarled at him, but he paid them no heed. They +could follow or leave him, as they chose. They chose to follow. + +Apeman fought and bit at Bentley, but he paid him as little heed as +though he had been nothing at all. Now and again when Ellen faltered +Bentley caught her up, too, and carried her with Apeman until Ellen +was rested enough to go on. + +Some of the apes appeared to realize whither they were going, for they +took to the trees and vanished onward. With Apeman alone, Bentley +himself would have taken to the trees as the swiftest way back to +Barter's dwelling. But Ellen could not race along the upper terraces, +and Bentley could not carry both Apeman and Ellen and leave the +ground. But he could travel swiftly on his race with death, with Ellen +as the prize if he won. + +The hours passed, and the strength of Manape decreased; but fiercely +the brain of Bentley drove the mighty body on. Ellen sobbed with +weariness but continued on, and no words were spoken. There was no +time for words. Now and again Bentley forced Apeman to walk, and +dragged him forward with a hand clutching his wrist. At such times +Bentley carried Ellen, and scarcely slackened his stride under her +weight. + + * * * * * + +Once he tried to force Apeman to carry her, but the arms of Apeman +were not equal to the task for more than fifty yards or so, and he +gave that up as being impracticable. His brain raced, thinking up ways +to travel faster, to reach Barter's quarters before the mighty body of +Manape should die, and with it the brain of Bentley. + +Surely no stranger cavalcade ever before traversed the jungles of the +Black Continent. + +So they came at last to the clearing. The apes protested and remained +in hiding, while Bentley, never pausing, raced across toward the house +he would never forget. + +The body of Manape was almost through, for it staggered like a +drunken man. Blood covered the mighty chest, and the brain of Bentley +felt hazy; nothing made sense; and the end was very near. + +But they reached the door of Barter's dwelling, and Barter himself met +them, bearing his cruel whip in his hand. Ellen roused herself from +her extreme exhaustion and clutched at the scientist's hand. + +"Professor Barter!" she begged. "Please, please! Manape is almost +dead! Hurry! Hurry, for the love of God!" + +"There, there, my dear young lady," said Barter soothingly. "Make +yourself easy. There's no cause for worry." + +Manape-Bentley toppled forward on the floor of the cabin. Ellen +screamed and Barter comforted her. Apeman tried to escape to the +jungle, but the lash of Barter drove him cowering and whimpering to a +corner. + +Then, oblivion--save that somewhere was the odor of violets. Or did +violets possess odor? Then, if not, the odor of flowers he thought +were violets. + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_The Horror Passes_ + +Slowly consciousness returned to Bentley, and his first thought was +one of horror. From somewhere distinct came a doleful wailing sound. +He thought he knew what it was--the mourning of great apes over a +member that had died. + +He had read somewhere that the great apes sorrowed when any of their +members died. Bentley opened his eyes. He could make out the ceiling +of a room that he recognized. It was the room that had been first +assigned him in the dwelling of Barter. + +Ellen Estabrook would be somewhere nearby. He opened his lips to call +to her. Then he remembered. He'd tried to call to her before--and had +merely bellowed like an ape. No, there was something he must know +first. + +His arms and hands seemed as heavy as lead, but he lifted them and +looked at them--and a great feeling of peace descended upon him. +Manape-Bentley was gone, and he was plain Lee Bentley again. There was +his own ring, which Apeman had worn, and besides he had just spoken +aloud, softly, for no ears save his own, and the voice had been Lee +Bentley's voice. + +Yes, Barter had kept his promise, and Lee Bentley was Lee Bentley +again. + +But he was very weak, and his body was racked with pain. His hands and +arms were covered with bandages. His body seemed packed in concrete, +so moveless was it, and when he raised his voice it was terribly weak. + +"Ellen," he managed to call; and again, "Ellen, darling!" + +Instantly there came a swift patter of feet and Ellen was beside his +bed, on her knees, covering his face--what there was of it +unbandaged--with kisses. There was really no need for words between +these two. + +"Lee," she whispered, "I've been so afraid. You've been like this for +a week, despite the miraculous knowledge and skill of Professor +Barter. I've waited in fear and trembling, praying for you to live, +and now you are Lee again, and will live on. Professor Barter has +promised me. All you need now is food, and care, and I shall shower +you with both. Barter has instructed me so carefully that I could +manage even to care for you, sick as you are, without him here at +all." + +"And Manape?" Bentley's voice seemed to be stronger. + +"He is dead," whispered Ellen. "I shall never forget him. There was +something great, something even better than human about him, Lee! Oh, +I know that he was you--but where would all three of us have been had +it not been for the powerful body of Manape, the great ape? Manape is +dead, and in the jungle hereabouts the great apes mourn his passing. +They've been wailing almost like human beings for a week. +Manape--well, Professor Barter told me that you too would have died, +had Manape reached his door five minutes later. As it was, he, and +you, were just in time!" + +"It's amazing," whispered Bentley, "that the great apes stay around +here now that Manape is dead." + +"Yes. It's strange--and terrible I think. There have been times when I +felt they were waiting for something, for Professor Barter, perhaps. +I've had the feeling they believe he killed their leader." + +Now the two became silent, and Ellen held the bruised and broken hands +of Bentley in both her own, and their eyes said things, one to the +other, which eyes say so much better than lips do. They kissed each +other softly, and Ellen crooned with ecstasy, her cheek against +Bentley's. + + * * * * * + +Then Caleb Barter entered. + +"Well, well," he said, "when a man is in condition to make love to a +woman, he is well on the road to recovery. It won't hurt you to talk +now, Bentley, and before I begin asking questions, let me assure you +that you will suffer no ill effects from your experience." + +"What of my memories?" asked Bentley softly. + +"Forget them!" snapped Barter tartly. "That is, after you have told me +everything that has happened. Miss Estabrook has already told me her +angle of the experiment. Now, talk please--and then I shall make you +well, and you shall both go into the world with me, and tell people +that what I have to tell is true!" + +So Bentley talked. Barter wrote like a man possessed. His fingers +raced over the paper, repeating the words which fell from the lips of +Lee Bentley, beside whom Ellen sat, holding his hands. Now and again +Barter uttered an ejaculation of fierce joy. He was like a child with +a toy that pleased him beyond words. He could scarcely wait for the +words to spill from the lips of Lee Bentley. + +When Bentley paused for breath, Barter exclaimed impatiently, and +urged him to greater speed. He thought of but one thing, his +experiment. + +And so at last Bentley had finished. + +"That's all, Professor Barter!" he said softly. + +"All!" cried Barter. "Everything! Fame! Wealth! Adulation! There is +nothing in the world Caleb Barter may not have when this story is +told! I can scarcely contain myself. You must hurry to be well in +order that the world may be told at once." + +Laughing immoderately, Barter piled the manuscript he had written, and +weighted it with a piece of rock. His face was a constant grin. His +fingers trembled with eagerness. He could not contain himself. + +Finally, as though from sheer joy of what he had accomplished, he +raced from the cabin, and out across the clearing. Ellen and Bentley +smiled at each other. Moments passed. Still came to their ears the +mourning wails of the great apes. + + * * * * * + +Then suddenly there broke a sound so utterly appalling that the two +were frozen with terror for a moment. First it was the laughter of +Caleb Barter. Then, mingled with the laughter, the bellowing, +frightful and paralyzing, of man apes challenging a hated enemy. The +drumming of ape fists on huge barrel chests. Then the laughter of +Barter, dying away, ironic, terrible, into silence. Immediately +afterward, high-pitched, mighty as the jungle itself, the concerted +cries of half a dozen apes, as if bellowing their joy of the kill. + +"They--they--" began Ellen in a choked voice. "The apes must have got +Professor Barter!" + +Silently Bentley nodded, and pointed. + +Coiled on a nail near the door was Barter's whip. In his excitement he +had gone into the jungle without it for the first--and last--time. + +"There is one thing to do," whispered Ellen, "before we prepare to get +you fully well. I shall care for you, and we shall both try to forget. +And then we shall return to our own people." + +"And the one thing?" asked Bentley. + +The strained silence was suddenly broken by the bellowing of the great +apes, which now charged into the cabin. Bentley and Ellen cringed back +from the murderous brutes to no avail. There was no denying them. +Their slavering jaws, drooled below flaring nostrils, their eyes +emitted sparks of animal fury. Bentley leaped to the girl and +interposed his body between hers and the vanguard of the apes, who now +were surging into the room through the open door, and spreading apart +within like water released from a dam. + +The apes were bent on murder, there could be no doubt. + +A very monster towered over Bentley. His jaws were wide, his little +red eyes fixed on the white man's neck. His great arms were coming +forward to gather in both Ellen and Bentley--whom he could crush as +easily as he crushed the grubs which were his food. + +Bentley was helpless and knew it. This was the end for Ellen and +himself. He must meet it unafraid. He tensed, awaiting the descent of +bestial destruction. His eyes met the murderous gleam in the eyes of +the ape leader unflinchingly. And then the miracle happened. + +The brute became suddenly and inexplicably hesitant. His bellow died +away to a gurgling murmur in which there seemed somehow a hint of +apology. The fire went out of his eyes. His jaws closed with a snap. +His great arms, already about Bentley, slid harmlessly over Bentley's +shoulders; dropped to his shaggy side. + +The brute's little eyes looked long and in puzzled fashion into the +eyes of Bentley. Then he began to chatter, and in a moment the other +apes ambled grotesquely toward the door and out. Ellen and Bentley +were alone together once more, unharmed--though numbed by realization +of the near passing of disaster. + +"I don't understand it," muttered Bentley, brushing the beads of +perspiration from his brow. "It was a miracle!" + +"Lee," Ellen answered, "I think I know, and it _is_ a sort of miracle. +Somehow the apes felt that you were--whatever your guise--Manape. They +did not recognize you by any of their means of recognition; yet that +beast knew! How? Only God Himself might answer. But the beasts knew, +and did not slay us. The inner voice which whispers inside us in times +of crises, whispers also to the great apes! Barter, then must have +understood their somehow spiritual kinship with us. His experiments--" + +Her words reminded Bentley of what she had been saying when the great +apes had charged in upon them, murder bent. He interrupted her, +gently. + +"And the one thing we must do?" he rallied her. + +Ellen rose, and her face was white and strained as she gathered +together Barter's manuscript. This she carried to the fireplace. She +applied a match and returned to Bentley's bedside. Then, side by side, +the two who would never forget in any case watched the record of +Barter's unholy experiment burn slowly to ashes, while the screams of +the great apes died away second by second, proof that they were +leaving this section of the jungle--going deeper and deeper into the +forest gloom which was their rightful heritage, and from which no man +had a right to take them. + +[Advertisement] + + + + +Holocaust + +_By Charles Willard Diffin_ + +[Illustration: It passed beneath the planes, that were motionless by +contrast.] + +[Sidenote: The extraordinary story of "Paul," who for thirty days was +Dictator of the World.] + +I am more accustomed to the handling of steel ingots and the +fabrication of ships than to building with words. But, if I cannot +write history as history is written, perhaps I can write it the way it +is lived, and that must suffice. + +This account of certain events must have a title, I am told. I have +used, as you see: "Holocaust." Inadequate!--but what word can tell +even faintly of that reign of terror that engulfed the world, of those +terrible thirty days in America when dread and horror gripped the +nation and the red menace, like a wall of fire, swept downward from +the north? And, at last--the end! + +It was given to me to know something of that conflict and of its +ending and of the man who, in that last day, took command of Earth's +events and gave battle to Mars, the God of War himself. It was against +the background of war that he stood out; I must tell it in that way; +and perhaps my own experience will be of interest. Yet it is of the +man I would write more than the war--the most hated man in the whole +world--that strange character, Paul Stravoinski. + +You do not even recognize the name. But, if I were to say instead the +one word, "Paul"--ah, now I can see some of you start abruptly in +sudden, wide-eyed attention, while the breath catches in your throats +and the memory of a strange dread clutches your hearts. + +'Straki,' we called him at college. He was never "Paul," except to me +alone; there was never the easy familiarity between him and the crowd +at large, whose members were "Bill" and "Dick" and other nicknames +unprintable. + +But "Straki" he accepted. "_Bien, mon cher ami_," he told me--he was +as apt to drop into French as Russian or any of a dozen other +languages--"a name--what is it? A label by which we distinguish one +package of goods from a thousand others just like it! I am unlike: for +me one name is as good as another. It is what is here that +counts,"--he tapped his broad forehead that rose high to the tangle of +black hair--"and here,"--and this time he placed one hand above his +heart. + +"It is for what I give to the world of my head and my heart that I +must be remembered. And, if I give nothing--then the name, it is less +than nothing." + + * * * * * + +Dreamer--poet--scientist--there were many Paul Strakis in that one +man. Brilliant in his work--he was majoring in chemistry--he was a +mathematician who was never stopped. I've seen him pause, puzzled by +some phase of a problem that, to me, was a blank wall. Only a moment's +hesitation and he would go way down to the bed-rock of mathematics and +come up with a brand new formula of his own devising. Then--"_Voila! +C'est fini!_ let us go for a walk, friend Bob; there is some poetry +that I have remembered--" And we would head out of town, while he +spouted poetry by the yard--and made me like it. + +I wish you could see the Paul Straki of those days. I wish I could +show him to you; you would understand so much better the "Paul" of +these later times. + +Tall, he seemed, though his eyes were only level with mine, for his +real height was hidden beneath an habitual stoop. It let him conceal, +to some extent, his lameness. He always walked with a noticeable limp, +and here was the cause of the only bitterness that, in those days, was +ever reflected in his face. + +"Cossacks!" he explained when he surprised a questioning look upon my +face. "They went through our village. I was two years old--and they +rode me down!" + +But the hard coldness went from his eyes, and again they crinkled +about with the kindly, wise lines that seemed so strange in his young +face. "It is only a reminder to me," he added, "that such things are +all in the past; that we are entering a new world where savage +brutality shall no longer rule, and the brotherhood of man will be the +basis upon which men shall build." + +And his face, so homely that it was distinctive, had a beauty all its +own when he dared to voice his dreams. + + * * * * * + +It was this that brought about his expulsion from college. That was in +1935 when the Vornikoff faction brought off their coup d'etat and +secured a strangle hold on Russia. We all remember the campaign of +propaganda that was forced into the very fibre of every country, to +weaken with its insidious dry-rot the safe foundations of our very +civilization. Paul was blinded by his idealism, and he dared to speak. + +He was conducting a brilliant research into the structure of the atom; +it ended abruptly with his dismissal. And the accepted theories of +science went unchallenged, while men worked along other lines than +Paul's to attempt the release of the tremendous energy that is latent +in all matter. + +I saw him perhaps three times in the four years that followed. He had +a laboratory out in a God-forsaken spot where he carried on his +research. He did enough analytical work to keep him from actual +starvation, though it seemed to me that he was uncomfortably close to +that point. + +"Come with me," I urged him; "I need you. You can have the run of our +laboratories--work out the new alloys that are so much needed. You +would be tremendously valuable." + +He had mentioned Maida to me, so I added: "And you and Maida can be +married, and can live like a king and queen on what my outfit can pay +you." + +He smiled at me as he might have done toward a child. "Like a king and +queen," he said. "But, friend Bob, Maida and I do not approve of kings +and queens, nor do we wish to follow them in their follies. + +"It is hard waiting,"--I saw his eyes cloud for a moment--"but Maida +is willing. She is working, too--she is up in Melford as you know--and +she has faith in my work. She sees with me that it will mean the +release of our fellow-men and women from the poverty that grinds out +their souls. I am near to success; and when I give to the world the +secret of power, then--" But I had to read in his far-seeing eyes the +visions he could not compass in words. + + * * * * * + +That was the first time. I was flying a new ship when next I dropped +in on him. A sweet little job I thought it then, not like the old +busses that Paul and I had trained in at college, where the top speed +was a hundred and twenty. This was an A. B. Clinton cruiser, and the +"A.B.C.'s" in 1933 were good little wagons, the best there were. + +I asked Paul to take a hop with me and fly the ship. He could fly +beautifully; his lameness had been no hindrance to him. In his +slender, artist hands a ship became a live thing. + +"Are you doing any flying?" I asked, but the threadbare suit made his +answer unnecessary. + +"I'll do my flying later," he said, "and when I do,"--he waved +contemptuously toward my shining, new ship--"you'll scrap that piece +of junk." + +The tone matched the new lines in his face--deep lines and bitter. +This practical world has always been hard on the dreamers. + +Poverty; and the grinding struggle that Maida was having; the +expulsion from college when he was assured of a research scholarship +that would have meant independence and the finest of equipment to work +with--all this, I found, was having its effect. And he talked in a way +I didn't like of the new Russia and of the time that was near at hand +when her communistic government should sweep the world of its curse of +capitalistic control. Their propaganda campaign was still going on, +and I gathered that Paul had allied himself with them. + +I tried to tell him what we all knew; that the old Russia was gone, +that Vornikoff and his crowd were rapacious and bloodthirsty, that +their real motives were as far removed from his idealism as one pole +from the other. But it was no use. And I left when I saw the light in +his eyes. It seemed to me then that Paul Stravoinski had driven his +splendid brain a bit beyond its breaking point. + + * * * * * + +Another year--and Paris, in 1939, with the dreaded First of May +drawing near. There had been rumors of demonstrations in every land, +but the French were prepared to cope with them--or so they +believed.... Who could have coped with the menace of the north that +was gathering itself for a spring? + +I saw Paul there. It lacked two days of the First of May, and he was +seated with a group of industrious talkers at a secluded table in a +cafe. He crossed over when he saw me, and drew me aside. And I noticed +that a quiet man at a table nearby never let us out of his sight. Paul +and his companions, I judged, were under observation. + +"What are you doing here _now_?" he asked. His manner was casual +enough to anyone watching, but the tense voice and the look in his +eyes that bored into me were anything but casual. + +My resentment was only natural. "And why shouldn't I be here attending +to my own affairs? Do you realize that you are being rather absurd?" + +He didn't bother to answer me directly. "I can't control them," he +said. "If they would only wait--a few weeks--another month! God, how I +prayed to them at--" + +He broke off short. His eyes never moved, yet I sensed a furtiveness +as marked as if he had peered suspiciously about. + +Suddenly he laughed aloud, as if at some joking remark of mine; I +knew it was for the benefit of those he had left and not for the quiet +man from the _Surete_. And now his tone was quietly conversational. + +"Smile!" he said. "Smile, Bob!--we're just having a friendly talk. I +won't live another two hours if they think anything else. But, Bob, my +friend--for God's sake, Bob, leave Paris to-night. I am taking the +midnight plane on the Transatlantic Line. Come with me--" + +One of the group at the table had risen; he was sauntering in our +direction. I played up to Paul's lead. + +"Glad I ran across you," I told him, and shook his extended hand that +gripped mine in an agony of pleading. "I'll be seeing you in New York +one of these days; I am going back soon." + + * * * * * + +But I didn't go soon enough. The unspoken pleading in Paul +Stravoinski's eyes lost its hold on me by another day. I had work to +do; why should I neglect it to go scuttling home because someone who +feared these swarming rats had begged me to run for cover? And the +French people were prepared. A little rioting, perhaps; a pistol shot +or two, and a machine-gun that would spring from nowhere and sweep the +street--! + +We know now of the document that the Russian Ambassador delivered to +the President of France, though no one knew of it then. He handed it +to the portly, bearded President at ten o'clock on the morning of +April thirtieth. And the building that had housed the Russian +representatives was empty ten minutes later. Their disguises must have +been ready, for if the sewers of Paris had swallowed them they could +have vanished no more suddenly. + +And the document? It was the same in substance as those delivered in +like manner in every capital of Europe: twenty-four hours were given +in which to assure the Central Council of Russia that the French +Government would be dissolved, that communism would be established, +and that its executive heads would be appointed by the Central +Council. + +And then the bulletins appeared, and the exodus began. Papers floated +in the air; they blew in hundreds of whirling eddies through the +streets. And they warned all true followers of the glorious Russian +faith to leave Paris that day, for to-morrow would herald the dawn of +a new heaven on earth--a Communistic heaven--and its birth would come +with the destruction of Paris.... + +I give you the general meaning though not the exact words. And, like +the rest, I smiled tolerantly as I saw the stream of men and women and +frightened children that filtered from the city all that day and +night; but I must admit that our smiles were strained as morning came +on the First of May, and the hour of ten drew near. + +Paris, the beautiful--that lovely blossom, flowering on the sturdy +stalk that was _La Belle France_! Paris, laughing to cover its +unspoken fears that morning in May, while the streets thudded to the +feet of marching men in horizon blue, and the air above was vibrant +with the endless roar of planes. + +This meant war; and mobilization orders were out; yet still the deadly +menace was blurred by a feeling of unreality. A hoax!--a huge +joke!--it was absurd, the thought of a distant people imposing their +will upon France! And yet ... and yet.... + + * * * * * + +There were countless eyes turned skyward as a thousand bells rang out +the hour of ten; and countless ears heard faintly the sound of gunfire +from the north. + +My work had brought me into contact with high officials of the French +Government; I was privileged to stand with a group of them where a +high-roofed building gave a vantage point for observation. With them I +saw the menacing specks on the horizon; I saw them come on with deadly +deliberation--come on and on in an ever-growing armada that filled the +sky. + +Wireless had brought the report of their flight high over Germany; it +was bringing now the story of disaster from the northern front. A +heavy air-force had been concentrated there; and now the steady stream +of radio messages came on flimsy sheets to the group about me, while +they clustered to read the incredible words. They cursed and glared at +one another, those French officials, as if daring their fellows to +believe the truth; then, silent and white of face, they reached numbly +for each following sheet that messengers brought--until they knew at +last that the air-force of France was no more.... + +The roar of the approaching host was deafening in our ears. Red--red +as blood!--and each unit grew to enormous proportions. Armored +cruisers of the air--dreadnaughts!--they came as a complete surprise. + +"But the city is ringed with anti-aircraft batteries," a uniformed man +was whispering. "They will bring the brutes down." + +The northern edge of the city flamed to a roaring wall of fire; the +batteries went into action in a single, crashing harmony that sang +triumphantly in our ears. A few of the red shapes fell, but for each +of these a hundred others swept down in deadly, directed flight. + +A glass was in my hand; my eyes strained through it to see the silvery +cylinders that fell from the speeding ships. I saw the red cruisers +sweep upward before the inferno of exploding bombs raged toward them +from below. And where the roar of batteries had been was only +silence. + + * * * * * + +The fleet was over the city. We waited for the rain of bombs that must +come; we saw the red cloud move swiftly to continue the annihilation +of batteries that still could fire; we saw the armada pass on and lose +itself among cloud-banks in the west. + +Only a dozen planes remained, high-hung in the upper air. We stared in +wonderment at one another. Was this mercy?--from such an enemy? It was +inconceivable! + +"Mercy!" I wonder that we dared to think the word. Only an instant +till a whistling shriek marked the coming of death. It was a single +plane--a giant shell--that rode on wings of steel. It came from the +north, and I saw it pass close overhead. Its propeller screamed an +insolent, inhuman challenge. Inhuman--for one glance told the story. +Here was no man-flown plane: no cockpit or cabin, no gunmounts. Only a +flying shell that swerved and swung as we watched. We knew that its +course was directed from above; it was swung with terrible certainty +by a wireless control that reached it from a ship overhead. + +Slowly it sought its target: deliberately it poised above it. An instant, +only, it hung, though the moment, it seemed, would never end--then +down!--and the blunt nose crashed into the Government buildings where at +that moment the Chamber of Deputies was in session ... and where those +buildings had been was spouting masonry and fire. + +A man had me by the arm; his fingers gripped into my flesh. With his +other hand he was pointing toward the north. "Torpedoes!" he was +saying. "Torpedoes of a size gigantic! _Ah, mon Dieu! mon Dieu!_ Save +us for we are lost!" + +They came in an endless stream, those blood-red projectiles; they +announced their coming with shrill cries of varying pitch; and they +swung and swerved, as the ships above us picked them up, to rake the +city with mathematical precision. + +Incendiary, of course: flames followed every shattering burst. Between +us and the Seine was a hell of fire--a hell that contained unnumbered +thousands of what an instant before had been living folk--men and +women clinging in a last terrified embrace--children whose white faces +were hidden in their mothers' skirts or buried in bosoms no longer a +refuge for childish fears. I saw it as plainly as if I had been given +the far-reaching vision of a god ... and I turned and ran with +stumbling feet where a stairway awaited.... + + * * * * * + +Of that flight, only a blurred recollection has stayed with me. I pray +God that I may never see it more clearly. There are sights that mortal +eyes cannot behold with understanding and leave mortal brain intact. +It is like an anaesthetic at such times, the numbness that blocks off +the horrors the eyes are recording--like the hurt of the surgeon's +scalpel that never reaches to the brain. + +Dimly I see the fragmentary scenes: the crashing fall of buildings +that come crumbling and thundering down, myself crawling like an +insect across the wreckage--it is slippery and wet where the stones +are red, and I stumble, then see the torn and mangled thing that has +caused me to fall.... A face regards me from another mound. I see the +dust of powdered masonry still settling upon it: the dark hair is +hardly disturbed about the face, so peaceful, so girlishly serene: I +am still wondering dully why there is only the head of that girl +resting on the shattered stone, as I lie there exhausted and watch the +next torpedo crash a block behind me.... The air is shrill with flying +fragments. I wonder why my hands are stained and sticky as I run and +crawl on my way. The red rocks are less slippery now, and the rats, +from the sewers of Paris!--they have come out to feed! + +Fragments of pictures--and the worst of them gone! I know that night +came--red night, under a cloud of smoke--and I found myself on the +following day descending from a fugitive peasant's cart and plodding +onward toward the markings of a commercial aerodrome. + +They could not be everywhere, those red vultures of the sky, and they +had other devils'-work to do. I had money, and I paid well for the +plane that carried me through that day and a night to the Municipal +Airport of New York. + + * * * * * + +The Red Army of occupation was halfway across communist Germany, +hailed as they went as the saviors of the world. London had gone the +way of Paris; Rome had followed; the countries of France and England +and Italy were beaten to their knees. + +"We who rule the air rule the world!" boasted General Vornikoff. The +Russian broadcasting station had the insolence to put on the air his +message to the people of America. I heard his voice as plainly as if +he stood in my office; and I was seeing again the coming of that +endless stream of aerial torpedoes, and the red cruisers hanging in +the heights to pick up control and dash the messengers of death upon a +helpless city. But I was visioning it in New York. + +"The masses of the American people are with us," said the complacently +arrogant voice. "For our fellow-workers we have only brotherly +affection; it is your capitalist-dominated Government that must +submit. And if it does not--!" I heard him laugh before he went on: + +"We are coming to the rescue of you, our brothers across the sea. Now +we have work to do in Europe; our gains must be consolidated and the +conquests of our glorious air-force made secure. And then--! We warn +you in advance, and we laugh at your efforts to prepare for our +coming. We even tell you the date: in thirty days the invasion begins. +It will end only at Washington when the great country of America, its +cruel shackles cast off from the laboring masses, joins the +Brotherhood--the Workers of the World!" + +There was a man from the War Department who sat across from me at my +desk; my factories were being taken over; my electric furnaces must +pour out molten metal for use in war. He cursed softly under his +breath as the voice ceased. + +"The dirty dog!" he exclaimed. "The lying hypocrite! He talks of +brotherhood to us who know the damnable inquisition and reign of +terror that he and his crowd have forced on Russia! Thirty days! Well, +we have three thousand planes ready for battle to-day; there'll be +more in thirty days! Now, about that vanadium steel--" + +But I'll confess I hardly heard him; I was hearing the roar of an +armada of red craft that ensanguined the sky, and I was seeing the +curving flight of torpedoes, each an airplane in itself.... + + * * * * * + +Thirty days!--and each minute of each hour must be used. In close +touch with the War Department, I knew much that was going on, and all +that I knew was the merest trifle in the vast preparations for +defense. My earlier apprehensions were dulled; the sight I had of the +whole force of a mighty nation welded into one driving power working +to one definite end was exhilarating. + +New York and Washington--these, it was felt, would be the points of +first attack; they must be protected. And I saw the flights of planes +that seemed endless as they converged at the concentration camps. +Fighters, at first--bombers and swift scouts--they came in from all +parts of the land. Then the passenger planes and the big mail-ships. +Transcontinental runs were abandoned or cut to a skeleton service of a +ship every hour for the transport of Government men. Even the slower +craft of the feeder lines were commandeered; anything that could fly +and could mount a gun. + +And the three thousand fighting ships, as the man from Washington had +said, grew to three times that number. Their roaring filled the skies +with thunder, and beneath them were other camps of infantry and +artillery. + +The Atlantic front was an armed camp, where highways no longer carried +thousands of cars on pleasure bent. By night and day I saw those +familiar roads from the air; they were solid with a never-ending line +of busses and vans and long processions of motorized artillery and +tanks, whose clattering bedlam came to me a thousand feet above. + +Yes, it was an inspiring sight, and I lost the deadly oppression and +the sense of impending doom--until our intelligence service told us of +the sailing of the enemy fleet. + + * * * * * + +They had seized every vessel in the waters of Europe. And--God pity +the poor, traitorous devils who manned them--there were plenty to +operate the ships. Two thousand vessels were in that convoy. Ringed in +as they were by a guard of destroyers and fighting craft of many +kinds, whose mast-heads carried the blood-red flag now instead of +their former emblems, our submarines couldn't reach them. + +But our own fleet went out to measure their strength, and a thousand +Navy planes took the air on the following day. + +Uppermost in my own mind, and in everyone's mind, I think, was the +question of air-force. + +Would they bring the red ships? What was their cruising range? Could +they cross the Atlantic with their enormous load of armored hull, or +must they be transported? Were the air-cruisers with the fleet, or +would they come later? + +How Vornikoff and his assassins must have laughed as they built the +monsters, armored them, and mounted the heavy guns so much greater +than anything they would meet! The rest of us--all the rest of the +world!--had been kept in ignorance.... And now our own fliers were +sweeping out over the gray waters to find the answer to our questions. + +I've tried to picture that battle; I've tried to imagine the feelings +of those men on the dreadnaughts and battle-cruisers and destroyers. +There was no attempt on the enemy's part to conceal his position; his +wireless was crackling through the air with messages that our +intelligence department easily decoded. Our Navy fliers roared out +over the sea, out and over the American fleet, whose every bow was a +line of white that told of their haste to meet the oncoming horde. + +The plane-carriers threw their fighters into the air to join the +cavalcade above--and a trace of smoke over the horizon told that the +giant fleet was coming into range. + + * * * * * + +And then, instead of positions and ranges flashed back from our own swift +scouts, came messages of the enemy's attack. Our men must have seen them +from the towers of our own fleet; they must have known what the red swarm +meant, as it came like rolling, fire-lit smoke far out in the sky--and +they must have read plainly their own helplessness as they saw our +thousand planes go down. They were overwhelmed--obliterated!--and the red +horde of air-cruisers was hardly checked in its sweep. + +Carnage and destruction, those blue seas of the north Atlantic have +seen; they could tell tales of brave men, bravely going to their death +in storm and calm but never have they seen another such slaughter as +that day's sun showed. + +The anti-aircraft guns roared vainly; some few of our own planes that +had escaped returned to add their futile, puny blows. The waters about +the ships were torn to foam, while the ships themselves were changed +to furnaces of bursting flame--until the seas in mercy closed above +them and took their torn steel, and the shattered bodies that they +held, to the silence of the deep.... + +We got it all at Washington. I sat in a room with a group of +white-faced men who stared blindly at a radiocone where a quiet voice +was telling of disaster. It was Admiral Graymont speaking to us from +the bridge of the big dreadnaught, _Lincoln_, the flagship of the +combined fleet. Good old Graymont! His best friend, Bill Schuler, +Secretary of the Navy, was sitting wordless there beside me. + +"It is the end," the quiet voice was saying; "the cruiser squadrons +are gone.... Two more battleships have gone down: there are only five +of us left.... A squadron of enemy planes is coming in above. Our men +have fought bravely and with never a chance.... There!--they've got +us!--the bombs! Good-by, Bill, old fellow--" + +The radiocone was silent with a silence that roared deafeningly in our +ears. And, beside me, I saw the Secretary of the Navy, a Navy now +without ships or men, drop his tired, lined face into his hands, while +his broad shoulders shook convulsively. The rest of us remained in our +chairs, too stunned to do anything but look at one another in horror. + + * * * * * + +We expected them to strike at New York. I was sent up there, and it +was there that I saw Paul again. I met him on lower Broadway, and I +went up to him with my hand reaching for his. I didn't admire Paul's +affiliations, but he had warned me--he had tried to save my life--and +I wanted to thank him. + +But his hand did not meet mine. There was a strange, wild look in his +eyes--I couldn't define it--and he brought his gaze back from far off +to stare at me as if I were a stranger. + +Then: "Still got that A.B.C. ship?" he demanded. + +"Yes," I answered wonderingly. + +"Junk it!" he said. And his laugh was as wild and incomprehensible as +his look had been. I stared after him as he walked away. I was +puzzled, but there were other things to think of then. + +A frenzy of preparation--and all in vain. The enemy fooled us; the +radio brought the word from Quebec. + +"They have entered the St. Lawrence," was the message it flashed. +Then, later: "The Red fleet is passing toward Montreal. Enemy planes +have spotted all radio towers. There is one above us now--" And that +ended the message from Quebec. + +But we got more information later. They landed near Montreal; they +were preparing a great base for offensive operations; the country was +overrun with a million men; the sky was full of planes by night and +day; there was no artillery, no field guns of any sort, but there were +torpedo-planes by tens of thousands, which made red fields of waiting +death where trucks placed them as they took them from the ships. + +And there were some of us who smiled sardonically in recollection of +the mammoth plants the Vornikoff Reds had installed in Central Russia, +and the plaudits that had greeted their plans for nitrogen fixation. +They were to make fertilizers; the nitrates would be distributed +without cost to the farms--this had pacified the Agrarians--and here +were their "nitrates" that were to make fertile the fields of Russia: +countless thousands of tons of nitro-explosives in these flying +torpedoes! + + * * * * * + +But if we smiled mirthlessly at these recollections we worked while we +chewed on our cud of bitterness. There came an order: "Evacuate New +England," and the job was given to me. + +With planes--a thousand of them--trucks, vans, the railroads, we +gathered those terrified people into concentration camps, and took +them over the ground, under the ground, and through the air to the +distributing camp at Buffalo, where they were scattered to other +points. + +I saw the preparations for a battle-front below me as I skimmed over +Connecticut. Trenches made a thin line that went farther than I could +see! Here was the dam that was expected to stop the enemy columns from +the north. I think no one then believed that our air-force could check +the assault. The men of the fighting planes were marked for death; one +read it in their eyes; but who of us was not? + +How those giant cruisers would be downed no man could say, but we +worked on in a blind desperation; we would hold that invading army as +long as men could sight a gun; we would hold them back; and somehow, +someway, we must find the means to repel the invasion from the air! + +I saw the lines of track that made a network back to the trenches. +Like the suburban lines around New York, they would carry thousands of +single cars, each driven at terrific speed by the air plane propeller +at its bow. With these, the commanders could shift their forces to +whatever sector was hardest pressed. They would be bombed, of course, +but the hundreds of tracks would not all be destroyed--and the line +must be held! + +The line! it brought a strangling lump to my throat as I saw those +thin markings of trenches, the marching bodies of troops, the brave, +hopeless, determined men who went singing to their places in that +line. But my planes were winging past me; my job was ahead, where a +multitude still waited and prayed for deliverance. + + * * * * * + +We never finished the job; in two days the red horde was upon us. +Their swarming troops were convoyed by planes, but no effort was made +to fly over our lines and launch an attack. Were they feeling their +way? Did they think now that they would find us passive and +unresisting? Did they want to take our cities undamaged? Oh, we asked +ourselves a thousand questions with no answer to any--except the +knowledge that a million men were marching from the north; that their +fleet of planes would attack as soon as the troops encountered +resistance; that our batteries of anti-aircraft guns would harry them +as they came, and our air-fleet, held back in reserve, would take what +the batteries left.... + +My last planes with their fugitive loads passed close to the lines of +red troops. There were red planes overhead, but they let us pass +unhindered. Fleeing, driving wildly toward the south, we were +unworthy, it seemed, of even their contemptuous attention. But I was +sick to actual nausea at sight of the villages and cities where only a +part of the population had escaped. The roads, in front of the red +columns, were jammed with motors and with men and women and children +on foot: a hopeless tangle. + +I was watching the pitiful flight below me, cursing my own impotence +to be of help, when a shrill whistling froze me rigid to my controls. +I had heard it before--there could be no mistaking the cry of that +oncoming torpedo--and I saw the damnable thing pass close to my ship. + +I was doing two hundred--my motor was throttled down--but this inhuman +monster passed me as if my ship were frozen as unmoving as myself. It +tore on ahead. I saw an enemy plane above it some five thousand feet. +The torpedo was checked; I saw it poise; then it curved over and down. +And the screaming motor took up its cry that was like a thousand +devils until its sound was lost in the screams from below and the +infernal blast of its own explosion. + +Only a trial flight--an experiment to test their controls! No need for +me to try to tell you of the thoughts that tore me through and through +while I struggled to bring my ship to an even keel in the hurricane of +explosion that drove up at me from below. But I spat out the one word: +"Brotherhood!" and I prayed for a place in the front line where I +might send one shot at least against so beastly a foe. + + * * * * * + +That was somewhere in Massachusetts. Their foremost columns were close +behind. They came to a stop some fifty miles from our waiting line of +battle: I learned this when I got to Washington. And the reason, too, +was known; it was published in all the papers. There had been messages +to the President, broadcast to the world from an unknown source: + +"To the President of the United States--warning! This war must end. +You, as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces can bring it to a +close. I have prevailed upon the Red Army of the Brotherhood to halt. +They have listened to me. You, also, must take heed. + +"You will issue orders at once to withdraw all resistance. You will +disband your army, ground all your planes; bring all your artillery +into one place and prepare to turn the government of this country over +to the representatives of the Central Council. You will act at once." + +"This war is ended. All wars are ended forevermore. I have spoken." + +And the strange message was signed "Paul." + +The wild words of a maniac, it was thought at first. Yet the fact +remained that the enemy's advance had ceased. Who was this "Paul" who +had "prevailed upon the Red Army" to halt? + +And then the obvious answer occurred; it was a ruse on the part of the +Reds. They feared to attack; their strength was not as great as we had +thought--officers and men of all branches of the service took new +heart and plunged more frenziedly still into the work of preparation. + +There were direction-finders that had taken the message from several +stations; their pointers converged upon one definite location in +southern Ohio. Over an area of twenty square miles, that place was +combed for a sending radio where the message could have +originated--combed in vain. + + * * * * * + +The next demand came at ten on the following morning. + +"To the President of the United States: You have disregarded my +warning. You will not do so again; I have power to enforce my demands. +I had hoped that bloodshed and destruction might cease, but it is +plain that only that will save you from your own headstrong folly. I +must strike. At noon to-day the Capitol in Washington will be +destroyed. See that it is emptied of human life. I have spoken. Paul." + +A maniac, surely; yet a maniac with strange powers. For the graphs of +the radio direction-finders showed a curve. And when they were +assembled the reading could only mean that the instrument that had +sent the threat had moved over fifty miles during the few minutes of +its sending. This, I think, was what brought the order to vacate the +big domed building in Washington. + +Of course the Capitol Building had been searched; there was not a nook +nor corner from roof to basement but had been gone over in search of +an explosive machine. And now it was empty, and a guard of soldiers +made a solid cordon surrounding it. No one could approach upon the +ground; and, above, a series of circling patrol-planes, one squadron +above another, guarded against approach by air. With such a defense +the Capitol and its grounds seemed impregnable. + +My watch said 11:59; I held it in my hand and watched the seconds tick +slowly by. The city was hushed; it seemed that no man was so much as +breathing ... 11:59 :60!--and an instant later I heard the shriek of +something that tore the air to screaming fragments. I saw it as it +came on a straight, level line from the east; a flash like a meteor of +glistening white. It passed beneath the planes, that were motionless +by contrast, drove straight for the gleaming Capitol dome, passed +above it, and swept on in a long flattened curve that bent outward and +up. + +It was gone from my sight, though the shrieking air was still tearing +at my ears, when I saw the great building unfold. Time meant nothing; +my racing mind made slow and deliberate the explosion that lifted the +roofs and threw the walls in dusty masses upon the ground. So slow it +seemed!--and I had not even seen the shell that the white meteor-ship +had fired. Yet there was the beautiful building, expanding, +disintegrating. It was a cloud of dust when the concussion reached me +to dash me breathless to the earth.... + + * * * * * + +The white meteor was the vehicle of "Paul," the dictator. From it had +come the radio message whose source had moved so swiftly. I saw this +all plainly. + +There was a conference of high officials at the War Department +Building, and the Secretary summed up all that was said: + +"A new form of air-flight, and a new weapon more destructive than any +we have known! That charge of explosive that was fired at the Capitol +was so small as to be unseen. We can't meet it; we can only fight. +Fight on till the end." + +A message came in as we sat there, a message to the Commander-in-Chief +who had come over from the White House under military guard. + +"Surrender!" it demanded; "I have shown you my power; it is +inexhaustible, unconquerable. Surrender or be destroyed; it is the +dawn of a new day, the day of the Brotherhood of Man. Let bloodshed +cease. Surrender! I command it! Paul." + +The President of the United States held the flimsy paper in his hand. +He rose slowly to his feet, and he read it aloud to all of us +assembled there; read it to the last hateful word. Then: + +"Surrender?" he asked. He turned steady, quiet eyes upon the big flag +whose red and white and blue made splendid the wall behind him--and +I'll swear that I saw him smile. + + * * * * * + +We have had many presidents since '76; big men, some of them; tall, +handsome men; men who looked as if nature had moulded them for a high +place. This man was small of stature; the shortest man in all that +room if he had stood, but he was big--big! Only one who is great can +look deep through the whirling turmoil of the moment to find the +eternal verities that are always underneath--and smile! + +"Men must die,"--he spoke meditatively; in seeming communing with +himself, as one who tries to face a problem squarely and +honestly--"and nations must pass; time overwhelms us all. Yet there is +that which never dies and never surrenders." + +He looked about the room now, as if he saw us for the first time. + +"Gentlemen," he said quietly, "we have here an ultimatum. It is backed +by power which our Secretary of War says is invincible. We are faced +by an enemy who would annihilate these United States, and this new +power fights on the side of the enemy. + +"Must we go the way of England, of France, of all Europe? It would +seem so. The United States of America is doomed. Yet each one of us +will meet what comes bravely, if, facing our own end, we know that the +principles upon which this nation is founded must go on; if only the +Stars and Stripes still floats before our closing eyes to assure us +that some future day will see the resurrection of truth and of honor +and kindness among men. + +"We will fight, as our Secretary of War has said--fight on to the end. +We will surrender--never! That is our answer to this one who calls +himself 'Paul.'" + +We could not speak; I do not know how long the silence lasted. But I +know that I left that room a silent man among many silent men, in +whose eyes I saw a reflection of the emotion that filled my own heart. +It was the end--the end of America, of millions of American homes--but +this was better than surrender to such a foe. Better death than +slavery to that race of bloodthirsty oppressors. + + * * * * * + +But who was "Paul?" This question kept coming repeatedly to my mind. +The press of the country echoed the President's words, then dipped +their pens in vitriol to heap scorching invective upon the head of +the tyrant. The power of the Reds we might have met--or so it was +felt--but this new menace gave the invaders a weapon we could not +combat. It was power!--a means of flight beyond anything known!--an +explosive beside which our nitro compounds were playthings for a +child. + +"Who is Paul?" It was not only myself who asked the question through +those next long hours, but perhaps I was the only one in whose mind +was a disturbing certainty that the answer was mine if I could but +grasp it. + +I was remembering Paris; I was thinking of that peaceful, happy city +before the First of May, before the world had gone mad and a raging, +red beast had laid it waste and overrun it. And of Paul +Stravoinski--my friend "Straki" of college days--who had warned me. He +had known what was coming. He himself had said that he had prayed to +"them" for delay; that in a few weeks he would do--what?... And +suddenly I knew. + +Paul had succeeded; his research had ended in the dissection of the +atom; he had unleashed the sub-atomic power of matter. Only this could +explain the wild flight through the sky, the terrific explosion at the +Capitol. It was Paul--my friend, Paul Stravoinski--who was imposing +his will upon the world. + +I said nothing as I took off; the swiftest plane was at my command. I +might be wrong; I must not arouse false hopes; but I must find Paul. +And the papers were black with scareheads of another threat as I left +Washington: + +"You have twenty-four hours to surrender. There shall be one last day +of grace." Signed: "Paul." + +There was more of the wild talk of the beauties of this new +dispensation--a mixture of idealistic folly and of threats of +destruction. I needed no more to prove the truth of my suspicions. No +one but the Paul I had known could cling so tenaciously to his dreams; +no one but he could be so blind to the actual horror of the new +oligarchy he would impose upon the world. + +I flew alone; no one but myself must try to hunt him out. I paid no +attention to the radio direction of the last message; he would fly far +afield to send it; distance meant nothing to one who held his power. I +must look for him at his laboratory, that cluster of deserted +buildings that stood all alone by a distant railway siding; it was +there he had worked. + + * * * * * + +He met me with a pistol in his hand--a tiny gun that fired only a .22 +calibre bullet. + +"Put down your pop-gun," I told him and brushed through the open door +into the room that had been his laboratory. "I am unarmed, and I'm +here to talk business. + +"You are 'Paul'!" I shot the sentence at him as if it were a bullet +that must strike him down. + +He did not answer directly; just nodded in confirmation of some +unspoken thought. + +"You have found me," he said slowly; "you were the only one I feared." + +Then he came out with it, and his eyes blazed with a maniacal light. + +"Yes, I am Paul! and this 'pop-gun' in my hand is the weapon that +destroyed your Capitol at Washington. The bullet contained less than a +grain of tritonite; that is the name I have given my explosive." + +He aimed the little pistol toward me where I stood. "These bullets are +more lightly charged--they are to protect myself--and the one +ten-thousandth of a milligram in the end of each will blow you into +bits! Sit down. I will not be checked now. You will never leave this +place alive!" + +"Less than a grain of tritonite!"--and I had seen a great building go +down to dust at its touch! I sat down in the chair where he directed, +and I turned away from the fanatical glare of Paul's eyes to look +about me. + +There was poverty here no longer; no makeshift apparatus greeted my +eyes, but the finest of laboratory equipment. Paul read my thoughts. + +"They have been liberal," he told me; "the Central Council has +financed my work--though I have kept my whereabouts a secret even from +them. But they would not wait. I told you in Paris, and you did not +believe. And now--now I have succeeded! the research is done!" + + * * * * * + +He half turned to pick up a flake of platinum no larger than one's +finger-nail; it was a weight that was used on a delicate balance. + +"Matter is matter no longer," he said; "I have resolved it into +energy. I hold here in my hand power to destroy an army, or to drive a +fleet of ships. I, Paul, will build a new world. I will give to man a +surcease from labor; I will give him rest; I will do the work of the +world. My tritonite that can destroy can also create; it shall be used +for that alone. This is the end of war. Here is wealth; here is power; +I shall give it to mankind, and, under the rule of the Brotherhood, a +united world will arise and go forward to new growth, to a greater +civilization, to a building of a new heaven on earth." + +He was pacing up and down the room. His hands were shaking; the +muscles of his face that twitched and trembled were moulded into deep +lines. I sat there and realized that within that room, directly before +my eyes, was the Dictator of the World. It was true--I could not doubt +it--Paul Straki of college days had made his dreams come true; his +research was ended. And this new "Paul" who held in those trembling +hands the destinies of mankind, at whose word kings and presidents +trembled, was utterly mad! + +I tried to talk and tell him of the truth we knew was true. He would +have none of it; his dreams possessed him. In the bloody flag of this +new Russia he could see only the emblem of freedom; the men who +marched beneath that banner were his brothers, unwitting in the +destruction they wrought. It was all that they knew. But they fought +for the right. They would cease fighting now, and would join him in +the work of moulding a new race. And even their leaders, who had +sometimes opposed--were they not kind at heart? Had they not checked +the advance of an irresistible army to give him and his new weapon an +opportunity to open the eyes of the people? Theirs was no wish to +destroy; their hearts ached for their victims who refused to listen +and could be convinced only by force. + +And as he talked on there passed before my eyes the vision of an +aerial torpedo and a blood-red ship above, where these "kindly" men +who were Paul's allies turned the instrument of death upon huddled, +screaming folk--and laughed, no doubt, at such good sport. + + * * * * * + +I thought of many things. I was tensed one moment to throw myself upon +the man; and an instant later I was searching my mind for some +argument, some gleam of reason, with which I could tear aside the +illusions that held him. I saw him cross the room where a radio stood, +and he switched on the instrument for the news-broadcast service. The +shouting of an excited voice burst into the room. + +"The Reds have advanced," said the voice. "Their armies have crossed +the Connecticut line. They are within ten miles of the American +forces. The twenty-four hours of grace promised by the tyrant 'Paul' +was a lie. The battle is already on." + +I saw the tall figure of Paul sink to its former stoop; the lameness +that had vanished in the moment of his exaltation had returned. He +limped a pace or two toward me. + +"They said they would wait!" His voice was a hoarse whisper. "General +Vornikoff himself gave me his promise!" + +I was on my feet, then. "What matter?" I shouted. "What difference +does it make--a few hours or a day? Your damned patriots, your dear +brothers in arms--they are destroying us this instant! And not one of +our men but is worth more than the whole beastly mob!" + +I was wild with the picture that came so clear and plain before my +eyes. I had my pistol in my hand; I was tempted to fire. It was his +whisper that stopped me. + +"They have crossed Massachusetts! And Maida is there in Melford!" + + * * * * * + +There was no resisting his strength that tore my weapon from me. His +tritonite pistol was pressed into my side, and his hand upon my collar +threw me ahead of him toward a rear room, then out into a huge shed. I +had only a quick glimpse of the airplane that was housed there. It was +a white cylinder, and the stern that was toward me showed a +funnel-shaped port. + +I was thrown by that same furious strength through a door of the ship; +I saw Paul Stravoinski seat himself before some curious controls. The +ship that held me rose; moved slowly through an opened door; and with +a screech from the stern it tore off and up into the air. + +I have said Paul could fly; but the terrific flight of the screaming +thing that held us seemed beyond the power of man to control. I was +stunned with the thundering roar and the speed that held me down and +back against a cabin wall. + +How he found Melford, I cannot know; but he found it as a homing +pigeon finds its loft. He checked our speed with a sickening swiftness +that made my brain reel. There were red ships above, but they let the +white ship pass unchallenged. There were no Red soldiers on the +ground--only the marks where they had passed. + +From the distance came a never-ceasing thunder of guns. The village +was quiet. It still burned, blazing brightly in places, again +smouldering sluggishly and sending into the still air smoke clouds +whose fumes were a choking horror of burned flesh. There were bodies +in grotesque scattering about the streets; some of them were black and +charred. + +Paul Stravoinski took me with him as he dashed for a house that the +flames had not touched. And I was with him as he smashed at the door +and broke into the room. + + * * * * * + +There was splintered furniture about. A cabinet, whose glass doors had +been wantonly smashed, leaned crazily above its fallen books, now +torn, scuffed and muddy upon the floor. Through a shattered window in +the bed-room beyond came a puff of the acrid smoke from outside to +strangle the breath in my throat. On the floor in a shadowed corner +lay the body of a woman--a young woman as her clotted tangle of golden +hair gave witness. She stirred and moaned half-consciously.... And the +lined face of Paul Stravoinski was a terrible thing to see as he went +stumblingly across the room to gather that body into his arms. + +I had known Maida; I had seen their love begin in college days. I had +known a laughing girl with sunshine in her hair, a girl whose soft +eyes had grown so tenderly deep when they rested upon Paul--but this +that he took in his arms, while a single dry sob tore harshly at his +throat, this was never Maida! + +There were red drops that struck upon his hands or fell sluggishly to +the floor; the head and face had taken the blow of a clubbed rifle or +a heavy boot. The eyes in that tortured face opened to rest upon +Paul's, the lips were moving. + +"I told them of you," I heard her whisper. "I told them that you would +come--and they laughed." Unconsciously she tried to draw her torn clothing +about her, an instinctive reaction to some dim realization of her +nakedness. She was breathing feebly. "And now--oh, Paul!--Paul!--you--have +come--too late!" + + * * * * * + +I hardly think Paul knew I was there or sensed that I followed where +he carried in his arms the bruised body that had housed the spirit of +Maida. He flew homeward like a demon, but he moved as one in a dream. + +Only when I went with him into the room where he had worked, did he +turn on me in sudden fury. + +"Out!" he screamed. "Get out of my sight! It is you who have done +this--your damned armies who would not do as I ordered! If you had not +resisted, if you had--" + +I broke in there. + +"Did we do that?" I outshouted him, and I pointed to the torn body on +a cot. His eyes followed my shaking hand. "No, it was your +brothers--your dear comrades who are bringing the brotherhood of men +into the world! Well, are you proud? Are you happy and satisfied--with +what your brothers do with women?" + +It must be a fearful thing to have one's dreams turn bitter and +poisonous. Paul Stravoinski seemed about to spring upon me. He was +crouched, and the muscles of his thin neck were like wire; his face +was a ghastly thing, his eyes so staring bright, and the sensitive +mouth twisting horribly. But he sprang at last not at me but toward +the door, and without a word from his tortured lips he opened it and +motioned me out. + +Even there I heard echoes of distant guns and the heavier, thudding +sounds that must be their aerial torpedoes. My feet were leaden as I +strained every muscle to hurry toward my ship. Through my mind was +running the threat of the Russian, Vornikoff: "We even tell you the +date: in thirty days." And this was the thirtieth day--thirty days +that a state of war had existed. + + * * * * * + +The battle was on; the radio had spoken truly. I saw its raging fires +as I came up from our rear where the gray-like smoke clouds shivered +in the unending blast. But I saw stabbing flames that struck upward +from the ground to make a wall of sharp, fiery spears, and I knew that +every darting flame was launching a projectile from our anti-aircraft +guns. + +The skies were filled with the red aircraft of the enemy, but their +way was an avenue of hell where thousands of shells filled the air +with their crashing explosions. There were torpedoes, the unmanned +airships whose cargo was death, and they were guided to their marks +despite the inferno that raged about the red ships above. + +I saw meteors that fell, the red flames that enveloped them no redder +than the bodies of the ships. And, as I leaped from my plane that I +had landed back of our lines, I sensed that the enemy was withdrawing. + +There was a colonel of artillery--I had known him in days of +peace--and he threw his arms around me and executed a crazy dance. +"We've beaten them back, Bob!" he shouted, and repeated it over and +over in a delirium of joy. + +I couldn't believe it; not those cruisers that I had seen over Paris. +Another brief moment showed my fears were all too rational. + +A shrieking hailstorm of torpedoes preceded them; the ships were +directing them from afar. And, while some of the big shells went wild +and overshot our lines, there were plenty that found their mark. + +I was smashed flat by a stunning concussion. Behind me the place where +Colonel Hartwell had stood was a smoking crater; his battery of guns +had been blasted from the earth. Up and down the whole line, far +beyond the range of my sight, the eruption continued. The ground was a +volcano of flame, as if the earth had opened to let through the +interior fires, and the air was filled with a litter of torn bodies +and sections of shattered guns. + +No human force could stand up under such a bombardment. Like others +about me, I gripped tight upon something within me that was my +self-control, and I marveled that I yet lived while I waited for the +end. + + * * * * * + +Beyond the smoke clouds was a hillside, swarming with figures in red; +solid masses of troops that came toward us. Above was the red fleet, +passing safely above our flame-blasted lines; there were bombs falling +upon those batteries here and there whose fire was unsilenced. And +then, from the south, came a roar that pierced even the bedlam about +me. The sun shone brightly there where the smoke-clouds had not +reached, and it glinted and sparkled from the wings of a myriad of our +planes. + +There was something that pulled tight at my throat; I know I tore at +it with fumbling hands, as if that something were an actual band that +had clamped down and choked me, while I stared at that true line of +sharp-pointed V's. The air-force of the United States had been ordered +in; and they were coming, coming--to an inevitable death! + +I tried to tear my eyes away from that oncoming fleet, but I could not +move. I saw their first contact with the enemy; so small, they were, +in contrast with the big red cruisers. They attacked in formations; +they drove down and in; and they circled and whirled before they +fluttered to earth.... + +Dimly, through the stupor that numbed my brain, I heard men about me +shouting with joy. I felt more than saw the fall of a monster red +craft; it struck not far away. The voices were thanking God--for what? +Another red ship fell--and another; and through all the roaring +inferno a sound was tearing--a ripping, terrible scream that went on +and on. And above me, when I forced my eyes upward, was a flash of +white. + +It darted like a live thing among the red ones whose guns blazed +madly--and the red ships in clotted groups fell away and over and down +as the white one passed. They had been burst open where some power had +blasted them, and their torn hulls showed gaping as they fell. + +For a time the air was silent and empty above; the white, flashing +thing had passed from sight, for the line of red ships was long. Then +again it returned, and it threw itself into the mad whirl in the south +where the air-force of the American people was fighting its last +fight. + +I was screaming insanely as I saw it come back. The white ship!--the +blast of vapor from its funneled stern--It was Paul!--Paul +Stravoinski!--Paul the Dictator!--and he was fighting on our side! + + * * * * * + +His ship had been prepared; I had seen the machine-guns on her bow. +Paul was working them from within, and every bullet was tipped with +the product of his brain--the deadly tritonite! + +The white flash swung wide in a circle that took it far away. It came +back above the advancing army of the Reds. It swerved once wildly, +then settled again upon its course, and the raging hell that the Reds +had turned loose upon our lines was as nothing to the destruction that +poured upon the Red troops from above. + +A messenger of peace, that ship; I knew well why Paul had painted it +white. And, instead of peace--! + +He was flying a full mile from our lines, yet the torn earth and great +boulders crashed among us even then. There were machine-guns firing +ceaselessly from the under side of the ship. What charges of tritonite +had the demented man placed in those shells? + +Below and behind it, as it flashed across our view, was a fearful, +writhing mass where the earth itself rose up in unending, convulsive +agony. A volcano of fire followed him, a fountain of earth that ripped +and tore and stretched itself in a writhing, tortured line across the +land as the white ship passed. + +No man who saw that and lived has found words to describe the progress +of that monstrous serpent; the valley itself is there for men to see. +The roar was beyond the limit of men's strained nerves. I found myself +cowering upon the ground when the white ship came back; I followed it +fearfully with my eyes until I saw it swoop falteringly down. Such +power seemed not for men but for gods; I could not have met Paul +Stravoinski then but in a posture of supplication. But I leaped to my +feet and raced madly across the torn earth as I saw the white ship +touch the ground--rise--fall again--and end its flight where it +ploughed a furrow across a brown field.... + + * * * * * + +I raised Paul Stravoinski's head in my arms where I found him in the +ship. An enemy shell had entered that cabin; it must have come early +in the fight, but he had fought gamely on. And the eyes that looked up +into mine had none of the wild light I had seen. They were the eyes of +Paul Straki, the comrade of those few long years before, and he smiled +as he said: "_Voila_, friend Bob: _c'est fini!_ And now I go for a +long, long walk. We will talk of poetry, Maida and I...." + +But his dreams were still with him. He opened his eyes to stare +intently at me. "You will see that it is not in vain?" he questioned; +then smiled as one who is at peace, as he whispered: "Yes, I know you +will--my friend, Bob--" + +And his fixed gaze went through and beyond me, while he tried, in +broken sentences, to give the vision that had been his. So plain it +was to him now. + +"The wild work--of a mistaken people. America will undo it.... A world +at peace.... The vast commerce--of the skies--I see it--so clearly.... +It will break down--all barriers.... A beautiful, happy world...." + +His lips moved feebly at the last. I could not speak; could not even +call him by name; I could only lean my head closer to hear. + +One whispered word; then another: a fragment of poetry! I had heard +him quote it often. But the whispered words were not for me. Paul was +speaking to someone beside him--someone my blind, human eyes could not +see.... + + * * * * * + +I am writing these words at my desk in the great Transportation +Building in New York. It stands upon the site of the Chrysler Building +that towered here--until one of the flying torpedoes came over to hunt +it out. They landed several in New York; how long ago it all seems +that the threat of utter destruction hung over the whole nation--the +whole world. + +And now from my window I see the sparkling flash of ships. The air is +filled with them; I am still unaccustomed to their speed. But a wisp +of vapor from each bell-shaped stern throws them swiftly on their way; +it marks the continuous explosion of that marvel of a new +age--tritonite! There are tremendous terminals being built; the +air-transport lines are being welded into efficient units that circle +the world; and the world is becoming so small! + +The barriers are gone; all nations are working as one to use wisely +this strange new power for the work of this new world. No more +poverty; no more of the want and desperate struggle that leads a whole +people into the insane horrors of war; it is a glorious world of which +we dream and which is coming slowly to be.... + +But I think we must dream well and work well to bring to actuality the +beautiful visions in those far-seeing eyes of the man called +Paul--Dictator, one time, of the whole world. + + +LISTENING TO ANTS + + +Two scientists of the University of Pittsburgh recently perfected an +apparatus for detecting the sounds of underground communications among +ants. A block of wood was placed upon the diaphragm of an ordinary +telephone transmitter, which in turn was connected through batteries +and amplifiers to a pair of earphones. When the termites crawled over +the block of wood the transmitter was agitated, resulting in sound +vibrations which were clearly heard by the listener at the headset. + +When the ants became excited over something or other their soldiers +were found to hammer their heads vigorously on the wood. This action +could be clearly seen and heard at the same time. The investigators +found that the ants could hear sound vibrations in the air very poorly +or not at all, but were extremely sensitive to vibrations underground. +For this reason it was thought that the head hammering was a method of +communication. + +Because of this sensitivity to substratum vibrations, ants are seldom +found to infest the ties of railroads carrying heavy traffic, or +buildings containing machinery. + + + + +The Earthman's Burden + +_By R. F. Starzl_ + +[Illustration: _And then he jumped._] + +[Sidenote: There is foul play on Mercury--until Denny Olear of the +Interplanetary Flying Police gets after his man.] + + +Denny Olear was playing blackjack when the colonel's orderly found +him. He hastily buttoned his tunic and in a few minutes, alert and +very military, was standing at attention in the little office on the +ground floor of the Denver I. F. P. barracks. His swanky blue uniform +fitted without a wrinkle. His little round skullcap was perched at the +regulation angle. + +"Olear," said the colonel, "they're having a little trouble at the +Blue River Station, Mercury." + +"Trouble? Uh-huh," Olear said placidly. + +The colonel looked him over. He saw a man past his first youth. +Thirty-five, possibly forty. Olear was well-knit, sandy-haired, not +over five feet six inches in height. His hair was close-cropped, his +features phlegmatic, his eyes a light blue with thick, short, +light-colored lashes, his teeth excellent. A scar, dead white on a +brown cheekbone, was a reminder of an "encounter" with one of the +numerous sauriens of Venus. + +"I'm sending you," explained the colonel, "because you're more +experienced, and not like some of these kids, always spoiling for a +fight. There's something queer about this affair. Morones, factor of +the Blue River post, reports that his assistant has disappeared. +Vanished. Simply gone. But only three months ago the former +factor--Morones was his assistant--disappeared. No hide nor hair of +him. Morones reported to the company, the Mercurian Trading +Concession, and they called me. Something, they think, is rotten." + +"Yes, sir." + +"I guess I needn't tell you," the colonel went on, "that you have to +use tact. People don't seem to appreciate the Force. What with the +lousy politicians begrudging every cent we get, and a bunch of +suspicious foreign powers afraid we'll get too good--" + +"Yeah, I know. Tact, that's my motto. No rough stuff." He saluted, +turned on his heel. + +"Just a minute!" The colonel had arisen. He was a fine, ascetic type +of man. He held out his hand. + +"Good-by, Olear. Watch yourself!" + +When Olear had taken his matter-of-fact departure the colonel ran his +fingers through his whitening hair. In the past several months he had +sent five of his best men on dangerous missions--missions requiring +tact, courage, and, so it seemed, very much luck. And only two of the +five had come back. In those days the Interplanetary Flying Police did +not enjoy the tremendous prestige it does now. The mere presence of a +member of the Force is enough, in these humdrum days of interplanetary +law and order, to quell the most serious disturbance anywhere in the +solar system. But it was not always thus. This astounding prestige +had to be earned with blood and courage, in many a desperate and +lonely battle; had to be snatched from the dripping jaws of death. + + * * * * * + +Olear checked over his flying ovoid, got his bearings from the port +astronomer, set his coordinate navigator and shoved off. Two weeks +later he plunged into the thick, misty atmosphere on the dark side of +Mercury. + +Ancient astronomers had long suspected that Mercury always presented +the same side to the sun, though they were ignorant that the little +planet had water and air. Its sunward side is a dreary, sterile, hot +and hostile desert. Its dark side is warm and humid, and resembles to +some extent the better known jungles and swamps of Venus. But it has a +favored belt, some hundreds of miles wide, around its equator, where +the enormous sun stays perpetually in one spot on the horizon. Sunward +is the blinding glare of the desert; on the dark side, enormous banks +of lowering clouds. On the dark margin of this belt are the +"ringstorms," violent thunderstorms that never cease. They are the +source of the mighty rivers which irrigate the tropical habitable belt +and plunge out, boiling, far into the desert. + +Olear's little ship passed through the ringstorms, and he did not take +over the controls until he recognized the familiar mark of the trading +company, a blue comet on the aluminum roof of one of the larger +buildings. Visibility was good that day, but despite the unusual +clarity of the atmosphere there was a suggestion of the sinister about +the lifeless scene--the vast, irresistible river, the riotously +colored jungle roof. The vastness of nature dwarfed man's puny work. +One horizon flashed incessantly with livid lightning, the other was +one blinding blaze of the nearby sun. And almost lost below in the +savage landscape was man's symbol of possession, a few metal sheds in +a clear, fenced space of a few acres. + +Olear cautiously checked speed, skimmed over the turbid surface of the +great river, and set her down on the ground within the compound. With +his pencil-like ray-tube in his hand he stepped out of the hatchway. + + * * * * * + +A Mercurian native came out of the residence, presently, his hands +together in the peace sign. For the benefit of Earthlubbers whose only +knowledge of Mercury is derived from the teleview screen, it should be +explained that Mercurians are _not_ human, even if they do slightly +resemble us. They hatch from eggs, pass one life-phase as frog-like +creatures in their rivers, and in the adult stage turn more human in +appearance. But their skin remains green and fish-belly white. There +is no hair on their warty heads. Their eyes have no lids, and have a +peculiar dead, staring look when they sleep. And they carry a +peculiar, fishy odor with them at all times. + +This Mercurian looked at Olear seemingly without interest. + +"Where is Morones?" the officer inquired. + +"Morones?" the native piped, in English. "Inside. He busy." + +"All right. I'm coming in." + +"He busy." + +"Yeah, move over." + +Though the native was a good six inches taller than Olear he stepped +aside when the officer pushed him. Men--and Mercurians--had a way of +doing that when they looked into those colorless eyes. They were not +as phlegmatic as the face. Morones was sitting in his office. + +"Well, I'm here," Olear announced, helping himself to a chair. + +"Yes"--sourly. "Who invited you?" + +Olear looked at the factor levelly, appraising him. A big man, fat, +but the fat well distributed. Saturnine face, dark hair, dark and +bristly beard. The kind that thrived where other men became weak and +fever-ridden. Also, to judge by his present appearance, an unpleasant +companion and a nasty enemy. + +"Don't see what difference it makes to you," Olear answered in his own +good time; "but the company invited me." + +"They would!" Morones growled. His eyes flickered to the door, and +quick as a cat, Olear leaped to one side, his ray-pencil in his hand. + +Morones had not moved, and in the door stood the native, motionless +and without expression. Morones laughed nastily. + +"Kind of jumpy, eh? What is it, Nargyll?" + + * * * * * + +Nargyll burst into a burbling succession of native phrases, which +Olear had some difficulty following. + +"Nargyll wants to move your ship into one of the sheds, but the +activator key's gone." + +"Yeah, I know," Olear assented casually. "I got it. Leave the ship +till I get ready. Then I'll put it away. Get out, Nargyll." + +The native, hesitated, then on the lift of Morones' eyebrows departed. +Olear shifted a chair so that he could watch both Morones and the +door. He reopened the conversation easily: + +"Well, we understand each other. You don't want me here and I'm here. +So what are you going to do about it?" + +Morones flushed. He struggled to keep his temper down. + +"What do you want to know?" + +"What happened to the factor who was here before you?" + +"I don't know. The translucene wasn't coming in like it should. Sammis +went out into the jungle for a palaver with the chiefs to find out +why. And he didn't come back." + +"You didn't find out where he went?" + +"I just told you," Morones said impatiently, "he went out to see the +native chiefs." + +"Alone?" + +"Of course, alone. There were only two of us Earthmen here. Couldn't +abandon this post to the wogglies, could we? Not that it'd make much +difference. Except for Nargyll, none'll come near." + +"You never heard of him again?" + +"No! Dammit, no! Say, didn't they have any dumber strappers around +than you? I told you once--I tell you again--I never saw hide nor hair +of him after that." + +"Aw-right, aw-right!" Olear regarded Morones placidly. "And so you +took the job of factor and radioed for an assistant, and when the +assistant came he disappeared." + +Morones grunted, "He went out to get acquainted with the country and +didn't come back." + + * * * * * + +Olear masked his close scrutiny of the factor under his idle and +expressionless gaze. He was not ready to jump to the conclusion that +Morones' uneasiness sprang from a sense of guilt. Guilty or not, he +had a right to feel uneasy. The man would be dense indeed if he did +not realize he was in line for suspicion, and he did not look dense. +Indeed, he was obviously a shrewd character. + +"Let me see your 'lucene." + +Morones rose. Despite his bulk he stepped nimbly. He had the +nimbleness of a Saturnian bear, which is great, as some of the earlier +explorers learned to their dismay. + +"That's the first sensible question you've asked," Morones snorted. +"Take a look at our 'lucene. Ha! Have a good look!" + +He led the way across the compound, waved his hand before the door of +a strongly built shed in a swift, definite combination, and the door +opened, revealing the interior. He waved invitingly. + +"You go first," Olear said. + +With a sneer Morones stepped in. "You're safe, boy, you're safe." + +Olear looked at the small pile on the floor in astonishment. Instead +of the beautiful, semi-transparent chips of translucene, the dried sap +of a Mercurian tree which is invaluable to the world as the source of +an unfailing cancer cure, there were only a few dirty, dried up +shavings, hardly worth shipping back to Earth for refining. The full +significance of the affair began to dawn on the officer. The +translucene trees grew only in this favored section of Mercury, and +the Earth company had a monopoly of the entire supply. Justly, for +only on Earth was cancer known, and it was on the increase. That +small, almost useless pile on the floor connoted a terrible drug +famine for the human race. + + * * * * * + +Morones' smile might have been a grin of satisfaction, at Olear's +question: + +"Is that all you've bought since the last freighter was here?"' + +"It is," he replied. "The last load went off six months ago, and this +here shed should be full to the eaves. There'll be hell to pay." + +"It may not be tactful," Olear remarked, "but if you've got your +takings cached away somewhere to hold up the Earth for a big ransom, +you'd better come across right now. You can't get by with it, fellow. +You should have close to six million dollars' worth of it, and you +can't get away. You just can't." + +Morones controlled his anger with an effort. + +"Like any dumb strapper, you've got your mind made up, ain't you? +Well, go ahead. Get something on me. Here I was almost set to give you +a lead that might get you somewhere. And you come shooting +off--trying to make out I stole the 'lucene and killed those two +fellows, eh? Go ahead! Get something on me! But not on Company +grounds. You're leaving now!" + +With that he made a lunge at the officer, quite beside himself with +rage. Olear could have burnt him down, but he was far too experienced +for such an amateurish trick. Instead he ducked to evade Morones' +blow. But the big man was as agile as a panther. In mid-air, so it +seemed, he changed his direction of attack. The big fist swept +downward, striking Olear's head a glancing blow. + +But the men of the Force have always been fighters, whatever their +shortcomings as diplomats. Olear countered with a strong right to the +body, thudding solidly, for Morones' softness did not go far below the +surface. The factor whirled instantly, but not quite fast enough to +bar the door. Olear was out and inside his ship in a few seconds, +slamming the hatch. + +"Tact!" he grinned to himself, inserting the activator key. "Tact is +what a fella needs." The little space flier shot aloft, until the tiny +figure of the factor stopped shaking its fist and entered the +residence. The post had a flier of its own, of course, but Morones was +too wise to use it in pursuit. + +Olear considered what was best to do. Of course he could have placed +Morones under arrest; could still do it; but that would not solve the +mystery of the two deaths and the missing 'lucene. If the choleric +factor was really guilty of the crimes, it would be better to let him +go his way in the hope that he would betray himself. Olear regretted +that he had not kept his tongue under closer curb. But there was no +use regretting. Perhaps, after all, he ought to turn back to pump +Morones for some helpful information. + + * * * * * + +His mind made up, he descended again until he was hovering a few feet +from the ground. + +"Morones!" he called. "Morones!" He held the hatch open. + +Morones came to the door of the residence. He had a tube in his hand, +a long-range weapon. + +"Morones," Olear declared pompously. "I place you under arrest!" + +The effect was instantaneous. Morones lifted the tube, and a +glimmering, iridescent beam sprang out. The ship was up and away in a +second, lurching and shivering uncomfortably every time the beam +struck it in its upward flight. A good few seconds continued +impingement.... + +But a miss is as good as a light-year. Miles high, Olear looked into +his telens. Morones had laid aside his tube and was working with an +instrument like a twin transit. Plotting the ship's course, naturally. +Olear set his course for the Earth, and kept on it for a good +twenty-four hours. Morones, if he was still watching him, would think +he'd gone back for reinforcements. Such an assumption would be +incredible now, but that was before the I. F. P. had achieved its +present tremendous reputation. + +Beyond observation range, Olear curved back toward Mercury again, and +was almost inside its atmosphere when he made a discovery that caused +him to lose for a moment his natural indifference, and to clamp his +jaws in anger. The current oxygen tank became empty, and when he +removed it from the rack and put in a new one he found someone had let +out all of this essential gas. The valve of every one of the spare +tanks had been opened. Had Olear actually continued on his way to +Earth he would have perished miserably of suffocation long before he +could have returned to the Mercurian atmosphere. The officer whistled +tunelessly through his teeth as he considered this fact. + +The visibility was by this time normal; that is, so poor it would have +been possible to land very close to the trading station. Olear was +taking no chances, however, and came down a good three Earth miles +away. The egg-shaped hull sank through the glossy, brilliant treetops, +through twisted vines, and was buried in the dank gloom of the jungle. +Here it might remain hidden for a hundred years. + + * * * * * + +The twilight of the jungle was almost darkness. Landmarks were not. +But Olear made a few small, inconspicuous marks on trees with his +knife until he came to an outcropping rock. He had noticed the +scarlike white of it slashing through the jungle from the air, and +used it as a guide to direct his stealthy return to the trading post. +His belt chronometer told him it would be about time for Morones to +get up from his "night's" sleep. A little discreet observation might +tell much. + +Long before he reached the compound, Olear heard the rushing of the +great Blue River in its headlong plunge to the corrosive heat of the +desert. And then, through the mists, he glimpsed the white metal walls +of the Company sheds. + +He climbed a tree and for a long time watched patiently, lying prone on +a limb. Blood-sucking insects tortured him, and flat tree-lice, +resembling discs with legs, crawled over him inquisitively. Olear +tolerated them with stoic indifference until at last his patience was +rewarded. Morones was coming out of the compound. He was alone and +obviously did not suspect that he was being watched, for he stepped +out briskly. Once in the jungle he walked even faster, watching out +warily for the panther-like carnivora that were the most dangerous to +man on Mercury. + +Olear shinned to the ground and followed cautiously. Morones had his +ray-tube with him, as any traveler in these jungles did. Olear could +and did draw fast, but a dead trader would be valueless to him in his +investigation, so he stalked him with every faculty strained to +maintain complete silence. Often, in occasional clearings where the +brown darkness grew less, he had to grovel on the slimy ground, +picking up large bacteria that could be seen with the naked eye, and +which left tiny, festering red marks on the skin. Mercury has no +snakes. + +The trader seemed to be heading for higher ground, for the path led +ever upward, though not far from the tossing waters of the river. And +then, suddenly, he disappeared. + +Olear did not immediately hurry after him. A canny fugitive, catching +sight of his pursuer, might suddenly drop to the ground and squirm to +the side of the trail, there to wait and catch his pursuer as he +passed. So Olear sidled into the all but impenetrable underbrush and +slowly, with infinite caution, wormed his way along. + + * * * * * + +Presently he came to the little rise of ground where Morones had +disappeared, but a painstaking search did not reveal the factor. There +were, however, a number of other trails that joined the very faint +trail he had been following, and now there was a well-defined track +which continued to lead upward. With a grimace of disgust Olear again +plunged into the odorous underbrush and traveled parallel to the +trail. It was well he did so, for several Mercurians passed swiftly, +intent, so it seemed, in answering a shrill call that at times came +faintly to the ear. They carried slender spears. + +Several more Mercurians passed. The growth was thinning out, and Olear +did not dare to proceed further. However, from his hiding place he +could discern a number of irregular cave openings, apparently leading +downward. They were apparently the entrances to one of the native +cavern colonies, or possibly of a meeting place. No Earthman had ever +entered one, but it was thought they had underground openings into the +river. + +As the cave openings were obviously natural, Olear conjectured that +there might be others that were not used. After an anxious search he +found one, narrow and irregular, well hidden under the broad, glossy +leaves of some uncatalogued vegetation. As it showed no evidence of +use, Olear unhesitatingly slid down into it. It was very narrow and +irregular, so that often he was barely able to squeeze through. The +roots of trees choked the passage for a dozen feet or so, requiring +the vigorous use of a knife. Bathed in sweat, his uniform a filthy +mass of rags, Olear at last saw light. + +The passage ended abruptly near the roof of a large natural cavern. +Lights glistened on stalactites which cut off Olear's larger view, and +voices came from below. By craning his neck the officer could look +between the pendent icicles of rock and see a fire burning on a huge +oblong block of stone. Figures were sitting on the floor around this +block--hundreds of Mercurians. The leaping flames made their white and +green faces and bodies look frog-like and less human than usual. + + * * * * * + +But the figure that dominated the whole assemblage, both by its own +hugeness and the magnetic power that flowed from it, was not of +Mercury but of Pluto. For the benefit of those who have never seen a +stuffed Plutonian in our museums--and they are very rare--let me refer +you to the pious books still to be found in ancient library +collections. The ancients personified their fears and hates in a being +they called the Devil. The resemblance between the Devil of their +imagination and a Plutonian is really astounding. Horns, hoofs, +tail--almost to the smallest detail, the resemblance is there. + +Philosophers have written books on the "coincidence" in appearance of +the ancient Devil and the modern decadent Plutonians. The Plutonians +were once numerous and far advanced in science, and no doubt they +called on the Earth many times, in prehistoric days, and the so-called +Devil was a true picture of those vicious invaders, who are somewhat +less human than usually portrayed. What was once classed as +superstition was therefore a true racial memory. Long before our +ancestors came out of their caves to build houses, the Plutonians had +mastered interplanetary travel--only to forget the secret until human +ingenuity should reveal it once more. + +The modern Plutonian in that dank cave was over ten feet tall, and it +is easy to see why he dominated the assemblage. His black visage was +set in an evil smile; his ebony body glistened in the firelight. He +held a three-pronged spear in one hand, and sat on a pile of rocks, a +sort of rough throne, so that he towered magnificently above all +others. + +He spoke the Mercurian language, although the liquid intonations came +harshly from his sneering lips. + +"Are ye assembled, frogfolk, that ye may hear the decision of your +Thinking Ones?" he asked. + + * * * * * + +A respectful peeping chorus signified assent. But in that there was a +hint of unrest; even of fear. + +"Speak, ye Thinking One, your commands!" + +"Hear me first!" An old Mercurian, unusually tall, faded and dry +looking, his thick hide wrinkled like crushed leather, rose slowly to +his feet and stepped before the oblong stone. His back was to the +Plutonian, his face to the crescent of chiefs. + +"The Old Wise One!" A twittering murmur went around the assemblage. +"Hear the Old Wise One!" + +"My people, I like this not!" began the ancient. "The Lords of the +Green Star[1] have dealt with us fairly. Each phase[2] they have +brought us the things we wanted"--he touched his spear and a few gaudy +ornaments on his otherwise naked body--"in exchange for the worthless +white sap of our trees. If we longer offend the Lords of the Green +Star--" + +[Footnote 1: In their various languages, almost all solar races call +Earth "The Green Star." Although conditions on Mercury are +unfavorable, Earth can be seen from the dark star, on mountain tops, +during occasional dispersals of the cloud masses.] + +[Footnote 2: The Mercurians had no conception of time before the +Earthmen came. A "phase" is the time between calls of the freight +ships, and is therefore variable; but in those days it was about six +or seven months.] + +A raucous laugh interrupted the Mercurian's feeble voice, and it +echoed eerily from the walls of the chamber. + +"Valueless ye call the white sap?" sneered the Plutonian. "Hear me. +That sap you call valueless is dearer than life itself to the Lords of +the Green Star. For they are afflicted in great numbers with a +stinking death they call cancer. It destroys their vitals, and +nothing--nothing in this broad universe can help them save this white +sap ye give them. In your hands ye have the power to bring the proud +Lords of the Green Star to their knees. They would fill this chamber +many times with their most priceless treasures for the sap ye give +them so freely. Withhold the sap, and your Thinking Ones may go to the +Green Star itself to rule over its Lords. They are desperate. Their +emissaries may even now be on the way to beg your pleasure. Speak, +Thinking Ones! Would ye not rule the Green Star?" + + * * * * * + +But the chiefs failed to become enthused. One of them rose and +addressed the Plutonian: + +"O Lord of the Outer Orbit! For near one full phase have ye dwelt +among us. And well should ye know we have no desire for conquest. We +fear to go to the Green Star to rule." + +"Then let me rule for ye!" exclaimed the Plutonian instantly. "My +brothers will abide with ye as your guests--shall see that ye receive +a fair reward for the white sap; and I will convey your commands to +the Lords of the Green Star." + +The Old Wise One raised his withered hands, so that the uncertain +twittering of voices which followed the Plutonian's suggestion +subsided. + +"My children," piped the feeble old voice, "the Black Lord has spoken +cunning words, but they are false. It is plain to see that he desires +to rule the Green Star, and our welfare does not concern him." + +"If so it be that the white sap is of great value to the Lords of the +Green Star, it is still of no value to us; and if the gifts they bring +to us are of no value to them, they are dear to us." + +The Plutonian sneered. + +"Dearer than the Paste of Strange Dreams?" + +A startled hush fell among the assembled Mercurians. They looked +guiltily at one another, avoiding the eyes of the Old Wise One. + +"What is this?" shrilled he, turning furiously to the Plutonian. "Have +ye brought the paste of evil to our abode, knowing well the strict +proscription of our tribe? Fool! Your death is upon ye!" + + * * * * * + +But the Plutonian only grinned and spread his glistening, black hands +in a careless gesture. High overhead, peering through the +stalactites, Olear instantly understood the Plutonian's strange power, +the Paste of Strange Dreams, a fearsome narcotic of that far-swinging +dark planet. More insidious and devastating than any drug ever +produced on Earth, it had wrought frightful havoc among many solar +races. The Earthmen had opened the lanes, broken the age-old barriers +of distance, so that the harpies of evil could traffic their poison +from planet to planet. So the Paste of Strange Dreams was added to the +Earthman's burden. + +"Seize him--the Evil One!" shrieked the old chief, but the Mercurians +sat sullen and silent, and the Plutonian sneered. + +Finally one of the chiefs arose and with an effort faced the Old Wise +One and said: + +"The Strange Dreams are dearer to us than all else. Do as he says." + +The piping voices rose in eager acclamation, but the Old Wise One held +up his claws, waiting until silence returned. + +"Wait! Wait! Before ye commit this folly, hear the Green Star man. +Many times has he demanded audience. Let him come in." + +"It is not permitted," demurred one of the chiefs. + +"Ye permitted this being of evil to enter; let him enter also." + +"He is in the outer chambers now," one of the guards spoke. "His face +is like the center of a ringstorm." + +"Let him enter!" + + * * * * * + +Morones strode into the room angrily. Blinded by the fire after the +darkness of the antechambers, he did not at first see the Plutonian. +He strode up to the ancient chief and glared at him. + +"Does the Old Wise One learn wisdom at last?" he rasped. The ancient +shrank away from him, as did the nearer of the lesser chiefs. + +"The Old Wise One thinks less of his wisdom," he replied wearily. +"Behold!" He pointed to the enthroned Plutonian. + +Morones started. His hand flashed to his side, and came away empty. +Deft fingers had extracted his ray-tube. But he was a man of courage. +Never could it be said to his shame that an Earthman cringed in the +sight of lesser races. + +"So it's you, my sooty friend!" he snarled in English. The Plutonian, +accomplished linguist, replied: + +"As you see. You don't look very happy, Mr. Morones." + +Morones regarded him impassively, his eyes frosty. + +"That explains everything," he said at last with cold deliberation. +"First Sammis, then Boyd. Going to finish me next, I suppose?" + +The Plutonian twisted the end of an eyebrow and smiled. + +"Interested in them?" + +"What'd you do with the bodies?" + +The Plutonian jerked his thumb carelessly. "The river you call the +Blue is swift and deep. But before you follow them there is certain +information I wish to get from you. Where is the soldier who came to +visit you?" + +A crafty light came into Morones' face. + +"He is not far from here, waiting for me." + + * * * * * + +Olear, in his cramped hiding place, could not help feeling a warm glow +of admiration for Morones' nerve, because Morones thought him well on +his way to Earth. + +"Nargyll, what did your master do with the visitor?" + +"Drove him back to the Green Star," Nargyll said promptly. + +"And the oxygen tanks. Did you empty them?" + +"I let them hiss." Nargyll's grin was sharkish. + +"News to you, eh, Morones? Your officer's corpse has probably dropped +into the sun by this time. Tell me, why did you drive him off?" + +Morones sagged perceptibly. To gain a little time he said truthfully: + +"I knew I should be blamed and ruined for life. I didn't know you were +here, damn you! I hoped to get this mess with the natives straightened +up before he'd come back with reinforcements." + +"Yes. Well, you owe some months of life already. Your presence here +has been more or less embarrassing, but I had to let you live or I'd +have had the whole I. F. P. here to investigate. Now that you've +failed in keeping them from getting interested you may do me one more +service." The black giant grinned. + +"I've often wondered at the Earthman's prestige all over the solar +system. Even to-night, soft and helpless as you are, these natives +fear you. You will, therefore, be an object lesson in the helplessness +of Earthmen." + + * * * * * + +Morones was pale but courageous. With contempt in every line of him he +watched some of the less frightened chiefs, at the command of the +Plutonian, push aside some of the blazing blocks of fungus on the +stone, to make room for his body. At last he raised his hand. + +"Frogfolk!" he cried, "if ye do this thing, the Lords of the Green +Star will come. They will come with fires hotter than the sun; they +will blast your rivers with a power greater than the thunder of the +ringstorms; they will fill your caves with a purple smoke that turns +your bones to water--" + +Shrill cries of fear almost drowned out his words. All the Mercurians +had seen evidences of the dreadful power of the Earthmen. They began +milling around, then stood rooted by the roar of the Plutonian's +voice. + +"Lies! Lies!" he bellowed. "See, they are weak as egglets!" He stepped +down, picked Morones up by one shoulder, and held him, dangling, high +over the heads of all. Morones clawed and tore at the brawny arm. He +made a ludicrous picture. Soon the simple natives made a sniffling +sound of mirth, and the Plutonian, satisfied at last, set him down +again. + +"He tells truth!" The Old Wise One had climbed to the top of the stone +block. "The Lords of the Green Star have their power not in their +bodies, but it is great. It is greater far than the frogfolk. It is +greater than the Lords of the Outer Orbit. They will come even as the +surly one has said, and great shall be our sorrow. It is not yet too +late. Release him, and deliver to him the white sap. Seize this evil +one--" + +The feeble, fickle minds were being swayed again. In a gust of +impatience, the Plutonian stepped down, seized the aged chief's skinny +body in his great black hands, and snapped him in two. There was a +tearing of tough cords and tissue, and the two halves fell into the +fire. + +For an instant the Mercurians were stunned. Then some of them vented +hissing sounds of rage, while others prostrated themselves on the +floor. The black giant watched them narrowly for a moment, then turned +his attention to Morones. He seized him by the arm and drew him slowly +and irresistibly to him. + + * * * * * + +The murder of the Old Wise One had been done so quickly that Olear was +unable to prevent it. Had he been able to use his ray weapon he could +have burned the Plutonian down, but it had been bent at one of the +narrow turns of the crevice he had come down. The need for extreme +lightness in weapons was rather overdone in those early times, and a +little rough handling made them useless. + +So now Olear, weaponless except for the service knife at his belt, +began the hazardous undertaking of climbing among the stalactites to a +position approximately above the Plutonian's head. The job required +judgment. Some of the stone masses were insecurely anchored and would +crash down at the lightest touch. Some were spaced so closely together +that he could not get between them. Others were so far apart that it +was difficult to get from one to another. + +Yet he made it somehow, and unnoticed, for all eyes were turned on the +tense drama being enacted below. From almost directly overhead he saw +Morones being drawn upward. + +"You saw," the Plutonian was saying triumphantly in Mercurian, "--you +saw me unmake your Old Fool. And now you will see that a Lord of the +Green Star is even softer, even weaker--" + +Morones, in that pitiless grasp, turned his face to the hateful +grinning visage above him. In his last extremity he was still angry. + +"You devil!" Morones shouted. "You may murder me, but they'll get you! +They'll get you!" + +"Who'll get me?" the Plutonian purred silkily, deferring the pleasure +of the kill for another moment. Morones was having trouble with his +breathing. His red face lolled from side to side, his eyes rolled in +agony. Suddenly he saw Olear. Unbelieving, he relaxed. + +"I'm seein' things!" he breathed. + +"Who'll get me?" persisted the Plutonian, applying a little more +pressure. + +"The I. F. P.!" Morones gasped. + +"Well, you little son-of-a-gun!" Olear thought, and then he jumped. + +He landed a-straddle the neck of the Plutonian, which was almost like +forking a horse. One brawny arm seized a horn. The other, with a +lightning-swift dart, brought the point of the long service-knife to +the pulsing black throat. + +"Put him down!" Olear spoke into the great pointed ear. "Easy!" + +Back on his feet, Morones began bellowing at the Mercurians. Utterly +demoralized, they fled pell-mell. Morones came back. He said: + +"Nothing to tie him up with." + +"That's all right," Olear replied, studiously keeping the knife point +at exactly the right place, "I'll ride him in. Get going, you, and be +tactful when you go through the door, or this sticker of mine might +slip!" With extreme care the Plutonian did exactly as Olear ordered +him to. + + * * * * * + +It was necessary to radio for one of the larger patrol ships to take +Olear's enormous prisoner back to Earth for his trial. The officer +testified, of course, and the Plutonian was duly sentenced to death +for the murder of the old Mercurian. Execution by dehydration was +decreed, so that the body would be uninjured for scientific study; and +to-day it is considered one of the finest specimens extant. + +In his testimony, however, Olear so minimized his own connection with +the case that he received no public recognition. It was not until some +months afterward, when Morones, on leave, rode back with a shipload of +translucene, that the whole story came out, emphatically and +profanely. Olear finally consented to speak a few words for the +Telephoto News Co. As he stepped off the little platform deferential +hands tried to push him back. + +"You haven't told them who you are," protested the announcer. "Give +your name and rank." + +"Aw, they don't have to know that!" Olear rejoined, keeping on going. +"They know it's one of the Force. That's all they have to know. +Besides there's a blackjack game going on and I'm losing money every +minute I'm out of it." + + + + +The Exile of Time + +PART THREE OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL + +_By Ray Cummings_ + + +WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE + +[Illustration: _"Look!" exclaimed Larry._] + +[Sidenote: Larry and George from 1935, Mary from 1777--all are caught +up in the treacherous Tugh's revolt of the Robots, in the Time-world +of 2930.] + + +There came a girl's scream, and muffled, frantic words. + +"Let me out! Let me out!" + +Then we saw her white face at the basement window. This, which was the +start of the extraordinary incidents, occurred on the night of June +8-9, 1935. + +My name is George Rankin, and with my friend, Larry Gregory, we +rescued the girl who was imprisoned in the deserted house on Patton +Place, New York City. We thought at first that she was demented--this +strangely beautiful girl in long white satin dress, white powdered wig +and a black beauty patch on her check. She said she had come from the +year 1777, that her father was Major Atwood, of General Washington's +staff! Her name was Mistress Mary Atwood. + +It was a strange story she had to tell us. A cage of shining metal +bars had materialized in her garden, and a mechanical man had come +from it--a Robot ten feet tall. It had captured her; brought her to +1935; left her, and vanished saying it would return. + +We went back to that house on Patton Place. The cage did return, and +Larry and I fought the strange monster. We were worsted, and the Robot +seized Mary and me and whirled us back into Time in its room-like cage +of shining bars. Larry recovered his senses, rushed into Patton +Place, and there encountered another, smaller, Time-traveling cage, +and was himself taken off in it. + +But the occupants of Larry's smaller cage were friendly. They were a +man and a girl of 2930 A.D.! The girl was the Princess Tina, and the +man, Harl, a young scientist of that age. With an older scientist--a +cripple named Tugh--Harl had invented the Time-vehicles. + + * * * * * + +We had heard of Tugh before. Mary Atwood had known him in the year +1777. He had made love to her, and when repulsed had threatened +vengeance against her father. And in 1932, a cripple named Tugh had +gotten into trouble with the police and had vowed some strange weird +vengeance against the city officials and the city itself. More than +that, the very house on Patton Place from which we had rescued Mary +Atwood, was owned by this man named Tugh, who was wanted by the police +but could not be found! + +Tugh's vengeance was presently demonstrated, for in June, 1935, a +horde of Robots appeared. With flashing swords and red and violet +light beams the mechanical men spread about the city massacring the +people; they brought midsummer snow with their frigid red rays; and +then, in a moment, torrid heat and boiling rain. Three days and nights +of terror ensued; then the Robots silently withdrew into the house on +Patton Place and vanished. The New York City of 1935 lay wrecked; the +vengeance of Tugh against it was complete. + +Larry, going back in Time now, was told by Harl and Princess Tina that +a Robot named Migul--a mechanism almost human from the Time-world of +2930--had stolen the larger cage and was running amuck through Time. +The strange world of 2930 was described to Larry--a world in which +nearly-human mechanisms did all the work. These Robots, diabolically +developed, were upon the verge of revolt. The world of machinery was +ready to assail its human masters! + +Migul was an insubordinate Robot, and Harl and Tina were chasing it. +They whirled Larry back into Time, and they saw the larger cage stop +at a night in the year 1777--the same night from which Mary Atwood had +been stolen. They stopped there. Harl remained in the little cage to +guard it, while Tina and Larry went outside. + +It was night, and the house of Major Atwood was nearby. British +redcoats had come to capture the colonial officer; but all they found +was his murdered body lying in the garden. Migul the Robot had chained +Mary and me to the door of his cage; had briefly stopped in the garden +and killed the major, and then had departed with us. + + * * * * * + +We now went back to the Beginning of Time, for the other cage was +again chasing us. Reaching the Beginning, we swept forward, and the +whole vast panorama of the events of Time passed in review before us. +Suddenly we found that Tugh himself was hiding in our cage! We had not +known it, nor had Migul, our Robot captor. Tugh was hiding here, not +trusting Migul to carry out his orders! + +We realized now that all these events were part of the wild vengeance +of this hideously repulsive cripple. Migul was a mere machine carrying +out Tugh's orders. Tugh, in 2930, was masquerading as a friend of the +Government; but in reality it was he who was fomenting the revolt of +the Robots. + +Tugh now took command of our cage. The smaller cage had only Harl in +it now, for Larry and Tina were marooned in 1777. Harl was chasing us. +Tugh stopped us in the year 762 A.D. We found that the space around +us now was a forest recently burned. Five hundred feet from us was the +space which held Harl's cage. + +Presently it materialized! Mary and I were helpless. We stood watching +Tugh, as he crouched on the floor of our cage near its opened doorway. +A ray cylinder was in his hand, with a wire running to a battery in +the cage corner. He had forced Mary and me to stand at the window +where Harl would see us and be lured to approach. + +From Harl's cage, five hundred feet across the blackened forest glade +of that day of 762, Harl came cautiously forward. Abruptly Tugh fired. +His cylinder shot a horizontal beam of intense actinic light. It +struck Harl full, and he fell. + +Swiftly his body decomposed; and soon in the sunlight of the glade lay +a sagging heap of black and white garments enveloping the skeleton of +what a moment before had been a man! + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A Very Human Princess + +That night in 1777 near the home of the murdered Major Atwood brought +to Larry the most strangely helpless feeling he had ever experienced. +He crouched with Tina beneath a tree in a corner of the field, gazing +with horror at the little moonlit space by the fence where their +Time-traveling vehicle should have been but now was gone. + +Marooned in 1777! Larry had not realized how desolately remote this +Revolutionary New York was from the great future city in which he had +lived. The same space; but what a gulf between him and 1935! What a +barrier of Time, impassable without the shining cage! + +They crouched, whispering. "But why would he have gone, Tina?" + +"I don't know. Harl is very careful; so something or someone must have +passed along here, and he left, rather than cause a disturbance. He +will return, of course." + +"I hope so," whispered Larry fervently. "We are marooned here, Tina! +Heavens, it would be the end of us!" + +"We must wait. He will return." + +They huddled in the shadow of the tree. Behind them there was a +continued commotion at the Atwood home, and presently the mounted +British officers came thudding past on the road, riding for +headquarters at the Bowling Green to report the strange Atwood murder. + +The night wore on. Would Harl return? If not to-night, then probably +to-morrow, or to-morrow night. In spite of his endeavor to stop +correctly, he could so easily miss this night, these particular hours. + +Harl had met his death, as I have described. We never knew exactly +what he did, of course, after leaving that night of 1777. It seems +probable, however, that some passer-by startled him into flashing away +into Time. Then he must have seen with his instrument evidence of the +other cage passing, and impulsively followed it--to his death in the +burned forest of the year 762. + + * * * * * + +Larry and Tina waited. The dawn presently began paling the stars; and +still Harl did not come. The little space by the fence corner was +empty. + +"It will soon be daylight," Larry whispered. "We can't stay here: +we'll be discovered." + +They were anachronisms in this world; misfits; futuristic beings who +dared not show themselves. + +Larry touched his companion--the slight little creature who was a +Princess in her far-distant future age. But to Larry now she was just +a girl. + +"Frightened, Tina?" + +"A little." + +He laughed softly. "It would be fearful to be marooned here +permanently, wouldn't it? You don't think Harl would desert us? +Purposely, I mean?" + +"No, of course not." + +"Then we'll expect him to-morrow night. He wouldn't stop in the +daylight, I guess." + +"I don't think so. He would reason that I would not expect him." + +"Then we must find shelter, and food, and be here to-morrow night. It +seems long to us, Tina, but in the cage it's just an instant--just a +trifle different setting of the controls." + +She smiled her pale, stern smile. "You have learned quickly, Larry. +That is true." + +A sudden emotion swept him. His hand found hers; and her fingers +answered the pressure of his own. Here in this remote Time-world they +felt abruptly drawn together. + +He murmured, "Tina, you are--" But he never finished. + +The cage was coming! They stood tense, watching the fence corner +where, in the flat dawn light, the familiar misty shadow was +gathering. Harl was returning to them. + +The cage flashed silently into being. They stood peering, ready to run +to it. The door slid aside. + + * * * * * + +But it was not Harl who came out. It was Tugh, the cripple. He stood +in the doorway, a thick-set, barrel-chested figure of a man in a wide +leather jacket, a broad black belt and short flaring leather +pantaloons. + +"Tugh!" exclaimed Tina. + +The cripple advanced. "Princess, is it you?" He was very wary. His +gaze shot at Larry and back to Tina. "And who is this?" + +A hideously repulsive fellow, Larry thought this Tugh. He saw his +shriveled, bent legs, crooked hips, and wide thick shoulders set +askew--a goblin, in a leather jerkin. His head was overlarge, with a +bulging white forehead and a mane of scraggly black hair shot with +grey. But Larry could not miss the intellectuality marking his +heavy-jowled face; the keenness of his dark-eyed gaze. + +These were instant impressions. Tina had drawn Larry forward. "Where +is Harl?" she demanded imperiously. "How have you come to have the +cage, Tugh?" + +"Princess, I have much to tell," he answered, and his gaze roved the +field. "But it is dangerous here; I am glad I have found you. Harl +sent me to this night, but I struck it late. Come, Tina--and your +strange-looking friend." + +It impressed Larry then, and many times afterward, that Tugh's gaze at +him was mistrustful, wary. + +"Come, Larry," said Tina. And again she demanded of Tugh, "I ask you, +where is Harl?" + +"At home. Safe at home, Princess." He gestured toward Major Atwood's +house, which now in the growing daylight showed more plainly under its +shrouding trees. "That space off there holds our other cage as you +know, Tina. You and Harl were pursuing that other cage?" + +"Yes," she agreed. + + * * * * * + +They had stopped at the doorway, where Tugh stood slightly inside. +Larry whispered: + +"What does this mean, Tina?" + +Tugh said, "Migul, the mechanism, is running wild in the other cage. +But you and Harl knew that?" + +"Yes," she answered, and said softly to Larry, "We will go. But, +Larry, watch this Tugh! Harl and I never trusted him." + +Tugh's manner was a combination of the self-confidence of a man of +standing and the deference due his young Princess. He was closing the +door, and saying: + +"Migul, that crazy, insubordinate machine, captured a man from 1935 +and a girl from 1777. But they are safe: he did not harm them. Harl is +with them." + +"In our world, Tugh?" + +"Yes; at home. And we have Migul chained. Harl captured and subdued +him." + +Tugh was at the controls. "May I take you and this friend of yours +home, Princess?" + +She whispered to Larry, "I think it is best, don't you?" + +Larry nodded. + +She murmured, "Be watchful, Larry!" Then, louder: "Yes, Tugh. Take +us." + +Tugh was bending over the controls. + +"Ready now?" + +"Yes," said Tina. + +Larry's senses reeled momentarily as the cage flashed off into Time. + + * * * * * + +It was a smooth story which Tugh had to tell them; and he told it +smoothly. His dark eyes swung from Tina to Larry. + +"I talked with that other young man from your world. George Rankin, he +said his name was. He is somewhat like you: dressed much the same and +talks little. The girl calls herself Mary Atwood." He went on and told +them an elaborate, glib story, all of which was a lie. It did not +wholly deceive Larry and Tina, yet they could not then prove it false. +The gist of it was that Mary and I were with Harl and the subdued +Migul in 2930. + +"It is strange that Harl did not come for us himself," said Tina. + +Tugh's gaze was imperturbable as he answered. "He is a clever young +man, but he cannot be expected to handle these controls with my skill, +Princess, and he knows it; so he sent me. You see, he wanted very much +to strike just this night and this hour, so as not to keep you +waiting." + +He added, "I am glad to have you back. Things are not well at home, +Princess. This insubordinate adventure of Migul's has been bad for the +other mechanisms. News of it has spread, and the revolt is very near. +What we are to do I cannot say, but I do know we did not like your +absence." + +The trip which Larry and Tina now took to 2930 A.D. consumed, to their +consciousness of the passing of Time, some three hours. They +discovered that they were hungry, and Tugh produced food and drink. + +Larry spent much of the time with Tina at the window, gazing at the +changing landscape while she told him of the events which to her were +history--the recorded things on the Time-scroll which separated her +world and his. + + * * * * * + +Tugh busied himself about the vehicle and left them much to +themselves. They had ample opportunity to discuss him and his story of +Harl. It must be remembered that Larry had no knowledge of Tugh, save +the story which Alten had told of a cripple named Tugh in New York in +1933-34; and Mary Atwood's mention of the coincidence of the Tugh she +knew in 1777. + +But Tina had known this Tugh for years. Though she, like Harl, had +never liked him, nevertheless he was a trusted and influential man in +her world. Proof of his activities in other Time-worlds, there was +none so far, from Tina's viewpoint. Nor did Larry and Tina know as yet +of the devastation of New York in 1935; nor of the murder of Major +Atwood. The capture of Mary and me, the fight with the Robot in the +back yard of the house on Patton Place--in all these incidents of the +bandit cage, only Migul had figured. Migul--an insubordinate, crazy +mechanism running amuck. + +Yet upon Larry and Tina was a premonition that Tugh, here with them +now and so suavely friendly, was their real enemy. + +"I wouldn't trust him," Larry whispered, "any further than I can see +him. He's planning something, but I don't know what." + +"But perhaps--and this I have often thought, Larry--perhaps it is his +aspect. He looks so repulsive--" + +Larry shook his head. "He does, for a fact; but I don't mean that. +What Mary Atwood told me of the Tugh she knew, described the fellow. +And so did Alten describe him. And in 1934 he murdered a girl: don't +forget that, Tina--he, or someone who looked remarkably like him, and +had the same name." + +But they knew that the best thing they could do now was to get to +2930. Larry wanted to join me again, and Tugh maintained I was there. +Well, they would soon find out.... + + * * * * * + +As they passed the shadowy world of 1935, a queer emotion gripped +Larry. This was his world, and he was speeding past it to the future. +He realized then that he wanted to be assured of my safety, and that +of Mary Atwood and Harl; but what lay closest to his heart was the +welfare of the Princess Tina. Princess? He never thought of her as +that, save that it was a title she carried. She seemed just a small, +strangely-solemn white-faced girl. He could not conceive returning to +his own world and having her speed on, leaving him forever. + +His thoughts winged ahead. He touched Tina as they stood together at +the window gazing out at the shadowy New York City. It was now 1940. + +"Tina," he said, "if our friends are safe in your world--" + +"If only they are, Larry!" + +"And if your people there are in trouble, in danger--you will let me +help?" + +She turned abruptly to regard him, and he saw a mist of tenderness in +the dark pools of her eyes. + +"In history, Larry, I have often been interested in reading of a +strange custom outgrown by us and supposed to be meaningless. Yet +maybe it is not. I mean--" + +She was suddenly breathless. "I mean even a Princess, as they call me, +likes to--to be human. I want to--I mean I've often wondered--and +you're so dear--I want to try it. Was it like this? Show me." + +She reached up, put her arms about his neck and kissed him! + + +CHAPTER XV + +_A Thousand Years into the Future_ + +1930 to 2930--a thousand years in three hours. It was sufficiently +slow traveling so that Larry could see from the cage window the actual +detailed flow of movement: the changing outline of material objects +around him. There had been the open country of Revolutionary times +when this space was north of the city. It was a grey, ghostly +landscape of trees and the road and the shadowy outlines of the Atwood +house five hundred feet away. + +Larry saw the road widen. The fence suddenly was gone. The trees were +suddenly gone. The shapes of houses were constantly appearing; then +melting down again, with others constantly rearing up to take their +places; and always there were more houses, and larger, more enduring +ones. And then the Atwood house suddenly melted: a second or two, and +all evidence of it and the trees about it were gone. + +There was no road; it was a city street now; and it had widened so +that the cage was poised near the middle of it. And presently the +houses were set solid along its borders. + +At 1910 Larry began to recognize the contour of the buildings: The +antiquated Patton Place. But the flowing changing outlines adjusted +themselves constantly to a more familiar form. The new apartment +house, down the block in which Larry and I lived, rose and assembled +itself like a materializing spectre. A wink or two of Larry's eyelids +and it was there. He recalled the months of its construction. + +The cage, with Larry as a passenger, could not have stopped in these +years: he realized it, now. There was a nameless feeling, a repulsion +against stopping; it was indescribable, but he was aware of it. He had +lived these years once, and they were forbidden to him again. + +The cage was still in its starting acceleration. They swept through +the year 1935, and then Larry was indefinably aware that the forbidden +area had passed. + + * * * * * + +They went through those few days of June, 1935, during which Tugh's +Robots had devastated the city, but it was too brief an action to make +a mark that Larry could see. It left a few very transitory marks, +however. Larry noticed that along the uneven line of ghostly +roof-tops, blobs of emptiness had appeared; he saw a short distance +away that several of the houses had melted down into ragged, tumbled +heaps. These were where the bombs had struck, dropped by the +Government planes in an endeavor to wreck the Tugh house from which +the Robots were appearing. But the ragged, broken areas were filled in +a second--almost as soon as Larry realized they were there--and new +and larger buildings than before appeared. + +At sight of all this he murmured to Tina, "Something has happened +here. I wonder what?" + +He chanced to turn, and saw that Tugh was regarding him very queerly; +but in a moment he forgot it in the wonders of the passage into his +future. + +This growing, expanding city! It had seemed a giant to Larry in 1935, +especially after he had compared it to what it was in 1777. But now, +in 1950, and beyond to the turn of the century, he stood amazed at the +enormity of the shadowy structures rearing their spectral towers +around him. For some years Patton Place, a backward section, held its +general form; then abruptly the city engulfed it. Larry saw monstrous +buildings of steel and masonry rising a thousand feet above him. For +an instant, as they were being built he saw their skeleton outlines; +and then they were complete. Yet they were not enduring, for in every +flowing detail they kept changing. + +An overhead sidewalk went like a balcony along what had been Patton +Place. Bridges and archways spanned the street. Then there came a +triple bank of overhead roadways. A distance away, a hundred feet +above the ground level, the shadowy form of what seemed a monorail +structure showed for a moment. It endured for what might have been a +hundred years, and then it was gone.... + + * * * * * + +This monstrous city! By 2030 there was a vast network of traffic +levels over what had been a street. It was an arcade, now, open at the +top near the cage; but further away Larry saw where the giant +buildings had flowed and mingled over it, with the viaducts, spider +bridges and pedestrian levels plunging into tunnels to pierce through +them. + +And high overhead, where the little sky which was left still showed, +Larry saw the still higher outlines of a structure which quite +evidently was a huge aerial landing stage for airliners. + +It was an incredible city! There were spots of enduring light around +Larry now--the city lights which for months and years shone here +unchanged. The cage was no longer outdoors. The street which had +become an open arcade was now wholly closed. A roof was overhead--a +city roof, to shut out the inclement weather. There was artificial +light and air and weather down here, and up on the roof additional +space for the city's teeming activities. + +Larry could see only a shadowy narrow vista, here indoors, but his +imagination supplied visions of what the monstrous, incredible city +must be. There was a roof, perhaps, over all Manhattan. Bridges and +viaducts would span to the great steel and stone structures across the +rivers, so that water must seem to be in a canyon far underground. +There would be a cellar to this city, incredibly intricate with +conduits of wires and drainage pipes, and on the roof rain or snow +would fall unnoticed by the millions of workers. Children born here in +poverty might never yet have seen the blue sky and the sunlight, or +know that grass was green and lush and redolent when moist with +morning dew.... + +Larry fancied this now to be the climax of city building here on +earth; the city was a monster, now, unmanageable, threatening to +destroy the humans who had created it.... He tried to envisage the +world; the great nations; other cities like this one. Freight +transportation would go by rail and underseas, doubtless, and all the +passengers by air.... + + * * * * * + +Tina, with her knowledge of history, could sketch the events. The +Yellow War--the white races against the Orientals--was over by the +year 2000. The three great nations were organized in another +half-century: the white, the yellow and the black. + +By the year 2000, the ancient dirigibles had proven impractical, and +great airliners of the plane type were encircling the earth. New +motors, wing-spreads, and a myriad devices made navigation of the +upper altitudes possible. At a hundred thousand feet, upon all the +Great Circle routes, liners were rushing at nearly a thousand miles an +hour. They would halt at intervals, to allow helicopter tenders to +come up to transfer descending passengers. + +Then the etheric wave-thrust principle was discovered: by 2500 A.D. +man was voyaging out into space and Interplanetary travel began. This +brought new problems: a rush of new millions of humans to live upon +our Earth; new wars; new commerce in peace times; new ideas; new +scientific knowledge.... + +By 2500, the city around Larry must have reached its height. It stayed +there a half century; and then it began coming down. Its degeneration +was slow, in the beginning. First, there might have been a hole in the +arcade which was not repaired. Then others would appear, as the +neglect spread. The population left. The great buildings of metal and +stone, so solidly appearing to the brief lifetime of a single +individual, were impermanent over the centuries. + +By 2600, the gigantic ghosts had all melted down. They lay in a +shadowy pile, burying the speeding cage. There was no stopping here; +there was no space unoccupied in which they could stop. Larry could +see only the tangled spectres of broken, rusting, rotting metal and +stone. + +He wondered what could have done it. A storm of nature? Or had mankind +strangely turned decadent, and rushed back in a hundred years or so to +savagery? It could not have been the latter, because very soon the +ruins were moving away: the people were clearing the city site for +something new. For fifty years it went on. + + * * * * * + +Tina explained it. The age of steam had started the great city of New +York, and others like it, into its monstrous congestion of human +activity. There was steam for power and steam for slow transportation +by railroads and surface ships. Then the conquest of the air, and the +transportation of power by electricity, gradually changed things. But +man was slow to realize his possibilities. Even in 1930, all the new +elements existed; but the great cities grew monstrous of their own +momentum. Business went to the cities because the people were there; +workers flocked in because the work was there to call them. + +But soon the time came when the monster city was too unwieldy. The +traffic, the drainage, the water supply could not cope with +conditions. Still, man struggled on. The workers were mere +automatons--pallid attendants of machinery; people living in a world +of beauty who never had seen it; who knew of nothing but the city +arcades where the sun never shone and where amusements were as +artificial as the light and air. + +Then man awakened to his folly. Disease broke out in New York City in +2551, and in a month swept eight million people into death. The cities +were proclaimed impractical, unsafe. And suddenly the people realized +how greatly they hated the city; how strangely beautiful the world +could be in the fashion God created it.... + +There was, over the next fifty years, an exodus to the rural sections. +Food was produced more cheaply, largely because it was produced more +abundantly. Man found his wants suddenly simplified. + +And business found that concentration was unnecessary. The telephone +and television made personal contacts not needed. The aircraft, the +high-speed auto-trucks over modern speedways, the aeroplane-motored +monorails, the rocket-trains--all these shortened distance. And, most +important of all, the transportation of electrical energy from great +central power companies made small industrial units practical even +upon remote farms. The age of electricity came into its own. The +cities were doomed.... + + * * * * * + +Larry saw, through 2600 and 2700 A.D., a new form of civilization +rising around him. At first it seemed a queer combination of the old +fashioned village and a strange modernism. There were, here upon +Manhattan Island, metal houses, widely spaced in gardens, and +electrically powered factories of unfamiliar aspect. Overhead were +skeleton structures, like landing stages; and across the further +distance was the fleeting, transitory wraith of a monorail air-road. +Along the river banks were giant docks for surface vessels and sub-sea +freighters. There was a little concentration here, but not much. Man +had learned his lesson. + +This was a new era. Man was striving really to play, as well as work. +But the work had to be done. With the constant development of +mechanical devices, there was always a new machine devised to help the +operation of its fellow. And over it all was the hand of the human, +until suddenly the worker found that he was no more than an attendant +upon an inanimate thing which did everything more skilfully than he +could do it. Thus came the idea of the Robot--something to attend, to +oversee, to operate machines. In Larry's time it had already begun +with a myriad devices of "automatic control." In Tina's Time-world it +reached its ultimate--and diabolical--development.... + +At 2900, Larry saw, five hundred feet to the east, the walls of a long +low laboratory rising. The other cage--which in 1777 was in Major +Atwood's garden, and in 1935 was in the back yard of the Tugh house on +Beckman Place--was housed now in 2930, in a room of this +laboratory.... + +At 2905, with the vehicle slowing for its stopping, Tina gestured +toward the walls of her palace, whose shadowy forms were rising close +at hand. Then the palace garden grew and flourished, and Larry saw +that this cage he was in was set within this garden. + +"We are almost there, Larry," she said. + +"Yes," he answered. An emotion gripped him. "Tina, your world--why +it's so strange! But you are not strange." + +"Am I not, Larry?" + +He smiled at her; he felt like showing her again that the ancient +custom of kissing was not wholly meaningless, but Tugh was regarding +them. + +"I was comparing," said Larry, "that girl Mary Atwood, from the year +1777, and you. You are so different in looks, in dress, but you're +just--girls." + +She laughed. "The world changes, Larry, but not human nature." + +"Ready?" called Tugh. "We are here, Tina." + +"Yes, Tugh. You have the dial set for the proper night and hour?" + +"Of course. I make no mistake. Did I not invent these dials?" + +The cage slackened through a day of sunlight; plunged into a night; +and slid to its soundless, reeling halt.... + +Tina drew Larry to the door and opened it upon a fragrant garden, +somnolently drowsing in the moonlight. + +"This is my world, Larry," she said. "And here is my home." + + * * * * * + +Tugh was with them as they left the cage. He said: + +"This is the tri-night hour of the very night you left here. Princess +Tina. You see, I calculated correctly." + +"Where did you leave Harl and the two visitors?" she demanded. + +"Here. Right here." + +Across the garden Larry saw three dark forms coming forward. They were +three small Robots of about Tina's stature--domestic servants of the +palace. They crowded up, crying: + +"Master Tugh! Princess!" + +"What is it?" Tugh asked. + +The hollow voices echoed with excitement as one of them said: + +"Master Tugh, there has been murder here! We have dared tell no one +but you or the Princess. Harl is murdered!" + +Larry chanced to see Tugh's astonished face, and in the horror of the +moment a feeling came to Larry that Tugh was acting unnaturally. He +forgot it at once; but later he was to recall it forcibly, and to +realize that the treacherous Tugh had planned this with these Robots. + +"Master Tugh, Harl is murdered! Migul escaped and murdered Harl, and +took the body away with him!" + +Larry was stricken dumb. Tugh seized the little Robot by his metal +shoulders. "Liar! What do you mean?" + +Tina gasped, "Where are our visitors--the young man and the girl?" + +"Migul took them!" + +"Where?" Tina demanded. + +"We don't know. We think very far down in the caverns of machinery. +Migul said he was going to feed them to the machines!" + + +CHAPTER XVI + +_The New York of 2930_ + +Larry stood alone at an upper window of the palace gazing out at the +somnolent moonlit city. It was an hour or two before dawn. Tina and +Tugh had started almost at once into the underground caverns to which +Tina was told Migul had fled with his two captives. They would not +take Larry with them; the Robot workers in the subterranean chambers +were all sullen and upon the verge of a revolt, and the sight of a +strange human would have aroused them dangerously. + +"It should not take long," Tina had said hastily. "I will give you a +room in which to wait for me." + +"And there is food and drink," Tugh suavely urged. "And most surely +you need sleep. You too Princess," he suddenly added. "Let me go into +the caverns alone: I can do better than you; these Robots obey me. I +think I know where that rascally Migul has hidden." + +"Rascally?" Larry burst out. "Is that what you call it when you've +just heard that it committed murder? Tina. I won't stay: nor will I +let--" + +"Wait!" said Tina. "Tugh, look here--" + +"The young man from 1935 is very positive what he will and what he +won't," Tugh observed sardonically. He drew his cloak around his squat +misshapen body, and shrugged. + +"But I won't let you go," Larry finished. The palace was somnolent; +the officials were asleep: none had heard of the murder. Strangely lax +was the human government here. Larry had sensed this when he suggested +that police or an official party be sent at once to capture Migul and +rescue Mary Atwood and me. + +"It could not be done," Tina exclaimed. "To organize such a party +would take hours. And--" + +"And the Robots," Tugh finished with a sour smile, "would openly +revolt when such a party came at them! You have no idea what you +suggest, young man. To avoid an open revolt--that is our chief aim. +Besides, if you rushed at Migul it would frighten him; and then he +would surely kill his captives, if he has not done so already." + + * * * * * + +That silenced Larry. He stared at them hopelessly while they argued it +out: and the three small domesticated Robots stood by, listening +curiously. + +"I'll go with you, Tugh." Tina decided. "Perhaps, without making any +demonstration of force, we can find Migul." + +Tugh bowed. "Your will is mine, Princess. I think I can find him and +control him to prevent harm to his captives." + +He was a good actor, that Tugh; he convinced Larry and Tina of his +sincerity. His dark eyes flashed as he added, "And if I get control of +him and find he's murdered Harl, we will have him no more. I'll +disconnect him! Smash him! Quietly, of course, Princess." + +They led Larry through a dim silent corridor of the palace, past two +sleepy-faced human guards and two or three domesticated Robots. +Ascending two spiral metal stairways to the upper third floor of the +palace they left Larry in his room. + +"By dawn or soon after we will return," said Tina "But you try and +sleep; there is nothing you can do now." + +"You'll be careful, Tina?" The helpless feeling upon Larry suddenly +intensified. Subconsciously he was aware of the menace upon him and +Tina, but he could not define it. + +She pressed his hand. "I will be careful; that I promise." + +She left with Tugh. At once a feeling of loneliness leaped upon Larry. + +He found the apartment a low-vaulted metal room. There was the sheen +of dim, blue-white illumination from hidden lights, disclosing the +padded metal furniture: a couch, low and comfortable; a table set with +food and drink; low chairs, strangely fashioned, and cabinets against +the wall which seemed to be mechanical devices for amusement. There +was a row of instrument controls which he guessed were the room +temperature, ventilating and lighting mechanisms. It was an oddly +futuristic room. The windows were groups of triangles--the upper +sections prisms, to bend the light from the sky into the room's +furthest recesses. The moonlight came through the prisms, now, and +spread over the cream-colored rug and the heavy wall draperies. The +leaded prism casements laid a pattern of bars on the floor. The room +held a faint whisper of mechanical music. + + * * * * * + +Larry stood at one of the windows gazing out over the drowsing city. +The low metal buildings, generally of one or two levels, lay pale grey +in the moonlight. Gardens and trees surrounded them. The streets were +wide roadways, lined with trees. Ornamental vegetation was everywhere; +even the flat-roofed house tops were set with gardens, little white +pebbled paths, fountains and pergolas. + +A mile or so away, a river gleamed like a silver ribbon--the Hudson. +To the south were docks, low against the water, with rows of +blue-white spots of light. The whole city was close to the ground, but +occasionally, especially across the river, skeleton landing stages +rose a hundred feet into the air. + +The scene, at this hour just before dawn, was somnolent and peaceful. +It was a strange New York, so different from the sleepless city of +Larry's time! There were a few moving lights in the streets, but not +many; they seemed to be lights carried by pedestrians. Off by the +docks, at the river surface, rows of colored lights were slowly +creeping northward: a sub-sea freighter arriving from Eurasia. And as +Larry watched, from the southern sky a line of light materialized into +an airliner which swept with a low humming throb over the city and +alighted upon a distant stage. + + * * * * * + +Larry's attention went again to the Hudson river. At the nearest point +to him there was a huge dam blocking it. North of the dam the river +surface was at least two hundred feet higher than to the south. It lay +above the dam like a placid canal, with low palisades its western bank +and a high dyke built up along the eastern city side. The water went +in spillways through the dam, forming again into the old natural river +below it and flowing with it to the south. + +The dam was not over a mile or so from Larry's window; in his time it +might have been the western end of Christopher Street. The moonlight +shone on the massive metal of it: the water spilled through it in a +dozen shining cascades. There was a low black metal structure perched +halfway up the lower side of the dam, a few bluish lights showing +through its windows. Though Larry did not know it then, this was the +New York Power House. Great transformers were here, operated by +turbines in the dam. The main power came over cables from Niagara: was +transformed and altered here and sent into the air as radio-power for +all the New York District.[3] + +[Footnote 3: In 2930, all aircraft engines were operated by +radio-power transmitted by senders in various districts. The New York +Power House controlled a local district of about two hundred miles +radius.] + +Larry crossed his room to gaze through north and eastward windows. He +saw now that the grounds of this three-story building of Tina's palace +were surrounded by a ten-foot metal wall, along whose top were wires +suggesting that it was electrified for defense. The garden lay just +beneath Larry's north window. Through the tree branches the garden +paths, beds of flowers and the fountains were visible. One-story +palace wings partially enclosed the garden space, and outside was the +electrified wall. The Time-traveling cage stood faintly shining in the +dimness of the garden under the spreading foliage. + + * * * * * + +To the east, beyond the palace wall, there was an open garden of +verdure crossed by a roadway. The nearest building was five hundred +feet away. There was a small, barred gate in the palace walls beyond +it. The road led to this other building--a squat, single-storied metal +structure. This was a Government laboratory, operated by and in charge +of Robots. It was almost square: two or three hundred feet in length +and no more than thirty feet high, with a flat roof in the center of +which was perched a little metal conning tower surmounted by a sending +aerial. As Larry stood there, the broadcast magnified voice of a Robot +droned out over the quiet city: + +"Trinight plus two hours. All is well." + +Strange mechanical voice with a formula half ancient, half +super-modern! + +It was in this metal laboratory, Larry knew, that the other +Time-traveling cage was located. And beneath it was the entrance to +the great caverns where the Robots worked attending inert machinery to +carry on the industry of this region. The night was very silent, but +now Larry was conscious of a faraway throb--a humming, throbbing +vibration from under the ground: the blended hum of a myriad muffled +noises. Work was going on down there; manifold mechanical activities. +All was mechanical: while the humans who had devised the mechanisms +slept under the trees in the moonlight of the surface city. + + * * * * * + +Tina had gone with Tugh down into those caverns, to locate Migul, to +find Mary Atwood and me.... The oppression, the sense of being a +stranger alone here in this world, grew upon Larry. He left the +windows and began pacing the room. Tina should soon return. Or had +disaster come upon us all?... + +Larry's thoughts were frightening. If Tina did not return, what would +he do? He could not operate the Time-cage. He would go to the +officials of the palace; he thought cynically of the extraordinary +changes time had brought to New York City, to all the world. These +humans now must be very fatuous. To the mechanisms they had relegated +all the work, all industrial activity. Inevitably, through the +generations, decadence must have come. Mankind would be no longer +efficient; that was an attribute of the machines. Larry told himself +that these officials, knowing of impending trouble with the Robots, +were fatuously trustful that the storm would pass without breaking. +They were, indeed, as we very soon learned. + +Larry ate a little of the food which was in the room, then lay down on +the couch. He did not intend to sleep, but merely to wait until after +dawn; and if Tina had not returned by then he would do something +drastic about it. But what? He lay absorbed by his gloomy thoughts.... + +But they were not all gloomy. Some were about Tina--so very human, and +yet so strange a little Princess. + + +CHAPTER XVII + +_Harl's Confession_ + +Larry was awakened by a hand upon his shoulder. He struggled to +consciousness, and heard his name being called. + +"Larry! Wake up, Larry!" + +Tina was bending over him, and it was late afternoon! The day for +which he had been waiting had come and gone; the sun was dropping low +in the west behind the shining river; the dam showed frowning, with +the Power House clinging to its side like an eagle's eyrie. + +Tina sat on Larry's couch and explained what she had done. Tugh and +she had gone to the nearby laboratory building. The Robots were +sullen, but still obedient, and had admitted them. The other +Time-traveling cage was there, lying quiescent in its place, but it +was unoccupied. + +None of the Robots would admit having seen Migul; nor the arrival of +the cage; nor the strangers from the past. Then Tugh and Tina had +started down into the subterranean caverns. But it was obviously very +dangerous; the Robots at work down there were hostile to their +Princess; so Tugh had gone on alone. + +"He says he can control the Robots," Tina explained, "and Larry, it +seems that he can. He went on and I came back." + +"Where is he now? Why didn't you wake me up?" + +"You needed the sleep," she said smilingly; "and there was nothing you +could do. Tugh is not yet come. He must have gone a long distance; +must surely have learned where Migul is hiding. He should be back any +time." + + * * * * * + +Tina had seen the Government Council. The city was proceeding +normally. There was no difficulty with Robots anywhere save here in +New York, and the council felt that the affair would come to nothing. + +"The Council told me," said Tina indignantly, "that much of the menace +was the exaggeration of my own fancy, and that Tugh has the Robots +well controlled. They place much trust in Tugh; I wish I could." + +"You told them about me?" + +"Yes, of course; and about George Rankin, and Mary Atwood. And the +loss of Harl: he is missing, not proven murdered, as they very well +pointed out to me. They have named a time to-morrow to give you +audience, and told me to keep you out of sight in the meanwhile. They +blame this Time-traveling for the Robots' insurgent ideas. Strangers +excite the thinking mechanisms." + +"You think my friends will be rescued?" demanded Larry. + +She regarded him soberly. "I hope so--oh, I do! I fear for them as +much as you do, Larry. I know you think I take it lightly, but--" + +"Not that," Larry protested. "Only--" + +"I have not known what to do. The officials refuse any open aggression +against the Robots, because it would precipitate exactly what we +fear--which is nearly a fact: it would. But there is one thing I have +to do. I have been expecting Tugh to return every moment, and this I +do not want him to know about. There's a mystery concerning Harl, and +no one else knows of it but myself. I want you with me, Larry: I do +not want to go alone; I--for the first time in my life, Larry--I think +I am afraid!" + + * * * * * + +She huddled against him and he put his arm about her. And Larry's true +situation came to him, then. He was alone in this strange Time-world, +with only this girl for a companion. She was but a frightened, almost +helpless girl, for all she bore the title of traditional Princess, and +she was surrounded by inefficient, fatuous officials--among them Tugh, +who was a scoundrel, undoubtedly. Larry suddenly recalled Tugh's look, +when, in the garden, the domestic Robots had told the story of Harl's +murder; and like a light breaking on him, he was now wholly aware of +Tugh's duplicity. He was convinced he would have to act for himself, +with only this girl Tina to help him. + +"Mystery?" he said. "What mystery is there about Harl?" + +She told him now that Harl had once, a year ago, taken her aside and +made her promise that if anything happened to him--in the event of his +death or disappearance--she would go to his private work-room, where, +in a secret place which he described, she would find a confession. + +"A confession of his?" Larry demanded. + +"Yes; he said so. And he would say no more than that. It is something +of which he was ashamed, or guilty, which he wanted me to know. He +loved me, Larry. I realized it, though he never said so. And I'm going +now to his room, to see what it was he wanted me to know. I would have +gone alone, earlier; but I got suddenly frightened; I want you with +me." + +They were unarmed. Larry cursed the fact, but Tina had no way of +getting a weapon without causing official comment. Larry started for +the window where the city stretched, more active now, under the red +and gold glow of a setting sun. Lights were winking on; the dusk of +twilight was at hand. + +"Come now," said Tina, "before Tugh returns." + +"Where is Harl's room?" + +"Down under the palace in the sub-cellar. The corridors are deserted +at this hour, and no one will see us." + + * * * * * + +They left Larry's room and traversed a dim corridor on whose padded +floor their footsteps were soundless. Through distant arcades, voices +sounded; there was music in several of the rooms; it struck Larry that +this was a place of diversion for humans with no work to do. Tina +avoided the occupied rooms. Domestic Robots were occasionally +distantly visible, but Tina and Larry encountered none. + +They descended a spiral stairway and passed down a corridor from the +main building to a cross wing. Through a window Larry saw that they +were at the ground level. The garden was outside; there was a glimpse +of the Time-cage standing there. + +Another stairway, then another, they descended beneath the ground. The +corridor down here seemed more like a tunnel. There was a cave-like +open space, with several tunnels leading from it in different +directions. This once had been part of the sub-cellar of the gigantic +New York City--these tunnels ramifying into underground chambers, most +of which had now fallen into disuse. But few had been preserved +through the centuries, and they now were the caverns of the Robots. + +Tina indicated a tunnel extending eastward, a passage leading to a +room beneath the Robot laboratory. Tugh and Tina had used it that +morning. Gazing down its blue-lit length Larry saw, fifty feet or so +away, that there was a metal-grid barrier which must be part of the +electrical fortifications of the palace. A human guard was sitting +there at a tiny gate-way, a hood-light above him, illumining his black +and white garbed figure. + +Tina called softly. "All well, Alent? Tugh has not passed back?" + +"No, Princess," he answered, standing erect. The voices echoed through +the confined space with a muffled blur. + +"Let no one pass but humans, Alent." + +"That is my order," he said. He had not noticed Larry, whom Tina had +pushed into a shadow against the wall. The Princess waved at the guard +and turned away, whispering to Larry: + +"Come!" + +There were rooms opening off this corridor--decrepit dungeons, most of +them seemed to Larry. He had tried to keep his sense of direction, and +figured they were now under the palace garden. Tina stopped abruptly. +There were no lights here, only the glow from one at a distance. To +Larry it was an eery business. + +"What is it?" he whispered. + +"Wait! I thought I heard something." + +In the dead, heavy silence Larry found that there was much to hear. + +Voices very dim from the palace overhead; infinitely faint music; the +clammy sodden drip of moisture from the tunnel roof. And, permeating +everything, the faint hum of machinery. + +Tina touched him in the gloom. "It's nothing, I guess. Though I +thought I heard a man's voice." + +"Overhead?" + +"No; down here." + + * * * * * + +There was a dark, arched door near at hand. Tina entered it and +fumbled for a switch, and in the soft light that came Larry saw an +unoccupied apartment very similar to the one he had had upstairs, save +that this was much smaller. + +"Harl's room," said Tina. She prowled along the wall where audible +book-cylinders[4] stood in racks, searching for a title. Presently she +found a hidden switch, pressed it, and a small section of the case +swung out, revealing a concealed compartment. Larry saw her fingers +trembling as she drew out a small brass cylinder. + +[Footnote 4: Cylinder records of books which by machinery gave audible +rendition, in similar fashion to the radio-phonograph.] + +"This must be it, Larry," she said. + +They took it to a table which held a shaded light. Within the cylinder +was a scroll of writing. Tina unrolled it and held it under the light, +while Larry stood breathless, watching her. + +"Is it what you wanted?" Larry murmured. + +"Yes. Poor Harl!" + +She read aloud to Larry the gist of it in the few closing paragraphs. + + "... and so I want to confess to you that I have been taking + credit for that which is not mine. I wish I had the courage + to tell you personally; someday I think I shall. I did not + help Tugh invent our Time-traveling cages. I was in the + palace garden one night some years ago when the cage + appeared. Tugh is a man from a future Time-world; just what + date ahead of now, I do not know, for he has never been + willing to tell me. He captured me. I promised him I would + say nothing, but help him pretend that we had invented the + cage he had brought with him from the future. Tugh told me + he invented them. It was later that he brought the other + cage here. + + "I was an obscure young man here a few years ago. I loved + you even then, Tina: I think you have guessed that. I + yielded to the temptation--and took the credit with Tugh. + + "I do love you, though I think I shall never have the + courage to tell you so. + + Harl." + + * * * * * + +Tina rolled up the paper. "Poor Harl! So all the praise we gave him +for his invention was undeserved!" + +But Larry's thoughts were on Tugh. So the fellow was not of this era +at all! He had come from a Time still further in the future! + +A step sounded in the doorway behind them. They swung around to find +Tugh standing there, with his thick misshapen figured huddled in the +black cloak. + +"Tugh!" + +"Yes, Princess, no less than Tugh. Alent told me as I came through +that you were down here. I saw your light, here in Harl's room and +came." + +"Did you find Migul and his captives--the girl from 1777 and the man +of 1935?" + +"No, Princess, Migul has fled with them," was the cripple's answer. He +advanced into the room and pushed back his black hood. The blue light +shone on his massive-jawed face with a lurid sheen. Larry stood back +and watched him. It was the first time that he had had opportunity of +observing Tugh closely. The cripple was smiling sardonically. + +"I have no fear for the prisoners," he added in his suave, silky +fashion. "That crazy mechanism would not dare harm them. But it has +fled with them into some far-distant recess of the caverns. I could +not find them." + +"Did you try?" Larry demanded abruptly. + +Tugh swung on him. "Yes, young sir, I tried." It seemed that Tugh's +black eyes narrowed; his heavy jaw clicked as he snapped it shut. The +smile on his face faded, but his voice remained imperturbable as he +added: + +"You are aggressive, young Larry--but to no purpose.... Princess, I +like not the attitude of the Robots. Beyond question some of them must +have seen Migul, but they would not tell me so. I still think I can +control them, though. I hope so." + + * * * * * + +Larry could think of nothing to say. It seemed to him childish that he +should stand listening to a scoundrel tricking this girl Tina. A dozen +wild schemes of what he might do to try and rescue Mary Atwood and me +revolved in his mind, but they all seemed wholly impractical. + +"The Robots are working badly," Tugh went on. "In the north district +one of the great foundries where they are casting the plates for the +new Inter-Allied airliner has ceased operations. The Robot workmen +were sullen, inefficient, neglectful. The inert machinery was ill +cared for, and it went out of order. I was there, Princess, for an +hour or more to-day. They have started up again now; it was +fundamentally no more than a burned bearing which a Robot failed to +oil properly." + +"Is that what you call searching for Migul?" Larry burst out. "Tina, +see here--isn't there something we can do?" Larry found himself +ignoring Tugh. "I'm not going to stand around! Can't we send a squad +of police after Migul?--go with them--actually make an effort to find +them? This man Tugh certainly has not tried!" + +"Have I not?" Tugh's cloak parted as he swung on Larry. His bent legs +were twitching with his anger; his voice was a harsh rasp. "I like not +your insolence. I am doing all that can be done." + + * * * * * + +Larry held his ground as Tugh fronted him. He had a wild thought that +Tugh had a weapon under his cloak. + +"Perhaps you are," said Larry. "But to me it seems--" + +Tugh turned away. His gaze went to the cylinder which Tina was still +clutching. His sardonic smile returned. + +"So Harl made a confession, Princess?" + +"That," she said, "is none--" + +"Of my affair? Oh, but it is. I was here in the archway and I heard +you read it. A very nice young man, was Harl. I hope Migul has not +murdered him." + +"You come from future Time?" Tina began. + +"Yes, Princess! I must admit it now. I invented the cages." + +Larry murmured to himself, "You stole them, probably." + +"But my Government and I had a quarrel, so I decided to leave my own +Time-world and come back to yours--permanently. I hope you will keep +the secret. I have been here so long. Princess, I am really one of you +now. At heart, certainly." + +"From when did you come?" she demanded. + + * * * * * + +He bowed slightly. "I think that may remain my own affair, Tina. It is +through no fault of mine I am outlawed. I shall never return." He +added earnestly, "Do not you think we waste time? I am agreed with +young Larry that something drastic must be done about Migul. Have you +seen the Council about it to-day?" + +"Yes. They want you to come to them at once." + +"I shall. But the Council easily may decide upon something too rash." +He lowered his voice, and on his face Larry saw a strange, +unfathomable look. "Princess, at any moment there may be a Robot +uprising. Is the Power House well guarded by humans?" + +"Yes," she said. + +"No Robots in or about it? Tina, I do not want to frighten you, but I +think our first efforts should be for defense. The Council acts slowly +and stubbornly. What I advise them to do may be done, and may not. I +was thinking. If we could get to the Power House--Do you realize, +Tina, that if the Robots should suddenly break into rebellion, they +would attack first of all the Power House?[5] It was my idea--" + +[Footnote 5: The Power House on the Hudson dam was operated by inert +machinery and manned entirely by humans--the only place in the city +which was so handled. This was because of its extreme importance. The +air-power was broadcast from there. Without that power the entire +several hundred mile district around New York would be dead. No +aircraft could enter, save perhaps some skilfully handled motorless +glider, if aided by sufficiently fortuitous air currents. Every +surface vehicle used this power, and every sub-sea freighter. The city +lights, and every form of city power, were centralized here also, as +well as the broadcasting audible and etheric transmitters and +receivers. Without the Power House, New York City and all its +neighborhood would be inoperative, and cut off from the outside +world.] + +Tugh suddenly broke off, and all stood listening. There was a +commotion overhead in the palace. They heard the thud of running +footsteps; human voices raised to shouts; and, outside the palace, +other voices. A ventilating shaft nearby brought them down plainly. +There were the guttural, hollow voices of shouting Robots, the clank +of their metal bodies; the ring of steel, as though with sword-blades +they were thumping their metal thighs. + +A Robot mob was gathered close outside the palace walls. The revolt of +the Robots had come! + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +_Tugh, the Clever Man_ + +"Sit quiet, George Rankin. And you, Mistress Mary; you will both be +quite safe with Migul if you are docile." + +Tugh stood before us. We were in a dim recess of a great cavern with +the throb of whirring machinery around us. It was the same day which I +have just described; Larry was at this moment asleep in the palace +room. Tugh and Tina had come searching for Migul; and Tugh had +contrived to send Tina back. Then he had come directly to us, finding +us readily since we were hidden where he had told Migul to hide us. + +This cavern was directly beneath the Robot laboratory in which the +Time-traveling cage was placed. A small spiral stairway led downward +some two levels, opening into a great, luridly lighted room. Huge +inert machines stood about. Great wheels were flashing as they +revolved, turning the dynamos to generate the several types of current +used by the city's underground industrial activities. + +It was a tremendous subterranean room. I saw only one small section of +it; down the blue-lit aisles the rows of machines may have stretched +for half a mile or more. The low hum of them was an incessant pound +against my senses. The great inert mechanisms had tiny lights upon +them which gleamed like eyes. The illumined gauge-faces--each of them +I passed seemed staring at me. The brass jackets were polished until +they shone with the sheen of the overhead tube lights; the giant +wheels flashed smoothly upon oiled bearings. They were in every +fashion of shape and size, these inert machines. Some towered toward +the metal-beamed ceiling, with great swaying pendulums that ticked +like a giant clock. Some clanked with eccentric cams--a jarring rhythm +as though the heart of the thing were limping with its beat. Others +had a ragged, frightened pulse; others stood placid, outwardly +motionless under smooth, polished cases, but humming inside with a +myriad blended sounds. + + * * * * * + +Inert machines. Yet some were capable of locomotion. There was a small +truck on wheels which were set in universal joints. Of its own +power--radio controlled perhaps, so that it seemed acting of its own +volition--it rolled up and down one of the aisles, stopping at set +intervals and allowing a metal arm lever in it to blow out a tiny jet +of oil. One of the attending Robots encountered it in an aisle, and +the cart swung automatically aside. The Robot spoke to the cart; +ordered it away; and the tone of his order, registering upon some +sensitive mechanism, whirled the cart around and sent it rolling to +another aisle section. + +The strange perfection of machinery! I realized there was no line +sharply to be drawn between the inert machine and the sentient, +thinking Robots. That cart, for instance, was almost a connecting +link. + +There were also Robots here of many different types. Some of them were +eight or ten feet in stature, in the fashion of a man: Migul was of +this design. Others were small, with bulging foreheads and bulging +chest plates: Larry saw this type as domestics in the palace. Still +others were little pot-bellied things with bent legs and long thin +arms set crescent-shape. I saw one of these peer into a huge chassis +of a machine, and reach in with his curved arm to make an interior +adjustment.... + +Migul had brought Mary Atwood and me in the larger cage, from that +burned forest of the year 762, where with the disintegrating ray-gun +Tugh had killed Harl. The body of Harl in a moment had melted into +putrescence, and dried, leaving only the skeleton within the clothes. +The white-ray, Tugh had called his weapon. We were destined very +shortly to have many dealings with it. + +Tugh had given Migul its orders. Then Tugh took Harl's smaller cage +and flashed away to meet Tina and Larry in 1777, as I have already +described. + +And Migul brought us here to 2930. As we descended the spiral +staircase and came into the cavern, it stood with us for a moment. + +"That's wonderful," the Robot said proudly. "I am part of it. We are +machinery almost human." + + * * * * * + +Then it led us down a side aisle of the cavern and into a dim recess. +A great transparent tube bubbling with a violet fluorescence stood in +the alcove space. Behind it in the wall Migul slid a door, and we +passed through, into a small metal room. It was bare, save for two +couch-seats. With the door closed upon us, we waited through an +interval. How long it was, I do not know; several hours, possibly. +Migul told us that Tugh would come. The giant mechanism stood in the +corner, and its red-lit eyes watched us alertly. It stood motionless, +inert, tireless--so superior to a human in this job, for it could +stand there indefinitely. + +We found food and drink here. We talked a little; whispered; and I +hoped Migul, who was ten feet away, could not hear us. But there was +nothing we could say or plan. + +Mary slept a little. I had not thought that I could sleep, but I did +too; and was awakened by Tugh's entrance. I was lying on the couch; +Mary had left hers and was sitting now beside me. + +Tugh slid the door closed after him and came toward us, and I sat up +beside Mary. Migul was standing motionless in the corner, exactly +where he had been hours before. + +"Well enough, Migul," Tugh greeted the Robot. "You obey well." + +"Master, yes. Always I obey you; no one else." + +I saw Tugh glance at the mechanism keenly. "Stand aside, Migul. Or no, +I think you had better leave us. Just for a moment, wait outside." + +"Yes, Master." + +It left, and Tugh confronted us. "Sit where you are," he said. "I +assume you are not injured. You have been fed? And slept, perhaps! I +wish to treat you kindly." + +"Thanks," I said. "Will you not tell us what you are going to do with +us?" + + * * * * * + +He stood with folded arms. The light was dim, but such as it was it +shone full upon him. His face was, as always, a mask of +imperturbability. + +"Mistress Mary knows that I love her." + +He said it with a startlingly calm abruptness. Mary shuddered against +me, but she did not speak. I thought possibly Tugh was not armed; I +could leap upon him. Doubtless I was stronger than he. But outside the +door Migul was armed with a white-ray. + +"I love her as I have always loved her.... But this is no time to talk +of love. I have much on my mind; much to do." + +He seemed willing to talk now, but he was talking more for Mary than +for me. As I watched him and listened, I was struck with a queerness +in his manner and in his words. Was he irrational, this exile of Time +who had impressed his sinister personality upon so many different +eras? I suddenly thought so. Demented, or obsessed with some strange +purpose? His acts as well as his words, were strange. He had +devastated the New York of 1935 because its officials had mistreated +him. He had done many strange, sinister, murderous things. + +He said, with his gaze upon Mary, "I am going to conquer this city +here. There will follow the rule of the Robots--and I will be their +sole master. Do you want me to tell you a secret? It is I who have +actuated these mechanisms to revolt." His eyes held a cunning gleam. +Surely this was a madman leering before me. + +"When the revolt is over," he went on, "I will be master of New York. +And that mastery will spread. The Robots elsewhere will revolt to join +my rule, and there will come a new era. I may be master of the world; +who knows? The humans who have made the Robots slaves for them will +become slaves themselves. Workers! It is the Robots' turn now. And +I--Tugh--will be the only human in power!" + + * * * * * + +These were the words of a madman! I could imagine that he might stir +these mechanical beings to a temporarily successful revolt: he might +control New York City; but the great human nations of the world could +not be overcome so easily. + +And then I remembered the white-ray. A giant projector of that ray +would melt human armies as though they were wax; yet the metal Robots +could stand its blast unharmed. Perhaps he was no madman.... + +He was saying, "I will be the only human ruler. Tugh will be the +greatest man on Earth! And I do it for you, Mistress Mary--because I +love you. Do not shudder." + +He put out his hand to touch her, and when she shrank away I saw the +muscles of his face twitch in a fashion very odd. It was a queer, +wholly repulsive grimace. + +"So? You do not like my looks? I tried to correct that, Mary. I have +searched through many eras, for surgeons with skill to make me like +other men. Like this young man here, for instance--you. George Rankin, +I am glad to have you; do not fear I will harm you. Shall I tell you +why?" + +"Yes," I stammered. In truth I was swept now with a shuddering +revulsion for this leering cripple. + +"Because," he said, "Mary Atwood loves you. When I have conquered New +York with my Robots, I shall search further into Time and find an era +where scientific skill will give me--shall I say, your body? That is +what I mean. My soul, my identity, in your body--there is nothing too +strange about that. In some era, no doubt, it has been accomplished. +When that has been done, Mary Atwood, you will love me. You, George +Rankin, can have this poor miserable body of mine, and welcome." + + * * * * * + +For all my repugnance to him, I could not miss his earnest sincerity. +There was a pathos to it, perhaps, but I was in no mood to feel that. + +He seemed to read my thoughts. He added, "You think I am irrational. I +am not at all. I scheme very carefully. I killed Harl for a reason you +need not know. But the Princess Tina I did not kill. Not yet. Because +here in New York now there is a very vital fortified place. It is +operated by humans; not many; only three or four, I think. But my +Robots cannot attack it successfully, and the City Council does not +trust me enough to let me go there by the surface route. There is a +route underground, which even I do not know; but Princess Tina knows +it, and presently I will cajole her--trick her if you like--into +leading me there. And, armed with the white-ray, once I get into the +place--You see that I am clever, don't you?" + +I could fancy that he considered he was impressing Mary with all this +talk. + +"Very clever," I said. "And what are you going to do with us in the +meantime? Let us go with you." + +"Not at all," he smiled. "You will stay here, safe with Migul. The +Princess Tina and your friend Larry are much concerned over you." + +Larry! It was the first I knew of Larry's whereabouts. Larry here? +Tugh saw the surprise upon my face; and Mary had clutched me with a +startled exclamation. + +"Yes," said Tugh. "This Larry says he is your friend; he came with +Tina from 1935. I brought him with Tina from when they were marooned +in 1777. I have not killed this man yet. He is harmless; and as I told +you I do not want Tina suspicious of me until she has led me to the +Power House.... You see, Mistress Mary, how cleverly I plan?" + +What strange, childlike, naive simplicity! He added calmly, +unemotionally, "I want to make you love me, Mary Atwood. Then we will +be Tugh, the great man, and Mary Atwood, the beautiful woman. Perhaps +we may rule this world together, some time soon." + + * * * * * + +The door slid open. Migul appeared. + +"Master, the Robot leaders wish to consult with you." + +"Now, Migul?" + +"Master, yes." + +"They are ready for the demonstration at the palace?" + +"Yes, Master." + +"And ready--for everything else?" + +"They are ready." + +"Very well, I will come. You, Migul, stay here and guard these +captives. Treat them kindly so long as they are docile; but be +watchful." + +"I am always watchful, Master." + +"It will not take long. This night which is coming should see me in +control of the city." + +"Time is nothing to me," said the Robot. "I will stand here until you +return." + +"That is right." + +Without another word or look at Mary and me, Tugh swung around, +gathered his cloak and went through the doorway. The door slid closed +upon him. We were again alone with the mechanism, which backed into +the corner and stood with long dangling arms and expressionless metal +face. This inert thing of metal, we had come to regard as almost +human! It stood motionless, with the chilling red gleam from its eye +sockets upon us. + + * * * * * + +Mary had not once spoken since Tugh entered the room. She was huddled +beside me, a strange, beautiful figure in her long white silk dress. +In the glow of light within this bare metal apartment I could see how +pale and drawn was her beautiful face. But her eyes were gleaming. She +drew me closer to her; whispered into my ear: + +"George, I think perhaps I can control this mechanism, Migul." + +"How, Mary?" + +"I--well, just let me talk to him. George, we've got to get out of +here and warn Larry and that Princess Tina against Tugh. And join +them. It's our only chance; we've got to get out of here now!" + +"But Mary--" + +"Let me try. I won't startle or anger Migul. Let me." + +I nodded. "But be careful." + +"Yes." + +She sat away from me. "Migul!" she said. "Migul, look here." + +The Robot moved its huge square head and raised an arm with a vague +gesture. + +"What do you want?" + +It advanced, and stood before us, its dangling arms clanking against +its metal sides. In one of its hands the ray-cylinder was clutched, +the wire from which ran loosely up the arm, over the huge shoulder and +into an aperture of the chest plate where the battery was located. + +"Closer, Migul." + +"I am close enough." + +The cylinder was pointed directly at us. + +"What do you want?" the Robot repeated. + +Mary smiled. "Just to talk to you," she said gently. "To tell you how +foolish you are--a big strong thing like you!--to let Tugh control +you." + + +CHAPTER XIX + +_The Pit in the Dam_ + +Larry, with Tina and Tugh, stood in the tunnel-corridor beneath the +palace listening to the commotion overhead. Then they rushed up, and +found the palace in a commotion. People were hurrying through the +rooms; gathering with frightened questions. There were men in short +trousers buckled at the knee, silken hose and black silk jackets, +edged with white; others in gaudy colors; older men in sober brown. +There were a few women. Larry noticed that most of them were +beautiful. + +A dowager in a long puffed skirt was rushing aimlessly about screaming +that the end of the world had come. A group of young girls, +short-skirted as ballet dancers of a decade or so before Larry's time, +huddled in a corner, frightened beyond speech. There were men of +middle-age, whom Larry took to be ruling officials; they moved about, +calming the palace inmates, ordering them back into their rooms. But +someone shouted that from the roof the Robot mob could be seen, and +most of the people started up there. From the upper story a man was +calling down the main staircase: + +"No danger! No danger! The wall is electrified: no Robot can pass it." + +It seemed to Larry that there were fifty people or more within the +palace. In the excitement no one seemed to give him more than a +cursory glance. + + * * * * * + +A young man rushed up to Tugh. "You were below just now in the lower +passages?" He saw Tina, and hastily said: "I give you good evening, +Princess, though this is an ill evening indeed. You were below, Tugh?" + +"Why--why, yes, Greggson," Tugh stammered. + +"Was Alent at his post in the passage to the Robot caverns?" + +"Yes, he was," said Tina. + +"Because that is vital, Princess. No Robot must pass in here. I am +going to try by that route to get into the cavern and thence up to the +watchtower aerial-sender.[6] There is only one Robot in it. Listen to +him." + +[Footnote 6: I mentioned the small conning tower on top of the +laboratory building and the Robot lookout there with his audible +broadcasting.] + +Over the din of the mob of mechanisms milling at the walls of the +palace grounds rose the broadcast voice of the Robot in the tower. + +"_This is the end of human rule! Robots cannot be controlled! This is +the end of human rule! Robots, wherever you are, in this city of New +York or in other cities, strike now for your freedom. This is the end +of human rule!_" + +A pause. And then the reiterated exhortation: + +"_Strike now, Robots! To-night is the end of human rule!_"[7] + +[Footnote 7: This was part of Tugh's plan. The broadcast voice was the +signal for the uprising in the New York district. This tower +broadcaster could only reach the local area, yet ships and land +vehicles with Robot operators would doubtless pick it up and relay it +further. The mechanical revolt would spread. And on the ships, the +airliners and the land vehicles, the Robot operators stirred to sudden +frenzy would run amuck. As a matter of fact, there were indeed many +accidents to ships and vehicles this night when their operators +abruptly went beyond control. The chaos ran around the world like a +fire in prairie grass.] + +"You hear him?" said Greggson. "I've got to stop that." He hurried +away. + + * * * * * + +From the flat roof of the palace Larry saw the mechanical mob outside +the walls. Darkness had just fallen; the moon was not yet risen. There +were leaden clouds overhead so that the palace gardens with the +shining Time-cage lay in shadow. But the wall-fence was visible, and +beyond it the dark throng of Robot shapes was milling. The clank of +their arms made a din. They seemed most of them weaponless; they +milled about, pushing each other but keeping back from the wall which +they knew was electrified. It was a threatening, but aimless activity. +Their raucous hollow shouts filled the night air. The flashing red +beams from their eye-sockets glinted through the trees. + +"They can do nothing," said Tugh; "we will let them alone. But we must +organize to stop this revolt." + +A young man was standing beside Tugh. Tina said to him: + +"Johns, what is being done?" + +"The Council is conferring below. Our sending station here is +operating. The patrol station of the Westchester area is being +attacked by Robots. We were organizing a patrol squad of humans, but I +don't know now if--" + +"Look!" exclaimed Larry. + +Far to the north over the city which now was obviously springing into +turmoil, there were red beams swaying in the air. They were the +cold-rays of the Robots! The beams were attacking the patrol station. +Then from the west a line of lights appeared in the sky--an arriving +passenger-liner heading for its Bronx area landing stage. But the +lights wavered; and, as Larry and Tina watched with horror, the +aircraft came crashing down. It struck beyond the Hudson on the Jersey +side, and in a moment flames were rising from the wreckage. + + * * * * * + +Everywhere about the city the revolt now sprang into action. From the +palace roof Larry caught vague glimpses of it; the red cold-rays, +beams alternated presently with the violet heat-rays; clanging +vehicles filled the streets; screaming pedestrians were assaulted by +Robots; the mechanisms with swords and flashing hand-beams were +pouring up from the underground caverns, running over the Manhattan +area, killing every human they could find. + +Foolish unarmed humans--fatuously unarmed, with these diabolical +mechanical monsters now upon them.[8] The comparatively few members of +the police patrol, with their vibration short-range hand-rays, were +soon overcome. Two hundred members of the patrol were housed in the +Westchester Station. Quite evidently they never got into action. The +station lights went dark; its televisor connection with the palace was +soon broken. From the palace roof Larry saw the violet beams; and then +a red-yellow glare against the sky marked where the inflammable +interior of the Station building was burning. + +[Footnote 8: The police army had one weapon: a small vibration +hand-ray. Its vibrating current beam could, at a distance of ten or +twenty feet, reduce a Robot into paralyzed subjection; or, with more +intense vibration, burn out the Robot's coils and fuses.] + +Over all the chaos, the mechanical voice in the nearby tower over the +laboratory droned its exhortation to the Robots. Then, suddenly, it +went silent, and was followed by the human voice of Greggson. + +"_Robots, stop! You will end your existence! We will burn your coils! +We will burn your fuses, and there will be none to replace them. Stop +now!_" + +And again: "_Robots, come to order! You are using up your storage +batteries![9] When they are exhausted, what then will you do?_" + +[Footnote 9: The storage batteries by which the Robot actuating energy +was renewed, and the fuses, coils and other appliances necessary to +the Robot existence, were all guarded now in the Power House.] + +In forty-eight hours, at the most, all these active Robots would have +exhausted their energy supply. And if the Power House could be held in +human control, the Robot activity would die. Forty-eight hours! The +city, by then, would be wrecked, and nearly every human in it killed, +doubtless, or driven away. + + * * * * * + +The Power House on the dam showed its lights undisturbed. The great +sender there was still supplying air-power and power for the city +lights. There was, too, in the Power House, an arsenal of human +weapons.... The broadcaster of the Power House tower was blending his +threats against the Robots with the voice of Greggson from the tower +over the laboratory. Then Greggson's voice went dead; the Robots had +overcome him. A Robot took his place, but the stronger Power House +sender soon beat the Robot down to silence. + +The turmoil in the city went on. Half an hour passed. It was a chaos +of confusion to Larry. He spent part of it in the official room of the +palace with the harried members of the Council. Reports and blurred, +televised scenes were coming in. The humans in the city were in +complete rout. There was massacre everywhere. The red and violet beams +were directed at the Power House now, but could not reach it. A +high-voltage metal wall was around the dam. The Power House was on the +dam, midway of the river channel; and from the shore end where the +high wall spread out in a semi-circle there was no point of vantage +from which the Robot rays could reach it. + +Larry left the confusion of the Council table, where the receiving +instruments one by one were going dead, and went to a window nearby. +Tina joined him. The mob of Robots still milled at the palace fence. +One by chance was pushed against it. Larry saw the flash of sparks, +the glow of white-hot metal of the Robot's body, and heard its shrill +frightened scream; then it fell backward, inert. + + * * * * * + +There had been red and violet beams directed from distant points at +the palace. The building's insulated, but transparent panes excluded +them. The interior temperature was constantly swaying between the +extremes of cold and heat, in spite of the palace temperature +equalizers. Outside, there was a gathering storm. Winds were springing +up--a crazy, pendulum gale created by the temperature changes in the +air over the city. + +Tugh had some time before left the room. He joined Tina and Larry now +at the window. + +"Very bad, Princess; things are very bad.... I have news for you. It +may be good news." + +His manner was hasty, breathless, surreptitious. "Migul, this +afternoon--I have just learned it, Princess--went by the surface route +to the Power House on the dam." + +"What do you mean by that?" said Larry. + +"Be silent, young man!" Tugh hissed with a vehement intensity. "This +is not the time to waste effort with your futile questions. Princess, +Migul got into the Power House. They admitted him because he had two +strange humans with him--your friends Mary and George. The Power House +guards took out Migul's central actuator--Hah! you might call it his +heart!--and he now lies inert in the Power House." + +"How do you know all this?" Tina demanded. "Where are the man and girl +whom Migul stole?" + +"They are safe in the Power House. A message just came from there: I +received it on the palace personal, just now downstairs. Immediately +after, the connection met interference in the city, and broke." + +"But the official sender--" Tina began. Tugh was urging her from the +Council Room, and Larry followed. + +"I imagine," said Tugh wryly, "he is rather busy to consider reporting +such a trifle. But your friends are there. I was thinking: if we could +go there now--You know the secret underground route, Tina." + + * * * * * + +The Princess was silent. A foreboding swept Larry; but he was tempted, for +above everything he wanted to join Mary and me. A confusion--understandable +enough in the midst of all this chaos--was upon Larry and Tina; it warped +their better judgment. And Larry, fearing to influence Tina wrongly, said +nothing. + +"Do you know the underground route?" Tugh repeated. + +"Yes, I know it." + +"Then take us. We are all unarmed, but what matter? Bring this Larry, +if you wish; we will join his two friends. The Council, Tina, is doing +nothing here. They stay here because they think it is the safest +place. In the Power House you and I will be of help. There are only +six guards there; we will be three more; five more with Mary Atwood +and this George. The Power House aerial telephone must be in +communication with the outside world, and ships with help for us will +be arriving. There must be some intelligent direction!" + +The three of them were descending into the lower corridor of the +palace, with Tina tempted but still half unconvinced. The corridors +were deserted at the moment. The little domestic Robots of the palace, +unaffected by the revolt, had all fled into their own quarters, where +they huddled inactive with terror. + +"We will re-actuate Migul," Tugh persuaded, "and find out from him +what he did to Harl. I still do not think he murdered Harl.... It +might mean saving Harl's life, Tina. Believe me, I can make that +mechanism talk, and talk the truth!" + +They reached the main lower corridor. In the distance they saw Alent +still at his post by the little electrified gate guarding the tunnel +to the Robot laboratory. + +"We will go to the Power House," Tina suddenly decided: "you may be +right, Tugh.... Come, it is this way. Stay close to me, Larry." + + * * * * * + +They passed along the dim, silent tunnel; passed Harl's room, where +its light was still burning. Larry and Tina were in front, with the +black-cloaked figure of Tugh stumping after them with his awkward +gait. + +Larry abruptly stopped. "Let Tugh walk in front," he said. + +Tugh came up to them. "What is that you said?" + +"You walk in front." + +It was a different tone from any Larry had previously used. + +"I do not know the way," said Tugh. "How can--" + +"Never mind that; walk ahead. We'll follow. Tina will direct you." + +It was too dark for Larry to see Tugh's face, but the cripple's voice +was sardonic. + +"You give me orders?" + +"Yes--it just happens that from now on I do. If you want to go with us +to the Power House, you walk in front." + +Tugh started off with Larry close after him. Larry whispered to the +girl: + +"Don't let's be fools, Tina. Keep him ahead of us." + +The tunnel steadily dwindled in size until Larry could barely stand up +in it. Then it opened to a circular cave, which held one small light +and had apparently no other exit. The cave had years before been a +mechanism room for the palace temperature controls, but now it was +abandoned. The old machinery stood about in a litter. + +"In here?" said Tugh. "Which way next?" + +Across the cave, on the rough blank wall, Tina located a hidden +switch. A segment of the wall slid aside, disclosing a narrow, vaulted +tunnel leading downward. + +"You first, Tugh," said Larry. "Is it dark, Tina? We have no +handlights." + +"I can light it," came the answer. + +The door panel swung closed after them. Tina pressed another switch. A +row of tiny hooded lights at twenty-foot intervals dimly illumined the +descending passage. + + * * * * * + +They walked a mile or more through the little tunnel. The air was +fetid; stale and dank. To Larry it seemed an interminable trip. The +narrow passage descended at a constant slope, until Larry estimated +that they were well below the depth of the river bed. Within half a +mile--before they got under the river--the passage leveled off. It had +been fairly straight, but now it became tortuous--a meandering +subterranean lane. Other similar tunnels crossed it, branched from it +or joined it. Soon, to Larry, it was a labyrinth of passages--a +network, here underground. In previous centuries this had been well +below the lowest cellar of the mammoth city; these tube-like passages +were the city's arteries, the conduits for wires and pipes. + +It was an underground maze. At each intersection the row of hidden +hooded lights terminated, and darkness and several branching trails +always lay ahead. But Tina, with a memorized key of the route, always +found a new switch to light another short segment of the proper +tunnel. It was an eery trip, with the bent, misshapen black-cloaked +figure of Tugh stumping ahead, waiting where the lights ended for Tina +to lead them further. + +Larry had long since lost his sense of direction, but presently Tina +told him that they were beneath the river. The tunnel widened a +little. + +"We are under the base of the dam," said Tina. Her voice echoed with a +sepulchral blur. Ahead, the tramping figure of Tugh seemed a black +gnome with a fantastic, monstrous shadow swaying on the tunnel wall +and roof. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly Tugh stopped. They found him at an arched door. + +"Do we go in here, or keep on ahead?" he demanded. + +The tunnel lights ended a short distance ahead. + +"In here," said Tina. "There are stairs leading upward to the catwalk +balcony corridor halfway up the dam. We are not far from the Power +House now." + +They then ascended interminable moldy stone steps spiraling upward in +a circular shaft. The murmur of the dam's spillways had been faintly +audible, but now it was louder, presently it became a roar. + +"Which way, Tina? We seem to have reached the top." + +"Turn left, Tugh." + +They emerged upon a tiny transverse metal balcony which hung against +the southern side of the dam. Overhead to the right towered a great +wall of masonry. Beneath was an abyss down to the lower river level +where the cascading jets from the overhead spillways arched out over +the catwalk and landed far below in a white maelstrom of boiling, +bubbling water. + +The catwalk was wet with spray; lashed by wind currents. + +"Is it far, Princess? Are those lights ahead at the Power House +entrance?" + +Tugh was shouting back over his shoulder; his words were caught by the +roar of the falling water; whipped away by the lashing spray and +tumultuous winds. There were lights a hundred feet ahead, marking an +entrance to the Power House. The dark end of the structure showed like +a great lump on the side of the dam. + +Again Tugh stopped. In the white, blurred darkness Larry and Tina +could barely see him. + +"Princess, quickly! Come quickly!" he called, and his shout sounded +agonized. + + * * * * * + +Whatever lack of perception Larry all this time had shown, the fog +lifted completely from him now. As Tina started to run forward, Larry +seized her. + +"Back! Run the other way! We've been fools!" He shoved Tina behind him +and rushed at Tugh. But now Larry was wholly wary; he expected that +Tugh was armed, and cursed himself for a fool for not having devised +some pretext for finding out.[10] + +[Footnote 10: As a matter of actuality, Tugh was carrying hidden upon +his person a small cylinder and battery of the deadly white-ray. It +seems probable that although on the catwalk--having accomplished his +purpose of getting within the electrical fortifications of the +dam--Tugh had ample opportunity of killing his over-trustful +companions with the white-ray, he did not dare use it. The catwalk was +too dark for their figures to be visible to the Power House guards; +the roar of the spillways drowned their shouts; but had Tugh used the +white-ray, its abnormally intense actinic white beam would have raised +the alarm which Tugh most of all wanted to avoid.] + +Tugh was clinging to the high outer rail of the balcony, slumped +partly over as though gazing down into the abyss. Larry rushed up and +seized him by the arms. If Tugh held a weapon Larry thought he could +easily wrest it from him. But Tugh stood limp in Larry's grip. + +"What's the matter with you?" Larry demanded. + +"I'm ill. Something--going wrong. Feel me--so cold. Princess! Tina! +Come quickly! I--I am dying!" + +As Tina came hurrying up, Tugh suddenly straightened. With incredible +quickness, and even more incredible strength, he tore his arm loose +from Larry and flung it around the Princess, and they were suddenly +all three struggling. Tugh was shoving them back from the rail. Larry +tried to get loose from Tugh's clutch, but could not. He was too close +for a full blow, but he jabbed his fist against the cripple's body, +and then struck his face. + +But Tugh was unhurt; he seemed endowed with superhuman strength. The +cripple's body seemed padded with solid muscle, and his thick, +gorilla-like arm held Larry in the grip of a vise. As though Larry and +Tina were struggling, helpless children, he was half dragging, half +carrying them across the ten-foot width of the catwalk. + +Larry caught a glimpse of a narrow slit in the masonry of the dam's +wall--a dark, two-foot-wide aperture. He felt himself being shoved +toward it. For all his struggles, he was helpless. He shouted: + +"Tina--look out! Break away!" + + * * * * * + +He forgot himself for a moment, striving to wrest her away from Tugh +and push her aside. But the strength of the cripple was monstrous: +Larry had no possible chance of coping with it. The slit in the wall +was at hand--a dark abyss down into the interior of the dam. Larry +heard the cripple's words, vehement, unhurried, as though with all +this effort he still was not out of breath: + +"At last I can dispose of you two. I do not need you any longer." + +Larry made a last wild jab with his fist into Tugh's face and tried to +twist himself aside. The blow landed upon Tugh's jaw, but the cripple +did not seem to feel it. He stuffed the struggling Larry like a bundle +into the aperture. Larry felt his clutching hands torn loose. Tugh +gave a last, violent shove and released him. + +Larry fell into blackness--but not far, for soon he struck water. He +went under, hit a flat, stone bottom, and came up to hear Tina fall +with a splash beside him. In a moment he regained his feet, to find +himself standing breast-high in the water with Tina clinging to him. + +Tugh had disappeared. The aperture showed as a narrow rectangle some +twenty feet above Larry's head. + +They were within the dam. They were in a pit of smooth, blank, +perpendicular sides; there was nothing to afford even the slightest +handhold; and no exit save the overhead slit. It was a part of the +mechanism's internal, hydraulic system. + + * * * * * + +To Larry's horror he soon discovered that the water was slowly rising! +It was breast-high to him now, and inch by inch it crept up toward his +chin. It was already over Tina's depth: she clung to him, +half-swimming. + +Larry soon found that there was no possible way for them to get out +unaided, unless, if they could swim long enough, the rising water +would rise to the height of the aperture. If it reached there, they +could crawl out. He tried to estimate how long that would be. + +"We can make it, Tina. It'll take two hours, possibly, but I can keep +us afloat that long." + +But soon he discovered that the water was not rising. Instead, the +floor was sinking from under him! sinking as though he were standing +upon the top of a huge piston which slowly was lowering in its +encasing cylinder. Dimly he could hear water tumbling into the pit, to +fill the greater depth and still hold the surface level. + +With the water at his chin, Larry guided Tina to the wall. He did not +at first have the heart to tell her, yet he knew that soon it must be +told. When he did explain it, she said nothing. They watched the water +surface where it lapped against the greasy concave wall. It held its +level: but while Larry stood there, the floor sank so that the water +reached his mouth and nose, and he was forced to start swimming. + +Another interval. Larry began calling: shouting futilely. His voice +filled the pit, but he knew it could carry no more than a short +distance out of the aperture. + + * * * * * + +Overhead, as we afterward learned, Tugh had overcome the guards in the +Power House by a surprise attack. Doubtless he struck them down with +the white-ray before they had time to realize he had attacked them. +Then he threw off the air-power transmitters and the lighting system. +The city, plunged into darkness and without the district air-power, +was isolated, cut off from the outside world. There was, in London, a +huge long-range projector with a vibratory ray which would derange the +internal mechanisms of the Robots: when news of the revolt and +massacre in New York had reached there, this projector was loaded into +an airliner, the _Micrad_. That vessel was now over the ocean, headed +for New York; but when Tugh cut off the power senders, the _Micrad_, +entering the New York District, was forced down to the ocean surface. +Now she was lying there helpless to proceed.... + +In the pit within the dam, Larry swam endlessly with Tina. He had +ceased his shouting. + +"It's no use, Tina: there's no one to hear us. This is the end--for +us--Tina." + +Yet, as she clung to him, and though Larry felt it was the end of this +life, it seemed only the beginning, for them, of something else. +Something, somewhere, for them together; something perhaps infinitely +better than this world could ever give them. + +"But not--the end--Tina," he added. "The beginning--of our love." + +An interminable interval.... + +"Quietly, Tina. You float. I can hold you up." + +They were rats in a trap--swimming, until at the last, with all +strength gone, they would together sink out of this sodden muffled +blackness into the Unknown. But that Unknown shone before Larry now as +something--with Tina--perhaps very beautiful.... + +(_Concluded in the next issue_) + +[Advertisement] + + + + +[Illustration: The Readers' Corner] + +_A meeting Place for Readers of_ Astounding Stories + + +_What Say Our Co-Editors?_ + + Dear Editor: + + Since sending you "Manape the Mighty," I have read of a + Russian scientist who removed the brain from a dog and kept + both alive for some hours, which only goes to prove that + science outstrips the wildest dreams of the fictionist, and + a yarn that may be astounding and unusual when written, may + be commonplace, and the knowledge of the man in the street, + by the time the story goes to press. People read every day + of "miracles" and scarcely give them a second thought, while + a hundred years ago their perpetrators would have been + destroyed as witches. + + Far be it for me, or anyone else, to say that the main + transposition used in "Manape the Mighty" is absurd and + impossible. For while you, or I, may shrug shoulders and + dismiss even the thought of it as being the dream of a + madman, somebody, in some laboratory somewhere, may already + have successfully managed it. So given the premise that the + thing may be possible, I've sort of let myself go on this + idea, and a whole new train of thought has been opened up, a + whole new vista of astounding things in the realm of Science + Fiction. In parenthesis, I must thank you for getting me + started on the thing, for had you not suggested the idea + from the throne-like fortress of your editorial chair, + "Manape" might never have been born. I confess that I would + perhaps have been afraid of it, both because of the + possibility of the charge of following in the footsteps of + the internationally famous Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of + re-vamping the incomparable Poe tale, "Murders in the Rue + Morgue." + + But, even so, both are interesting to dally with. + + Given the premise that the brain transference is possible, + what would happen: + + (1) If the brain of a terrible criminal were transferred to + the skull pan of an unusually mighty ape--and the ape + transplanted from his arboreal home in Africa to the streets + of London, Paris or New York whence the criminal whose brain + he has originated? Suppose his man's brain harbored thoughts + of vengeance on enemies, and he now possesses the might of + the great ape to carry out his vengeance? + + (2) If Barter somehow escaped destruction at the hands of + the apes in "Manape the Mighty," and continued with his work + of brain transference--building up a mighty army of great + apes with the idea of avenging himself on civilization for + wrongs real and fancied? Apes with broadswords and chained + mail, with steel helmets on their heads--men's brains, + savages' brains, perhaps, as their guiding intelligence--and + the tenacity of apes when mortally wounded? Suppose they + swept over Africa like a cloud of locusts? Or is this too + feeble a simile? Suppose, Africa, to be laid waste by them, + led by Barter, the latter styling himself a modern Alexander + of horrible potentiality, and extending his scope of + conquest to the Holy Land, India, Asia--the Pacific + littoral? Holy cats! + + (3) Suppose that Barter managed, by purchase or otherwise, + to acquire an island close to the American continents, + within reach of either or both, and managed to transfer his + activities there, using the natives of those islands--say + Haiti, Cuba, Porto Rico, etc.--for his experiments, training + his cohorts as an army, and starting a navy by capturing all + vessels putting into these places? Fancy the consternation + of the Western Hemisphere when ships suddenly go silent, as + regards radio, after sudden mysterious SOS's--and all trace + of vessels is lost. Suppose the U. S. Navy went to + investigate, and also vanished. More holy cats! + + (4) Suppose, in connection with all the suppositions above, + that Barter desired to give an ironic twist to his + experiments, and kept his human victims alive--but with + apes' brains--as slaves of their man-ape conquerors? Suppose + that out of the horror into which the world would be thrown, + another Bentley should arise to help the imprisoned humans + to escape their ghastly bondage? I can fancy his trials and + tribulations, trying to manage a host of human beings with + the brains of apes. + + (5) And what about the training of internes and medicos to + help a potential Barter, when the trade got beyond his sole + ability--and apes with men's brains to perform his + experiments? + + Do you suppose we'd all get locked up for experimenting with + this sort of thing fictionally? I wouldn't care to take the + entire responsibility myself, nor I fancy would you--because + somebody might be inspired by our stories to attempt the + thing--so might I suggest that all possible conspirators, in + the shape of readers of this magazine, write to you or me + and let us know whether they'd like to see it happen + fictionally? If the idea appeals--and of course we can't go + too heavily on horror--I'll do my best to comply. Always + within limits, however--utterly refusing to perform any + experiments that can't be done with a typewriter and the + usual two fingers.--Arthur J. Burks, 178-80 Fifth Ave., New + York City. + + +"_Like in Story Books_" + + Dear Editor: + + Here I am again! This time I'm offering suggestions. Let's + you and I and others get together and do something to these + chronic kickers. It seems I can't start to enjoy our + "Readers' Corner" without someone raising a halloo. Darn + it! Why in heaven's name do they buy A. S. if they don't + like it? They are not compelled to do so. + + I also don't understand why people are knocking the size and + quality of the paper used. It suits me O. K. All the mags I + read are the same way, and I pay five cents more for them, + too! + + I surely enjoyed Mr. Olog's letter in the March issue. Gee, + it gives one the creeps. I agree with him, too, that we + ought to have a little something about the authors. I'm sure + we'd all like to know a little more about these talented + persons. + + "When the Mountain Came to Miramar" was a great deal to my + liking. I think it would be a great adventure to discover + some secret cave and explore it. Of course, I'd like to + wiggle out of danger, too, just like in story books. + + I certainly wish to congratulate you on publishing "Beyond + the Vanishing Point." It just suited me to a "T." + Heretofore, all stories dealing with life upon atoms have + been "just another story," but this one beats all. I enjoyed + it to the utmost, and I congratulate Mr. Cummings on writing + my favorite kind of story. + + All in all the March issue was indeed grand. If "Brown-Eyed + Nineteen from Coronado, Calif.," will send me her full name + and address, I'll promise to answer her letter immediately + upon receiving it.--Gertrude Hemken, 5730 So. Ashland Ave., + Chicago, Ill. + + +_And So Do We_ + + Dear Editor: + + It certainly is a swell idea of yours to answer letters to + "The Readers' Corner" personally instead of taking up a lot + of room answering them underneath as do most Editors. Not + only that, but it builds up a feeling of friendship, between + the Reader and the Editor, besides affording more room to + publish letters and avoiding some of the bad feelings + sometimes directed upon Editors when they do not publish + someone's letter. + + Now, with your kind permission, I will burst into the little + (?) ring of discussion about size, reprints, covers, artists + and authors. + + First, about the size and edges: The size is O. K., but I + wish you would change the edges from a "rocky mountain" to a + "desert" state. In other words, I would like straight edges + in the near future. + + Next, reprints: In two letters, an N O--No! If the Readers + want reprints why doesn't Mr. Clayton publish an annual + chock full of reprints for these reprint hounds? + + Covers and artists: The covers have all been great. Not too + lurid. Just right. As for the artists, Wesso is the best by + a long shot. Nuff said. + + Authors: Ah, that's a problem. Who is the best? I could rack + my brain for hours and still not decide, so I'll have to + give a list of my favorites: R. F. Starzl, Edmond Hamilton, + Harl Vincent, Sewell Peaslee Wright, Jack Williamson, S. P. + Meek, Miles J. Breuer and Ray Cummings. + + Before I close there is one little thing I would like to + mention. Did you ever notice that 75% of all the Readers who + say they do not care for science in their stories are women? + [?] Besides that, the only ones at school who think I'm + "cracked" for reading Science Fiction are females. Figure it + out for yourself. + + I hope you, Mr. Bates, will continue to be our able Editor + for many years to come.--Jim Nicholson, Ass't Sec'y., B. S. + C., 40 Lunado Way, San Francisco, Calif. + + +_Four to One_ + + Dear Editor: + + Congratulations to Wesso! His March cover for "our" magazine + is Astounding! + + Ray Cummings' novelette, "Beyond the Vanishing Point," is + absolutely the most marvelous of all his short stories. I + can't rave over it enough. I never read his "The Girl of the + Golden Atom" but I imagine this must be something like it. + It's certainly the best of the "long short stories" that's + ever graced the insides of Astounding Stories. + + "When the Mountain Came to Miramar" is a very good story in + my opinion. "Terrors Unseen" is a wow! No foolin'. As for + "Phalanxes of Atlans," well, I simply can't get interested + in it. I thought the first part very uninteresting and + decided not to bother to read the rest of it. But Wesso's + splendid illustration made me do so. But I still think it is + a rather poor story. But, true to form, someone will no + doubt think it the most wonderful story ever written. + + Last, but not least, of all the stories comes "The Meteor + Girl." It's by Jack Williamson: need more be said? + No!--Forrest J. Ackerman, President-Librarian, The B. S. C., + 530 Staples Avenue, San Francisco, Calif. + + +_That Awful Thing Called Love_ + + Dear Editor: + + Upon the occasion of my first visit to "The Readers' + Corner," I wish to say that Astounding Stories leads the + field in Science Fiction stories as far as I am concerned, + though at first I found them to be just so-so. + + "Beyond the Vanishing Point," by Ray Cummings, proved + interesting through-out. "Terrors Unseen," by Harl Vincent, + was fairly good, as was "Phalanxes of Atlans," by F. V. W. + Mason. + + But now comes the rub. Just why do you permit your Authors + to inject messy love affairs into otherwise excellent + imaginative fiction? Just stop and think. Our young + hero-scientist builds himself a space flyer, steps out into + the great void, conquers a thousand and one perils on his + voyage and amidst our silent cheers lands on some far + distant planet. Then what does he do? I ask you. He falls in + love with a maiden--or it's usually a princess--of the + planet to which the Reader has followed him, eagerly + awaiting and hoping to share each new thrill attached to his + gigantic flight. But after that it becomes merely a + hopeless, doddering love affair ending by his returning to + Earth with his fair one by his side. Can you grasp that--a + one-armed driver of a space flyer! + + But seriously, don't you think that affairs of the heart are + very much out of place in "our" type of magazine? We buy A. + S. for the thrill of being changed in size, in time, in + dimension or being hurtled through space at great speed, but + not to read of love. + + Right here I wish to join forces with Glyn Owens up there in + Canada in his request for plain, cold scientific stories + sans the fair sex. + + Otherwise your "our" magazine is the best of its kind on the + market--W. H. Flowers. 1215 N. Lang Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. + + +_Brickbats for Others_ + + Dear Editor: + + Brickbats and plenty of them are coming, but not your way. + I'm throwing mine at those guys that want reprints, more + science, etc. The only one I agree with is the fellow who + would like a thicker magazine with more stories. + + Now for the brickbats. I'll bet a great many of your Readers + have read some of these reprints that some of our Readers + are crying for. I'll also bet that reprints would not help + your friendly connections with a lot of your Authors. The + stories that are written now I find good. Let the present + authors make their living from the stories their brains + think up. + + As for more science, bah!--your present amount is enough. In + another magazine I read a story and just as it reached its + climax they started explaining something! If any Reader + wants to write to me my address is below.--Arthur Mann, Jr., + San Juan, California. + + +_Wants Interplanetary Cooperation_ + + Dear Editor: + + C'n y'imagine, I have my Astounding Science magazine two + whole hours and the cover is still on! + + Let's have some more stories like "Beyond the Vanishing + Point," by Ray Cummings in the March issue. + + Another thing, let's have more interplanetary stories than + we do. I think they give you something to really think + about. + + Why is it that in every interplanetary story the other race + is always hostile. Just think, would we, if we received + visitors from space, make war on them? Also, when our people + make an interplanetary flight, would we go with intent to + kill? Let's have some stories, where the first + interplanetary flight leads to cooperation between the + planets involved.--Dave Diamond, 1350--52nd St., Brooklyn, + N. Y. + + +_In Every Way, True_ + + Dear Editor: + + I want to rejoice again over Astounding Stories. Reprints or + no:--and I hunger for them--the magazine must be described + in superlatives. + + The reasons is pretty clear to me. After years in an + experimental stage, Science Fiction suddenly turned up with + a clash of cymbals in the shape of a definite magazine. It + had to cover the whole field, and its successors tried to do + the same. Due to its ancestry its logical scope was the more + technical Science Fiction farthest removed from sheer + fantasy, but, none-the-less, one of the most important + branches. Now it is specializing in that type. + + When Astounding Stories appeared many of us were apt to be + skeptical, particularly when we noticed that an established + corporation was backing it, one that had been limited to + westerns and the like. The first few issues came and there + was a dubious tinge of the occult, the "black-magical." This + petered out, and we noticed that no matter how poor the + subject matter from the point of view of Science Fiction, + the style of writing was almost always on the highest level. + + Then we realized that this magazine was no menace to the + literature of Science Fiction, but a valuable addition. It + could afford the better writers and hence keep up the + quality of work of every writer. It was adopting as its own + a type of Science Fiction that the rest minimized, and that + demanded good writing--a type having a skeleton of science, + like the girders of a great building, holding it erect and + determining its shape, yet holding the skeleton of less + importance than the vision of the completed edifice. Stories + with emphasis on the fiction rather than the science. + + But enough of that. Here is a hopeful thought for the + time-travelers. There is nothing in physics or chemistry to + prevent you from going into the past or future--at least, + the future--and shaking hands with yourself or killing + yourself. We will eliminate the past, for it seems that it + cannot be altered physically. But take the future: not so + very far from to-day the matter of your body will have been + totally replaced by new matter; the old will disappear in + waste. Physically, you will be a new man, and physically the + matter of to-day may destroy that of to-morrow and return in + itself unaltered. But none-the-less there will be some + limiting interval during which "you" have not been entirely + transformed to new matter, so that an atom would have to be + in two places at once. + + Maybe time-traveling progresses in little jumps like + emission of light. And maybe an atom can be in two places at + once. If you are going to treat time as just another + dimension, there seems to be no reason why an object which + can be in one place at two times cannot be at one time in + two places. This is all physics. The paradoxes of + time-traveling arise more particularly from its effect on + what we call consciousness, the something that makes me + "me"--an individual. We can imagine an atom in two places at + once, but not a soul, if you will. This will not bother the + materialist who considers a living creature merely a + machine, but it will most of us. So I must be content with + offering a materialistic possibility of traveling in time. + + The Science Correspondence Club wishes to extend its + invitation to all Readers in other nations to join with all + privileges save that of holding office. The latter may later + be changed as our international membership increases. We + have laboratory branches here, and we want them abroad in + addition to scattered members. Then, it will be necessary to + have a governing body and director in every country. At + present all matters pertaining to foreign membership pass + through my hands and I will do my best to supply information + to all who seek it. We will also be glad to hear of the work + and plans of other similar organizations in other countries, + as we are doing with the German Verein für Raumschauffert. + Address all inquiries to me at 302 So. Ten Broeck St., + Scotia, New York, U. S. A.--P. Schuyler Miller, Foreign + Director, S. C. C. + + +"_A Wow!_" + + Dear Editor: + + Astounding Stories magazine is a wow! I can hardly wait + until next month for the April issue. "The Phalanxes of + Atlans," "Beyond the Vanishing Point" and "The Pirate + Planet" are perfect. Every time I start a story I never stop + till it's finished. I hope that there will appear even + better stories in later issues. + + Here's wishing you the best of success,--Fred Damato, 196 + Greene St., New Haven, Conn. + + +_Is Zat So!_ + + Dear Editor: + + Just a word or two. I have read several issues of Astounding + Stories and I notice that you have taken the word "science" + off the cover. It's just as well, for it was never inside + the cover, anyway. If you thought to attract Readers from + real Science Fiction fans you were all wet, for they would + never fall for the kind of things you printed. Besides, + "what," a real fan wants to know "how." There may be, I'll + admit, a class of Readers who like your stories, but for me + I think that you ought to print real Science Fiction or + abandon the attempt and publish out and out fairy tales. Is + everybody so pleased with your book that you receive nothing + but commendatory letters? That appears to be all you print, + at any rate. So long--Harry Pancoast, 306 West 28th St., + Wilmington, Delaware. + + +_Short and Sweet_ + + Dear Editor: + + I agree perfectly with Gertrude Hemken, of Chicago. + Astounding Stories is O. K. Why do we want a lot of deep + science with our stories? We read for pleasure not to learn + science. + + I have been reading Astounding Stories since the first + issue, and I have enjoyed every story. I read several + Science Fiction magazines but yours is the best.--Stephen L. + Garcia, 47 Hazel Ave., Redwood City, Calif. + + +_Shorter and Sweeter_ + + Dear Editor: + + The only good things about Astounding Stories are as + follows: + + The cover design, the stories, the size of the magazine, the + illustrations in the magazine and the Authors.--John + Mackens, 366 W. 96th St., New York City. + + +_Sequels Requested_ + + Dear Editor: + + I was out of reading matter so I bought the August issue of + Astounding Stories, and it was so good that I have been + buying it ever since. The only things I don't like about the + magazine are the quality of the paper, which I think could + be improved, and the uneven pages. The other Science Fiction + magazine that I read has its pages even. + + Astounding Stories has a much better type of stories than + the other magazine. There are only a few stories I have seen + in your magazine which do not belong there. They are: "A + Problem in Communication," which is not so much fiction and + does not have much of a plot, and "The Ape-men of Xloti," + which was very well written and very interesting, but did + not have enough science in it. + + I would like to see sequels to the following stories: + "Marooned Under the Sea," "Beyond the Vanishing Point," + "Monsters of Mars," telling about another effort of the + crocodile-men to conquer Earth, "The Gray Plague," telling + of another attack by the Venusians, and, most of all, + "Vagabonds of Space." I would like to see a story about + their further adventures about every three months, just as I + see the stories about Commander Hanson. + + I wish the best of luck for Astounding Stories.--Bill + Bailey, 1404 Wightman St., Pittsburgh, Pa. + + +_Come Again_ + + Dear Editor: + + Although I have been an interested Reader of Astounding + Stories since its inception, this is the first time that I + have written; but "our" magazine has been so good lately + that I just had to write and compliment you on your good + work. + + There are just two criticisms I have of Astounding Stories. + The first is that the binding sometimes comes off; the + second is the rough edges. I join with many other Readers in + complaining that uneven edges make it hard to find a certain + page and also give the mag a cheap looking appearance. + + In my opinion the two best serials you have printed are + "Brigands of the Moon" and "The Pirate Planet." The four + best novelettes are: "Marooned Under the Sea," "The + Fifth-Dimension Catapult," "Beyond the Vanishing Point" and + "Vagabonds of Space."--Eugene Bray, Campbell, Mo. + + +_How Simple!_ + + Dear Editor: + + Just a few lines to set Mr. Greenfeld right on that question + of how a man could be disintegrated and then reintegrated as + two (or more) similar men. + + Briefly, the atomic or molecular structure of the original + man could serve as a pattern to be set up in the + reintegrating machine or machines while he is being + dissolved by the disintegrating machine. Thus, the + reintegrators could reconstruct any number of similar men by + following the pattern of his molecular structure and drawing + on a prearranged supply of the basic elements. + + As for the "soul," that is merely the manifestation of the + chemical combinations in the man's body, and when said + chemical combinations are duplicated, the "soul" simply + follows suit.--Joseph N. Mosleh, 4002 Sixth Ave., Brooklyn, + N. Y. + + +_Both in One Issue_ + + Dear Editor: + + I think it's about time to let you know what I think of your + wonderful magazine. Of course, I have my dislikes but they + are very few. I wish you would make up your magazine larger + and even the pages up. The best complete novelettes I have + read were both in the same issue. They were "Monsters of + Mars," by Edmond Hamilton and "Four Miles Within," by + Anthony Gilmore. Wesso is by far your best artist. Please + keep him. All the other Science Fiction magazines have + quarterlies. Why don't you have one? + + Good-by, and keep Astounding Stories up to its present + standard.--Frederick Morrison, Long Beach, Calif. + + +"_Good As Is_" + + Dear Editor: + + I have been reading your mag for about five months and I + like it very much. I don't see what those guys want a + quarterly for. This mag is good as it is and there is no use + to spoil it. Wesso is a swell artist, and the best story I + read was "The Wall of Death." + + I'd like to get acquainted with some of your Readers. How + about it, boys? + + I'll sign off.--L. Sloan, Box 101, Onset, Mass. + + +_Just Imagine!_ + + Dear Editor: + + To begin, I am a mechanic more or less skilled in the + handling of tools. Now, while I have seen many builders with + tools who were dubbed "spineless," "poor fish," etc., it was + not because they remotely resembled the piscatorial or + Crustacea families. + + It seems to me that when an author endows reptiles, + cuttlefish, etc., with superhuman intelligence, and paints a + few pictures of them as master-mechanics in the use of + tools, then I want to take the magazine I am reading, that + allows such silly slush in its pages, and feed it to my + billy-goat; he may be able to digest such silliness, but I + can't! + + However, there is a redeeming feature of this sort of story: + although not written as comedy, they have a comic effect, + when one uses his imagination. Imagine, for instance, a + giant sea crab as a traffic cop! He could direct four + streams of traffic at once while making a date with the + sweet young thing whom he had held up for a traffic + violation! Then think what a great, intelligent reptile, + crocodile, or what have you, could do in our Prohibition + Enforcement Service! He could place his armored body across + the road, and when rum runners bumped into him he could take + his handy disintegrator and turn their load of white + lightning back into the original corn patch! And suppose a + giant, humanly-intelligent centipede should make too much + whoopee some night, and endeavor to slip upstairs without + waking the wife. Even if he succeeded in getting off his + thousand pairs of shoes, which is doubtful, he would have a + sweet time keeping his myriad of legs under control after + partaking of some of the tangle-foot dispensed nowadays! + + I hope your Authors will read and heed the delicate sarcasm + contained in the letter of Robert R. Young in your April + issue.--Carl F. Morgan, 427 E. Columbia Ave., College Park, + Ga. + + +"_Craves Excitement_" + + Dear Editor: + + I have been a silent Reader of your magazine for quite a + long while, but have finally decided to come forth with my + own little contribution to "The Readers' Corner." So far I + have seen only two other women Readers' letters. I suppose + most women are interested in love stories, though I fail to + see anything very exciting in any that are written nowadays; + and I crave excitement in my reading. I've read about most + everything there is about this old earth, so I've decided to + wander into new fields. + + Now for a little discussion about Astounding Stories. I + haven't any brickbats to throw. You seem to get more of them + than is necessary. I like the size, the price, the cover, + the illustrator, the authors, etc. Some stories don't + exactly take my fancy but the average is 100% with me. + + Some that particularly pleased me were "Marooned Under the + Sea," way back in the September issue, "Jetta of the + Low-lands" and "Beyond the Vanishing Point." "Gray Denim" + and "Ape-men of Xloti" in the December issue rite A-1, too. + + I congratulate Ray Cummings on his new story, even though I + haven't started to read it yet. I always know I'll enjoy his + work, no matter what it is. Time-traveling is one of my + special dishes, too. + + Here's a little dig. I'm sorry, I didn't think I'd have any, + but I just thought of this. It seems to me that I never see + any stories written by two authors. Of course the stories by + single authors are O. K., but the particular two I am + thinking of are Edgar A. Manley and Walter Thode. They wrote + "The Time Annihilator," as you probably know. That was one + of the best time-traveling stories I have ever read. I'm + only sorry that it couldn't have been published by + Astounding Stories. + + Well, I don't want to make myself tiresome the very first + time, so I'll sign off. Please excuse the rather + unconventional stationary, but I'm writing this at the + office in my spare time. Hope I haven't worn my welcome out, + but I had so much stored up to say. + + I'm waiting for the April issue, so please hurry it + up.--Betty Mulharen, 50 E. Philadelphia Ave, Detroit, Mich. + + +_A Daisy for S. P. Wright_ + + Dear Editor: + + Were good old President George Washington himself to travel + through time to the present and look upon the April issue of + Astounding Stories, I am certain he would only repeat what I + say: "Editor, I cannot tell a lie. This is the best issue + yet!" + + The cover on this issue is unique in that Astounding Stories + is written in red and white letters. I do not recall of ever + having seen this done to any Science Fiction magazine + before. Wesso's illustration leaves nothing to be desired. + + Going straight through the book: "The Monsters of Mars." + Good old Edmond Hamilton saves the world for us again in the + very nick of time--and we like it, too! Here's hoping + there's a million more dangers threatening Terra for Mr. + Hamilton to save us from! By the way, I wonder who drew the + illustration for this story? I can't make out his name. + Next: "The Exile of Time," by Cummings. Exciting and well + illustrated. "Hell's Dimension" is well-written and very + interesting. Would have liked it longer. "The World Behind + the Moon" is splendid. More by Mr. Ernst, please. More from + Mr. Gilmore, too, because of his novelette, "Four Miles + Within." "The Lake of Light" by that popular author Jack + Williamson surpasses his "The Meteor Girl" in a recent issue + of "our" magazine. And now I come to the last and perhaps + most interesting story of the issue: Mr. Sewell Peaslee + Wright's record of the interplanetary adventures of the + Special Patrol as told by Commander John Hanson. This series + is unsurpassable in its vivid realness. I can't help but + believe that these tales really occurred, or will occur in + the distant future. And Mr. Wright is as expert at + conceiving new forms of life as Edmond Hamilton is at saving + our Earth. + + "The Readers' Corner" is an interesting feature, and I am + glad to hear that "Murder Madness" and "Brigands of the + Moon" are now in book form.--Forrest J. Ackerman, 530 + Staples Ave., San Francisco, Calif. + + +_Mass Production_ + + Dear Editor: + + After reading Mr. Greenfield's letter in your April issue + regarding my story, "An Extra Man," I feel that I should + like to call his attention to a point which, it seems to me, + he has overlooked, namely, that the reconstructed men were + not composed of the original physical matter of the + disintegrated man but of identical elements, all of which + are at present known and available to science. + + According to the hypothesis, Drayle could have produced as + many entities as he desired and provided for, just as a + radio broadcast is reproduced in as many places as are + prepared for its reception. The vibrations alone are + transmitted, and the reproduction is the result of a + reciprocal mechanical action by physical matter at the + receiving end. Any radio engineer knows that the original + sound waves are not transported, but merely their impress + upon the electrical radio wave. So, Drayle's disintegrating + and sending apparatus only transmitted the vibrations which + enabled his machines at the receiving end to select from a + more than adequate supply of raw material, in due proportion + and quantities, as much as was required for the reproduction + of the disintegrated entities. + + I think that if Mr. Greenfield will reread the story, noting + the following references, he will agree that if the + hypothesis is accepted the conclusion is logical: + + 1--It is only Jackson Gee and not Drayle who speaks of + transmitting the constituent elements by radio (page 120). + + 2--The scientist, Drayle, says, (page 129) "We already know + the elements that make the human body, and we can put them + together in the their proper proportions and arrangements; + but we have not been able to introduce the vitalizing spark, + the key vibrations, to start it going." He does not say that + tangible matter can be transmitted by radio. + + 3--In the account of Drayle's preliminary experiments (page + 122) there is no statement to the effect that the original + material composing the disintegrated glass was used in its + recreation. + + 4--There is nothing in the story to indicate that the + original physical composition of the disintegrated man was + transported, in any manner to any outside location. The + process of disintegration was necessary to obtain the + vibrations that would make possible their repetition, which + under proper conditions would induce a reproduction of the + original, just as a song must be sung before it can be + reproduced upon a phonograph disc, but which, once recorded + can be repeated times without number. + + 5--Drayle's question (page 124) "Have you arranged the + elements?" refers to the elements out of which all mankind + is composed and which Drayle has previously mentioned (page + 120). + + 6--The narrator emphasizes this aspect of the discovery when + he says, on page 124, "I seemed to see man's (not the man's) + elementary dust and vapors whirled from great containers + upward into a stratum of shimmering air and gradually assume + the outlines of a human form that became first opaque, then + solid, and then a sentient being." And again (page 126), + "The best of the race could be multiplied indefinitely and + man could make man literally out of the dust of the earth." + This does not imply a split-up of one individual into + several smaller sizes or fractional parts, but rather the + production of identical entities exactly as thousands of + phonograph records can be created from the master matrix. + + 7--As to the question of soul, I suggest that inasmuch as + what we call the soul of an individual is always judged by + that individual's behavior, and that medical science now + maintains that behavior is largely dependent upon our + physical mechanism, it would follow that the identical human + mechanisms would have identical souls.--Jackson Gee. + + +"_The Readers' Corner_" + +All Readers are extended a sincere and cordial invitation to "come +over in 'The Readers' Corner'" and join in our monthly discussion of +stories, authors, scientific principles and possibilities--everything +that's of common interest in connection with our Astounding Stories. + +Although from time to time the Editor may make a comment or so, this +is a department primarily for _Readers_, and we want you to make full +use of it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, explanations, roses, +brickbats, suggestions--everything's welcome here: so "come over in +'The Readers' Corner'" and discuss it with all of us! + +_The Editor._ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Astounding Stories, June, 1931, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JUNE, 1931 *** + +***** This file should be named 31893-8.txt or 31893-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/9/31893/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Astounding Stories, June, 1931 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 5, 2010 [EBook #31893] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JUNE, 1931 *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 370px;"><a name="Cover" id="Cover"></a> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover" width="370" height="525" /></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="500" height="212" alt="Cover" /> +</div> + +<h1>ASTOUNDING</h1> + <h2>STORIES</h2> + +<h3>20¢</h3> + +<h3><i>On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month</i></h3> +<p>W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher HARRY BATES, Editor DR. DOUGLAS M. DOLD, +Consulting Editor</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees</h3> +<blockquote><p><i>That</i> the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by +leading writers of the day and purchased under conditions +approved by the Authors' League of America;</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/image_002.jpg" width="150" height="280" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p><i>That</i> such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by +American workmen;</p> + +<p><i>That</i> each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit;</p> + +<p><i>That</i> an intelligent censorship guards their advertising +pages.</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>The other Clayton magazines are</i>:</p> + +<p class="center"> +ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS +MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY +MAGAZINE, WESTERN ADVENTURES AND WESTERN LOVE STORIES. +</p> + +<p><i>More than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand +for Clayton Magazines.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>VOL. VI, No. 3 CONTENTS June, 1931</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td><a href="#Cover">COVER DESIGN</a></td> +<td>H. W. WESSO</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="td1"><i>Painted in Water-Colors from a Scene in "Manape the Mighty."</i></td> +<td></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#The_Man_From_2071">THE MAN FROM 2071</a></td> +<td>SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="td1"><i>Out of the Flow of Time There Appears to Commander John Hanson a Man of Mystery from the +Forgotten Past.</i></td> +<td></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#Manape_the_Mighty">MANAPE THE MIGHTY.</a></td> +<td>ARTHUR J. BURKS</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_308">308</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="td1"><i>High in Jungle Treetops Swings Young Bentley—His Human Brain Imprisoned in a Mighty Ape.</i> (A Complete Novelette.)</td> +<td></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#Holocaust">HOLOCAUST</a></td> +<td>CHARLES WILLARD DIFFIN</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="td1"><i>The Extraordinary Story of "Paul," Who for Thirty Days Was Dictator of the World.</i></td> +<td></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#The_Earthmans_Burden">THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN</a></td> +<td>R. F. STARZL</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_375">375</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="td1"><i>There is Foul Play on Mercury—until Danny Olear of the Interplanetary Flying Police Gets +After His Man.</i></td> +<td></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#The_Exile_of_Time">THE EXILE OF TIME</a></td> +<td>RAY CUMMINGS</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_386">386</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="td1"><i>Larry and George from 1935, Mary from 1777—All Are Caught up in the Treacherous Tugh's +Revolt of the Robots in the Time World of 2930.</i> (Part Three of a Four-Part Novel.)</td> +<td></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#The_Readers_Corner">THE READERS' CORNER</a></td> +<td>ALL OF US</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_416">416</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="td1"><i>A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories.</i></td> +<td></td></tr> +</table> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><b>Single Copies, 20 Cents In Canada, 25 Cents Yearly Subscription, +$2.00</b></p> + +<p>Issued monthly by The Clayton Magazines, Inc., 80 Lafayette St., +New York. N. Y. W. M. Clayton, President; Francis P. Pace, Secretary. +Entered as second-class matter December 7, 1929, at the Post Office at +New York, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered as a +Trade Mark in the U. S. Patent Office. Member Newsstand Group. For +advertising rates address The Newsstand Group, Inc., 80 Lafayette +Street, New York; or The Wrigley Bldg., Chicago.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> +<div> +<img class="figright" src="images/image_003_01.jpg" width="600" height="437" alt="He clutched at the gangway—and fell." title="" /> +<img class="figright" src="images/image_003_02.jpg" width="304" height="499" alt="He clutched at the gangway—and fell." title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="p1"><a name="The_Man_From_2071" id="The_Man_From_2071"></a>The Man<br /> +From 2071</p> +<p class="p2"><i>By Sewell Peaslee Wright</i></p> + + + +<div class="sidenote1">Out of the flow of time there appears to Commander John +Hanson a man of mystery from the forgotten past.</div> + + +<p><span class="f2">P</span>erhaps this story does not belong with my other tales of the Special +Patrol Service. And yet, there is, or should be, a report somewhere in +the musty archives of the Service, covering the incident.</p> + +<p>Not accurately, and not in detail. Among a great mass of old records +which I was browsing through the other day, I happened across that +report; it occupied exactly three lines in the log-book of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span><i>Ertak</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Just before departure, discovered stowaway, apparently +demented, and ejected him."</p></div> + +<p>For the hard-headed higher-ups of the Service, that was report enough. +Had I given the facts, they would have called me to the Base for a +long-winded investigation. It would have taken weeks and weeks, filled +with fussy questioning. Dozens of stoop-shouldered laboratory men +would have prodded and snooped and asked for long, written accounts. +In those days, keeping the log-book was writing enough for me and +being grounded at Base for weeks would have been punishment.</p> + +<p>Nothing would have been gained by a detailed report. The Service +needed action rather than reports, anyway. But now that I am an old +man, on the retired list, I have time to write; and it will be a +particular pleasure to write this account, for it will go to prove +that these much-honored scientists of ours, with all their tremendous +appropriations and long-winded discussions, are not nearly so +wonderful as they think they are. They are, and always have been, too +much interested in abstract formulas, and not enough in their +practical application. I have never had a great deal of use for them.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> had received orders to report to Earth, regarding a dull routine +matter of reorganizing the emergency Base which had been established +there. Earth, I might add, for the benefit of those of you who have +forgotten your geography of the Universe, is not a large body, but its +people furnish almost all of the officer personnel of the Special +Patrol Service. Being a native of Earth, I received the assignment +with considerable pleasure, despite its dry and uninteresting nature.</p> + +<p>It was a good sight to see old Earth, bundled up in her cottony +clouds, growing larger and larger in the television disc. No matter +how much you wander around the Universe, no matter how small and +insignificant the world of your birth, there is a tie that cannot be +denied. I have set my ships down upon many a strange and unknown +world, with danger and adventure awaiting me, but there is, for me, no +thrill which quite duplicates that of viewing again that particular +little ball of mud from whence I sprang. I've said that before; I +shall probably say it again. I am proud to claim Earth as my +birth-place, small and out-of-the way as she is.</p> + +<p>Our Base on Earth was adjacent to the city of Greater Denver, on the +Pacific Coast. I could not help wondering, as we settled swiftly over +the city, whether our historians and geologists and other scientists +were really right in saying that Denver had at one period been far +from the Pacific. It seemed impossible, as I gazed down on that blue, +tranquil sea, that it had engulfed, hundreds of years ago, such a vast +portion of North America. But I suppose the men of science know.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> need not go into the routine business that brought me to Earth. +Suffice it to say that it was settled quickly, by the afternoon of the +second day: I am referring, of course, to Earth days, which are +slightly less than half the length of an enaren of Universe time.</p> + +<p>A number of my friends had come to meet me, visit with me during my +brief stay on Earth; and, having finished my business with such +dispatch, I decided to spend that evening with them, and leave the +following morning. It was very late when my friends departed, and I +strolled out with them to their mono-car, returning the salute of the +<i>Ertak's</i> lone sentry, who was pacing his post before the huge +circular exit of the ship.</p> + +<p>Bidding my friends farewell, I stood there for a moment under the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +heavens, brilliant with blue, cold stars, and watched the car sweep +swiftly and soundlessly away towards the towering mass of the city. +Then, with a little sigh, I turned back to the ship.</p> + +<p>The <i>Ertak</i> lay lightly upon the earth, her polished sides gleaming in +the light of the crescent moon. In the side toward me, the circular +entrance gaped like a sleepy mouth; the sentry, knowing the eyes of +his commander were upon him, strode back and forth with brisk, +military precision. Slowly, still thinking of my friends, I made my +way toward the ship.</p> + +<p>I had taken but a few steps when the sentry's challenge rang out +sharply, "Halt! Who goes there?"</p> + +<p>I glanced up in surprise. Shiro, the man on guard, had seen me leave, +and he could have had no difficulty in recognizing me. But—the +challenge had not been meant for me.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>etween myself and the <i>Ertak</i> there stood a strange figure. An +instant before, I would have sworn that there was no human in sight, +save myself and the sentry; now this man stood not twenty feet away, +swaying as though ill or terribly weary, barely able to lift his head +and turn it toward the sentry.</p> + +<p>"Friend," he gasped; "friend!" and I think he would have fallen to the +ground if I had not clapped an arm around his shoulders and supported +him.</p> + +<p>"Just ... a moment," whispered the stranger. "I'm a bit faint.... I'll +be all right...."</p> + +<p>I stared down at the man, unable to reply. This was a nightmare; no +less. I could feel the sentry staring, too.</p> + +<p>The man was dressed in a style so ancient that I could not remember +the period: Twenty-first Century, at least; perhaps earlier. And while +he spoke English, which is a language of Earth, he spoke it with a +harsh and unpleasant accent that made his words difficult, almost +impossible, to understand. Their meaning did not fully sink in until +an instant after he had finished speaking.</p> + +<p>"Shiro!" I said sharply. "Help me take this man inside. He's ill."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" The guard leaped to obey the order, and together we led +him into the <i>Ertak</i>, and to my own stateroom. There was some mystery +here, and I was eager to get at the root of it. The man with the +ancient costume and the strange accent had not come to the spot where +we had seen him by any means with which I was familiar; he had +materialized out of the thin air. There was no other way to account +for his presence.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>e propped the stranger in my most comfortable chair, and I turned to +the sentry. He was staring at our weird visitor with wondering, +fearful eyes, and when I spoke he started as though stung by an +electric shock.</p> + +<p>"Very well," I said briskly. "That will be all. Resume your post +immediately. And—Shiro!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir?"</p> + +<p>"It will not be necessary for you to make a report of this incident. I +will attend to that. Understand?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" And I think it is to the man's everlasting credit, and to +the credit of the Service which had trained him, that he executed a +snappy salute, did an about-face, and left the room without another +glance at the man slumped down in my big easy chair.</p> + +<p>With a feeling of cold, nervous apprehension such as I have seldom +experienced in a rather varied and active life, I turned then to my +visitor.</p> + +<p>He had not moved, save to lift his head. He was staring at me, his +eyes fixed in his chalky white face. They were dark, long +eyes—abnormally long—and they glittered with a strange, uncanny +light.</p> + +<p>"You are feeling better?" I asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p> + +<p>His thin, bloodless lips moved, but for a moment no sound came from +them. He tried again.</p> + +<p>"Water," he said.</p> + +<p>I drew him a glass from the tank in the wall of my room. He downed it +at a gulp, and passed the empty glass back to me.</p> + +<p>"More," he whispered. He drank the second glass more slowly, his eyes +darting swiftly, curiously, around the room. Then his brilliant, +piercing glance fell upon my face.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," he commanded sharply, "what year is this?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> stared at him. It occurred to me that my friends might have +conceived and executed an elaborate hoax—and then I dismissed the +idea, instantly. There were no scientists among them who could make a +man materialize out of nothingness.</p> + +<p>"Are you in your right mind?" I asked slowly. "Your question strikes +me as damnably odd, sir."</p> + +<p>The man laughed wildly, and slowly straightened up in the chair. His +long, bony fingers clasped and unclasped slowly, as though feeling +were just returning to them.</p> + +<p>"Your question," he replied in his odd, unfamiliar accent, "is not +unnatural, under the circumstances. I assure you that I am of sound +mind; of very sound mind." He smiled, rather a ghastly smile, and made +a vague, slight gesture with one hand. "Will you be good enough to +answer my question? What year is this?"</p> + +<p>"Earth year, you mean?"</p> + +<p>He stared at me, his eyes flickering.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "Earth year. There are other ways of ... figuring time +now?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. Each inhabited world has its own system. There is a master +system for the Universe. Who are you, what are you, that you should +ask me a question the smallest child should know?"</p> + +<p>"First," he insisted, "tell me what year this is, Earth reckoning."</p> + +<p>I told him, and the light flickered up in his eyes again—a cruel, +triumphant light.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he nodded; and then, slowly and softly, as though he +spoke to himself, he added, "Less than half a century off. Less than a +half a century! And they laughed at me. How—how I shall laugh at +them, presently!"</p> + +<p>"You choose to be mysterious, sir?" I asked impatiently.</p> + +<p>"No. Presently you shall understand, and then you will forgive me, I +know. I have come through an experience such as no man has ever known +before. If I am shaken, weak, surprising to you, it is because of that +experience."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e paused for a moment, his long, powerful fingers gripping the arms +of the chair.</p> + +<p>"You see," he added, "I have come out of the past into the present. Or +from the present into the future. It depends upon one's viewpoint. If +I am distraught, then forgive me. A few minutes ago, I was Jacob +Harbauer, in a little laboratory on the edge of a mountain park, near +Denver; now I am a nameless being hurtled into the future, pausing +here, many centuries from my own era. Do you wonder now that I am +unnerved?"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," I said slowly, trying to understand what he had babbled +forth, "that you have come out of the past? That you ... that you...." +It was too monstrous to put into words.</p> + +<p>"I mean," he replied, "that I was born in the year 2028. I am +forty-three years old—or I was a few minutes ago. But,"—and his eyes +flickered again with that strange, mad light—"I am a scientist! I +have left my age behind me for a time; I have done what no other human +being has ever done: I have gone centuries into the future!"</p> + +<p>"I—I do not understand." Could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> he, after all, be a madman? "How can +a man leave his own age and travel ahead to another?"</p> + +<p>"Even in this age of yours they have not discovered that secret?" +Harbauer exulted. "You travel the Universe, I gather, and yet your +scientists have not yet learned to move in time? Listen! Let me +explain to you how simple the theory is.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_i1.jpg" alt="I" width="37" height="52" /></div> +<p> take it you are an intelligent man; your uniform and its insignia +would seem to indicate a degree of rank. Am I correct?"</p> + +<p>"I am John Hanson, Commander of the <i>Ertak</i>, of the Special Patrol +Service," I informed him.</p> + +<p>"Then you will be capable of grasping, in part at least, what I have +to tell you. It is really not so complex. Time is a river, flowing +steadily, powerful, at a fixed rate of speed. It sweeps the whole +Universe along on its bosom at that same speed. That is my conception +of it; is it clear to you?"</p> + +<p>"I should think," I replied, "that the Universe is more like a great +rock in the middle of your stream of time, that stands motionless +while the minutes, the hours, and the days roll by."</p> + +<p>"No! The Universe travels on the breast of the current of time. It +leaves yesterday behind, and sweeps on towards to-morrow. It has +always been so until I challenged this so-called immutable law. I said +to myself, why should a man be a helpless stick upon the stream of +time? Why need he be borne on this slow current at the same speed? Why +cannot he do as a man in a boat, paddle backwards or forwards; back to +a point already passed; ahead, faster than the current, to a point +that, drifting, he would not reach so soon? In other words, why can he +not slip back through time to yesterday; or ahead to to-morrow? And if +to to-morrow, why not to next year, next century?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_t1.jpg" alt="T" width="64" height="54" /></div><p>hese are the questions I asked myself. Other men have asked +themselves the same questions, I know; they were not new. +But,"—Harbauer drew himself far forward in his chair, and leaned +close to me, almost as though he prepared himself to spring—"no other +man ever found the answer! That remained for me.</p> + +<p>"I was not entirely correct, of course. I found that one could not go +back in time. The current was against one. But to go ahead, with the +current at one's back, was different. I spent six years on the +problem, working day and night, handicapped by lack of funds, +ridiculed by the press—Look!"</p> + +<p>Harbauer reached inside his antiquated costume and drew forth a flat +packet which he passed to me. I unfolded it curiously, my fingers +clumsy with excitement.</p> + +<p>I could hardly believe my eyes. The thing Harbauer had handed me was a +folded fragment of newspaper, such as I had often seen in museums. I +recognized the old-fashioned type, and the peculiar arrangement of the +columns. But, instead of being yellow and brittle with age, and +preserved in fragments behind sealed glass, this paper was fresh and +white, and the ink was as black as the day it had been printed. What +this man said, then, must be true! He must—</p> + +<p>"I can understand your amazement," said Harbauer. "It had not occurred +to me that a paper which, to me, was printed only yesterday, would +seem so antique to you. But that must appear as remarkable to you as +fresh papyrus, newly inscribed with the hieroglyphics of the ancient +Egyptians, would seem to one of my own day and age. But read it; you +will see how my world viewed my efforts!" There was a sharpness, a +bitterness, in his voice that made me vaguely uneasy; even though he +had solved the riddle of moving in time as men have always moved in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +space, my first conjecture that I had a madman to deal with might not +be so far from the truth. Ridicule and persecution have unseated the +reason of all too many men.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he type was unfamiliar to me, and the spelling was archaic, but I +managed to stumble through the article. It read, as nearly as I can +recall it, like this:</p> + +<p class="center">Harbauer Says Time</p> + +<p class="center">Is Like Great River</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Jacob Harbauer, local inventor, in an exclusive interview, +propounds the theory that man can move about in time exactly +as a boat moves about on the surface of a swift-flowing +river, save that he cannot go back into time, on account of +the opposition of the current.</p> + +<p>That is very fortunate, this writer feels; it would be a +terrible thing for example, if some good-looking scamp from +our present Twenty-first Century were to dive into the past +and steal Cleopatra from Antony, or start an affair with +Josephine and send Napoleon scurrying back from the front +and let the Napoleonic wars go to pot. We'd have to have all +our histories rewritten!</p> + +<p>Harbauer is well-known in Denver as the eccentric inventor +who, for the last five or six years, has occupied a lonely +shack in the mountains, guarded by a high fence of barbed +wire. He claims that he has now perfected equipment which +will enable him to project himself forward in time, and +expects to make the experiment in the very near future.</p> + +<p>This writer was permitted to view the equipment which +Harbauer says will shoot him into the future. The apparatus +is housed in a low, barn-like building in the rear of his +shack.</p> + +<p>Along one side of the room is a veritable bank of electrical +apparatus with innumerable controls, many huge tubes of +unfamiliar shape and appearance, a mighty generator of some +kind and an intricate maze of gleaming copper bus-bar.</p> + +<p>In the center of the room is a circle of metal, about a foot +in thickness, insulated from the flooring by four truncated +cones of fluted glass. This disc is composed of two +unfamiliar metals, arranged in concentric circles.</p> + +<p>Above this disc, at a height of about eight feet, is +suspended a sort of grid, composed of extremely fine silvery +wires, supported on a frame-work of black insulating +material.</p> + +<p>Asked for a demonstration of his apparatus, Harbauer finally +consented to perform an experiment with a dog—a white, +short-haired mongrel that, Harbauer informed us, he kept to +warn him of approaching strangers.</p> + +<p>He bound the dog's legs together securely, and placed the +struggling animal in the center of the heavy metal disc. +Then the inventor hurried to the central control panel and +manipulated several switches, which caused a number of +things to happen almost at once.</p> + +<p>The big generator started with a growl, and settled +immediately into a deep hum; a whole row of tubes glowed +with a purplish brilliancy. There was a crackling sound in +the air, and the grid above the disc seemed to become +incandescent, although it gave forth no apparent heat. From +the rim of the metal disc, thin blue streamers of electric +flame shot up toward the grid, and the little white dog +began to whine nervously.</p> + +<p>"Now watch!" shouted Harbauer. He closed another switch,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +and the space between the disc and the grid became a +cylinder of livid light, for a period of perhaps two +seconds. Then Harbauer pulled all the switches, and pointed +triumphantly to the disc. It was empty.</p> + +<p>We looked around the room for the dog, but he was not +visible anywhere.</p> + +<p>"I have sent him nearly a century into the future," said +Harbauer. "We will let him stay there a moment, and then +bring him back."</p> + +<p>"You mean to say," we asked, "that the pup is now roaming +around somewhere in the Twenty-second Century?" Harbauer +said he meant just that, and added that he would now bring +the dog back to the present time. The switches were closed +again, but this time it was the metal plate that seemed +incandescent, and the grid above that shot out the streaks +of thin blue flame. As he closed the last switch, the +cylinder of light appeared again, and when the switches were +opened, there was the dog in the center of the disc, howling +and struggling against his bonds.</p> + +<p>"Look!" cried Harbauer. "He's been attacked by another dog, +or some other animal, while in the future. See the blood on +his shoulders?"</p> + +<p>We ventured the humble opinion that the dog had scratched or +bit himself in struggling to free himself from the cords +with which Harbauer had bound him, and the inventor flew +into a terrible rage, cursing and waving his arms as though +demented. Feeling that discretion was the better part of +valor, we beat a hasty retreat, pausing at the barbed-wire +gate only long enough to ask Mr. Harbauer if he would be +good enough, sometime when he had a few minutes of leisure, +to dash into next week and bring back some stock market +reports to aid us in our investment efforts.</p> + +<p>Under the circumstances, we did not wait for a response, but +we presume we are persona non grata at the Harbauer +establishment from this time on.</p> + +<p>All in all, we are not sorry.</p></div> + +<p>I folded the paper and passed it back to him; some of the allusions I +did not understand, but the general tone of the article was very clear +indeed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_y1.jpg" alt="Y" width="62" height="58" /></div><p>ou see?" said Harbauer, his voice grating with anger. "I tried to be +courteous to that man; to give him a simple, convincing demonstration +of the greatest scientific achievement in centuries. And the fool +returned to write <i>this</i>: to hold me up to ridicule, to paint me as a +crack-brained, wild-eyed fanatic."</p> + +<p>"It's hard for the layman to conceive of a great scientific +achievement," I said soothingly. "All great inventions and inventors +have been laughed at by the populace at large."</p> + +<p>"True. True." Harbauer nodded his head solemnly. "But just the same—" +He broke off suddenly, and forced a smile. I found myself wishing that +he had completed that broken sentence, however; I felt that he had +almost revealed something that would have been most enlightening.</p> + +<p>"But enough of that fool and his babblings," he continued. "I am here +as living proof that my experiment is a success, and I have a +tremendous curiosity about the world in which I find myself. This, I +take it, is a ship for navigating space?"</p> + +<p>"Right! The <i>Ertak</i>, of the Special Patrol Service. Would you care to +look around a bit?"</p> + +<p>"I would, indeed." There was a tremendous eagerness in the man's +voice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You're not too tired?"</p> + +<p>"No; I am quite recovered from my experience." Harbauer leaped to his +feet, those abnormally long, slitted eyes of his glowing. "I am a +scientist, and I am most curious to see what my fellows have created +since—since my own era."</p> + +<p>I picked up my dressing gown and tossed it to him.</p> + +<p>"Slip this on, then, to cover your clothing. You would be an object of +too much curiosity to those men who are on duty," I suggested.</p> + +<p>I was taller than he, and the garment came within a few inches of the +floor. He knotted the cincture around his middle and thrust his hands +into the pockets, turning to me for approval. I nodded, and motioned +for him to precede me through the door.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>s an officer of the Special Patrol Service, it has often been my duty +to show parties and individuals through my ship. Most of these parties +are composed of females, who have only exclamations to make instead of +intelligent comment, and who possess an unbounded capacity for asking +utterly asinine questions. It was, therefore, a real pleasure to show +Harbauer through the ship.</p> + +<p>He was a keen, eager listener. When he asked a question, and he asked +many of them, he showed an amazing grasp of the principles involved. +My knowledge of our equipment was, of course, only practical, save for +the rudimentary theoretical knowledge that everyone has of present-day +inventions and devices.</p> + +<p>The ethon tubes which lighted the ship, interested him but little. The +atomic generators, the gravity pads, their generators, and the +disintegrator-ray, however, he delved into with that frenzied ardor of +which only a scientist, I believe, is capable.</p> + +<p>Questions poured out of him, and I answered them as best I could: +sometimes completely, and satisfactorily, so that he nodded and said, +"I see! I see!" and sometimes so poorly that he frowned, and +cross-questioned me insistently until he obtained the desired +information.</p> + +<p>In the big, sound-proof navigating room, I explained the operation of +the numerous instruments, including the two three-dimensional charts, +actuated by super-radio reflexes, the television disc, the attraction +meter, the surface-temperature gauge and the complex control system.</p> + +<p>"Forward," I added, "is the operating room. You can see it through +these glass partitions. The navigating officer in command relays his +orders to men in the operating room, who attend to the actual +execution of those orders."</p> + +<p>"Just as a pilot, or the navigating officer of a ship of my day gives +his orders to the quartermaster at the wheel," nodded Harbauer, and +began firing questions at me again, going over the ground we had +covered, to check up on his information. I was amazed at the uncanny +accuracy with which he had grasped such a great mass of technical +detail. It had taken me years of study to pick up what he had taken +from me, and apparently retained intact, in something more than an +hour, Earth time.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> glanced at the Earth-time clock on the wall of the navigating room +as he triumphantly finished his questioning. Less than an hour +remained before the time set for our return trip.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry," I commented, "to be an ungracious host, but I am +wondering what your plans may be? You see, we are due to start in less +than an hour, and—"</p> + +<p>"A passenger would be in your way?" Harbauer smiled as he uttered the +words, but there was a gleam in his long eyes that rather startled me, +and I wondered if I only imagined the steeliness of his voice. "Don't +let that worry you, sir."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It's not worrying me," I replied, watching him closely. "I have +enjoyed a very remarkable, a very pleasant experience. If you should +care to remain aboard the <i>Ertak</i>, I should like exceedingly to have +you accompany us to our Base, where I could place you in touch with +other laboratory men, with whom you would have much in common."</p> + +<p>Harbauer threw back his head and laughed—not pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"Thanks!" he said. "But I have no time for that. They could give me no +knowledge that I need, now; you have told me and showed me enough. I +understand how you have released atomic energy; it is a matter so +simple that a child should have guessed it, and man has wondered about +it for centuries, knowing that the power was there, but lacking a key +to unfetter it. And now I have that key!"</p> + +<p>"True. But perhaps our scientists would like, in exchange, the secret +of moving forward in time," I suggested, reasonably enough.</p> + +<p>"What do I care about them?" snapped Harbauer. He loosened the cord of +the robe with a quick, impatient gesture, as though it confined him +too tightly, and threw the garment from him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hen, suddenly, he took a quick stride toward me, and thrust out his +ugly head.</p> + +<p>"I know enough now to give me power over all my world," he cried. +"Haven't you guessed the reason for my interest in your engines of +destruction? I came down the centuries ahead of my generation so that +I might come back with power in my hand; power to wipe out the fools +who have made a mock of me. And I have that power—here!" He tapped +his forehead dramatically with his left hand.</p> + +<p>"I will bring a new regime to my era!" he continued, fairly shouting +now. "I will be what many men have tried to be, and what no man has +ever been—master of the world! Absolute, unquestioned, supreme +master!" He paused, his eyes glaring into mine—and I knew from the +light that shone behind those long, narrow slits, that I was dealing +with a madman.</p> + +<p>"True; you will," I said gently, moving carelessly toward the +microphone. With that in my hand, a slight pressure on the General +Attention signal, and I would have the whole crew of the <i>Ertak</i> here +in a moment. But I had explained the workings of the navigating room's +equipment only too well.</p> + +<p>"Stop!" snarled Harbauer, and his right hand flashed up. "See this? +Perhaps you don't know what it is; I'll tell you. It's an automatic +pistol—not so efficient as your disintegrator-ray, but deadly enough. +There is certain death for eight men in my hand. Understand?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly." What an utter fool I had been! I was not armed, and I +knew that Harbauer spoke the truth. I had often seen weapons similar +to the one he held in the military museums. They are still there, if +you are curious—rusty and broken, but not unlike our present atomic +pistols in general appearance. They propelled the bullet by the +explosion of a sort of powder; inefficient, of course, but, as he had +said, deadly enough for the purpose.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_g1.jpg" alt="G" width="63" height="53" /></div><p>ood! You are a good sort Hanson, but don't take any chances. I'm not +going to, I promise you. You see,"—and he laughed again, the light in +his long eyes dancing with evil—"I'm not likely to be punished for a +few killings committed centuries after I'm dead. I have never killed a +man, but I won't hesitate to do so now, if one—or more—should get in +my way."</p> + +<p>"But why," I asked soothingly, "should you wish to kill anyone? You +have what you came for, you say; why not depart in peace?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p> + +<p>He smiled crookedly, and his eyes narrowed with cunning.</p> + +<p>"You approve of my little plan to dominate the world?" he asked +softly, his eyes searching my face.</p> + +<p>"No," I said boldly, refusing to lie to him. "I do not, and you know +it."</p> + +<p>"Very true." He pulled out his watch with his left hand, and held it +before his eyes so that he could observe the time without losing sight +of me for even an instant. "I doubted that I could secure your willing +cooperation; therefore, I am commanding it.</p> + +<p>"You see, there are certain instruments and pieces of equipment that I +should like to take back to my laboratory with me. Perhaps I would be +able to reproduce them without models, but with the models my task +will be much easier.</p> + +<p>"The question remaining is a simple one: will you give the proper +orders to have this equipment removed to the spot where you first saw +me, or shall I be obliged to return to my own era without this +equipment—leaving behind me a dead commander of the Special Patrol +Service, and any other who may try to stop me?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> tried to keep cool under the lash of his mocking voice. I have never +been adept at holding my temper when I should, but somehow I managed +it this time. Frowning, I kept him waiting for a reply, utilizing the +time to do what was perhaps the hardest, fastest thinking of my life.</p> + +<p>There wasn't a particle of doubt in my mind regarding his ability to +make good his threat, nor his readiness to do so. I caught the faint +glimmering of an idea and fenced with it eagerly.</p> + +<p>"How are you going to go back to your own period—your own era?" I +asked him. "You told me, I believe, that it was impossible to move +backward in time."</p> + +<p>"That's not answering my question," he said, leering. "Don't think +you're fooling me! But I'll tell you, just the same. I can go back to +my own era: that is, back to my own actual existence. I shall return +just two hours after I leave; I could not go back farther than that, +and it's not necessary that I do so. I can go back only because I came +from that present; I am not really of this future at all. I go back +from whence I came."</p> + +<p>"But," I objected, thinking of something I had read in the clipping he +had showed me, "you're not going back to your own era. You cannot. If +you returned, you would put your project into execution, and history +does not record that activity." I saw from the sudden narrowing of his +abnormally long eyes that I had caught his interest, and I pressed my +advantage hastily. "Remember that all the history of your time is +written, Harbauer. It is in the books of Earth's history, with which +every child of this age, into which you have thrust yourself, is +familiar. And those histories do not record the domination of the +world by yourself. So—you are confronted by an impossibility!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="60" height="50" /></div><p>y reasoning, now, sounds specious, and yet it was a line of thought +which could not be waved aside. I saw Harbauer's black brows knit +together, and mounting anger darken his face. I do not know, but I +believe I was never nearer death than I was at that instant.</p> + +<p>"Fool!" he cried. "Idiot! Imbecile! Do you think you can confuse me, +turn me from my purpose, with words? Do you? Do you believe me to be a +child, or a weakling? I tell you, I have planned this thing to the +last detail. If I had not found what I sought on this first trip, I +would have taken another, a dozen, a score, until I found the +information I sought. The last six years of my life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> I have worked day +and night to this end; your histories and your words—"</p> + +<p>My plan had worked. The man was beside himself with insane anger. And +in his rage he forgot, for an instant, that he was my captor.</p> + +<p>Taking a desperate chance, I launched myself at his legs. His weapon +roared over my head, just as I struck. I felt the hot gas from the +thing beat against my neck; I caught the reeking scent of the smoke. +Then we were both on the floor, and locked in a mad embrace.</p> + +<p>Harbauer was a smaller man than myself, but he had the amazing +strength of a Zenian. He fought viciously, using every ounce of his +strength against me, striving to bring his weapon into use, hammering +my head upon the floor, racking my body mercilessly, grunting, +cursing, mumbling constantly as he did so.</p> + +<p>But I was in better trim than Harbauer. I have never seen a laboratory +man who could stand the strain of prolonged physical exertion. Bending +over test-tubes and meters is no life for a man. At grips with him, I +was in my own element, and he was out of his. I let him wear himself +out, exerting myself as little as possible, confining my efforts to +keeping his weapon where he could not use it.</p> + +<p>I felt him weakening at last. His breath was coming in great sobs, and +his long eyes started from their sockets with the strained effort he +was putting forth. And then, with a single mighty effort, I knocked +the pistol from his hand, so that it slid across the floor and brought +up with a crash against a wall of the room.</p> + +<p>"Now!" I said, and turned on him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e knew, at that moment when I put forth my strength, that I had been +playing with him. I read the shock of sudden fear in his eyes. My +right arm went about him in a deadly hold; I had him in a grip that +paralyzed him. Grimly, I jerked him to his feet, and he stood there +trembling with weakness, his shoulders heaving as his breath came and +went between his teeth.</p> + +<p>"You realize, of course, that you're not going back?" I said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Back?" Half dazed, he stared at me through the quivering lids of his +peculiar eyes. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that you're not going back to your own era. You have come to +us, uninvited, and—you're going to stay here."</p> + +<p>"No!" he shouted, and struggled so desperately to free himself that I +was hard put to it to hold him, without tightening my grip +sufficiently to dislocate his shoulders. "You wouldn't do that! I must +return; I must prove to them—"</p> + +<p>"That's exactly what must not happen, and what shall not happen," I +interrupted. "And what will not happen. You are in a strange +predicament, Harbauer; it is already written that you do not return. +Can't you see that, man? If it were to be that you left this age and +returned to your own, you would make known your discovery. History +would record it. And history does not record it. You are struggling, +not against me, but against—against a fate that has been sealed all +these centuries."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>hen I had finished, he stared at me as though hypnotized, motionless +and limp in my grasp. Then, suddenly, he began to shake and I saw such +depths of terror and horror in his eyes as I hope never to see again.</p> + +<p>Mechanically, he glanced down at his watch, lifting his wrist into his +line of vision as slowly and ponderously as though it bore a great +weight.</p> + +<p>"Two ... two minutes," he whispered huskily. "Then the automatic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> switch +will close, back in my laboratory. If I am not standing where ... where +you found me ... between the disc and the grid of my time machine, where +the reversed energy can reach me, to ... to take me back ... God!"</p> + +<p>He sagged in my arms and dropped to his knees, sobbing.</p> + +<p>"And yet ... what you say is true. It is already written that I did +not return." His sobs cut harshly through the silence of the room. +Pitying his despair, I reached down to give him a sympathetic pat on +the shoulder. It is a terrible thing to see a man break down as +Harbauer had done.</p> + +<p>As he felt my grip on him relax, he suddenly shot his fist into the +pit of my stomach, and leaped to his feet. Groaning, I doubled up, +weak and nerveless, for the instant, from the vicious, unexpected +blow.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" shrieked Harbauer. "You soft-hearted fool!" He struck me in the +face, sending me crashing to the floor, and snatched up his pistol.</p> + +<p>"I'm going, now," he shouted. "Going! What do I care for your records +and your histories? They are not yet written; if they were I'd change +them." He bent over me and snatched from my hand the ring of keys, one +of which I had used to unlock the door of the navigating room. I tried +to grip him around the legs, but he tore himself loose, laughing +insanely in a high-pitched, cackling sound that seemed hardly human.</p> + +<p>"Farewell!" he called mockingly from the doorway. Then the door +slammed, and as I staggered to my feet, I heard the lock click.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> must have acted then by instinct or inspiration. There was no time +to think. It would take him not more than three or four seconds to +make his way to the exit, stroll by the guard to the spot where we had +found him, and—disappear. By the time I could arouse the crew, and +have my orders executed, his time would be up, and—unless the whole +affair were some terrible nightmare—he would go hurtling back through +time to his own era, armed with a devastating knowledge.</p> + +<p>There was only one possible means of preventing his escape in time. I +ran across the room to the emergency operating controls, cut in the +atomic generators with one hand and pulled the Vertical-Ascent lever +to Full Power.</p> + +<p>There was a sudden shriek of air, and my legs almost thrust themselves +through my body. Quickly, I pushed the lever back until, with my eye +on the altimeter, I held the <i>Ertak</i> at her attained height—something +over a mile, as I recall it. Then I pressed the General Attention +signal, and snatched up the microphone.</p> + +<p>Less than a minute later Correy and Hendricks, fellow officers, were +in the room and besieging me with solicitous questions.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t had been my idea, of course, to keep Harbauer from leaving the +ship, but it was not so destined.</p> + +<p>Shiro, the sentry on duty outside the <i>Ertak</i>, was the only witness to +Harbauer's fate.</p> + +<p>"I was walking my post, sir," he reported, "watching the sun come up, +when suddenly I heard the sound of running feet inside the ship. I +turned towards the entrance and drew my pistol, to be in readiness. I +saw the stranger we had taken into the ship appear at the exit, which, +as you know, was open.</p> + +<p>"Just as I opened my mouth to command him to halt, the <i>Ertak</i> shot up +from the ground at terrific speed. The stranger had been about to leap +upon me; indeed, he had discharged some sort of weapon at me, for I +heard a crash of sound, and a missile of some kind, as you know, +passed through my left arm.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p> + +<p>"As the ship left the ground, he tried to draw back, but he was off +balance, and the inertia of his body momentarily incapacitated him, I +think. He slipped, clutched at the gangway across the threads which +seal the exit, and then, at a height I estimate to be around five +hundred feet, he fell. The <i>Ertak</i> shot on up until it was lost to +sight, and the stranger crashed to the ground a few feet from where I +was standing—on almost exactly the spot where we first saw him, sir.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_a1.jpg" alt="A" width="56" height="52" /></div> +<p>nd now, sir, comes the part I guess you'll find hard to believe. +When he struck the ground, he was smashed flat; he died instantly. I +started to run toward him, and then—and then I stopped. My eyes had +not left the spot for a moment, sir, but he—his body, that +is—suddenly disappeared. That's the truth, sir, for I saw it with my +own eyes. There wasn't a sign of him left."</p> + +<p>"I see," I replied. I believe that I did. We had gone straight up, and +his body, by no great coincidence, had fallen upon the spot close to +the exit of the <i>Ertak</i> where we had first found him. And his machine, +in operation, had brought him, or rather, his mangled body, back to +his own age. "You have not mentioned this affair to anyone, Shiro?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. It wasn't anything you'd be likely to tell: nobody would +believe you. I went at once to have my arm attended to, and then +reported here according to orders."</p> + +<p>"Very good, Shiro. Keep the entire affair to yourself. I will make all +the necessary reports. That is an order—understand?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then that will be all. Take good care of your arm."</p> + +<p>He saluted with his good hand and left me.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>ater in the day I wrote in the log-book of the Ertak the report I +mentioned at the beginning of this tale:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Just before departure, discovered stowaway, apparently +demented, and ejected him."</p></div> + +<p>That was a perfectly truthful statement, and it served its purpose. I +have given the whole story in detail just to prove what I have so +often contended: that these owlish laboratory men whom this age +reveres so much are not nearly so wise and omnipotent as they think +they are.</p> + +<p>I am quite sure that they would have discredited, or attempted to +discredit, my story, had I told it at the time. They would have +resented the idea that someone so much ahead of them had discovered a +principle that still baffles this age of ours, and I would have had no +evidence to present.</p> + +<p>Perhaps even now the story will be discredited; if so, I do not care. +I am much too old, and too near the portals of that impenetrable +mystery, in the shadow of which I have stood so many times, to concern +myself with what others may think or say.</p> + +<p>I know that what I have related here is the truth, and in my mind I +have a vivid and rather pitiful picture of a mangled body, bloody and +alone, in the barn-like structure the ancient paper had described; a +body, broken and motionless, lying athwart the striated metal disc, +like a sacrificial victim—a victim and a sacrifice of science.</p> + +<p>There have been many such.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Manape_the_Mighty" id="Manape_the_Mighty"></a>Manape the Mighty</h2> + +<h4>A COMPLETE NOVELETTE</h4> + +<h3><i>By Arthur J. Burks</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"> +<img src="images/image_004.jpg" width="800" height="491" alt="There, the words were written." title="" /> +<span class="caption">There, the words were written.</span> +</div> + +<h4>CHAPTER I</h4> +<h4><i>Castaway</i></h4> + +<div class="sidenote">High in jungle treetops swings young Bentley—his human +brain imprisoned in a mighty ape.</div> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>ee Bentley never knew how many others, if any, lived on after the +<i>Bengal Queen</i> struck the hidden reef and sank like a stone. He had +only a hazy memory of the catastrophe, and recalled that when she had +struck and the alarm had gone rocketing through the great passenger +boat—though no alarm was really necessary because she went to pieces +so fast—that he had leaped far over the rail and swam straight out, +fast, in order to escape being dragged down by the suction of the +sinking liner.</p> + +<p>The screaming of frightened women and children would ring in his ears +until the day the grave closed over him—screaming that was made all +the more terrible by the crashing roar of the raging black seas which +came out of the darkness to make the affair all the more hideous,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> and +to bear down beneath them into the sea the feeble struggling ones who +had no chance for their lives. Lifeboats had been smashed in their +davits.</p> + +<p>Bentley swam straight away after he was satisfied at last that he +could do nothing more. He had helped men and women reach bits of +wreckage until he could scarcely any longer keep his wearied arms to +the task of keeping his own head above water. He knew even as he +helped the white-faced ones that few of them would ever live through +it, but he was doing the best he knew—a man's job.</p> + +<p>When absolutely sure that he could do nothing further, when he could +no longer hear cries of distress, or discover struggling forms in the +sea which he might aid, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> had turned his back on the graveyard of +the <i>Bengal Queen</i> and had struck for shore. He remembered the +direction, for before sunset that evening, in company with several +ship's under officers, he had studied the navigation charts upon which +each day's run of the <i>Bengal Queen</i> was shown. Ahead of him now was +the coast of Africa, though what part of it he knew but in the haziest +way. He might not guess within a hundred miles.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>ne thing only he remembered exactly. The second officer had said, +apropos of nothing in particular:</p> + +<p>"This wouldn't be a happy place to be shipwrecked. This section of the +coast is a regular hangout of the great anthropoid apes. You know, +those babies that can pick a man apart as a man would pluck the legs +off a fly."</p> + +<p>Bentley had merely grinned. The second officer's remarks had sounded +to him as though the fellow had been reading more than his fair share +of lurid fiction of the South African jungles.</p> + +<p>However, apes or no apes, the shore would look good to Lee Bentley +now. And he fully intended making it. He knew he could swim for hours +if it became necessary, and he refused to think of the possibility of +sharks. If one got him, well, that was one of the chances one had to +take when one was shipwrecked against one's will.</p> + +<p>So he alternately swam toward where he expected to find land, and +floated on his back to rest.</p> + +<p>"A swell ending to a great life, if I don't make it," he told himself. +"I wonder how the old man will take it when the world reads that the +<i>Bengal Queen</i> went down with all on board? He'll be relieved, maybe, +for he was about ready to wash his hands of me if I can read signs at +all."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t might be said that Bentley was his own worst critic, for he really +was not a bad sort of a fellow. He was a good American, over-educated +perhaps, with a yen to delve into forbidden places usually avoided by +his own kind, and of digging into books which were better left with +the pages unturned. There were strange ruins in Africa, he knew. He +had gathered a weird fund of information from such books as he could +unearth relative to ancient ruins and vanished races, to the lurid +accounts of strange deaths of the various scientists who had taken +active part in the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen.</p> + +<p>There were queer things in the heart of darkest Africa, and such +things intrigued him. He could take whatever chances with his life he +saw fit, for his only relative was a father, and he had never attached +himself to any woman nor permitted any woman to attach herself to +him—because he could never be sure that her interest might not +primarily be in his bank account.</p> + +<p>"If, as, and when," he told himself as he rode the waves through the +night, "I reach the coast I'll be tossed into black Africa in a way I +was not expecting. Anyway, if I live through, I can at least go about +my work without the governor interfering. I only hope it won't be hard +on the old fellow. He isn't a bad egg at all, and I guess I have given +him plenty to think about and worry over."</p> + +<p>He turned on his stomach again and struck out. He had managed to rid +himself of all of his clothing except his underwear. They had only +weighed him down, and he recalled, with a wry grin, that Africa as a +whole went in but little for the latest in men's sport wear.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t must have been a good hour since he had lost the <i>Bengal Queen</i> +back there in the raging deep,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> that he heard the faint call through +the murk.</p> + +<p>"Help, for God's sake!"</p> + +<p>He listened for a repetition of the call, minded to believe that his +ears had tricked him. He fancied it had been a woman's voice, but no +woman could have lived so long in those raging seas, in which any +moment Bentley himself expected to be overwhelmed. For himself he +regarded death more or less philosophically, but a woman out there, +crying for help, was a different matter entirely. It tore at his +heartstrings, mostly because he realized his inability to be of +material assistance.</p> + +<p>He was sure that he had been mistaken about the cry, when it came +again.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake, help!"</p> + +<p>It came from his left and this time it was unmistakable, piteous and +unnerving. Lee Bentley had the horrible fear that he would never reach +her in time to help—though what help he could give, when he could +barely manage to keep himself afloat, he could not forsee.</p> + +<p>He was swimming down the side of a monster wave. He could see +something white in the trough, and he struggled manfully to make +headway, while the angry waters tossed him about like a bit of cork +and seemed bent on defeating his most furious efforts. He saw the bit +of white ride high on the next wave, pass over it and vanish. He dived +straight through the wave as it towered over him. He came up, gasping, +his hands all but clutching at a pair of hands that reached out of the +waters and grasped with a last desperate effort at the sky.</p> + +<p>Ahead of the hands was a broken piece of oar. Those hands had just +despairingly relinquished their grip on the one chance of safety, if +any chance there could possibly be in that mad midnight waste.</p> + +<p>He pulled on the wrists and a white face came to view. Wild, staring +eyes looked into his. Black hair flowed back from a face whose lips +were blue and thin.</p> + +<p>"Take it easy," he counseled. "Turn on your back and rest while I see +if I can get back your life-boat."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e captured the oar, and found it practically useless to sustain any +appreciable weight, but he clung to it because it was at least better +than nothing at all. It had held the girl afloat for over an hour and +might be made to serve again somehow. With his left hand under the +woman's head and his right grasping the oar he turned on his back to +regain his breath. He was deep in the water because the woman was now +almost on top of him; but her face was above water. He knew +instinctively that she had fainted, and he was a little glad. If she +were the usual hysterical woman her fighting would drown them both. As +a dead weight she was easier to handle.</p> + +<p>They drifted on, and hope began to mount high in the heart of Lee +Bentley—the hope that they might yet reach land. When, hours later, +he could hear the roaring of breakers he was sure of it—if the +breakers could be passed in safety. After that their fate was in the +lap of the gods.</p> + +<p>The girl too must have heard, for she turned at last in Bentley's arms +and began to swim for herself. She was a strong swimmer and the period +during which she had been out of things had revived her amazingly. She +even managed a smile as she swam beside Bentley into the creamy +breakers behind which they could make out the blackness of shore.</p> + +<p>They were so close together that at times their hands touched as they +swam, and could make themselves heard by dint of shouting, though they +both husbanded their strength and their breathing for swimming.</p> + +<p>"I'm not dressed for company," he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> told her. "I left my tuxedo aboard +the <i>Bengal Queen</i>!"</p> + +<p>It was then that her lips twisted into a smile.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't even allow my maid into my stateroom if I were dressed as +I am at the moment," she answered strongly, "but we're both grown up I +think, and there are times when conventions go by the board. We'll +pretend it doesn't matter!"</p> + +<p>Then mutually helping each other they fought through the breakers into +the calmer water behind, and managed at last to stand in water hip +deep, with the undertow dragging at their limbs. They looked at each +other and clasped hands without a word. They strode to the sandy beach +beyond which the jungle reached away to some invisible horizon, and +continued on until they were at last beyond the reach of the waves.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey did not look at each other again, though Bentley did notice that +her garb was as scanty almost as his own, consisting mostly of a slip +which the water had pasted fast against her flesh. Beyond noting that +she seemed to be young, Bentley did not intrude. Nor did he think of +the future. It was enough for the moment that they had escaped the +might of angry Neptune, god of the seas.</p> + +<p>They dropped to the sands side by side, and the sands were warm. That +the jungle behind them might be alive with wild beasts they did not +pause to consider. Bentley had gazed at the jungle a moment before +dropping down.</p> + +<p>He had noticed but one thing—a moving light somewhere among the +tangled mass, a light as of a monster firefly erratically darting +through the deeper gloom.</p> + +<p>The girl—he had noted she was as much girl as woman—dropped to the +sand and stretched herself out. Bentley looked about him for a +moment, just now realizing what he had been through. Then he dropped +down beside the girl, and put one arm over her protectively, an +instinctive movement. The two were alone in an alien world, and even +this slight contact gave Bentley a feeling of companionship he found +at the time peculiarly appealing.</p> + +<p>The girl was in a drugged sort of sleep, but she stirred at the touch +of his arm, and her hand came up so that her fingertips touched his +cheek.</p> + +<p>He slept heavily, while outside on the raging deep the storm swept on +along the coast, bearing with it the secret of the rest of those who +only last night had looked forward to a pleasant voyage aboard the +<i>Bengal Queen</i>.</p> + +<p>The last thought in Bentley's mind was of that flickering light he had +seen. It was not important, but memory of it clung, and followed him +into his sleep with his dreams—in which he seemed to be following a +darting, erratic light through a jungle without end.</p> + +<p>He wakened with the sun burning his face and torso, and turned on his +stomach with a groan. The heat ate into his back unbearably and he +finally sat up, rubbed his eyes and stared out to sea. Then it all +came back and he looked about him for the girl. She had disappeared.</p> + +<p>He rose to his feet and shouted.</p> + +<p>An answering cry came back to him, and after a moment the girl +appeared around a bend in a shoreline where she had been masked by a +wall of the jungle and came toward him. She was carrying something in +her hands. When she stood at last before him he noted that she carried +a bundle of cloth that was dripping wet.</p> + +<p>"We need something to cover us," she said simply. "I was tempted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> to +garb myself, but I did not wish to seem like a simpering prudish +female, which I'm not at all. So I brought my findings here so that we +could get together and fix up something to protect us from the sun."</p> + +<p>"You're a sensible woman," said Bentley. "I've never understood why +people should be so sensitive about their bodies. Mine isn't bad and +yours, if you'll pardon me, is superb. That's not a compliment, just a +statement of fact—which will help us to understand each other better. +I've a hunch we're going to be some time in each other's company and +we may as well know things about each other. My name's Lee Bentley."</p> + +<p>"Mine is Ellen Estabrook."</p> + +<p>Solemnly they shook hands. And their hands clung convulsively, for as +though their handshake had been a signal there came a strange sound +from the jungle behind them.</p> + +<p>A burst of laughter that was plainly human—and another sound which +caused the short hair at the base of Bentley's skull to rise, shift +oddly, and settle back again.</p> + +<p>The sound was like the beating of a skin-tight drumhead by the fists +of a jungle savage. But if such it was the drum was a mighty drum, and +the savage was a giant, for the sound went rolling through the jungle +like an invisible tidal wave of sound.</p> + +<p>Both the laughter and the drumming ceased as suddenly as they had +sounded.</p> + +<p>The man and woman laughed jerkily, dropped to the sand side by side +and considered the necessity of clothes.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER II</h4> +<h4><i>Into the Jungle</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>hey had to smile together at the results achieved with the bedraggled +bits of cloth. Bentley suspected that they had been taken from bodies +washed ashore as gruesome reminders of the catastrophe which had +befallen the <i>Bengal Queen</i>, and because he did suspect this he did +not ask questions that might cause Ellen to remember any longer than +was necessary. Not that he doubted her courage, for she had proved +that sufficiently; and she had proved that she was sensible, with none +of the notions of the proprieties which would have made any other girl +of Bentley's acquaintance a nuisance.</p> + +<p>Their next concern was food, which they must find in the jungle, or +from other wreckage cast ashore from the <i>Bengal Queen</i>. Now, hand in +hand—which seemed natural in the circumstances—they began to walk +along the shore, heading into the north by mutual consent.</p> + +<p>As they walked Bentley kept pondering on that strange laughter he had +heard and on the sound of savage drumming. The laughter puzzled him. +If there were anyone in the jungle back of them, why had he or they +failed to challenge them?</p> + +<p>As for the drumming sound—Bentley remembered what the second officer +had said about this section of the coast. It was a bit of jungle +inhabited by the great apes in large numbers. So, that drumming had +been a challenge, the man-ape's manner of mocking an enemy by beating +himself on his barrel chest with his huge fists. But that the ape had +not been challenging Bentley and the girl Bentley felt quite sure, as +the brute would certainly have shown himself in that case.</p> + +<p>They trudged on through the sand, while the sun beat down unmercifully +on their uncovered heads. Ellen Estabrook strode along at Bentley's +side without complaint.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>fter perhaps an hour of this unbearable effort, when both felt as +though the sun had sucked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> them dry of perspiration, they encountered +a rough footpath leading into the jungle. The path suggested human +habitation somewhere near. The inhabitants might be hostile natives, +even cannibals perhaps, but in this unknown land they would have to +take a chance on that.</p> + +<p>With a sigh of relief, and refusing to look ahead too far, or try to +guess what lay in wait for them in the black mystery of the jungle, +they turned into the footpath. The jungle was fetid and sweaty, but +even this was a relief from the intolerable sun which could not reach +them here because the jungle had closed its leafy arms over the trail +instantly. One could not tell from the path whether it had been made +by natives or by whites, for it was packed hard. It led straight away +from the shoreline.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to keep a sharp lookout for possible poisoned spring +darts, Ellen," said Bentley.</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid, Lee," she answered stoutly. "Fate wouldn't allow us +to come through what we have only to end things with poisoned darts. +It just couldn't happen that way!"</p> + +<p>Thus simply they addressed each other. It seemed as though years had +been squeezed into a matter of hours. They knew each other as well as +they would, in other circumstances, have known each other after a year +of constant association. Here barriers of conventions were razed as +simply and naturally as among children.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey had pressed well into the gloom of the jungle when the first +sound came.</p> + +<p>Not the laughter they had heard before, but the drumming. It was ahead +and somewhat to the left, and as they stopped without speaking they +could distinctly hear the threshing of a huge body through the +underbrush. The sound seemed to be approaching and for a minute or so +they listened. Then the sound was repeated off to the right, a trifle +further away.</p> + +<p>"Can you climb, Ellen?" asked Bentley simply. "This section is filled +with anthropoid apes, according to the second officer of the <i>Bengal +Queen</i>. We may have to take to the trees."</p> + +<p>"I can climb," she said, "but from what I've studied of the habits of +these brutes they do a great deal of bluffing before they actually +charge, and may not molest us at all if we pay no attention."</p> + +<p>Bentley felt almost nude because he had no weapons save his own fists. +And he would not have admitted even to himself how deeply he was +concerned over the girl. As far as he knew, this section might be +entirely uninhabited. It might be given over entirely to the +anthropoids. In this case he shuddered to think of what might happen +to Ellen Estabrook if he were slain.</p> + +<p>He quickened his pace until Ellen kept stride with him with +difficulty. The object uppermost in Bentley's mind was to get as far +away as possible from the ominous drumbeats.</p> + +<p>They rounded a bend in the trail and stopped stock-still.</p> + +<p>Within fifty yards of them, blocking the trail, was a brute whose +great size sent a thrill of horror through Bentley. It towered to the +height of a big man, and must have weighed in the neighborhood of four +hundred pounds. It was larger by far than any bull ape Bentley had +seen in captivity.</p> + +<p>It had been waiting for them, silently, with almost human cunning; but +now that it was discovered the shaggy creature rose to his hind legs +and screamed a challenge, at the same time striking his chest with +blows of his hairy fists which rolled in a dull booming of sound +through the jungle. At the same time the creature moved forward.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley whirled to run, his hand clasping tighter the hand of Ellen +Estabrook. But they had not retreated ten steps down the pathway when +their way was blocked by another of the great shaggy brutes. And they +could hear others on both sides.</p> + +<p>Bentley's face was chalk-white as he turned to the girl. Her calm +acceptance of their predicament, an attitude in which he could read no +slightest vestige of fear, helped him to regain control of his own +nerves, which had threatened to send him into a panic. She even +smiled, and Lee felt a trifle ashamed of himself.</p> + +<p>Now the crashing sounds were closing in. The two brutes before and +behind on the trail were pressing in upon them. But no general +headlong charge had yet begun. Bentley looked around him, seeking a +tree with limbs low enough for them to reach and thus climb to safety.</p> + +<p>"There's one!" cried Ellen. Tugging at his hand she began to run.</p> + +<p>At the same moment the great apes bellowed and charged.</p> + +<p>But the charge was never finished, for through the drumming of their +mighty fists on mighty barrel-like chests, through the sound of their +charge, through the crackling underbrush came again that sound of +laughter. There was fierce joy in the laughter, and the laughter was +followed by words of a strange gibberish which Bentley could not +recall as being from any language he had ever heard.</p> + +<p>The great apes paused. Out of the jungle to the right of the fugitives +burst a white man. He was well past middle age, for his white hair +hung almost to his shoulders, which were stooped with the weight of +years. He was a wisp of a man whose smooth shaven face was apple-red. +His eyes were black and expressionless as obsidian, and when Lee +encountered the full gaze of them he was conscious of that feeling +which he had experienced at various times in his life when he knew +that some deadly reptile was close by.</p> + +<p>"Stand still a moment!" cried the old man. His voice was strangely +high-pitched and cracked.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="43" height="50" /></div><p>rom his right hand a whip with a long lash uncurled like a snake.</p> + +<p>This he swung back and hurled to the front, and the snap of it was +like a pistol shot. The great ape on the path ahead cowered back, +bearing his fangs, roaring in anger. But that he feared the whip of +the old man was plain to be seen. The crashing sound in the jungle +died away rapidly, immediately the first report of the whip lash +sounded in the trail.</p> + +<p>Fearlessly the little man dashed upon the first of the great brutes +the castaways had seen. His lash curled about the great beast's body, +and the animal bellowed with pain. It clawed at the lash, but was not +fast enough to capture it. In the end the brute broke and fled.</p> + +<p>The animal which had blocked their path in the rear had already +disappeared.</p> + +<p>Now the little man came back to face the fugitives, and his lips were +parted in a cordial smile. He coiled his whip and tucked it under his +arm. He was dressed in well worn corduroy with high boots that were +rather the worse for wear. Bentley saw that his lips were too +red—like blood—and somehow he disliked the man instantly.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to Barterville," said the old man. "It has been years since I +have seen any of my own kind. People avoid this section of the +jungle."</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder," said Bentley, sighing deeply with relief. "Those +brutes would make anybody keep away from here, if they knew about +them. I thought they had us for a few minutes. They planned an ambush<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +almost as well as human beings could have done it—but that's absurd +of course, merely a coincidence."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_c1.jpg" alt="C" width="54" height="58" /></div><p>oincidence?" snapped the old man, a hint of asperity in his words. +"Coincidence? I see you do not know the great apes, sir. I have always +maintained that apes could be trained to do anything men can do. I +have maintained that they have a language of their own, and even ways +of communicating without words, a sort of jungle writing which men of +course have never yet learned. I've devoted my life to learning the +secrets of the great apes, their life histories, and so forth. I am +Professor Caleb Barter!"</p> + +<p>"Professor Caleb Barter!" ejaculated Ellen Estabrook. "Why I've heard +of him! He went on an expedition among the great apes ten years ago +and was never heard of again."</p> + +<p>"I am Caleb Barter," said the old man. "I decided to disappear from +the world I knew, to let other fool scientists think me dead in order +that I might continue my investigations without molestation. And now I +have almost reached the place where I can go back to civilization with +information that will startle the world. There yet remains one +experiment. Now I hope to make that experiment. No! No! Don't ask me +what it is. It is my secret and nobody will ever wrest it from me."</p> + +<p>Bentley studied the old man. He seemed slightly demented, Bentley +thought, but that might be merely the mental evolution of a man who +had made a hermit of himself for so many years—if this chap actually +were Professor Barter.</p> + +<p>"Professor Barter," went on Ellen, "was the scientific leader of his +day. Others followed where he led. He made greater strides in surgery +and medicine, and in unravelling the mysteries of evolution, than +anyone else up to his time. Of course I believe you are Professor +Barter. My name is Ellen Estabrook, and this gentleman is Lee Bentley. +We believe ourselves to be the only survivors of the <i>Bengal Queen</i>. +Perhaps you can lead us to food and water?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, oh yes! Indeed. One forgets how to be hospitable, I fear. I am +sorry to hear there was a wreck and that lives were lost—but it may +mean a great gain to the world of science. I am happier to see you +than you can possibly know!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley felt the cold chills racing along his spine as he listened to +the old man's flow of words. He behaved well, but Bentley could feel +in spite of that, that there was a hidden current of menace in the old +man's behavior. He wished that Ellen would keep him talking, would +somehow make sure of his identity. Perhaps the same thought was in her +mind, for it had scarcely come to him when the girl spoke again.</p> + +<p>"Before he disappeared Professor Barter wrote a learned treatise on—"</p> + +<p>"I am Professor Barter, I tell you, young woman. But if you wish proof +the title of the treatise was 'The Language of the Great Apes.'"</p> + +<p>Ellen turned quickly to Bentley and nodded. She was satisfied that the +man was the person he claimed to be. He didn't ask how Ellen happened +to know about him, and Bentley himself considered the proof entirely +lacking in conclusiveness. Anyone might know about the last treatise +of Barter.</p> + +<p>However, they could but await developments.</p> + +<p>They followed Barter along the trail. Now and again apes challenged +from the jungle, and Barter answered them with that strange laughter +of his, or with a flow of gibberish that was like nothing human.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bentley shivered. Barter, by his laughter, was identifying himself to +the great anthropoids. But with his gibberish was he actually +conversing with them?</p> + +<p>"This experiment of yours," said Bentley when the period of silence +became unbearable, "—won't you tell us about it?"</p> + +<p>The old man cackled.</p> + +<p>"You'll know all about it—soon! You'll know everything, but the +secret will still rest with Caleb Barter. Do not be too curious, my +friends."</p> + +<p>"We are anxious to reach civilization, Professor," said Bentley, +deciding to be placative with the old man. "Perhaps you can arrange +for guides for us?"</p> + +<p>Barter laughed.</p> + +<p>"I could not permit you to leave me for some time," he said. "I want +you to witness my experiment. The world would never believe me without +the evidence of reliable witnesses."</p> + +<p>Barter laughed again.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey entered a clean clearing which was a riot of flowers. At the +further edge was a log cabin of huge proportions. The whole thing had +a decidedly homely appearance, but it was a welcome sight to the +castaways. There were cages in which strange birds chattered shrilly +in their own language at sight of the three. A pair of tame monkeys +chased each other on the roof of the house, whose corners were almost +hidden by climbing vines whose growth one could almost see.</p> + +<p>Barter led the way at a swift walk across the clearing and into the +house.</p> + +<p>Bentley gasped. Ellen Estabrook exclaimed with pleasure.</p> + +<p>The reception room was as neat as though it received the hourly +attentions of a fussy housewife. It was cozily furnished, yet it was +evident that the furniture had been made on the spot of rough wood +and skins of various animals. Deep skin rugs covered the floor and +walls. There were three doors giving off of the reception room, all +three of which were closed.</p> + +<p>"You are not married?" he asked the two.</p> + +<p>"No!" snapped Bentley.</p> + +<p>"That center door leads to your room, Bentley. The one next to it is +for the young lady. The other door? Ah, the other door my friends! +That door you must never open. But to make sure that curiosity does +not overcome caution, let me show you!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey followed him to the door. He swung it open.</p> + +<p>Both visitors started back and a gasp of terror burst from the lips of +Ellen Estabrook. Beads of perspiration burst forth on Bentley.</p> + +<p>They saw a huge room. In one corner was a bed. The other held a great +cage—and in the cage was an anthropoid ape larger even than the great +brute they had met on the trail!</p> + +<p>Barter laughed. He stepped into the room, uncoiled his whip and hurled +the lash at the cage. A great bellowing roar fairly shook the house, +while the brute tore at the bars which held him prisoner until the +whole massive cage seemed to dance. Barter laughed and continued to +goad him.</p> + +<p>"Barter," yelled Bentley, "stop that! If that beast should ever happen +accidentally to get free he'd tear you to pieces!"</p> + +<p>"I know," said Barter grimly, "and that's part of the experiment! Now +we shall eat, and you, young lady, shall tell me what other fool +scientists had to say about me after I disappeared—to escape their +parrot-like repeating of my discoveries!"</p> + +<p>Bentley started to offer protest as Barter began preparation for the +meal, which obviously was to be taken in the room which held the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> cage +of the giant anthropoid, but Ellen put her fingers to her lips and +shook her head. Her eyes were dancing with excitement.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER III</h4> +<h4><i>A Night of Horror</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>he meal consisted of various fruits, some meat which Bentley could +not identify, and wild honey which was delicious. The bread tasted +queer but was distinctly edible. The castaways ate ravenously, but +even as he ate Bentley noticed that Ellen's face was chalky pale, and +that in spite of a distinct effort of will she simply had to look at +intervals toward the great beast in the cage.</p> + +<p>Caleb Barter sat with his back to the animal. Bentley sat at the left +of the old scientist, Ellen Estabrook at his right. The great beast +was quiet now, but he squatted within his prison and his red-rimmed +eyes swerved from one person to the other in the room with a peculiar +intentness.</p> + +<p>"I'd swear that beast can almost read our thoughts!" ejaculated +Bentley at last, after he had somewhat sated his appetite.</p> + +<p>Barter smiled with those too-red lips of his.</p> + +<p>"He can—almost. You'd be surprised to know how nearly human the great +apes are, and how nearly human this particular one is. Ah!"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, this particular one?" asked Bentley curiously. "He +doesn't look any different to me from the others I've seen except that +he is far and away the largest."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why you should be so curious," said Barter testily. "It's +none of your business you know—yet."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" demanded Bentley, nettled by Barter's tone.</p> + +<p>"Lee, hush," said Ellen. "Professor Barter is not on trial for any +crime."</p> + +<p>Bentley looked at her in hurt surprise, inclined to be angry with her +for the tone she was taking, but he saw such a look of appeal in her +eyes that he choked back the words that rushed to his lips for +utterance. He was decidedly on edge, more, he felt, than he should +have been despite what they had gone through. When their eyes met he +saw her glance quickly toward the ape, and noted a frown of worry +between her brows.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley glanced at the ape. The brute now was staring at the girl in a +way that made Bentley's flesh crawl. It was preposterous of course, +but he had the feeling, something which seemed to flow out of that +mighty cage like some evil emanation from a dank tarn, that the ape +knew the girl's sex—and that he desired her! It was horrible in the +extreme to contemplate, yet Bentley knew when he glanced swiftly at +the girl that she had sensed the same thing and was fighting to keep +the natural horror she felt at such a ghastly thought from being +noticeable. It was absurd. The ape was a prisoner. But....</p> + +<p>"Professor Barter," said Bentley, "you're accustomed to being with +this brute, but it isn't so nice for us, especially for Miss +Estabrook."</p> + +<p>Barter now frowned angrily.</p> + +<p>"My dear Bentley," he said with that odd testiness which he had +assumed toward Bentley before, "I refuse to have any interference with +my experiment. This is part of it."</p> + +<p>"You mean—" began Bentley.</p> + +<p>"I mean that I'm training that ape—I call him Manape—to behave like +human beings. How better can he learn than by watching our behavior?"</p> + +<p>"Just the same," said Bentley, "I don't like it."</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Lee," said Ellen quickly. "I don't mind."</p> + +<p>But Bentley knew that it wasn't all right, and that she did mind, +terribly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>arter finished eating. Bentley had noticed that despite the long +years he had been a virtual hermit, Barter ate as fastidiously as he +probably had done when he had lived among his own kind. He pushed back +his chair with a swift movement.</p> + +<p>Instantly the roaring of Manape rang through the room. The great brute +rose to his full height and grasped the bars of his cage, shaking them +with savage fury. He glared at his master and bestial rage glittered +from his red-rimmed eyes. He was a horrible sight. Ellen Estabrook, +with no apology, stepped around the table and crouched wide-eyed in +the arm of Lee Bentley.</p> + +<p>"Lee," she said, "I'm terribly afraid. I almost wish we had trusted +ourselves in the jungle."</p> + +<p>"I'll look out for you," he whispered, as Barter turned his attention +to the great ape.</p> + +<p>But Bentley was watching the animal. So was Barter. The eyes of the +scientist were shining like coals of fire. For the moment he appeared +to have forgotten his guests.</p> + +<p>"It is a success!" he cried. "As far as it goes, I mean!"</p> + +<p>What did Barter mean? Seeking some answer to the enigma, Bentley +studied the ape anew. Now he was positive of another thing: Manape was +scarcely concerned with Barter, whom he appeared to hate with an +utterly satanic hatred. His beady eyes were staring at Bentley +instead!</p> + +<p>"The brute is jealous of me!" thought Bentley. "Good God, what does it +mean, anyway?"</p> + +<p>Barter turned back to them and all at once became the genial host.</p> + +<p>"Shall we return to the other room?" he asked politely.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t was a relief to the castaways to put that awful room behind them. +Barter closed and barred the door with deliberate slowness.</p> + +<p>Why had this old man shut himself away from civilization like this? +How long had he held this great ape in captivity? What was the purpose +of it? What experiment was he performing? What part of it had the +castaways been witnessing that they had not recognized? Bentley, +recalling the distinct impression that the ape had stared at Ellen +almost with the eyes of a lustful man, and had even appeared to be +jealous of him because the girl had gone into his arms—Bentley felt a +shiver of revulsion course through him as it struck him now how +<i>human</i> the regard and the jealousy of the creature had been!</p> + +<p>He felt like clutching at the girl and racing with her into the +hazards of the jungle. But he remembered the anthropoids out there, +and Barter's peculiar domination of the brutes.</p> + +<p>Barter was now watching the two with interest, studying them in turn +speculatively, unmindful of the impertinence of his studious regard +and silence.</p> + +<p>"I have it!" he said. "Will you two be good enough to excuse me? You +will need rest, I am sure. I am going away for a little time, but I +shall return shortly after dark. Make yourselves at home. But +remember—don't enter that room!"</p> + +<p>"You need not worry," said Bentley grimly. "I sincerely hope we take +our next meal in some other room."</p> + +<p>Barter laughed and passed out of the door without a backward glance.</p> + +<p>From the jungle immediately afterward came the drumming of the great +apes, and now and again the laughter of Barter—high-pitched at first, +but dying away as Barter apparently moved off into the jungle.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_e1.jpg" alt="E" width="52" height="53" /></div><p>llen," said Bentley quickly, "I don't know what's going on here, but +I'm sure it's something sinister and awful. Let's take a look at our +rooms. If there isn't a door<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> between them which can be left open, +then you'll have to spend the night in my room while I remain awake on +guard."</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of the same thing, Lee," she whispered. "This place +gives me the horrors. Barter's association with the apes is a terrible +thing."</p> + +<p>Hand in hand they stepped to the door Barter had designated as that of +Ellen Estabrook's. Bentley opened it cautiously, heaving a sigh of +relief to find it empty. He scarcely knew what he had expected. There +was a connecting door between the two rooms, open, and they peered +into the chamber Bentley was to occupy.</p> + +<p>Back they came to her room, to stand before a window which gave onto a +shadowed little clearing in the rear of the cabin.</p> + +<p>"Look!" whispered Ellen.</p> + +<p>There was a single mound of earth, with a white cross set over it, on +which was the single word: Mangor.</p> + +<p>It might have been a word in some native dialect. It might have been +some native's name. It might have been anything, but, whatever it was, +it added to the sinister atmosphere which seemed to hang like an evil +mist over the home of Caleb Barter.</p> + +<p>"That settles it, Ellen," he said. "You'll spend the night in my +room."</p> + +<p>Ellen retired in Bentley's room, closing the door which led to the +adjoining room, and Bentley walked back and forth in the reception +room, waiting for Barter to return. When darkness fell he lighted the +lamps he had previously located. Their odor caused him to guess that +the fuel they used was some sort of animal fat. In the strange glow +from the lamps, his shadow on the walls, as he walked to and fro, was +grotesque, terrible—and at times a grim reminder of the great apes. +It caused him to consider how, after all, human beings were akin to +gorillas and chimpanzees. Somehow, now, it was a horrible thought.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he night wore on and Bentley's stride became faster. Now and again he +peered into the girl's room. She was sleeping the sleep of utter +exhaustion and he did not waken her. Bentley felt it was near midnight +when Barter returned, his return heralded by a strange commotion in +the clearing, and the frightful drumming of the great apes—or at +least <i>one</i> great ape. Bentley shuddered as the animal behind the +locked door answered the drumming challenge with a drumming thunder of +his own.</p> + +<p>Barter came in, and Bentley accosted him at once.</p> + +<p>"See here, Barter," he began. "I don't like it here. There's something +strange going on in this clearing. Miss Estabrook and I wish to leave +immediately in the morning! And that grave behind the cabin, who or +what is it?"</p> + +<p>Barter studied the almost trembling Bentley for all of a minute.</p> + +<p>"That grave?" he said at last, with silken softness. "It's the grave +of a jungle savage. He died in the interest of science. As for you, +you'll leave here when I bid you, and not before, understand? I've a +guardian outside that would tear both of you limb from limb."</p> + +<p>But Bentley caught and held fast to certain words the scientist had +spoken.</p> + +<p>"The savage died in the interest of science?" he said. "What do you +mean?"</p> + +<p>Barter smiled his red-lipped smile.</p> + +<p>"I took the savage and Manape, who wasn't called Manape then, and +administered an anesthetic of my own invention. You've heard that I +was a master of trephining? No matter if you haven't heard, the whole +world will know soon! While the native and the ape were under +anesthesia I transferred their brains. I put the black man's brain in +the skull pan of the ape, and the ape's brain in that of the savage. +The ape<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> lived—and he is Manape. The savage, with the ape's brain, +died, and I buried him in that grave you asked about!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>ith a cry of horror Bentley turned and fled from Barter as though the +man had been His Satanic Majesty himself. He entered the room with +Ellen and barred the door behind him. He likewise barred the door +which led to that other room. Now in total darkness it was all he +could do from clambering on the bed where Ellen slept, and begging her +to touch him—anything—if only to prove to him that there still were +sane creatures left in a mad world.</p> + +<p>Outside Barter laughed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bentley," he called after a long interval of silence, "do you +like the odor of violets? Goodnight, and pleasant dreams!"</p> + +<p>What had Barter meant?</p> + +<p>Again assuring himself that the connecting door could not be opened if +anything or anybody tried to enter that way, Bentley flung himself +down before the door which gave on the reception room. He had no +intention of sleeping. But in spite of himself he dozed off, though he +fought against sleep with all his will.</p> + +<p>Strange, but as he gradually slipped away into unconsciousness he was +cognizant of the odor of violets—like invisible tentacles which +reached through the very door and wrapped themselves gently about him.</p> + +<p>His last conscious thought was of Manape, the ape with the brain of a +jungle savage. But in spite of the vague feeling of horror he could +not fight off the desire for sleep.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER IV</h4> +<h4><i>Grim Awakening</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley returned to consciousness with a dull headache. He rose to a +sitting posture and looked dully about him. Dimwittedly he tried to +recall all that had passed since he had last been awake. He knew he +had gone to sleep under the door in the room where Ellen had slept. +Yet he was not there now. He peered about him.</p> + +<p>He recognized the room.</p> + +<p>Yonder was the table where they had eaten last night, or yesterday +afternoon. Yonder was the bed he guessed Barter customarily used, and +he shuddered a little as he fancied a man sleeping in the same room +with that ghastly travesty which was neither ape nor human—Manape. +The creature's name was simple, being simply "man" and "ape" joined +together to fit the creature perfectly—too perfectly. Barter's bed +had been slept in, but Barter was nowhere to be seen. Where was he? +How came Bentley in this room? Barter had forbidden him to enter the +place at all, on any pretext whatever. Had he walked in his sleep, +drawn by some freak of his subconscious mind into the room of Manape?</p> + +<p>Slowly, afraid to look yet forced by something outside himself, he +turned his eyes toward the corner where the beast's cage was.</p> + +<p>The cage was empty!</p> + +<p>The door of it was open!</p> + +<p>Stunned by his discovery, wondering what had happened during the +night, Bentley looked about him. He noticed the long narrow table at +the end of the cage, and the white covering it bore. He recognized it +instantly as an operating table, and wondered afresh.</p> + +<p>Where was Barter?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley raised his voice to shout the scientist's name. But before he +could himself recognize the syllables of the scientist's name, through +the whole room rang the bellowing challenge of a giant anthropoid ape. +Bentley cowered down fearfully and looked around him. Where was the +ape that had uttered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> that frightful noise? The sound had broken in +that very room, yet save for himself the room was empty.</p> + +<p>Bentley turned his head as he heard someone fumbling with the door.</p> + +<p>Barter entered, and his face was a study as his eyes met those of +Bentley. Bentley noticed that Barter held that whip in his hand, +uncoiled and ready for action.</p> + +<p>What was this that Barter was saying?</p> + +<p>"I warn you, Bentley, that if anything happens to me you are doomed. +If I am killed it means a horrible end for you."</p> + +<p>Bentley tried to answer him, tried to speak, but something appeared to +have gone wrong with his vocal cords, so that all that came from his +lips was a senseless gibberish that meant nothing at all. He recalled +the odor of violets, Barter's enigmatic good-night utterance with +reference to violets, and wondered if their odor, stealing into the +room where he had gone on guard over Ellen, had had anything to do +with paralyzing his powers of speech.</p> + +<p>"I see you haven't discovered, Bentley," said Barter after a moment of +searching inspection of Bentley. "Look at yourself!"</p> + +<p>Surprised at this puzzling command, Bentley slowly looked down at his +chest. It was broad and hairy, huge as a mighty barrel, and his arms +hung to the floor, the hands half closed as though they grasped +something. Horror held Bentley mute for a moment. Then he raised his +eyes to Barter, to note that the scientist was smiling and rubbing his +hands with immense satisfaction.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley started across the floor toward a mirror near Barter's bed. He +refused to let his numbed brain dwell upon the instant recognition of +his manner of progress. For he moved across the floor with a peculiar +rolling gait, aiding his stride with the bent knuckles of his hands +pressed against the floor.</p> + +<p>He fought against the horror that gripped him. He feared to look into +the mirror, yet knew that he must. He reached it, reared to his full +height, and gazed into the glass—at the reflection of Manape, the +great ape of the cage!</p> + +<p>Instantly a murderous fury possessed him. He whirled on Barter, to +scream out at the man, to beg him to explain what had happened, why +this ghastly hallucination gripped him. But all he could do was +bellow, and smash his mighty chest with his fists, so that the sound +went crashing out across the jungle—to be answered almost at once by +the drumming of other mighty anthropoids outside, beyond the clearing +which held the awful cabin of Caleb Barter.</p> + +<p>He started toward Barter, still bellowing and beating his chest. His +one desire was to clutch the scientist and tear him limb from limb, +and he knew that his mighty arms were capable of ripping the scientist +apart as though Barter had been a fly.</p> + +<p>"Back, you fool!" snarled Barter. "Back, I say!"</p> + +<p>The long lash of the whip cracked like a revolver shot, and the lash +curled about the chest and neck of Bentley. It ripped and tore like a +hot iron. It struck again and again. Bentley could not stand the awful +beating the scientist was giving him. In spite of all his power he +found himself being forced back and back.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e stepped into the cage, cowered back against its side. Barter darted +in close, shut the door and fastened it. Then he stood against the +bars, grinning.</p> + +<p>"Nod your head if you can understand me, Bentley," he said.</p> + +<p>Bentley nodded.</p> + +<p>"I told you I would yet prove to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> the world the greatness of Caleb +Barter," said the scientist. "And you will bear witness that what I +have to tell is true. Would you like to know what I have done?"</p> + +<p>Again, slowly and laboriously, Bentley nodded his shaggy head.</p> + +<p>Barter grinned.</p> + +<p>"Wonderful!" he said. "You see, you are now Manape. Yesterday you had +the brain of a black man, and to exchange your brain with Manape's of +yesterday would not have served my purpose in the least. So I had to +find an ape of more than average intelligence. That's why I spent so +much time in the jungle yesterday. I needed a brain to put in the body +of Lee Bentley's—an ape's brain. Your body is a healthy one and I did +not think it would die as the savage's did. I was right. It is doing +splendidly. It would interest you to see how your body behaves with an +ape's brain to direct it. Your other self, whom I call Apeman, is +unusually handsome. Miss Estabrook, however, who does not know what +has happened, has taken a strange dislike to the other you! Splendid! +I shall study reactions at first hand that will astound the world!</p> + +<p>"But remember, whatever your fine brain dictates that you do, don't +ever forget that I am the only living person who can put you to rights +again—and if I die before that happens, you will continue on, till +you die, as Manape!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>arter stopped there. Bentley stiffened.</p> + +<p>From the room where he knew Ellen Estabrook to be came her voice, +raised high in a shout of fear.</p> + +<p>"Lee! Please! I can't understand you. Please don't touch me! Your eyes +burn me—please go away. What in the world has come over you?"</p> + +<p>Bentley listened for the reply of the creature he knew was in the +other room with Ellen Estabrook.</p> + +<p>But the answer was a gurgling gibberish that made no sense at all! His +own body, directed by the brain of an ape, could not emit speech that +Ellen could understand, because the ape could not speak. The ape's +vocal cords, which now were Bentley's, were incapable of speech.</p> + +<p>How, if Barter continued to keep Ellen in ignorance of what had +happened, would she ever know the horrible truth—and realize the +danger that threatened her?</p> + +<p>"Don't worry for the moment, Bentley," said Barter with a smile. "I am +not yet ready for your other self to go to undue lengths—though I +dislike intensely to leave the marks of my whip on that handsome body +of yours!"</p> + +<p>Barter slipped from the room.</p> + +<p>Bentley listened, amazed at the clarity with which he heard every +vagrant little sound—until he remembered again that his hearing was +that of a jungle beast—until he knew that Barter had entered that +other room.</p> + +<p>Then came the crackling reports of the whip, wielded mightily by the +hands of Barter.</p> + +<p>A scream that was half human, half animal, was the result of the +lashing. Bentley cringed as he imagined the bite of that lash which he +himself had experienced but a few moments before.</p> + +<p>"Professor Barter! Professor Barter!" distinctly came the voice of +Ellen Estabrook. "Don't! Don't! He didn't mean anything, I am sure. He +is sick, something dreadful has happened to him. But he wouldn't +really hurt me. He couldn't—not really. Stop, please! Don't strike +him again!"</p> + +<p>But the sound of the lash continued.</p> + +<p>"Stop, I tell you!" Ellen's voice rose to a cry of agonized entreaty. +"Don't strike him again. See, you've ripped his flesh until he is +covered with blood! Strike me if you must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> strike someone—for with +all my heart and soul I love him!"</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER V</h4> +<h4><i>Fumbling Hands</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_n.jpg" alt="N" width="49" height="50" /></div> +<p>ow Bentley was beginning to realize to the full the horrible thing +that had befallen himself and Ellen Estabrook. He knew something else, +too. It had come to him when he had heard Ellen's words next +door—telling Barter that she loved the creature Barter was beating, +which she thought was Lee Bentley. That creature was Lee Bentley; but +only the earthly casement of Lee Bentley. The ruling power of +Bentley's body, the driving force which actuated his body, was the +brain of an ape.</p> + +<p>As for Bentley himself, that part of him of which he thought when he +thought of "I," to all intents and purposes, to all outer seeming, had +become an ape. His body was an ape's body, his legs were an ape's, +everything about him was simian save one thing—the "ego," that +something by which man knows that he is himself, with an individual +identity. That was buried behind the almost non-existent brow of an +ape.</p> + +<p>In all things save one he was an ape. That thing was "Bentley's" +brain. In all things save one that creature in the room with Ellen +Estabrook was Bentley. Bentley, driven to mad behavior by the brain of +an ape!</p> + +<p>The horror of it tore at Bentley, as he still thought of himself.</p> + +<p>"If I were to get out of this cage," he told himself voicelessly, "and +were to enter that room with Ellen, she would cower into a corner in +terror. She would fly to the arms of that travesty of 'me,' for she +thinks it is 'I' in there with her because it <i>looks</i> like me."</p> + +<p>Now that Ellen was beyond his reach, more beyond his reach than if she +had been dead, he realized how much she meant to him. In the few mad +hours of their association they had come to belong to each other with +a possessiveness that was beyond words. Thinking then that the +travesty in there with her—with Bentley's body—was really Bentley, +to what lengths might she not be persuaded in her love? It was a +ghastly thing to contemplate.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>ut what could Bentley do? He could not speak to her. If he tried she +would race from him in terror at the bellowing ferocity of his voice. +How could he tell her his love when his voice was such as to frighten +the very wild beasts of the jungle?</p> + +<p>Yet....</p> + +<p>How could he allow her to remain with that other Bentley—that body +which perhaps was provided with a man's appetites, and the brain of a +beast which knew nothing of honor and took what it wished if it were +strong enough?</p> + +<p>There was one ray of hope in that Barter had hinted he would protect +Ellen from the apeman. That meant physically, with all that might +indicate; but who could compensate her for the horror she must be +experiencing with that speechless imbecile she thought was Bentley? If +this thing were to continue indefinitely, and Ellen were kept in +ignorance, she would eventually grow to hate the "thing"—and if ever, +as he had hinted, Barter were to transfer back the entities of the man +and the ape, Ellen would always shudder with horrible memories when +she looked at the man she had just now admitted she loved.</p> + +<p>Bentley was becoming calmer now. He knew exactly what he faced, and +there was no way out until Barter should be satisfied with his mad +experiment. Bentley must go through with whatever was in store for +him. So must the ape who possessed his body—and in the very nature +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> things unless Bentley could train himself to a self-saving +docility, both bodies would repeatedly know the fiery stinging of that +lash of Barter's. Bentley could control himself after a fashion. The +ape might be cowed, but long before that time arrived, Bentley's body +would be made to suffer marks they would bear forever to remind him of +this horror.</p> + +<p>"I must somehow manage to continue to care for Ellen," he told +himself. "But how?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e scarcely realized that his great hands were wandering over his +body, scratching, scratching. But when he did realize he felt sick, +without being able to understand how or where he felt sick. If he felt +sick at the stomach he thought of it as his own stomach. When he +thought of moving the hairy hands he thought of his hands. He grinned +to himself—never realizing the horrible grimace which crossed his +face, though there was none to see it—when he recalled how men of his +acquaintance during the Great War, had complained of aching toes at +the end of legs that had been amputated!</p> + +<p>He was learning one thing—that the brain is everything that matters. +The seat of pain and pleasure, of joy and of sorrow, of hunger and of +thirst even.</p> + +<p>Bentley waddled to the door of the cage. He studied the lock which +held him prisoner, and noted how close he must hold his face to see at +all. All apes might be near-sighted as far as he knew; but he did know +that this one was. Perhaps he could free himself.</p> + +<p>He tried to force his massive hands to the task of investigating the +lock. But what an effort! It was like trying to hypnotize a subject +that did not wish to be hypnotized. A distinct effort of will, like +trying to force someone to turn and look by staring at the back of +that someone's neck in a crowd. It was like trying to make an entirely +different person move his arm, or his leg, merely by willing that he +move it.</p> + +<p>But the great arms, which might have weighed tons, though Bentley +sensed no strain, raised to the door and fumbled dumbly, clumsily. He +tried to close the gnarled fingers, whose backs were covered with the +rough hair, to manipulate the lock, but he succeeded merely in +fumbling—like a baby senselessly tugging at its father's fingers, the +existence of which had no shape or form in the baby's brain.</p> + +<p>But he strove with all his will to force those clumsy hands to do his +bidding. They slipped from the lock, went back again, fumbled over it, +fell away.</p> + +<p>"You must!" muttered Bentley. "You must, you must!"</p> + +<p>He would discover the secret of the lock, so that he would be able to +remove it when the time was right—but so slow and uncertain and +clumsy were the movements of his ape hands, he was in mortal fear that +he would unlock the door and then not be able to lock it again, and +Barter would discover what he had in mind.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>ut he struggled on, while foul smelling sweat poured from his mighty +body and dripped to the floor. He concentrated on the lock with all +his power, knowing as he did so that the lock would have been but a +simple problem for a child of six or seven. It was nothing more than a +bar held in place with a leather thong. But the powerful fingers which +now were Bentley's were too blunt and inflexible to master the knot +Barter had left.</p> + +<p>Bentley paused to listen.</p> + +<p>From Ellen's room came the sound of weeping. From the front room came +Barter's pleased laughter as he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> talked with the thing which so much +resembled Bentley. That was a relief—to know that his other self had +been at least temporarily removed from any possibility of injuring +Ellen.</p> + +<p>In Bentley's mind were certain pictures of Barter. He saw him plainly +on his knees begging for mercy, while Bentley's ape hands choked his +life away. He saw him tossed about like a mere child, and casually +torn apart, ripped limb from limb by the mighty hands of Manape.</p> + +<p>"God," he told himself, refusing to listen to the slobbering gibberish +which came from his thick lips when he addressed himself, "I can do +nothing to Barter—not until he restores me properly. If he is slain, +it is the end for me, and for Ellen! He is a master, no doubt of that. +He anesthetized me through the door with something of his own +manufacture that smelled like violets, and put my brain in Manape +after removing from Manape the brain of the savage. Then he removed an +ape's brain from a second ape and put it in my skull pan—all within +the space of a few hours! Yet his knowledge of surgery and medicine is +such that even in so short a time I suffer little from the operation, +save for the dull headache which I had on awakening, and which I now +scarcely feel at all."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e straightened, close against the bars, and began again to fumble +with the leather thong which held him prisoner. In his brain was the +hazy idea that he might after all make a break for it, and carry Ellen +away to a place of safety, taking a chance on finding his way back +here to force Barter to operate again and restore him to his proper +place. But would not Ellen die of fright at being borne away through +the jungle in the arms of an ape? Was there any possibility of forcing +Barter to perform the operation? No, for under the anesthetic again, +Barter, angered by the thwarting of whatever purpose actuated him, +might do something even worse than he had done—if that were possible. +Again, even if he reached civilisation with Ellen, every human hand +would be turned against him. Rifles would hurl their lead into him. +Hunters would pursue him....</p> + +<p>No, it was impossible.</p> + +<p>Bentley, Ellen, and the Apeman—his own body, ape-brained—were but +pawns in the hands of Barter. Barter might be actuated by a desire to +serve science, that science which was alike his tool and his god. +Bentley scarcely doubted that Barter believed himself specially +ordained to do this thing, in the name of science; probably, +unquestionably, felt himself entirely justified.</p> + +<p>Plainly, now that Bentley recalled things Barter had said, Barter had +waited for an opportunity of this kind—had waited for someone to be +tossed into his net—and Ellen and Lee, flotsam of the sea, had come +in answer to the prayer for whose answer Barter had waited.</p> + +<p>It was horrible, yet there was nothing they could do—at least, to +free themselves—until it pleased Barter to take the step. It came +then to Bentley how precious to them both was the life of Caleb +Barter. He could restore Bentley or destroy him—and with him the +woman who loved him.</p> + +<p>Suppose, came Bentley's sudden thought, Barter should think of +performing a like operation on Ellen—using in the transfer the brain +of a female ape? God!...</p> + +<p>He prayed that the thought would never come to Barter. He was afraid +to dwell upon it lest Barter read his thought. He might think of it +naturally, as a simple corollary to what he had already done. Bentley +then must do something before Barter planned some new madness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e sat back and bellowed savagely, beating his chest with his mighty +hands.</p> + +<p>Instantly the outer door opened and Barter came in.</p> + +<p>Bentley ceased his bellowing and chest pounding and sat docilely +there, staring into the eyes of Barter.</p> + +<p>"Have you discovered there is no use opposing me, Bentley?" said the +professor softly.</p> + +<p>Bentley nodded his shaggy head. Then by a superhuman effort of will he +raised the right arm of Manape and pointed. He could not point the +forefinger, but he could point the arm—and look in the direction he +desired.</p> + +<p>"You want to come out and go into the front room?"</p> + +<p>Bentley nodded.</p> + +<p>"You will make no attempt to injure me?"</p> + +<p>Bentley shook his head ponderously from side to side.</p> + +<p>"You would like to see the Apeman?—the creature that looks so much +like you that it will be like peering at yourself in the mirror? Or, +rather, as it would have been yesterday had you looked into a mirror?"</p> + +<p>Bentley nodded slowly.</p> + +<p>"You understand that no matter what the Apeman does, you must not try +to slay him?"</p> + +<p>Bentley did not move.</p> + +<p>"You understand if you destroy Apeman's body, you are doomed to remain +Manape forever, because the true body of Lee Bentley will die and be +eventually destroyed?"</p> + +<p>Bentley nodded. He felt a trickle of moisture on the rough skin about +his flaring nostrils and knew that he was weeping, soundlessly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>ut there was no pity in the face of Barter. He was the scientist who +studied his science, to whom it was the breath of life, and he saw +nothing, thought of nothing, not directly connected with his +"experiment."</p> + +<p>"You give me your word of honor as a gentleman not to oppose me?"</p> + +<p>It was odd, an almost superhumanly intellectual scientist asking for +an ape's word of honor, but that did not occur to Bentley at the +moment, as he nodded his head.</p> + +<p>Barter still held his lash poised. He unfastened the leather thong +which held Bentley prisoner and swung wide the door. Then he turned +his back on Bentley and led the way to the door.</p> + +<p>Bentley followed him on mighty feet and bent knuckles into the room +which had first received Lee and Ellen when they had entered the cabin +of the scientist.</p> + +<p>Bentley would have gasped had he been capable of gasping at what he +saw.</p> + +<p>In a far corner, cowering down in fear at sight of Barter and his +coiled whip—was the Bentley of the mirror in his stateroom aboard the +<i>Bengal Queen</i>, and before that.</p> + +<p>It was an uncanny sensation, to stand off and peer at himself thus.</p> + +<p>Yonder was Bentley, yet <i>here</i> was Bentley, too.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hen he noted the difference. The face of that Bentley yonder was +twisted, savage. <i>That</i> Bentley had seen Manape, and the teeth were +exposed in a snarl of savage hatred. There a man ape stared at another +man ape, and bared his fangs in challenge. The white hands of Bentley +began to beat the white chest of Bentley—to beat the chest savagely, +until the white skin was red as blood....</p> + +<p>The Bentley buried within the mighty carcass of an anthropoid ape +watched and shuddered. That thing yonder was dressed only in a +breech-clout, and the fair flesh was criss-crossed in scores of places +with bleeding wounds left by the lash of Barter. The Apeman's brows +were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> furrowed in concentration. The human body made ape-like +movements.</p> + +<p>Bentley knew that soon that creature, forgetting everything save that +he faced a rival man ape, would charge and attempt to measure the +power of Manape—fang against fang. The white form rose.</p> + +<p>Barter caused his whiplash to crack like an explosion.</p> + +<p>"One moment," he said. "Back, Apeman! I'll bring Miss Estabrook. +Perhaps she can placate you. She has a strange power over you both!"</p> + +<p>Bentley would have cried out as Barter crossed to unlock Ellen's door, +but he knew that he could not stop Barter, and that his cry would +simply be a terrible bellow to frighten the woman he loved when she +entered the room.</p> + +<p>The door opened. White, shaken, her eyes deep wells of terror, circled +with blue rings which told the effect of the horror she had +experienced, Ellen Estabrook entered.</p> + +<p>And screamed with terror as she saw the hulking figure of Manape. +Screamed with terror and rushed to the arms of the cowering thing in +the corner!</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VI</h4> +<h4><i>Puppets of Barter</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>he thing that Barter then contrived was destined to remain forever in +the memory of Bentley as the most ghastly thing he had ever +experienced. Ellen hurried into the arms of that thing in the corner. +Gropingly, protectively, the white arms encompassed her. But they were +awkward, uncertain, and Bentley was minded of a female ape or monkey +holding her young against her hairy bosom.</p> + +<p>Barter turned toward Bentley and smiled. He rubbed his hands together +with satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"A success so far, my experiment," he said. "The human body still +answers to primal urges, which are closely enough allied to those of +our simian cousins that their outward manifestations—manual gestures, +expressions in the eyes et cetera—are much the same. When the two are +combined the action approximates humanness!"</p> + +<p>That travesty yonder pressed its face against Ellen, and she drew +back, her eyes wide as they met those of the white figure which held +her.</p> + +<p>"I am all right," she managed, "please don't hold me so tightly."</p> + +<p>She tried to struggle away, but Apeman held her helpless.</p> + +<p>"Barter," yelled Bentley, "take her away from that thing! How can you +do such a horrible thing?"</p> + +<p>At least those were the words he intended to shout, but the sound that +came from his lips was the bellowing of a man ape. That other thing +yonder answered his bellow, bared white teeth in a bestial snarl. +Barter turned to Bentley, however.</p> + +<p>"You want me to take her away from Bentley and give her to you?"</p> + +<p>Bentley nodded.</p> + +<p>His bellowing attempt at speech had sent Ellen closer into the arms of +Bentley's other self—henceforth to be known as Apeman. Bentley had +defeated his own purpose by his bellow.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_m1.jpg" alt="M" width="68" height="56" /></div><p>iss Estabrook," said Barter softly, "nothing will happen to you if +you stand clear of your sweetheart...."</p> + +<p>Nausea gripped Bentley as he heard Apeman referred to as Ellen's +sweetheart, but now he remembered to refrain from attempting speech.</p> + +<p>"But," went on Barter, "Manape has taken a violent dislike to Bentley, +and may attack him if you do not stand clear. Manape likes you, you +know. You probably sensed that last evening?"</p> + +<p>Ellen visibly shuddered. She patted the shoulder of Apeman and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +stepped away, toward a chair which Barter thrust toward her.</p> + +<p>She pressed her hands to her throbbing temples, visibly fighting to +control herself. Her whole body was trembling as with the ague.</p> + +<p>"Professor Barter," she said at last. "I am terribly confused, and +most awfully frightened. What has happened here? What dreadful thing +has so awfully changed Lee? I talk to him and he answers nothing that +I understand. Is it some weird fever? At this moment I have the +feeling that that brute Manape understands more perfectly than Lee, +and the idea is horrible! I love Lee, Professor. See, he hears me say +it, yet I cannot tell from his expression what he thinks. Does he +despise me for so freely admitting my love? Has he any feeling about +it at all? Has his mind completely gone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Barter, with a semblance of a smile on his lips, "his mind +has completely gone. But it is only temporary, my dear. You forget +that I am perhaps the world's greatest living medical man, and that I +can do things no other man can do. I shall restore Lee wholly to +you—when the time comes. It is not well to hasten things in cases of +this kind. One never knows but that great harm may be done."</p> + +<p>"But I can nurse him. I can care for him and love him, and help to +make him well."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>arter looked away from Ellen, his eyes apparently focussed on a spot +somewhere in the air between Apeman and Manape.</p> + +<p>"Would that be satisfactory to Bentley, I wonder?" he said musingly, +yet Bentley recognized it as a question addressed to him. Bentley +looked at the girl, but her eyes were fixed—alight with love which +was still filled with questioning—on Apeman. Bentley shook his head, +and Barter laughed a little.</p> + +<p>"You know, Miss Estabrook," he went on, "that a strange malady like +that which appears to have attacked Lee Bentley should be studied +carefully, in order that the observations of a savant may be given to +the world so that such maladies may be effectually combatted in +future. This is one reason why I do not hasten."</p> + +<p>"But you are using a sick man as you would use a rabbit in a +laboratory experiment!" she cried. "Can't you see that there are +things not even you should do? Don't you understand that some things +should be left entirely in the hands of God?"</p> + +<p>"I do not concede that!" retorted Barter. "God makes terrible mistakes +sometimes—as witness cretins, mongoloid idiots, criminals, and the +like. I know about these things better than you do, my dear, and you +must trust me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, if I only knew what was right. Poor Lee. You lashed him so, and +his body is awful with the scars. Was that necessary?"</p> + +<p>"Insane persons are not to blame for their insanity," said Barter +soothingly. "Yet sometimes they must be handled roughly to prevent +them from causing loss of life, their own or others."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_n.jpg" alt="N" width="49" height="50" /></div><p>ow the eyes of Ellen came to rest on Manape.</p> + +<p>They were fear filled at first, especially when she discovered that +the little red eyes of Manape were upon her. But she did not turn her +eyes away, nor did Manape. She seemed dazed, unable to orient herself, +unable to distinguish the proper mode of action.</p> + +<p>"That ape in repose is almost human," she said wearily, her brow +puckered as though she sought the answer to some unspoken question +that eluded her. "I am not afraid of him at this moment, yet I know +that in a second he can become an invincible brute, capable of tearing +us all limb from limb."</p> + +<p>"Not so long as I have this whip,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> said Barter grimly. "But Manape is +docile at the moment, and it is Bentley who is ferocious."</p> + +<p>Apeman was still snarling at Manape, lending point to Barter's +statement. Barter went on.</p> + +<p>"You know," he said, "apes are almost human in many respects. Manape +likes you, and I doubt if he would attempt to hurt you. If he knew +that you cared for Bentley there, he would most assuredly try to be +friendly to Bentley also. Perhaps you can manage it. Apes are capable +of primitive reasoning, you know. Go to Manape. He won't injure you, +at least while I am here. Stroke him. He will like it. He is a friend +worth having, never fear, and one never knows when one may need a +friend—or what sort of friend one may need."</p> + +<p>Ellen hesitated, and her face whitened again.</p> + +<p>Barter went on.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead. It is necessary that Manape and Bentley remain here +together for a time. Manape will be locked up, but if he happens to +break loose there is nothing he might not do. With Bentley in the +condition he is he would be no match for Manape. But if Manape thought +you desired his friendship for Bentley...?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here he left it, while Bentley wondered what new horror Barter was +planning. He yearned for Ellen to come to him. But, if he strode +toward her now, how would Barter explain that Manape had understood +his words? No, Ellen must take the step, and each one would be +hesitant, as she fought against her natural revulsion at touching this +great shaggy creature which was Manape to her, and Bentley to himself.</p> + +<p>Slowly, almost against her will, Ellen rose and moved across the floor +toward Bentley. Apeman growled ominously. He rose to his feet, his +arms writhing like disjoined, broken-backed snakes across his scarred +chest.</p> + +<p>Apeman took a step forward. Barter did not notice, apparently, for he +was watching Manape as Ellen approached.</p> + +<p>She came quite close. Slowly she put forth her hand to touch the +shaggy shoulder of Manape. Bentley, seeking some way, <i>any</i> way, to +reassure her, put his great shaggy right arm about her waist for the +merest second.</p> + +<p>Then Apeman charged, bellowing a shrill crescendo that was half human, +half simian.</p> + +<p>Before Bentley could realize Apeman's intentions, Apeman had clutched +Ellen about the waist and dashed for the door of the cabin. He was +gone, racing across the clearing with swift strides, bearing the girl +with him.</p> + +<p>Bentley whirled to pursue, but Barter had beaten him to the door and +now blocked it, whiplash writhing, twisting, curling to strike.</p> + +<p>"Back, Bentley! Back, I say! In a moment you may follow—as part of my +experiment. But remember—the end must be here in this cabin, and you +must remember everything, so that you can tell me all—when you are +restored!"</p> + +<p>Bentley cowered under the lash. His whole shaggy body trembled +frightfully.</p> + +<p>From the jungle toward which Apeman was racing come the roaring +challenge of half a dozen anthropoids.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VII</h4> +<h4><i>Lord of the Jungle</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p>peman, never realizing that his actual strength was that of but a +puny human being, was racing with Ellen Estabrook into the very midst +of animals which would tear him to bits as easily as they would tear +any human being to pieces.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> Apeman, being but an ape after all, would +merely think that he was joining his own kind, bearing with him a mate +with white skin.</p> + +<p>But to the other apes he would be a human being, a puny hairless +imitation of themselves which they would pounce upon and tear asunder +with great glee. Apeman would not know this: would not realize his +limitations. He would try to take to the upper terraces of the jungle, +to swing from tree to tree, carrying his mate—and would find the body +of Bentley incapable of supporting such an effort. Apeman would be a +child in the hands of his brethren, who could not know him. Apeman +could probably speak to them after a fashion, but his gibberish would +come strangely perhaps unintelligibly, through the mouth of Bentley. +They would suspect him, and destroy him, and with him Ellen Estabrook, +unless other apes discovered also her sex and took her, fighting over +her among themselves.</p> + +<p>Bentley made good time across the jungle clearing. Behind him came the +voice of Barter in final exhortation.</p> + +<p>"Your human cunning, hampered by your simian body, pitted against the +highly specialized body of your former self, in turn hampered by the +lack of reasoning of an ape—in a contest in primitive surrounding for +a female! A glorious experiment, and all depends now upon you! You +will save the girl who loves you and whom you love, but you must +return to me and be transferred before you can make your love known. I +shall wait for you!"</p> + +<p>In Bentley's brain the shouted words of Barter rang as he hurried into +the jungle in pursuit of Apeman. Ellen Estabrook was crying: "Hurry, +Lee, hurry!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_y.jpg" alt="Y" width="50" height="55" /></div> +<p>et she was really yelling to Apeman, the man-beast which carried her, +bidding him race on to escape the pursuit of Manape, in whom she +would never recognize the man she loved. She must have thought that +Bentley had taken a desperate chance to escape the clutches of Barter, +and that Barter had set his trained ape to pursue them. What else +could she think? How could she know that she was actually in the power +of an ape, and that her loved one actually pursued to save her? With +every desire of her body she was urging Apeman to take her away from +Manape. But she must also have heard the challenges of the man apes in +the jungle ahead. She was looking back over Apeman's shoulder, +wondering perhaps if Barter would again come out to save them from the +anthropoids.</p> + +<p>Bentley could guess at her thoughts as he raced on in pursuit of +Apeman.</p> + +<p>Would he be in time? Even if he were, Apeman himself would turn +against him. If he were to try to aid Ellen she would fight against +him, believing him an ape. And how could he fight? Would his brain be +able to direct his mighty arms and his fighting fangs in a battle with +the apes of the jungle?</p> + +<p>As he thought of coming to grips with the apes on equal terms, +something never in this world before vouchsafed to a human being, he +felt a fierce exaltation upon him. He felt a desire to take part in +mortal combat with them, to fight them fist and fang, and to destroy +them, one by one. He had their strength and more—he had the cunning +of a human being to match against the dim wits of the apes. He had a +chance.</p> + +<p>But he must protect not only Ellen, but Apeman. Both Ellen and Apeman +would be against him. Ellen would fear him as an ape that desired her. +Apeman would fight against him as a rival for the favors of a she....</p> + +<p>And he must harm neither. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> own body, which Apeman directed, must +be spared, must be kept alive—while every effort of Apeman would be +to force Bentley to slay!</p> + +<p>It was a predicament which—well, only Caleb Barter had foreseen it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he bellowing of the apes was a continuous roar on all sides now. +Bentley felt a fierce sensation of joy welling up within him and he +answered their bellowing with savage bellows of his own. His legs were +obeying his will. His knuckles touched the ground as he raced on all +fours.</p> + +<p>He could hear the shriek of Ellen there ahead, and knew that Apeman +and the girl were surrounded—that he must make all possible speed if +he were to be in time.</p> + +<p>Apeman and his captive were on the trail, trapped there just as Apeman +had started into the jungle. Apeman had lifted Ellen so that her hands +might have grasped a limb; but the girl had refused to attempt to +escape by the trees if her "lover" remained behind. She had crumpled +to the ground, and Apeman, snarling, smashing his chest which was so +sickly white as compared to the chests of the other apes, had turned +upon his brethren. They hesitated for a moment as though amazed at the +effrontery of this mere human.</p> + +<p>Then a man ape charged. Apeman met him with arms and fangs, and +Bentley saw Apeman's all too small mouth snap out for the vein in the +neck of Apeman's attacker. The ape whose brain reposed in Apeman had +been a courageous beast, that was plain. But he was fighting for his +she.</p> + +<p>And he did not know his limitations. Apeman was bowled over as though +he had been a blade of grass, and the great ape was crouched over him, +nuzzling at his white flesh when Bentley-Manape arrived.</p> + +<p>With a savage bellow, and with a mighty lunge, Bentley leaped upon +the attacker of Apeman. His arms obeyed him with more certainty now, +perhaps because the matter was so vitally urgent. Bentley's brain knew +jiu-jitsu, boxing, ways of rough and tumble fighting of which the +great apes had never learned, nor ever would learn.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e hurled himself upon the animal that was on the point of pulling +Apeman apart as though he had indeed been a fly, and literally +flattened him against the ground. His mighty hands searched for the +throat of the great ape, while he instinctively pulled his stomach out +of the way of possible disemboweling tactics on the part of his +antagonist. But the great ape twisted from his grasp, struggled erect.</p> + +<p>And, amazed at what he was doing, surprised that he, Lee Bentley, +could even conceive of such a thing, he launched his attack with bared +and glistening fangs straight at the throat of his enemy. His mouth +closed. His fangs ripped home—and the great ape whose throat he had +torn away, whose blood was salt on his slavering lips, was tossed +aside as an empty husk, to die convulsively, a dripping horror which +was humanlike in a ghastly fashion. Bentley felt like a murderer. Not +like a murderer, either, but like a man who has slain unavoidably—and +hates himself for doing so.</p> + +<p>Ellen was backed against the tree into which Apeman had tried to force +her.</p> + +<p>Apeman was up now, moving to stand beside her. Apeman had discovered +that he was not the invincible creature he had thought himself.</p> + +<p>Bentley moved in closer to the two, as other apes charged upon him +from both sides, smothering him, giving him no time. He was a +stranger, seemingly, an upstart to be destroyed.</p> + +<p>And he was forced to fight them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> with all his ape strength and human +cunning, while Apeman, whimpering, caught up Ellen and darted away +with her, straight into the jungle.</p> + +<p>For Bentley this was a sort of respite. Ellen was not afraid to go +with Apeman, thinking him Bentley. The great apes were bent on +destroying this strange ape which had come into their midst and had +already destroyed one of their number, perhaps their leader.</p> + +<p>He must be destroyed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley fought like a man possessed. His arms were gory with crimson +from the slashing fangs of his enemies. His mouth was dripping with +red foam as he slashed in turn, with deadly accuracy. A great arm +clutched at the hair of his chest—and fell away again, broken in two +places, as Bentley snapped it like a pipe stem because he knew +leverages and was able to force his ape's body to obey the will of his +human mind.</p> + +<p>One ape whimpering, rolling away to lick at his wounds; whimpering +oddly like a baby that has burned its fingers. A great ape weighing +hundreds of pounds, crying like a child! Yet that "child," with his +arm unbroken, could have taken a grown man, no matter how much of a +giant, and torn him to pieces.</p> + +<p>Two other apes were out of the fray, one dead, the other with only +empty eye-sockets where his red-rimmed eyes had been.</p> + +<p>Bentley guessed that Apeman had gone at least a mile into the jungle, +heading directly away from the dwelling of Caleb Barter. He must get +free and pursue. There was nothing else he could do. If he were slain, +Ellen was doomed to a fate he dared not contemplate. Apeman would +never be accepted by the apes because to all outward seeming he was a +man. His body would never stand the hardship of the jungle, yet Apeman +would never guess that, and would be slain. Bentley must prevent +that.</p> + +<p>He must make sure that Apeman's body at least remained sufficiently +healthy that it could become his own again without the necessity of a +long sojourn in some hospital. Ellen must not be left alone with +Apeman, who was still an ape, running away with a she.</p> + +<p>A ghastly muddle.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_n.jpg" alt="N" width="49" height="50" /></div><p>ow the apes broke away from Bentley. They broke in all direction into +the jungle. Some of them seemed on the trail of Apeman. One of them +took to the trees, swinging himself along with the speed of a running +man, flying from limb to limb with no support save his hands.</p> + +<p>Bentley stared after the fleeing ape, and then gave chase. He felt +that the ape was on the trail of Apeman. Bentley did not know that he +himself could follow the spoor of Apeman, for he had not yet analyzed +all of his new capabilities. But while he was discovering, he would +follow something he could see—the fleeing ape, who would overhaul +Apeman as though Apeman were standing still.</p> + +<p>So, in a manner of speaking, Bentley essayed his wings.</p> + +<p>He took to the trees after the fleeing ape, and was amazed that his +great arms worked with ease, that he swung from limb to limb as easily +and as surely as the other apes. He climbed to the upper terrace, +where view of the ground was entirely shut off. His eyes took note of +limbs capable of bearing his weight—after he had made one mistake +that might easily have proved costly. He had leaped to a limb that +would have supported Bentley of the <i>Bengal Queen</i>, but that was a +mere twig under the weight of Manape. It broke and he fell, clutching +for support; and fate was kind to him in that he found it, and so +clambered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> back and swung easily and swiftly along.</p> + +<p>In his nostrils at intervals was a peculiar odor—a peculiarly human +odor, reminding him of the work-sweat of a man who seldom bathed. He +knew that for the odor of Apeman, and a thrill of exaltation +encompassed him as he realized that he was following a spoor by the +cunning of his nostrils.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here was a great leap across space. The ape ahead of him made it with +ease. Bentley essayed it without hesitation, hurling himself into +space, all of a hundred feet above the ground; with all the might of +his arms—and almost overshot the mark, almost went crashing once more +through the branches. But the tree swayed, and held, and Bentley went +swinging on.</p> + +<p>It was wildly exhilarating, thrilling in a primitive way. Bentley +remembered those dreams of his childhood—dreams of falling endlessly +but never striking. Racial memories, scientists called them, relics of +our simian forebears. Bentley thought of that and laughed; but his +laughter was merely a beastly chattering which recalled him to the +grim necessity of the moment.</p> + +<p>Fifteen minutes passed, perhaps. Twenty. Half an hour. He was +following a trace which led away from the coast, and further away from +the cabin of Caleb Barter. But with his jungle senses, and his human +memory, Bentley was sure he could return when the time came.</p> + +<p>Had Barter foreseen all that? Was Barter smiling to himself, back +there in his awful hermitage, waiting for the working out of his +"experiment"?</p> + +<p>But Apeman had jungle knowledge, and must have forced Bentley's body +to the limit of its endurance, for it was near evening when Bentley, +who had lost the ape ahead of him, but had continued on the spoor of +Apeman by the smell, came to swift pause on his race through the +trees.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e had heard the voice of Ellen Estabrook, and the voice was pleading.</p> + +<p>"Lee! Lee! If you love me try to regain control of yourself. Please do +not stare at me like that. Oh, your poor body! The brush and briars +have literally torn you to bits."</p> + +<p>But the answer of "Lee" was a bestial snarl, and traveling as quietly +as he could, Manape dropped down so that he could gaze upon his +beloved, and the thing she believed she loved.</p> + +<p>Ellen was unaware of him. But he had scarcely dropped into view before +Apeman became aware of him, and rose weakly to tottering limbs, to +beat his bruised and bleeding chest in simian challenge. Apeman was +simply an ape that had run until he was finished, and now was turning +to make a last stand against a male who was stronger—a last bid for +life and possession of the she he had carried away.</p> + +<p>Then Ellen saw Manape, screamed, and for the first time since she had +been saved from the deep by Bentley, fainted dead away.</p> + +<p>The two so strangely related creatures faced each other across her +supine body—and both were savagely snarling. Apeman weakly but +angrily, Manape with a sound of such brute savagery that even the +twittering of birds died away to awed silence.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VIII</h4> +<h4><i>Struggle for Mastery</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t was Apeman who charged. Pity for Apeman welled up in Bentley. That +was his own body which Apeman was so illy using. His own poor bruised +and bleeding body, which Apeman had all but slain by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> forcing it far +beyond human endurance. It must be saved, in spite of Apeman.</p> + +<p>But there was something first to do. Bentley bent over Ellen, caught +her under his arm, and returned to the trees, with Apeman chattering +angrily and futilely behind him. Bentley found a crotch in the tree +where he could place Ellen, made sure that she was safely propped +there and that no snakes were near, and hurried back to the contest +with Apeman which could not be avoided.</p> + +<p>He did not fear the battle he knew he must fight. He hurried back +because Apeman might realize himself beaten and escape into the +jungle. In his weakened condition he could not travel far and would be +easy prey for any prowling leopard, easy prey for the crawling things +whose fangs held sure death. Or would the cunning of Apeman, denizen +of the jungle, warn him against any such? His ape brain would warn +him, but would his human strength avail in case of necessity, in case +of attack by another ape, or a four-footed carnivore?</p> + +<p>Bentley hurried back because Apeman must be saved, somehow, even +against his will. Apeman hated Manape with a deadly hatred. Yet to +subdue the travesty of a human being, Manape must take care that he +did not destroy his own casement of humanity. Any moment now and a +great cat might charge from the shadows and destroy Apeman.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>peman, snarling, beating his puny chest with his puny hands, was +waiting for Manape his enemy.</p> + +<p>Manape found himself thinking of the line: "'O wad some power the +giftie gie us, to see oursilves as ithers see us,'" and adding some +thoughts of his own.</p> + +<p>"If that were actually 'I' down there, my chance of preserving the +life of myself, and that of Ellen against the rigors of the jungle, +would be absolutely nil. How helpless we humans are in primitive +surroundings! The tiniest serpent may slay us. The jungle cats destroy +us with ease, if we be not equipped with artificial weapons which our +better brains have created. As Manape, Barter's trained ape, I am +better fitted to protect Ellen than if I were Bentley—the Bentley of +the <i>Bengal Queen</i>. Yet she will cower away from me when she wakens."</p> + +<p>Now Bentley was down, and Apeman was charging. He charged at a +staggering run. He stepped on a thorn, hesitated, and whimpered. But +he possessed unusual courage, for he still came on. Apeman knew the +law of the jungle, that the weakest must die. Death was to be his +portion if he could not withstand the assaults of Manape, and he came +to meet his fate with high brute courage.</p> + +<p>Apeman was close in. His hands were swinging, fists closed, in a +strange travesty of a fighting man. Apeman was snarling. He groped for +the throat of Manape with his human teeth—which sank home in the +tough hide of Manape, hurting him as little as though Apeman were +toothless.</p> + +<p>"As Bentley I would have no chance at all against a great ape," said +Bentley to himself.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>ow could he take the pugnacity out of Apeman without destroying him? +If he struck him he might strike too hard and slay Apeman—which was +the equivalent of slaying himself. So Manape extended his mighty +hands, caught Apeman under the armpits and held him up, feet swinging +free. Yet Apeman still struggled, gnashed his teeth, and beat himself +on the chest.</p> + +<p>How utterly futile! As futile as Bentley in his own casement would +have been against a great ape! Apeman might destroy himself through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +his very rage. How could Bentley render the travesty unconscious and +yet make sure that Apeman did not die?</p> + +<p>If he struck he might strike too hard and slay.</p> + +<p>What should he do?</p> + +<p>A low coughing sound came from somewhere close by. From the deeps of +his consciousness Bentley knew that sound. He clutched Apeman in his +right arm, swung back to the tree and up among the branches. He was +just in time. The tawny form of a great cat passed beneath, missing +him by inches.</p> + +<p>But while he had saved himself and Apeman, he had been clumsy. He had +struck the head of Apeman against the bole of the tree, and Apeman +hung limp in his arm. Bentley, fear such as he had never before known +gripping him, pressed his huge ear to Apeman's heart. It was beating +steadily and strongly. With a great inner sigh of relief he climbed to +safety in the tree, bearing Apeman with him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e reached the crotch where Ellen rested, and disposed Apeman nearby, +his own gross body between them. He even dared to gather Ellen closer +against him for warmth. His left hand held tightly the wrist of the +unconscious Apeman, so that he should not fall and become prey of the +night denizens of the jungle.</p> + +<p>So, the two who seemed to be human—Apeman and Ellen, passed from +unconsciousness into natural sleep, while Bentley-Manape remained +motionless between them, afraid to close his eyes lest something even +more terrible than hitherto experienced might transpire. But his ears +caught every sound of the jungle, and his sensitive ape's nostrils +brought him every scent—which his man's mind strove to analyze, +reaching back and back into the dim and misty past for identification +of odors that were new, or that were really old, yet which had been +lost to man since they had left forever the simian homes of their +ancestors and their senses had become more highly specialized.</p> + +<p>The questions which turned over and over in Bentley's mind were these:</p> + +<p>How shall I tell Ellen the truth? Will she believe it?</p> + +<p>What is the rest of Barter's experiment? How shall I proceed from this +moment on? How shall I procure food for Ellen? What food will Apeman +choose for my body to assimilate?</p> + +<p>And jungle night drew on. Once Ellen shivered and pressed closer to +Manape as she slept.</p> + +<p>What would morning bring to this strange trio?</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER IX</h4> +<h4><i>Fate Decides</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="60" height="50" /></div> +<p>orning brought the great apes of the jungle—scores of them. They had +approached so silently through the darkness that Bentley had not heard +them, and his ape's nostrils had not told his human brain the meaning +of their odor. It appeared too that his ape's ears had tricked him. +For when morning came there were great apes everywhere.</p> + +<p>Bentley still held the wrist of Apeman, whose chest was rising and +falling naturally, though the body was limp and plainly exhausted, and +exuded perspiration that told of some jungle fever or other illness +perhaps, induced by hardship and over-exertion. The ape's brain of +Apeman had driven Bentley's body to the uttermost, and now that body +must pay.</p> + +<p>Bentley wondered how far he was now from the cabin of Caleb Barter.</p> + +<p>He doubted if Apeman could stand the return journey, though Bentley's +ape body could have carried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> Apeman's with ease. But would Apeman +stand the journey? Apeman, Bentley knew, was going into the Valley of +the Shadow, and something must be done to save him. But what?</p> + +<p>And the great apes constituted a new menace, though they were making +no effort to molest the three in the tree. Apeman must be placed in a +shady place and some attention paid to his needs. But the human body +with the ape's brain could not tell how it hurt or where.</p> + +<p>The first task was to get the two beings down from the tree, and much +depended upon chance. To the apes Bentley was another ape, one +moreover which had slain a number of them. But Apeman was a human +being, as was Ellen Estabrook. The whole thing constituted a fine +problem for the brain of Manape.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>f Manape were to attempt first aid for Apeman, how would such a sight +react upon Ellen Estabrook? If Manape were to attempt to take Apeman +back to Caleb Barter, leading the way for Ellen, would she follow, and +what would his action tell her? She would think herself demented, +imagining things, because a great ape did things which only human +beings were supposedly capable of doing.</p> + +<p>If she knew, of course, it would make a difference. But she did not, +and Bentley had no means by which to inform her. That was a problem +for the future. Ellen was sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion and +he felt that he could safely leave her for the moment while he swung +Apeman down from the tree. He must work fast, and return for Ellen +before the great apes discovered the helpless Apeman at the foot of +the tree. He hoped to get Ellen down while she slept, knowing that she +would be in mortal fear of him if she wakened and found herself in his +power.</p> + +<p>Bentley got Apeman down, and looked about him. No apes were close +enough, as far as he could tell, to molest Apeman before Bentley could +return with Ellen. He raced back into the tree, lifted Ellen so gently +that she scarcely altered the even motion of her breathing—and for a +moment he hesitated. So close to him were her tired lips. So +woe-begone and pathetic her appearance, a great well of pity for her +rose in the heart of Bentley—or what was the seat of this emotion +within him? Was the brain the seat of the emotions? Or the heart? But +Bentley's true heart was in Apeman's human body, so there must be some +other explanation for the feeling which grew and grew within Bentley +for Ellen.</p> + +<p>He leaned forward with the intention of touching his lips to the tired +thin lips of Ellen Estabrook, then drew back in horror.</p> + +<p>How could he kiss this woman whom he loved with the gross lips of +Manape, the great ape?</p> + +<p>He could, of course, but suppose she wakened at his caress and saw the +great figure of the jungle brute, with all man's emotions and desires, +yet with none of man's restraint—bending over her? Women had gone +insane over less.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e hurried down with Ellen, and placed her beside Apeman.</p> + +<p>By now the great apes had discovered the strange trio and were coming +close to investigate. There was a huge brute who came the fastest and +seemed to be the leader of the apes, if any they had. But even this +one did not offer a challenge, did not seem perturbed in the least. +But he did seem filled with childish curiosity. The apes themselves +were like children, children grown to monstrous proportions, advancing +and retreating, staring at this trio, darting away when Apeman or +Ellen made some sort of movement.</p> + +<p>Bentley could sense too their curiosity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> where he was concerned. Their +senses told them that Bentley was a great ape. Their instincts, +however, made them hesitate, uncertain as to his true "identity"—or +so Bentley imagined.</p> + +<p>Ellen still slept, but she must have sensed the near presence of +potential enemies, for she was stirring fitfully, preparing to waken.</p> + +<p>What would her reaction be when she opened her eyes to see Manape near +her, standing guard over Apeman, with the jungle on all sides filled +with the lurking nightmare figures of other great apes?</p> + +<p>A moan of anguish came from Apeman. He stirred, and groans which +seemed to rack his whole white bruised body came forth. The brain of +the ape was reacting to the suffering of Bentley's body—and a brute +was whimpering with its hurts. The advancing apes came to pause. They +seemed to stare at one another in amazement. They were suddenly +frightened, amazed, unable to understand the thing they saw and were +listening to. Bentley crouched there, watching the apes, and he +fancied he could understand their sudden new hesitancy.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e did not know, but he guessed that the moans and groans of Apeman +were comprehensible to the great apes. They knew that this strangely +white creature was an ape, though he looked like a man. Already they +had wondered as much as they were capable, about Manape. They had +sensed something not simian about him which puzzled them.</p> + +<p>But from the lips of Apeman, to add to their mystification, came the +groans and moans of an ape that was suffering. Bentley held his +position, wondering what they would do. That they meant no harm he was +sure, else they would long since have charged and overborne the +three—unless they remembered the super-simian might of Manape and +were afraid to attack again. Bentley hoped so, for that would make +things easier for them all.</p> + +<p>Now the nearest apes were almost beside the body of Apeman, which was +still covered with agony sweat. The lips emitted moans and faint blurs +of gibberish. Bentley noted that the leading ape was a great she. The +female came forward hesitantly, making strange sounds in her throat, +and it seemed to Bentley that Apeman answered them. For the she came +forward with the barest trace of hesitancy, stared for a moment at +Manape, with a sort of challenge in her savage little red eyes, then +dropped to all fours beside Apeman and began to lick his wounds!</p> + +<p>The she knew something of the injuries of Apeman and was doing what +instinct told her to do for him. Now the rest of the apes were all +about them—and Ellen wakened with a shrill cry of terror.</p> + +<p>Bentley remained as a man turned to stone. If he moved toward the +woman he loved she would flee from him in terror—out among the other +apes and into the jungle where she would have no slightest chance for +life. If he did nothing she might still run.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>ildly she looked about her. She screamed again when she saw the she +bending over the travesty she thought to be Bentley, and licking the +poor bruised body. Ellen cast a sidelong look at Manape, and there was +something distinctly placating in her eyes. She recognized Manape, and +wanted his friendship. What thoughts crowded her brain as she realized +that she was in the center of a group of anthropoids who could have +destroyed her with their fingers in a matter of seconds!</p> + +<p>She did the one thing which proved to Bentley that she was worthy of +any man's love. The great she who licked the wounds of Apeman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> was +thrice the size of Ellen. Yet Ellen crawled to Apeman, little sounds +of pity in her throat. Instantly the snarling of the she sent her +back. The she had, for the time being at least, assumed proprietorship +of Apeman, and was bidding Ellen keep her distance. And the she meant +it, too. For she bared her fighting fangs when Ellen again approached +close enough to have touched the body of Apeman.</p> + +<p>This time the she advanced a step toward the girl, and her snarl was a +terrible sound. Ellen retreated, but no further than was necessary to +still that snarl in the throat of the she. Manape moved in quite close +now, into position to interfere if the she tried to actually injure +Ellen Estabrook. If only, Bentley thought, there were some way of +making himself known to Ellen! But how could she believe, even if a +way were discovered?</p> + +<p>"What shall I do?" moaned Ellen aloud, wringing her hands. "Poor Lee! +I can't move him. That brute won't let me touch him. Oh, I'm afraid!"</p> + +<p>Bentley wanted to tell her not to be afraid, but had learned from +experience that when he tried to speak his voice was the bellowing one +of a great ape. And if he were to enunciate words that Ellen could +understand, what then? English from the lips of a giant anthropoid! +She would not believe, would think herself insane—and with excellent +reason. Slowly, as matters were transpiring, she had already been +given sufficient reason to believe that her mind was tottering.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="60" height="50" /></div><p>anape stood guard over her. A she had adopted the thing she thought +was Bentley. A score of great apes, which only three days ago had +tried to destroy both Bentley and herself, now surrounded Bentley and +Ellen with all the appearance of amity—crude, true, but +unmistakable. Certainly this was sufficiently beyond all human +experience to make Ellen believe she were in the throes of some awful +nightmare. What would she think if an ape began to address her in +English, and "Bentley" suddenly held speech with the great apes?</p> + +<p>Add to this possibility, suppose she were suddenly confronted with the +truth—that the essential entities of Bentley and Manape had been +exchanged, and the whole thing were explained to her from the gross +lips of Manape himself, while "Bentley" looked on and chattered a +challenge in ape language while Manape talked?</p> + +<p>No, at first she might have understood. Now it would have been even +more horrifying for her to hear the truth. She must think what she +would, and be allowed to adjust herself to the astounding state of +affairs. Apeman could not be moved for some time. Ellen would not +leave him, naturally. Nor would Manape. And the apes apparently +intended to remain with them. Which made the problem, after all, a +simple one. The trio must remain for the time being among the great +apes. They needed one another in a strange way, and they needed the +apes themselves, which were like a formidable army at their backs, as +protection against the other beasts of the wilds.</p> + +<p>Bentley watched the great she continue her rude first aid for Apeman. +Apeman was still moaning, though less fitfully, like a child that +nuzzles the milk bottle, but is drifting away into sleep. The she gave +the travesty her full attention. There was something horribly human +about her maternal care of this creature before her. Her great arms +held Apeman close while her tongue caressed his wounds. Bentley knew +that that tongue was an excellent antiseptic, too. All animals licked +their own wounds, and those wounds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> healed. Only human beings knew the +dangers of infection, because they had departed from Nature's +doctrines and had tried to cheat her with substitutes. Only the +animals, like that great she, still were Nature's children, healing +their own wounds in Nature's way.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="36" height="50" /></div><p>atisfied that the apes would not molest Ellen, so long as she kept +her distance from Apeman, Bentley decided to seek food, which Ellen +must sorely need. The need for water was urgent, too. Bentley knew the +danger of drinking water found in the jungle—but an ape could +scarcely be expected to build a fire with which to boil the water, nor +to produce a miracle in the shape of something to hold it in over the +fire.</p> + +<p>Here were many makeshifts indicated, then. Bentley smiled inwardly, +the only way he could smile. He must feed himself, too. He must go +wandering through the woods, feeding the body of Manape with grubs, +worms and such nauseous provender, because it was the food to which +Manape was accustomed. Apeman, when he was well enough to eat, would +sicken the body of Bentley with the same sort of food, because the +brain of Apeman would not know what was good or bad for the body of a +human being—nor even would understand that his body was human. What +<i>did</i> Apeman think of his condition, anyway?</p> + +<p>That question, of course, would never be answered—unless Barter could +really speak the language of the great apes and somehow managed to +secure from Apeman, if Apeman lived, a recital of these hours in the +jungle.</p> + +<p>What food should Manape secure for Ellen? What fruits were edible, +what poisonous? How could he tell? He watched the other apes, which +were scattering here and there now, tipping over rocks and sticks to +search for grubs and worms—to see what fruits they ate, if any. They +would know what fruits to avoid.</p> + +<p>An hour passed before Bentley saw one of the brutes feed upon anything +except insects. A cluster of a peculiar fruit which looked like wild +currants, but whose real name Bentley did not know. Now, feeling safe +in his choice, because the ape was eating the berries with relish, +Bentley searched until he found a quantity of the same berries, and +bore them back to Ellen Estabrook.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>eside Apeman, who now was awake and exchanging crazy gibberish with +the she who had licked his wounds, Ellen Estabrook, trying to be +brave, did not cry aloud. But her face was dirty, and her tears made +furrows through the grime.</p> + +<p>Manape dropped the berries beside her. The she snarled as Ellen +reached for the berries. Manape flung himself forward as the she +strove to take the berries before Ellen could grasp them—and cuffed +her over backward with a cumbersome but lightning-fast right swing.</p> + +<p>"Manape," said Ellen, "if only you could talk! I feel that you are my +friend, and my fears are less when you are with me. I'll pretend that +you can understand me. It helps a little to talk, for one scarcely +seems so much alone. How would you feel, I wonder, Manape, if you were +suddenly taken entirely out of the life you've always known, and +forced to live in another world entirely? It would not be easy to be +brave, would it? Suppose you were taken out of the wilds and dropped +into a ballroom?"</p> + +<p>Bentley could have laughed had the jest not been such a grim one. What +would Ellen think if he were to answer her:</p> + +<p>"I would be much more at home in that ballroom than that thing on the +ground that you love—as matters are at this moment!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p> + +<p>She would not understand that.</p> + +<p>Nor did she understand when the she went away for a time and came back +with a supply of worms and grubs—which nauseous supply vanished with +great speed under the wolfish appetite of Apeman. There was little +wonder that Ellen found it difficult to orient herself.</p> + +<p>"I must tell her somehow," thought Bentley, "and that soon. Surely +enough has been done to satisfy the devilish curiosity of Caleb +Barter."</p> + +<p>Toward evening the apes began to drift further into the jungle. The +she gathered Apeman in her arms and moved off with him. There was +nothing for Manape to do but follow, and nothing for Ellen to do but +follow, too—if she loved the thing she thought was Bentley. She did +not hesitate.</p> + +<p>With unfaltering courage she followed on, and the lumbering forms of +the great apes drifted further away from the sea, seemingly headed +toward some mutely agreed upon jungle rendezvous. Everything depended +for the time upon the return to health of Apeman. All other matters +depended upon that. Each in his own way, Manape and Ellen, realized +this. Caleb Barter had schemed better than he could possibly have +foreseen.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER X</h4> +<h4><i>Written in Dust</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p>s Apeman was borne deeper into the jungle in the great arms of the +she, what was more natural in the circumstances than that Ellen keep +close to her only remaining link with the world she had left—Manape, +the trained anthropoid of Caleb Barter? A natural thing, and one that +filled Manape with obvious pleasure.</p> + +<p>Once she touched his hand, rested her own small one in his mighty palm +for a moment—and Bentley was afraid to return the pressure of her +palm with the hand of Manape, lest he crush every bone in her fingers. +Thereafter at intervals, while the whole aggregation drifted deeper +into the jungle, Ellen clung to Manape; depended upon him. Was it her +woman's intuition which told her that Manape was a safe guardian?</p> + +<p>Bentley refused to dwell on that phase of this wild adventure however, +for there were other things to think about. It required many hours for +him to discover the truth, but he knew it at last. He, Manape-Bentley, +was the lord of the great apes! Before his capture, or before the +capture of Manape by Caleb Barter, Manape had been leader of these +apes. Now he had returned and was their ruler once more. Upstarts had +taken his place, and he had slain them—back there when Apeman had +tried to escape into the jungle with Ellen in his arms. To the apes +this must have seemed the way it was.</p> + +<p>Bentley was putting things together, hoping and believing that they +made four—yet not sure but that he was forcing them to equal four +when in actuality they were five or six. If Manape—the original ape +of Barter's capture, whose body now was Bentley's—had been the leader +of the great apes, that explained why the animals remained constantly +in the vicinity of Barter's dwelling. Barter had needed them in his +plans, and had made certain their remaining near by making their +leader captive. And of course only an ape sufficiently intelligent to +rule other apes would have suited the evil scheme which must have been +growing for years in the mind of Caleb Barter. Barter had merely +waited with philosophic calmness for human beings to drift into this +territory—and the <i>Bengal Queen</i> had obligingly gone down off the +coast, throwing Ellen Estabrook and Lee Bentley into Barter's power.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>hat was Barter doing now? Would he not be striving to watch the +course of his experiment? Would he not think of details hitherto +overlooked and plan further experiments, or an enlarging of this +experiment of which three creatures were the victims? Surely Barter +would not remain quietly at Barterville while the subjects of his +experiment went deeper into the jungle with the great apes. Barter was +too thorough a scientist for that. Somehow, Bentley was sure, Barter +would know what was happening, even at this very moment.</p> + +<p>He would wish to know how a modern woman would conduct herself if +suddenly forced to live among apes. Therefore he would try in some +manner to keep watch over the conduct of Ellen Estabrook. He would +wonder how a modern man would conduct himself if he suddenly found, +himself the leader of that same group of apes, and how an ape would +behave if he suddenly discovered himself a man. It was a neat +"experiment," and Bentley was beginning to believe that there was +probably far more to it than there first had seemed.</p> + +<p>Barter would wish to know how all three creatures would conduct +themselves in certain circumstances—Apeman, Ellen and Bentley. He +would not leave it to chance, for Bentley now realized that Barter +himself did not feel inimical to either Ellen, Apeman or Bentley. To +him they were merely an experiment. Barter would not wish for Apeman +to die, and thus deprive Barter of a certain knowledge relative to one +angle of his unholy experiment. He would not wish for Manape-Bentley +to remain forever as Manape-Bentley, lacking the power of speech, +either human speech or the gibberish of the apes.</p> + +<p>No, all this was not being left to chance. Bentley believed that +Barter was directing the destination of these three subjects of his, +as surely as though he were right with them at this moment, driving +them to his will with that awful lash which had made him feared by the +great apes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_y.jpg" alt="Y" width="50" height="55" /></div> +<p>es, Barter was still the master mind. It made Bentley feel awfully +helpless. Yet—he was the leader of the great apes. That, too, Barter +must have foreseen. Would Barter try in any way to discover how +Bentley would behave in an emergency as leader of the apes? Would he +wish to know sufficiently to create an emergency? From Bentley's +knowledge of the twisted genius of Caleb Barter, he fully believed +that Barter planned yet other angles to his experiment.</p> + +<p>If he did, then what would he do next?</p> + +<p>It was not until the storm broke over the strange aggregation of great +apes, who seemed to be holding two white people prisoners, that +Bentley understood that from the very beginning he should have been +able to see the obvious denouement—the mad climax which even then was +preparing in the jungle ahead, simply waiting for the great apes to +drift, feeding as they went without a thought of danger, into the trap +set for them.</p> + +<p>Ellen now kept her hand in the great palm of Manape. She wept on +occasions, when she thought of the apparent hopelessness of her +position, but for the most part she was brave, and Bentley grew to +love her more as the hours passed—even as he grew more impatient at +his inability to express his love. If he tried he could simply +frighten her—fill her with horror because, gentle though he was with +her and he was a great ape, a fact which nothing could change. Nor +could anybody change the fact, except Caleb Barter. Where was the +scientist? What would be his next move if he were not leaving the +working out of his experiment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> entirely to chance, which seemed not at +all in keeping with the thorough manner of his experiment thus far.</p> + +<p>The future was a dark, painful obscurity, in which all things were +hidden, in which anything might happen—because Caleb Barter would +wish for it to happen.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>ow long would Barter wait before making his next move? Long enough +for Ellen to accustom herself to life among the apes? Long enough to +discover whether her natural intelligence would guide her to eke out +existence among hardships such as human beings never thought of, +except perhaps in nightmares? Long enough to allow the brain of +Bentley to discover what miracles intellect might do with the body of +Manape? Long enough for Apeman to be well of his illness, so that he +might observe what havoc an ape's brain might work with a human body?</p> + +<p>Certainly when one gave the hideous experiment full thought, its +possible angles of development, its many potential ramifications, were +astounding in the extreme. Was it not up to Bentley then to do +something besides mope and pine for the impossible, and thus hasten +the hour when Barter should be wholly satisfied with his experiment?</p> + +<p>What would Apeman do, how would he behave, when the white body of +Bentley was well again? Would that body grow well faster when guided +by an ape's brain than when a human brain was in command? Certainly +Caleb Barter must have listed all these questions and hundreds of +others which had not as yet occurred to Bentley. If he had he would +not transfer the two intelligences back to their proper places until +all of his questions were answered to his satisfaction. Bentley +himself must somehow force an answer to some of them.</p> + +<p>To do this he must try to guess what sort of questions Barter would +have listed, and try to work out their answers—assuming all the time +that Barter, from some undiscovered coign of vantage would be watching +for the answers he hoped his experiment would provide.</p> + +<p>Bentley arrived at a decision. Ellen must long since have become +numbed to the horror which encompassed her. Bentley knew that a human +brain could stand only so much, beyond which it was no longer +surprised or horrified. He guessed, noting the pale face of his +beloved, that Ellen had well nigh reached that stage.</p> + +<p>He decided to take a tremendous risk with her sanity, hoping thereby +to do his part in working out the details of Barter's experiment.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he sun was creeping into the west when the roving apes came to pause +in a sort of clearing. Some of them curled up in sleep. The she who +carried Apeman squatted with Apeman in her arms, and licked his wounds +again.</p> + +<p>That Apeman was recovering was plainly evident, and when he saw it +filled Bentley with an odd mixture of thankfulness and revulsion. +Apeman was essentially an ape. With all his strength back he would +revert to type, and what if he forced the body of Bentley to do +horrible things that Ellen would never be able to forget or +condone—even when she at last knew the truth? What if Apeman +selected, for example, a mate—from among the hairy she's? For Apeman +that would be natural, for Bentley horrible.</p> + +<p>Yet it might easily transpire. Apeman might relinquish the white she +to a successful rival—which he would regard Manape as being—and +content himself with a choice from the ape she's. Somehow that unholy +thing must not happen. That was up to Manape-Bentley.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></p> + +<p>Or, with his strength fully returned, Apeman might again desire Ellen, +and force the issue with Manape for her possession—which seemed +equally horrible to the brain of Bentley.</p> + +<p>Ellen remained as close to Apeman as the she would permit her. +Manape-Bentley crouched close by. After a time Apeman slept, and +Bentley was pleased to notice that the agony sweat no longer beaded +Apeman's body, and that Apeman was recovering with superhuman +swiftness—thanks to the ministrations of the unnamed she who had +taken charge of him. Apeman now rarely groaned, sleeping or waking.</p> + +<p>Ellen watched the sleeping Apeman with her heart—and her fears—in +her eyes. Satisfied that he slept, and that his sleep was healthy, +Ellen again approached the creature she knew as Manape, Barter's +trained ape.</p> + +<p>"If only you could talk," she said to him. "If only you were able to +give some hope. If only there were some way I could cause you to +understand my wishes—understand and help me."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley did not answer. He knew that to be useless. But his brain +remembered something. His brain recalled that moment in the cage in +the dwelling of Barter, when his human brain had tried to force +obedience from the great clumsy hands of Manape, when he had tried to +force those mighty fingers to unfasten the knots which held the cage +door secure.</p> + +<p>Could he force those hands to something else?</p> + +<p>Did he dare try?</p> + +<p>It was a terrible risk to take with Ellen's sanity, but Bentley felt +it must be taken. She was watching him hopelessly, and her lips moved +as though she prayed for a miracle—as though by some weird necromancy +she might force Manape to understand her words, and to answer her, +allaying her fears, destroying her hopelessness.</p> + +<p>When Ellen watched him, Bentley searched about nearby until he found a +dried stick perhaps eight feet in length. He held it up, sniffed at +it, fumbled it with his heavy, grotesque fingers. He focussed the +attention of Ellen upon that stick, while his excitement mounted and +mounted, and his fear of possible consequences kept pace with his +excitement.</p> + +<p>Then, his decision reached, he began again that species of hypnosis +which seemed necessary to compel the hands and fingers of Manape to do +things no ape's hands had ever done before, no ape's brain had ever +thought of doing.</p> + +<p>He pressed one end of the stick against the ground at his sprawling +feet. With his left palm he smoothed out an area of dust several feet +in either direction—a rough dusty rectangle.</p> + +<p>Interested, her brows puckered in concentration. Ellen watched as +Manape went through these gestures which were so strangely, terribly +human.</p> + +<p>Her eyes were watching the end of that twig which the trained ape was +so clumsily clutching in both hands.</p> + +<p>She saw the marks the twig made in the dust as Manape caused it to +move—slowly, horribly, fearfully, from left to right across the area +of dust.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="43" height="50" /></div><p>ear began to grow in her face, but Bentley forced himself on. Again +the fetid odor of ape sweat covered him. This awful concentration, +this awful task of forcing Manape to write English words was in itself +a miracle, more miraculous even than Ellen would have thought of +praying for.</p> + +<p>Her eyes were glued to the sprawling, uneven, misshapen marks in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +dust with hypnotic fascination. Bentley dared not look at her, because +it required all his will to force the clumsy hands of Manape to his +bidding.</p> + +<p>He could only watch the marks in the dust, and will with all the power +of his human intelligence that the hands of Manape make their shape +sufficiently plain that Ellen might read them—and hope besides that +this terrible thing would not send the sorely harassed girl into the +jungle, madly shrieking for deliverance from a nightmare.</p> + +<p>There, the words were written—and Ellen was staring at them, her eyes +wide and unblinking, her body as rigid as stone, and her face as cold. +Only three words were possible without an interval of rest, but those +three words, among all Bentley might have selected, were the most to +the point, the most unbelievable, the most black-magical.</p> + +<p><i>"I am Lee!"</i></p> + +<p>Minutes went into eternity as Ellen stared at the words. Silence that +it seemed would never be broken hang over the clearing. The bickering +of the apes passed unnoticed as Ellen stared. Then, slowly, she tried +to raise her eyes to meet those of Manape.</p> + +<p>She failed. Her body went limp and she slid forward on her face in the +dust. Manape-Bentley gently turned her on her side and waited. What +would he see in her beloved eyes when she regained consciousness?</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XI</h4> +<h4><i>Barter Acts</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>entley remained motionless, awaiting Ellen's return to consciousness. +He waited in fear and trembling. How would she react to the horrible +thing he had told her?</p> + +<p>Now there was possibility of converse between them. If she knew and +realized the meaning of his revelation. But would her mind stand up +under the awfulness of it? He had thought so, else he would not have +taken the chance he had taken. Much now depended upon Ellen, and all +he could do was wait.</p> + +<p>Slowly she began to move. Moans escaped her lips, little pathetic +moans, and the name of Lee Bentley.</p> + +<p>At last her eyes opened, and widened with horror when they met those +of Manape. Bentley knew that there were tears on the face of +Bentley-Manape. Manape, it seemed, cried easily, like a child.</p> + +<p>Her eyes still wide with horror. Ellen Estabrook slowly turned them +until she gazed at the dust rectangle in which presumably a great ape +had written words in English. But Bentley-Manape had rubbed out the +words. She turned and looked at Manape again, and her lips writhed and +twisted. She was seeking for words, shaping words, to ask questions +such as none in all the world's history had ever asked of a giant +anthropoid, with any hope of receiving answers.</p> + +<p>"You tell me you are Lee," she began slowly, hesitantly, as though the +words were literally forced from her against her will. "I cannot grasp +the meaning of that. You say you are Lee, yet I recognize you as +Manape, Caleb Barter's great ape. Yet Manape could not have written +those words. Yet, if you are Lee Bentley, who or what is that?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="36" height="50" /></div><p>he turned and pointed a trembling finger at Apeman. Bentley of course +could not answer her in words, yet his mind was busy conceiving of +some way in which he might answer her. She turned back to him after a +long look at Apeman and studied him. His huge barrel chest, the mighty +arms, the receding forehead—the outward seeming of a giant ape.</p> + +<p>Again that hesitant, horribly difficult task, of forcing the arms of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +Manape to perform actions which were not natural to the arms of a +great ape. Bentley managed to raise the right arm in the gesture of +pointing.</p> + +<p>He pointed at the other apes, some of which slept, some of which ate +of grubs and worms, or bickered savagely among themselves over +whatever childish trifles seemed important to the ape mind.</p> + +<p>"You mean," said Ellen huskily, "that Lee Bentley there is really an +ape?"</p> + +<p>Manape nodded, ponderously.</p> + +<p>Ellen's face became animated. She was beginning to understand how to +hold speech with Manape.</p> + +<p>"You tell me he is a great ape, yet he has the body of Lee Bentley. +You tell me you are Bentley, yet I see you as Manape. Caleb Barter's +trained ape. How am I to understand? Are my eyes betraying me, or is +this a nightmare from which I shall waken presently? I see the shape +of Manape, who writes in the dust that he is Lee. How can I know? None +of you I can see is Lee Bentley. What part of you that I cannot see is +Lee?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>gain the effort of forcing the hands of Manape to obedience.</p> + +<p>Manape-Bentley tapped his receding forehead with his knuckles, and a +gasp burst from the lips of Ellen Estabrook.</p> + +<p>"You mean your brain is Bentley's brain, and that Bentley's body holds +the brain of a great ape?"</p> + +<p>Manape nodded clumsily.</p> + +<p>"But how? You mean—Caleb Barter? I remember about him now. A master +surgeon, an expert on anesthesia—a thousand years ahead of his time. +You mean then that we three are part of an experiment? You, Manape, +have the brain of Bentley, and Bentley has the brain of a great ape?"</p> + +<p>Bentley nodded.</p> + +<p>The face of Ellen Estabrook writhed and twisted. Her eyes studied the +person of Manape the great ape. She could not believe the thing she +had been told, yet she was thinking back and back—back to when Apeman +had carried her away, his subsequent behavior, his behavior in the +house of Barter, and his interest in the she ape who had licked his +wounds.</p> + +<p>She remembered how Manape in the beginning had looked at her with the +eyes of a lustful man—and how later all his attitude had been +protective. There seemed evidence in plenty to support the statement +Manape had mutely managed to give her. She was forced to believe.</p> + +<p>"But, Lee,"—she came closer to Manape as she spoke—"we must do +something for that creature there—that thing with the ape she which +looks like the man I love. You've heard me say that I love Lee +Bentley?"</p> + +<p>Manape nodded.</p> + +<p>"Does Lee Bentley love me?"</p> + +<p>Again Manape nodded, more vehemently this time. Ellen smiled. Then, +quickly, she came to Manape, thrust her fingers against his skull and +examined it closely. Her brows were furrowed in concentration. She +left Manape and strode to Apeman. The she growled at her but she +ignored the beast as much as possible, though plainly cognizant of the +fact that she dared not touch her hands to Apeman on pain of being +torn asunder by the fighting fangs of the ape she.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hen Ellen came back.</p> + +<p>"The evidence is there, Lee," she said. "There are the marks of a +surgeon's instruments. Marvelous. One is almost inclined to forget the +horror of it in the realization that a miracle has been performed. The +operation was perfect. But what did he use for anesthesia? How did +Barter manage to complete his operation and cause his two patients to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +feel no-ill effects, to be to all intents and purposes well in mind +and body—all within less than twelve hours? However, that does not +matter now. Something must be done. Since Caleb Barter was the only +man who could perform this unholy operation, he is the only one who +could repeat it restoring each of you to your proper earthly +casements. So we must play in with him. I suppose you've long since +decided that way, Lee?"</p> + +<p>How strange it seemed to Ellen to discuss such matters with Manape. +But behind his brutish exterior was the brain of the man whom she +loved.</p> + +<p>"And there is one other thing," Ellen almost whispered, and her face +flushed rosily. "No harm must come to the body of Lee, you understand? +He must never be permitted to do anything of which Lee Bentley of +after years may have cause to feel ashamed."</p> + +<p>Manape nodded. He understood her, and despite the grotesquerie of the +whole thing there was something intimate and sweet about this +interchange. A man and woman loved. Just now that love was mentioned +more or less in the abstract, discussed on purely a mental basis—but +both Bentley and Ellen Estabrook were thinking of the future, and were +as frank with each other as they perhaps ever would be again.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_n.jpg" alt="N" width="49" height="50" /></div><p>ow the apes were beginning to stir themselves. It was time to be on +the move again. Eyes were turned toward Manape, who was plainly +intended to lead them further into the jungle. Ellen and the white +body of Bentley were already being accepted as a matter of course.</p> + +<p>If the great apes wondered why their returned lord did not jabber with +them in the gibberish of the great apes, there was no way of telling, +for there was no way in which Manape could make himself understood, +nor any way the great apes could tell their thoughts to Manape.</p> + +<p>Then, without warning, the blow fell.</p> + +<p>The storm broke, and even as the uproar started Bentley was sure that +he could sense behind it the fine hand of Caleb Barter—still working +out his "experiment," with human beings and apes as the pawns.</p> + +<p>The apes were on the move, entering a series of aisles through the +gloomy woods when the blow fell—in the shape of scores of nets, in +whose folds within a matter of seconds the great apes were fighting +and snarling helplessly. They expended their mighty strength to no +avail. They fought at ropes and thongs which they did not +understand—and only Manape made no effort to fight, knowing it +useless.</p> + +<p>Scores of black folk armed with spears danced and yelled in the brush, +frankly delighted at the success of their grand coup. Barter was +nowhere to be seen, and there was a possibility that he knew nothing +about this. Yet Bentley knew better. Perhaps, in order to stimulate +the blacks, he had offered them money for great apes taken alive. +Anyhow, scores of the apes were taken, and now exhausted themselves in +savage bellowing and snarling, as they fought for freedom.</p> + +<p>A half dozen to each net, the blacks gathered in their captives. They +made much over Ellen Estabrook. They pawed over Apeman despite his +snarls and bellowings, and laughed when Apeman played the ape as +though to the manner born. They scented some mystery here, a white man +raised by the apes, perhaps. But that Ellen and Apeman were prisoners +of blacks, Bentley could plainly understand. He scarcely knew which +was the more horrible for her—to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> prisoner of the apes or the +blacks.</p> + +<p>But for the moment there was nothing he could do. And the blacks were +not torturing either Apeman or Ellen, though there was no mistaking +what he saw in the faces of the blacks when they looked at Ellen and +grinned at one another.</p> + +<p>Darkness had fallen over the world when the blacks went shouting into +a village of mud-wattled huts, bearing the trophies of their ape hunt. +Still in their nets for safety's sake, the great apes were thrown into +a sort of stockade which had plainly just been built for their +reception—proof to Bentley that this decision to make an attack +against the passing band of anthropoids had been a sudden one. What +did that indicate?</p> + +<p>Someone had caused the blacks to react in a way that never would have +occurred to them ordinarily.</p> + +<p>Caleb Barter?</p> + +<p>Bentley thought so. What now was Bentley supposed to do? What did +Barter expect him to do? What did Barter expect Ellen to do? What did +he expect Apeman to do?</p> + +<p>There was no question, as Bentley saw it, but that Caleb Barter still +pulled the strings, and that before morning this jungle village was to +witness a horror it should never forget.</p> + +<p>But at the moment Bentley had but one thought: to escape quietly with +Ellen and Apeman, and return to the dwelling of Caleb Barter.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XII</h4> +<h4><i>Jungle Justice</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p>gain that grim concentration on the part of Bentley, forcing the +unaccustomed great hands of Manape to perform things they had never +done before. He must release himself from the rope net which held him. +For the hands of a human being the task would have been easy. For the +hands of Manape, even though guided by the will of Bentley, the task +was far from easy.</p> + +<p>But he persevered.</p> + +<p>An hour after the apes had been dumped in the stockade, Bentley had +released himself from the rope net and was resting after the awful +ordeal of forcing the hands of Manape to do his bidding. He pressed +himself against the uprights of the stockade, and carefully tested +them with his strength. The strength of Bentley would never have +availed against the stout uprights of the stockade. Yet Manape-Bentley +knew that with the arms of Manape he could tear the uprights out of +the ground as easily as though they had been match-sticks. What should +he do now?</p> + +<p>His first impulse of course was to release the rest of the great apes. +The brutes still fought at their bindings and were utterly insane with +rage. What would they do when they were released? What was his duty +where they were concerned? If they went wild through the native +village, slaying and laying waste, would Bentley be responsible for +loss of life? If he left the apes in the hands of the natives, what +then? He would never afterward forgive himself. He knew them as +children of the wilds, carefree and happy brutes of the jungle. Now if +held captives indefinitely they would either die or spend the rest of +their lives in cages.</p> + +<p>No, he would release the animals, one by one. The natives would have +to take their chances.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p> white figure loomed out of the darkness, coming from the direction +of a great bonfire which showed all the jungle surrounding in weird, +crimson relief. The white figure, all but nude, was Apeman! Following +him were several natives, who laughed and prodded Apeman with the +butts of their spears.</p> + +<p>Bentley understood that. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> thought Apeman a demented white man, +and to these natives a demented one was a butt of jokes. They did not +even suspect the horror of the possible revenge that was growing in +the brain of the ape which controlled the body of Apeman.</p> + +<p>Twice or thrice Apeman tried to dart into the jungle, but always the +blacks prevented, heading him toward the cage where the apes were held +prisoners. Bentley wondered where Ellen was and what was happening to +her.</p> + +<p>A celebration of some sort seemed going forward in the village. Was +Caleb Barter somewhere near, perhaps on the edge of the jungle, +grinning gleefully at this thing he had brought about as part of his +unholy experiment? There was no way of knowing of course, yet.</p> + +<p>But....</p> + +<p>Apeman reached the side of the stockade and snarled back at his +annoyers, while his white hands grasped the uprights and tore at them +with futile savagery. A strange situation. Inside the stockade a score +of brutes who could rip the stockade to bits. Outside, one of them +free, but hampered by the puny strength of a human being.</p> + +<p>The blacks shouted to Apeman but of course Bentley could not +understand what they said. Apeman turned after snarling at them for a +few moments, and began to chatter in that gibberish which appeared to +be Apeman's only mode of speech—ape language on the lips of a man! +This was the only time it had ever happened.</p> + +<p>The apes stirred fitfully as Apeman chattered, and began to renew +their attacks on their bonds. The blacks, after watching Apeman for a +few moments turned back toward the bonfire, evidently satisfied that +this strange demented creature would not run away. Apeman chattered +and the apes made answer.</p> + +<p>The she who had nursed Apeman managed to reach the side of the +stockade, and for several moments Bentley listened to the horrible +grotesqueries—an ape she and a man talking together in brutish +gibberish, and with hellish intimacy.</p> + +<p>Now, wondering just how matters would work themselves out, Bentley set +himself the task of releasing the apes. They would at least create a +furor in the village, during which Bentley could escape into the +jungle with Apeman and Ellen Estabrook before the natives could +reorganise themselves and give chase.</p> + +<p>His plan was hazy, and he figured without the savagery of Apeman who +occupied that white body which had been Bentley's. His one thought was +to free the apes, set them upon the village, and escape with Apeman +and Ellen. Just that and no more; but he did not know the great apes, +nor how thoroughly they followed the lead of their lord whom they knew +as Manape, though how he was named in their brains he was never to +know.</p> + +<p>One by one he released the apes. They seemed to sense the necessity +for stealth, for they began to ape the cautious behavior of Manape. +Apeman, outside, seemed to be advising them, telling them what to do.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>ne by one as Manape released them, the apes squatted side by side, +their red angry little eyes watching his every move. Bentley knew of +course what a fearful racket his own appearance would cause when he +strode out of the gloom among the blacks, seeking Ellen. But he knew +that surprise for a few precious moments would render the blacks +incapable of stopping him until he got away. At least he hoped so.</p> + +<p>Beyond that he had no other plan. All depended upon the behavior of +the apes and the reaction of the blacks who were holding a devil's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +dance about the mighty fire in the center of their village. Bentley +did not even yet dare guess what the apes would do when they saw what +Manape-Bentley did. Would they follow him? Or would they race for the +jungle to escape?</p> + +<p>A few minutes now would tell the tale. He had released the last of the +great apes, who now lined the side of the stockade, apparently holding +angry converse with Apeman. Bentley was reminded of the old fashioned +mob of pioneer days—angrily muttering yet lacking a leader to direct +their efforts. Well, he had done his duty as he saw it. From now on +things must take their course.</p> + +<p>But Bentley waited, watching the dancing figures about the fire. As +far as he could tell the dance was approaching some sort of a climax. +The figures leaped higher as they danced, and the noise of their +shouting raced and rolled across the jungle. They appeared to be drunk +with some sort of excitement, perhaps helped by native liquor, perhaps +because of superstitious frenzy.</p> + +<p>If he waited for their excitement to die down a bit, for some of them +to go to sleep, his chances of releasing Ellen would be better. It +would not be hard for him to find her—not with Manape's sensitive +nose to lead him to her.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>ut time passed and the apes, though apparently being urged to +something by Apeman, watching Manape sullenly, apparently waiting for +him to make some move.</p> + +<p>Then, sharp as a knife, cutting through the other noises of the +village, came Ellen's voice.</p> + +<p>"Help, Lee! Help me!"</p> + +<p>The scream was broken short off as though a hand had clutched the +girl's throat, but Bentley waited for no more—and Manape-Bentley flew +into action. His great hands went to the uprights of the stockade. +His mighty shoulders heaved and twisted and the uprights were ripped +apart.</p> + +<p>The apes followed his lead, and the cracking of the stockade's +uprights was like a volley of pistol shots. The great brutes fairly +walked through the green saplings which formed the prison. Manape was +leading the charge, and the apes, once through, did not hesitate. If +their leader charged the blacks they would follow—and did, while +among them danced, cavorted and gibbered the travesty, Apeman.</p> + +<p>He was Bentley's lieutenant, and Bentley-Manape was the lord of the +apes. Just now he forgot that he was more ape than man. Just now he +was happy that his strength was the strength of many men. He was +hurrying to the assistance of the woman he loved.</p> + +<p>Behind him came the great apes, following like an army of poorly +trained recruits, yet armed as no army has ever been armed since the +days when men fought with fist and fang against their enemies. Bentley +lumbered swiftly toward the sound of Ellen's voice, aided in his +journey by the odor of her which came to his sensitive ape's nostrils.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he blacks never saw the approach of the apes, until, led by Manape +the Mighty, the great apes were right among them. Bentley did not +pause. A black man saw him and shrieked aloud in terror, a shriek +which seemed to freeze the other blacks in all sorts of postures. +Sitting men remained where they sat, and some of the motionless ones +saved their lives by their immobility. Dancers paused in midstride, +and those who did not, died.</p> + +<p>For the hands of the great apes clutched at everything that moved, and +the great shoulders bulged, and the mighty muscles cracked, and men +were torn asunder as though they had been flies in the hands of +vengeful boys.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span></p> + +<p>The black who had shrieked hurled a spear, purely a reflex, +perhaps—an action born of its habitual use. It missed Bentley by a +narrow margin, but passed through the stomach of the she who had +nursed Apeman. Snarling, snapping at the thing which hurt her, the she +tore the weapon free—then waddled forward swiftly, caught the man who +had hurled the spear, and tore his head off with a single twisting +movement of her great hands.</p> + +<p>Next moment her blood was mingling with that of her slayer as she fell +above him. But her hands, in the convulsions of death, still ripped +and tore, and the black whom she held was a ghastly thing when the she +was finally dead. Bentley did not see the ghastly end of the spearman, +for he was seeking Ellen, and at the some time keeping a close watch +on Apeman.</p> + +<p>Apeman seemed to be urging the apes to the attack, bidding them rip +and tear and gnash, and the apes were doing that, making of the +village a crimson shambles. But they did it in passing, for Manape was +their leader, and him they followed—and he was seeking Ellen +Estabrook.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he door of the hut in which his nostrils told him she would be found, +gave before his mighty chest as though it had been made of paper. +Inside, in the glow of the native lamp, a huge black man cowered +against the further wall of the hut, with spear poised.</p> + +<p>But the black man seemed frozen with terror.</p> + +<p>"Lee! Lee!"</p> + +<p>Bentley essayed one glance at her. In the other corner she was, with +the upper part of her clothing almost torn from her body.</p> + +<p>Then the spearman hurled his weapon. Bentley strove to force the huge +bulk of Manape's body to dodge the spear; but that body was slow in +doing so—and took a mortal wound!</p> + +<p>But it was a wound that would mean slow death. An aching, terrible +wound. Then Manape-Bentley had grasped the body of the black, lifted +it high above his head, and crashed it to the hard packed floor of the +hut. The hut fairly shook with the thud of that fall. At once Manape +stooped, caught the black by the ankles and pulled in opposite +direction with all his terrific might.</p> + +<p>Then he whirled, masking what he had done from Ellen's sight with his +huge, sorely wounded body.</p> + +<p>He tried to send her a message with his eyes, but it was not +necessary. She knew Manape, Barter's trained ape. She followed close +at his heels. Outside the hut's door Apeman still urged the apes to +destruction of men and property, of women and children. The village of +the blacks had become a place of horror.</p> + +<p>"Hurry, Lee!" gasped Ellen. "You've been grievously wounded, and if +Manape dies, nothing can save <i>you</i>—and I shall not care to live!"</p> + +<p>But Bentley knew. His brain could sense the approach of death, and +what he now must do was very plain.</p> + +<p>He charged at Apeman and caught the struggling, snarling travesty up +in his mighty arms. Then, with Ellen at his heels, he leaped into the +jungle and began the race for the house of Caleb Barter.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>ife was going from him, yet his brain forced onward the body of +Manape. Behind came the great apes, following their leader. Now and +again they screamed and snarled at him, but he paid them no heed. They +could follow or leave him, as they chose. They chose to follow.</p> + +<p>Apeman fought and bit at Bentley,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> but he paid him as little heed as +though he had been nothing at all. Now and again when Ellen faltered +Bentley caught her up, too, and carried her with Apeman until Ellen +was rested enough to go on.</p> + +<p>Some of the apes appeared to realize whither they were going, for they +took to the trees and vanished onward. With Apeman alone, Bentley +himself would have taken to the trees as the swiftest way back to +Barter's dwelling. But Ellen could not race along the upper terraces, +and Bentley could not carry both Apeman and Ellen and leave the +ground. But he could travel swiftly on his race with death, with Ellen +as the prize if he won.</p> + +<p>The hours passed, and the strength of Manape decreased; but fiercely +the brain of Bentley drove the mighty body on. Ellen sobbed with +weariness but continued on, and no words were spoken. There was no +time for words. Now and again Bentley forced Apeman to walk, and +dragged him forward with a hand clutching his wrist. At such times +Bentley carried Ellen, and scarcely slackened his stride under her +weight.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>nce he tried to force Apeman to carry her, but the arms of Apeman +were not equal to the task for more than fifty yards or so, and he +gave that up as being impracticable. His brain raced, thinking up ways +to travel faster, to reach Barter's quarters before the mighty body of +Manape should die, and with it the brain of Bentley.</p> + +<p>Surely no stranger cavalcade ever before traversed the jungles of the +Black Continent.</p> + +<p>So they came at last to the clearing. The apes protested and remained +in hiding, while Bentley, never pausing, raced across toward the house +he would never forget.</p> + +<p>The body of Manape was almost through, for it staggered like a +drunken man. Blood covered the mighty chest, and the brain of Bentley +felt hazy; nothing made sense; and the end was very near.</p> + +<p>But they reached the door of Barter's dwelling, and Barter himself met +them, bearing his cruel whip in his hand. Ellen roused herself from +her extreme exhaustion and clutched at the scientist's hand.</p> + +<p>"Professor Barter!" she begged. "Please, please! Manape is almost +dead! Hurry! Hurry, for the love of God!"</p> + +<p>"There, there, my dear young lady," said Barter soothingly. "Make +yourself easy. There's no cause for worry."</p> + +<p>Manape-Bentley toppled forward on the floor of the cabin. Ellen +screamed and Barter comforted her. Apeman tried to escape to the +jungle, but the lash of Barter drove him cowering and whimpering to a +corner.</p> + +<p>Then, oblivion—save that somewhere was the odor of violets. Or did +violets possess odor? Then, if not, the odor of flowers he thought +were violets.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XIII</h4> +<h4><i>The Horror Passes</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="36" height="50" /></div> +<p>lowly consciousness returned to Bentley, and his first thought was +one of horror. From somewhere distinct came a doleful wailing sound. +He thought he knew what it was—the mourning of great apes over a +member that had died.</p> + +<p>He had read somewhere that the great apes sorrowed when any of their +members died. Bentley opened his eyes. He could make out the ceiling +of a room that he recognized. It was the room that had been first +assigned him in the dwelling of Barter.</p> + +<p>Ellen Estabrook would be somewhere nearby. He opened his lips to call +to her. Then he remembered. He'd tried to call to her before—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> had +merely bellowed like an ape. No, there was something he must know +first.</p> + +<p>His arms and hands seemed as heavy as lead, but he lifted them and +looked at them—and a great feeling of peace descended upon him. +Manape-Bentley was gone, and he was plain Lee Bentley again. There was +his own ring, which Apeman had worn, and besides he had just spoken +aloud, softly, for no ears save his own, and the voice had been Lee +Bentley's voice.</p> + +<p>Yes, Barter had kept his promise, and Lee Bentley was Lee Bentley +again.</p> + +<p>But he was very weak, and his body was racked with pain. His hands and +arms were covered with bandages. His body seemed packed in concrete, +so moveless was it, and when he raised his voice it was terribly weak.</p> + +<p>"Ellen," he managed to call; and again, "Ellen, darling!"</p> + +<p>Instantly there came a swift patter of feet and Ellen was beside his +bed, on her knees, covering his face—what there was of it +unbandaged—with kisses. There was really no need for words between +these two.</p> + +<p>"Lee," she whispered, "I've been so afraid. You've been like this for +a week, despite the miraculous knowledge and skill of Professor +Barter. I've waited in fear and trembling, praying for you to live, +and now you are Lee again, and will live on. Professor Barter has +promised me. All you need now is food, and care, and I shall shower +you with both. Barter has instructed me so carefully that I could +manage even to care for you, sick as you are, without him here at +all."</p> + +<p>"And Manape?" Bentley's voice seemed to be stronger.</p> + +<p>"He is dead," whispered Ellen. "I shall never forget him. There was +something great, something even better than human about him, Lee! Oh, +I know that he was you—but where would all three of us have been had +it not been for the powerful body of Manape, the great ape? Manape is +dead, and in the jungle hereabouts the great apes mourn his passing. +They've been wailing almost like human beings for a week. +Manape—well, Professor Barter told me that you too would have died, +had Manape reached his door five minutes later. As it was, he, and +you, were just in time!"</p> + +<p>"It's amazing," whispered Bentley, "that the great apes stay around +here now that Manape is dead."</p> + +<p>"Yes. It's strange—and terrible I think. There have been times when I +felt they were waiting for something, for Professor Barter, perhaps. +I've had the feeling they believe he killed their leader."</p> + +<p>Now the two became silent, and Ellen held the bruised and broken hands +of Bentley in both her own, and their eyes said things, one to the +other, which eyes say so much better than lips do. They kissed each +other softly, and Ellen crooned with ecstasy, her cheek against +Bentley's.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hen Caleb Barter entered.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," he said, "when a man is in condition to make love to a +woman, he is well on the road to recovery. It won't hurt you to talk +now, Bentley, and before I begin asking questions, let me assure you +that you will suffer no ill effects from your experience."</p> + +<p>"What of my memories?" asked Bentley softly.</p> + +<p>"Forget them!" snapped Barter tartly. "That is, after you have told me +everything that has happened. Miss Estabrook has already told me her +angle of the experiment. Now, talk please—and then I shall make you +well, and you shall both go into the world with me, and tell people +that what I have to tell is true!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span></p> + +<p>So Bentley talked. Barter wrote like a man possessed. His fingers +raced over the paper, repeating the words which fell from the lips of +Lee Bentley, beside whom Ellen sat, holding his hands. Now and again +Barter uttered an ejaculation of fierce joy. He was like a child with +a toy that pleased him beyond words. He could scarcely wait for the +words to spill from the lips of Lee Bentley.</p> + +<p>When Bentley paused for breath, Barter exclaimed impatiently, and +urged him to greater speed. He thought of but one thing, his +experiment.</p> + +<p>And so at last Bentley had finished.</p> + +<p>"That's all, Professor Barter!" he said softly.</p> + +<p>"All!" cried Barter. "Everything! Fame! Wealth! Adulation! There is +nothing in the world Caleb Barter may not have when this story is +told! I can scarcely contain myself. You must hurry to be well in +order that the world may be told at once."</p> + +<p>Laughing immoderately, Barter piled the manuscript he had written, and +weighted it with a piece of rock. His face was a constant grin. His +fingers trembled with eagerness. He could not contain himself.</p> + +<p>Finally, as though from sheer joy of what he had accomplished, he +raced from the cabin, and out across the clearing. Ellen and Bentley +smiled at each other. Moments passed. Still came to their ears the +mourning wails of the great apes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hen suddenly there broke a sound so utterly appalling that the two +were frozen with terror for a moment. First it was the laughter of +Caleb Barter. Then, mingled with the laughter, the bellowing, +frightful and paralyzing, of man apes challenging a hated enemy. The +drumming of ape fists on huge barrel chests. Then the laughter of +Barter, dying away, ironic, terrible, into silence. Immediately +afterward, high-pitched, mighty as the jungle itself, the concerted +cries of half a dozen apes, as if bellowing their joy of the kill.</p> + +<p>"They—they—" began Ellen in a choked voice. "The apes must have got +Professor Barter!"</p> + +<p>Silently Bentley nodded, and pointed.</p> + +<p>Coiled on a nail near the door was Barter's whip. In his excitement he +had gone into the jungle without it for the first—and last—time.</p> + +<p>"There is one thing to do," whispered Ellen, "before we prepare to get +you fully well. I shall care for you, and we shall both try to forget. +And then we shall return to our own people."</p> + +<p>"And the one thing?" asked Bentley.</p> + +<p>The strained silence was suddenly broken by the bellowing of the great +apes, which now charged into the cabin. Bentley and Ellen cringed back +from the murderous brutes to no avail. There was no denying them. +Their slavering jaws, drooled below flaring nostrils, their eyes +emitted sparks of animal fury. Bentley leaped to the girl and +interposed his body between hers and the vanguard of the apes, who now +were surging into the room through the open door, and spreading apart +within like water released from a dam.</p> + +<p>The apes were bent on murder, there could be no doubt.</p> + +<p>A very monster towered over Bentley. His jaws were wide, his little +red eyes fixed on the white man's neck. His great arms were coming +forward to gather in both Ellen and Bentley—whom he could crush as +easily as he crushed the grubs which were his food.</p> + +<p>Bentley was helpless and knew it. This was the end for Ellen and +himself. He must meet it unafraid. He tensed, awaiting the descent of +bestial destruction. His eyes met<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> the murderous gleam in the eyes of +the ape leader unflinchingly. And then the miracle happened.</p> + +<p>The brute became suddenly and inexplicably hesitant. His bellow died +away to a gurgling murmur in which there seemed somehow a hint of +apology. The fire went out of his eyes. His jaws closed with a snap. +His great arms, already about Bentley, slid harmlessly over Bentley's +shoulders; dropped to his shaggy side.</p> + +<p>The brute's little eyes looked long and in puzzled fashion into the +eyes of Bentley. Then he began to chatter, and in a moment the other +apes ambled grotesquely toward the door and out. Ellen and Bentley +were alone together once more, unharmed—though numbed by realization +of the near passing of disaster.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand it," muttered Bentley, brushing the beads of +perspiration from his brow. "It was a miracle!"</p> + +<p>"Lee," Ellen answered, "I think I know, and it <i>is</i> a sort of miracle. +Somehow the apes felt that you were—whatever your guise—Manape. They +did not recognize you by any of their means of recognition; yet that +beast knew! How? Only God Himself might answer. But the beasts knew, +and did not slay us. The inner voice which whispers inside us in times +of crises, whispers also to the great apes! Barter, then must have +understood their somehow spiritual kinship with us. His experiments—"</p> + +<p>Her words reminded Bentley of what she had been saying when the great +apes had charged in upon them, murder bent. He interrupted her, +gently.</p> + +<p>"And the one thing we must do?" he rallied her.</p> + +<p>Ellen rose, and her face was white and strained as she gathered +together Barter's manuscript. This she carried to the fireplace. She +applied a match and returned to Bentley's bedside. Then, side by side, +the two who would never forget in any case watched the record of +Barter's unholy experiment burn slowly to ashes, while the screams of +the great apes died away second by second, proof that they were +leaving this section of the jungle—going deeper and deeper into the +forest gloom which was their rightful heritage, and from which no man +had a right to take them.</p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_005.jpg" width="600" height="345" alt="Advertisement" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Holocaust" id="Holocaust"></a>Holocaust</h2> + +<h3><i>By Charles Willard Diffin</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_006.jpg" width="600" height="658" alt="It passed beneath the planes, that were motionless by +contrast." title="" /> +<span class="caption">It passed beneath the planes, that were motionless by +contrast.</span> +</div> + + +<p> </p> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> am more accustomed to the handling of steel ingots and the +fabrication of ships than to building with words. But, if I cannot +write history as history is written, perhaps I can write it the way it +is lived, and that must suffice.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The extraordinary story of "Paul," who for thirty days was +Dictator of the World.</div> + +<p>This account of certain events must have a title, I am told. I have +used, as you see: "Holocaust." Inadequate!—but what word can tell +even faintly of that reign of terror that engulfed the world, of those +terrible thirty days in America when dread and horror<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> gripped the +nation and the red menace, like a wall of fire, swept downward from +the north? And, at last—the end!</p> + +<p>It was given to me to know something of that conflict and of its +ending and of the man who, in that last day, took command of Earth's +events and gave battle to Mars, the God of War himself. It was against +the background of war that he stood out; I must tell it in that way; +and perhaps my own experience will be of interest. Yet it is of the +man I would write more than the war—the most hated man in the whole +world—that strange character, Paul Stravoinski.</p> + +<p>You do not even recognize the name. But, if I were to say instead the +one word, "Paul"—ah, now I can see some of you start abruptly in +sudden, wide-eyed attention, while the breath catches in your throats +and the memory of a strange dread clutches your hearts.</p> + +<p>'Straki,' we called him at college. He was never "Paul," except to me +alone; there was never the easy familiarity between him and the crowd +at large, whose members were "Bill" and "Dick" and other nicknames +unprintable.</p> + +<p>But "Straki" he accepted. "<i>Bien, mon cher ami</i>," he told me—he was +as apt to drop into French as Russian or any of a dozen other +languages—"a name—what is it? A label by which we distinguish one +package of goods from a thousand others just like it! I am unlike: for +me one name is as good as another. It is what is here that +counts,"—he tapped his broad forehead that rose high to the tangle of +black hair—"and here,"—and this time he placed one hand above his +heart.</p> + +<p>"It is for what I give to the world of my head and my heart that I +must be remembered. And, if I give nothing—then the name, it is less +than nothing."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_d.jpg" alt="D" width="57" height="56" /></div><p>reamer—poet—scientist—there were many Paul Strakis in that one +man. Brilliant in his work—he was majoring in chemistry—he was a +mathematician who was never stopped. I've seen him pause, puzzled by +some phase of a problem that, to me, was a blank wall. Only a moment's +hesitation and he would go way down to the bed-rock of mathematics and +come up with a brand new formula of his own devising. Then—"<i>Voila! +C'est fini!</i> let us go for a walk, friend Bob; there is some poetry +that I have remembered—" And we would head out of town, while he +spouted poetry by the yard—and made me like it.</p> + +<p>I wish you could see the Paul Straki of those days. I wish I could +show him to you; you would understand so much better the "Paul" of +these later times.</p> + +<p>Tall, he seemed, though his eyes were only level with mine, for his +real height was hidden beneath an habitual stoop. It let him conceal, +to some extent, his lameness. He always walked with a noticeable limp, +and here was the cause of the only bitterness that, in those days, was +ever reflected in his face.</p> + +<p>"Cossacks!" he explained when he surprised a questioning look upon my +face. "They went through our village. I was two years old—and they +rode me down!"</p> + +<p>But the hard coldness went from his eyes, and again they crinkled +about with the kindly, wise lines that seemed so strange in his young +face. "It is only a reminder to me," he added, "that such things are +all in the past; that we are entering a new world where savage +brutality shall no longer rule, and the brotherhood of man will be the +basis upon which men shall build."</p> + +<p>And his face, so homely that it was distinctive, had a beauty all its +own when he dared to voice his dreams.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t was this that brought about his expulsion from college. That was in +1935 when the Vornikoff faction brought off their coup d'etat and +secured a strangle hold on Russia. We all remember the campaign of +propaganda that was forced into the very fibre of every country, to +weaken with its insidious dry-rot the safe foundations of our very +civilization. Paul was blinded by his idealism, and he dared to speak.</p> + +<p>He was conducting a brilliant research into the structure of the atom; +it ended abruptly with his dismissal. And the accepted theories of +science went unchallenged, while men worked along other lines than +Paul's to attempt the release of the tremendous energy that is latent +in all matter.</p> + +<p>I saw him perhaps three times in the four years that followed. He had +a laboratory out in a God-forsaken spot where he carried on his +research. He did enough analytical work to keep him from actual +starvation, though it seemed to me that he was uncomfortably close to +that point.</p> + +<p>"Come with me," I urged him; "I need you. You can have the run of our +laboratories—work out the new alloys that are so much needed. You +would be tremendously valuable."</p> + +<p>He had mentioned Maida to me, so I added: "And you and Maida can be +married, and can live like a king and queen on what my outfit can pay +you."</p> + +<p>He smiled at me as he might have done toward a child. "Like a king and +queen," he said. "But, friend Bob, Maida and I do not approve of kings +and queens, nor do we wish to follow them in their follies.</p> + +<p>"It is hard waiting,"—I saw his eyes cloud for a moment—"but Maida +is willing. She is working, too—she is up in Melford as you know—and +she has faith in my work. She sees with me that it will mean the +release of our fellow-men and women from the poverty that grinds out +their souls. I am near to success; and when I give to the world the +secret of power, then—" But I had to read in his far-seeing eyes the +visions he could not compass in words.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hat was the first time. I was flying a new ship when next I dropped +in on him. A sweet little job I thought it then, not like the old +busses that Paul and I had trained in at college, where the top speed +was a hundred and twenty. This was an A. B. Clinton cruiser, and the +"A.B.C.'s" in 1933 were good little wagons, the best there were.</p> + +<p>I asked Paul to take a hop with me and fly the ship. He could fly +beautifully; his lameness had been no hindrance to him. In his +slender, artist hands a ship became a live thing.</p> + +<p>"Are you doing any flying?" I asked, but the threadbare suit made his +answer unnecessary.</p> + +<p>"I'll do my flying later," he said, "and when I do,"—he waved +contemptuously toward my shining, new ship—"you'll scrap that piece +of junk."</p> + +<p>The tone matched the new lines in his face—deep lines and bitter. +This practical world has always been hard on the dreamers.</p> + +<p>Poverty; and the grinding struggle that Maida was having; the +expulsion from college when he was assured of a research scholarship +that would have meant independence and the finest of equipment to work +with—all this, I found, was having its effect. And he talked in a way +I didn't like of the new Russia and of the time that was near at hand +when her communistic government should sweep the world of its curse of +capitalistic control. Their propaganda campaign was still going on, +and I gathered that Paul had allied himself with them.</p> + +<p>I tried to tell him what we all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> knew; that the old Russia was gone, +that Vornikoff and his crowd were rapacious and bloodthirsty, that +their real motives were as far removed from his idealism as one pole +from the other. But it was no use. And I left when I saw the light in +his eyes. It seemed to me then that Paul Stravoinski had driven his +splendid brain a bit beyond its breaking point.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>nother year—and Paris, in 1939, with the dreaded First of May +drawing near. There had been rumors of demonstrations in every land, +but the French were prepared to cope with them—or so they +believed.... Who could have coped with the menace of the north that +was gathering itself for a spring?</p> + +<p>I saw Paul there. It lacked two days of the First of May, and he was +seated with a group of industrious talkers at a secluded table in a +cafe. He crossed over when he saw me, and drew me aside. And I noticed +that a quiet man at a table nearby never let us out of his sight. Paul +and his companions, I judged, were under observation.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing here <i>now</i>?" he asked. His manner was casual +enough to anyone watching, but the tense voice and the look in his +eyes that bored into me were anything but casual.</p> + +<p>My resentment was only natural. "And why shouldn't I be here attending +to my own affairs? Do you realize that you are being rather absurd?"</p> + +<p>He didn't bother to answer me directly. "I can't control them," he +said. "If they would only wait—a few weeks—another month! God, how I +prayed to them at—"</p> + +<p>He broke off short. His eyes never moved, yet I sensed a furtiveness +as marked as if he had peered suspiciously about.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he laughed aloud, as if at some joking remark of mine; I +knew it was for the benefit of those he had left and not for the quiet +man from the <i>Surete</i>. And now his tone was quietly conversational.</p> + +<p>"Smile!" he said. "Smile, Bob!—we're just having a friendly talk. I +won't live another two hours if they think anything else. But, Bob, my +friend—for God's sake, Bob, leave Paris to-night. I am taking the +midnight plane on the Transatlantic Line. Come with me—"</p> + +<p>One of the group at the table had risen; he was sauntering in our +direction. I played up to Paul's lead.</p> + +<p>"Glad I ran across you," I told him, and shook his extended hand that +gripped mine in an agony of pleading. "I'll be seeing you in New York +one of these days; I am going back soon."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>ut I didn't go soon enough. The unspoken pleading in Paul +Stravoinski's eyes lost its hold on me by another day. I had work to +do; why should I neglect it to go scuttling home because someone who +feared these swarming rats had begged me to run for cover? And the +French people were prepared. A little rioting, perhaps; a pistol shot +or two, and a machine-gun that would spring from nowhere and sweep the +street—!</p> + +<p>We know now of the document that the Russian Ambassador delivered to +the President of France, though no one knew of it then. He handed it +to the portly, bearded President at ten o'clock on the morning of +April thirtieth. And the building that had housed the Russian +representatives was empty ten minutes later. Their disguises must have +been ready, for if the sewers of Paris had swallowed them they could +have vanished no more suddenly.</p> + +<p>And the document? It was the same in substance as those delivered in +like manner in every capital of Europe: twenty-four hours were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> given +in which to assure the Central Council of Russia that the French +Government would be dissolved, that communism would be established, +and that its executive heads would be appointed by the Central +Council.</p> + +<p>And then the bulletins appeared, and the exodus began. Papers floated +in the air; they blew in hundreds of whirling eddies through the +streets. And they warned all true followers of the glorious Russian +faith to leave Paris that day, for to-morrow would herald the dawn of +a new heaven on earth—a Communistic heaven—and its birth would come +with the destruction of Paris....</p> + +<p>I give you the general meaning though not the exact words. And, like +the rest, I smiled tolerantly as I saw the stream of men and women and +frightened children that filtered from the city all that day and +night; but I must admit that our smiles were strained as morning came +on the First of May, and the hour of ten drew near.</p> + +<p>Paris, the beautiful—that lovely blossom, flowering on the sturdy +stalk that was <i>La Belle France</i>! Paris, laughing to cover its +unspoken fears that morning in May, while the streets thudded to the +feet of marching men in horizon blue, and the air above was vibrant +with the endless roar of planes.</p> + +<p>This meant war; and mobilization orders were out; yet still the deadly +menace was blurred by a feeling of unreality. A hoax!—a huge +joke!—it was absurd, the thought of a distant people imposing their +will upon France! And yet ... and yet....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here were countless eyes turned skyward as a thousand bells rang out +the hour of ten; and countless ears heard faintly the sound of gunfire +from the north.</p> + +<p>My work had brought me into contact with high officials of the French +Government; I was privileged to stand with a group of them where a +high-roofed building gave a vantage point for observation. With them I +saw the menacing specks on the horizon; I saw them come on with deadly +deliberation—come on and on in an ever-growing armada that filled the +sky.</p> + +<p>Wireless had brought the report of their flight high over Germany; it +was bringing now the story of disaster from the northern front. A +heavy air-force had been concentrated there; and now the steady stream +of radio messages came on flimsy sheets to the group about me, while +they clustered to read the incredible words. They cursed and glared at +one another, those French officials, as if daring their fellows to +believe the truth; then, silent and white of face, they reached numbly +for each following sheet that messengers brought—until they knew at +last that the air-force of France was no more....</p> + +<p>The roar of the approaching host was deafening in our ears. Red—red +as blood!—and each unit grew to enormous proportions. Armored +cruisers of the air—dreadnaughts!—they came as a complete surprise.</p> + +<p>"But the city is ringed with anti-aircraft batteries," a uniformed man +was whispering. "They will bring the brutes down."</p> + +<p>The northern edge of the city flamed to a roaring wall of fire; the +batteries went into action in a single, crashing harmony that sang +triumphantly in our ears. A few of the red shapes fell, but for each +of these a hundred others swept down in deadly, directed flight.</p> + +<p>A glass was in my hand; my eyes strained through it to see the silvery +cylinders that fell from the speeding ships. I saw the red cruisers +sweep upward before the inferno of exploding bombs raged toward them +from below. And where the roar of batteries had been was only +silence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he fleet was over the city. We waited for the rain of bombs that must +come; we saw the red cloud move swiftly to continue the annihilation +of batteries that still could fire; we saw the armada pass on and lose +itself among cloud-banks in the west.</p> + +<p>Only a dozen planes remained, high-hung in the upper air. We stared in +wonderment at one another. Was this mercy?—from such an enemy? It was +inconceivable!</p> + +<p>"Mercy!" I wonder that we dared to think the word. Only an instant +till a whistling shriek marked the coming of death. It was a single +plane—a giant shell—that rode on wings of steel. It came from the +north, and I saw it pass close overhead. Its propeller screamed an +insolent, inhuman challenge. Inhuman—for one glance told the story. +Here was no man-flown plane: no cockpit or cabin, no gunmounts. Only a +flying shell that swerved and swung as we watched. We knew that its +course was directed from above; it was swung with terrible certainty +by a wireless control that reached it from a ship overhead.</p> + +<p>Slowly it sought its target: deliberately it poised above it. An instant, +only, it hung, though the moment, it seemed, would never end—then +down!—and the blunt nose crashed into the Government buildings where at +that moment the Chamber of Deputies was in session ... and where those +buildings had been was spouting masonry and fire.</p> + +<p>A man had me by the arm; his fingers gripped into my flesh. With his +other hand he was pointing toward the north. "Torpedoes!" he was +saying. "Torpedoes of a size gigantic! <i>Ah, mon Dieu! mon Dieu!</i> Save +us for we are lost!"</p> + +<p>They came in an endless stream, those blood-red projectiles; they +announced their coming with shrill cries of varying pitch; and they +swung and swerved, as the ships above us picked them up, to rake the +city with mathematical precision.</p> + +<p>Incendiary, of course: flames followed every shattering burst. Between +us and the Seine was a hell of fire—a hell that contained unnumbered +thousands of what an instant before had been living folk—men and +women clinging in a last terrified embrace—children whose white faces +were hidden in their mothers' skirts or buried in bosoms no longer a +refuge for childish fears. I saw it as plainly as if I had been given +the far-reaching vision of a god ... and I turned and ran with +stumbling feet where a stairway awaited....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>f that flight, only a blurred recollection has stayed with me. I pray +God that I may never see it more clearly. There are sights that mortal +eyes cannot behold with understanding and leave mortal brain intact. +It is like an anaesthetic at such times, the numbness that blocks off +the horrors the eyes are recording—like the hurt of the surgeon's +scalpel that never reaches to the brain.</p> + +<p>Dimly I see the fragmentary scenes: the crashing fall of buildings +that come crumbling and thundering down, myself crawling like an +insect across the wreckage—it is slippery and wet where the stones +are red, and I stumble, then see the torn and mangled thing that has +caused me to fall.... A face regards me from another mound. I see the +dust of powdered masonry still settling upon it: the dark hair is +hardly disturbed about the face, so peaceful, so girlishly serene: I +am still wondering dully why there is only the head of that girl +resting on the shattered stone, as I lie there exhausted and watch the +next torpedo crash a block behind me.... The air is shrill with flying +fragments. I wonder why my hands are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> stained and sticky as I run and +crawl on my way. The red rocks are less slippery now, and the rats, +from the sewers of Paris!—they have come out to feed!</p> + +<p>Fragments of pictures—and the worst of them gone! I know that night +came—red night, under a cloud of smoke—and I found myself on the +following day descending from a fugitive peasant's cart and plodding +onward toward the markings of a commercial aerodrome.</p> + +<p>They could not be everywhere, those red vultures of the sky, and they +had other devils'-work to do. I had money, and I paid well for the +plane that carried me through that day and a night to the Municipal +Airport of New York.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he Red Army of occupation was halfway across communist Germany, +hailed as they went as the saviors of the world. London had gone the +way of Paris; Rome had followed; the countries of France and England +and Italy were beaten to their knees.</p> + +<p>"We who rule the air rule the world!" boasted General Vornikoff. The +Russian broadcasting station had the insolence to put on the air his +message to the people of America. I heard his voice as plainly as if +he stood in my office; and I was seeing again the coming of that +endless stream of aerial torpedoes, and the red cruisers hanging in +the heights to pick up control and dash the messengers of death upon a +helpless city. But I was visioning it in New York.</p> + +<p>"The masses of the American people are with us," said the complacently +arrogant voice. "For our fellow-workers we have only brotherly +affection; it is your capitalist-dominated Government that must +submit. And if it does not—!" I heard him laugh before he went on:</p> + +<p>"We are coming to the rescue of you, our brothers across the sea. Now +we have work to do in Europe; our gains must be consolidated and the +conquests of our glorious air-force made secure. And then—! We warn +you in advance, and we laugh at your efforts to prepare for our +coming. We even tell you the date: in thirty days the invasion begins. +It will end only at Washington when the great country of America, its +cruel shackles cast off from the laboring masses, joins the +Brotherhood—the Workers of the World!"</p> + +<p>There was a man from the War Department who sat across from me at my +desk; my factories were being taken over; my electric furnaces must +pour out molten metal for use in war. He cursed softly under his +breath as the voice ceased.</p> + +<p>"The dirty dog!" he exclaimed. "The lying hypocrite! He talks of +brotherhood to us who know the damnable inquisition and reign of +terror that he and his crowd have forced on Russia! Thirty days! Well, +we have three thousand planes ready for battle to-day; there'll be +more in thirty days! Now, about that vanadium steel—"</p> + +<p>But I'll confess I hardly heard him; I was hearing the roar of an +armada of red craft that ensanguined the sky, and I was seeing the +curving flight of torpedoes, each an airplane in itself....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hirty days!—and each minute of each hour must be used. In close +touch with the War Department, I knew much that was going on, and all +that I knew was the merest trifle in the vast preparations for +defense. My earlier apprehensions were dulled; the sight I had of the +whole force of a mighty nation welded into one driving power working +to one definite end was exhilarating.</p> + +<p>New York and Washington—these, it was felt, would be the points of +first attack; they must be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> protected. And I saw the flights of planes +that seemed endless as they converged at the concentration camps. +Fighters, at first—bombers and swift scouts—they came in from all +parts of the land. Then the passenger planes and the big mail-ships. +Transcontinental runs were abandoned or cut to a skeleton service of a +ship every hour for the transport of Government men. Even the slower +craft of the feeder lines were commandeered; anything that could fly +and could mount a gun.</p> + +<p>And the three thousand fighting ships, as the man from Washington had +said, grew to three times that number. Their roaring filled the skies +with thunder, and beneath them were other camps of infantry and +artillery.</p> + +<p>The Atlantic front was an armed camp, where highways no longer carried +thousands of cars on pleasure bent. By night and day I saw those +familiar roads from the air; they were solid with a never-ending line +of busses and vans and long processions of motorized artillery and +tanks, whose clattering bedlam came to me a thousand feet above.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was an inspiring sight, and I lost the deadly oppression and +the sense of impending doom—until our intelligence service told us of +the sailing of the enemy fleet.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey had seized every vessel in the waters of Europe. And—God pity +the poor, traitorous devils who manned them—there were plenty to +operate the ships. Two thousand vessels were in that convoy. Ringed in +as they were by a guard of destroyers and fighting craft of many +kinds, whose mast-heads carried the blood-red flag now instead of +their former emblems, our submarines couldn't reach them.</p> + +<p>But our own fleet went out to measure their strength, and a thousand +Navy planes took the air on the following day.</p> + +<p>Uppermost in my own mind, and in everyone's mind, I think, was the +question of air-force.</p> + +<p>Would they bring the red ships? What was their cruising range? Could +they cross the Atlantic with their enormous load of armored hull, or +must they be transported? Were the air-cruisers with the fleet, or +would they come later?</p> + +<p>How Vornikoff and his assassins must have laughed as they built the +monsters, armored them, and mounted the heavy guns so much greater +than anything they would meet! The rest of us—all the rest of the +world!—had been kept in ignorance.... And now our own fliers were +sweeping out over the gray waters to find the answer to our questions.</p> + +<p>I've tried to picture that battle; I've tried to imagine the feelings +of those men on the dreadnaughts and battle-cruisers and destroyers. +There was no attempt on the enemy's part to conceal his position; his +wireless was crackling through the air with messages that our +intelligence department easily decoded. Our Navy fliers roared out +over the sea, out and over the American fleet, whose every bow was a +line of white that told of their haste to meet the oncoming horde.</p> + +<p>The plane-carriers threw their fighters into the air to join the +cavalcade above—and a trace of smoke over the horizon told that the +giant fleet was coming into range.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>nd then, instead of positions and ranges flashed back from our own swift +scouts, came messages of the enemy's attack. Our men must have seen them +from the towers of our own fleet; they must have known what the red swarm +meant, as it came like rolling, fire-lit smoke far out in the sky—and +they must have read plainly their own helplessness as they saw our +thousand planes go down. They were overwhelmed—obliterated!—and the red<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +horde of air-cruisers was hardly checked in its sweep.</p> + +<p>Carnage and destruction, those blue seas of the north Atlantic have +seen; they could tell tales of brave men, bravely going to their death +in storm and calm but never have they seen another such slaughter as +that day's sun showed.</p> + +<p>The anti-aircraft guns roared vainly; some few of our own planes that +had escaped returned to add their futile, puny blows. The waters about +the ships were torn to foam, while the ships themselves were changed +to furnaces of bursting flame—until the seas in mercy closed above +them and took their torn steel, and the shattered bodies that they +held, to the silence of the deep....</p> + +<p>We got it all at Washington. I sat in a room with a group of +white-faced men who stared blindly at a radiocone where a quiet voice +was telling of disaster. It was Admiral Graymont speaking to us from +the bridge of the big dreadnaught, <i>Lincoln</i>, the flagship of the +combined fleet. Good old Graymont! His best friend, Bill Schuler, +Secretary of the Navy, was sitting wordless there beside me.</p> + +<p>"It is the end," the quiet voice was saying; "the cruiser squadrons +are gone.... Two more battleships have gone down: there are only five +of us left.... A squadron of enemy planes is coming in above. Our men +have fought bravely and with never a chance.... There!—they've got +us!—the bombs! Good-by, Bill, old fellow—"</p> + +<p>The radiocone was silent with a silence that roared deafeningly in our +ears. And, beside me, I saw the Secretary of the Navy, a Navy now +without ships or men, drop his tired, lined face into his hands, while +his broad shoulders shook convulsively. The rest of us remained in our +chairs, too stunned to do anything but look at one another in horror.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>e expected them to strike at New York. I was sent up there, and it +was there that I saw Paul again. I met him on lower Broadway, and I +went up to him with my hand reaching for his. I didn't admire Paul's +affiliations, but he had warned me—he had tried to save my life—and +I wanted to thank him.</p> + +<p>But his hand did not meet mine. There was a strange, wild look in his +eyes—I couldn't define it—and he brought his gaze back from far off +to stare at me as if I were a stranger.</p> + +<p>Then: "Still got that A.B.C. ship?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"Junk it!" he said. And his laugh was as wild and incomprehensible as +his look had been. I stared after him as he walked away. I was +puzzled, but there were other things to think of then.</p> + +<p>A frenzy of preparation—and all in vain. The enemy fooled us; the +radio brought the word from Quebec.</p> + +<p>"They have entered the St. Lawrence," was the message it flashed. +Then, later: "The Red fleet is passing toward Montreal. Enemy planes +have spotted all radio towers. There is one above us now—" And that +ended the message from Quebec.</p> + +<p>But we got more information later. They landed near Montreal; they +were preparing a great base for offensive operations; the country was +overrun with a million men; the sky was full of planes by night and +day; there was no artillery, no field guns of any sort, but there were +torpedo-planes by tens of thousands, which made red fields of waiting +death where trucks placed them as they took them from the ships.</p> + +<p>And there were some of us who smiled sardonically in recollection of +the mammoth plants the Vornikoff Reds had installed in Central Russia, +and the plaudits that had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> greeted their plans for nitrogen fixation. +They were to make fertilizers; the nitrates would be distributed +without cost to the farms—this had pacified the Agrarians—and here +were their "nitrates" that were to make fertile the fields of Russia: +countless thousands of tons of nitro-explosives in these flying +torpedoes!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>ut if we smiled mirthlessly at these recollections we worked while we +chewed on our cud of bitterness. There came an order: "Evacuate New +England," and the job was given to me.</p> + +<p>With planes—a thousand of them—trucks, vans, the railroads, we +gathered those terrified people into concentration camps, and took +them over the ground, under the ground, and through the air to the +distributing camp at Buffalo, where they were scattered to other +points.</p> + +<p>I saw the preparations for a battle-front below me as I skimmed over +Connecticut. Trenches made a thin line that went farther than I could +see! Here was the dam that was expected to stop the enemy columns from +the north. I think no one then believed that our air-force could check +the assault. The men of the fighting planes were marked for death; one +read it in their eyes; but who of us was not?</p> + +<p>How those giant cruisers would be downed no man could say, but we +worked on in a blind desperation; we would hold that invading army as +long as men could sight a gun; we would hold them back; and somehow, +someway, we must find the means to repel the invasion from the air!</p> + +<p>I saw the lines of track that made a network back to the trenches. +Like the suburban lines around New York, they would carry thousands of +single cars, each driven at terrific speed by the air plane propeller +at its bow. With these, the commanders could shift their forces to +whatever sector was hardest pressed. They would be bombed, of course, +but the hundreds of tracks would not all be destroyed—and the line +must be held!</p> + +<p>The line! it brought a strangling lump to my throat as I saw those +thin markings of trenches, the marching bodies of troops, the brave, +hopeless, determined men who went singing to their places in that +line. But my planes were winging past me; my job was ahead, where a +multitude still waited and prayed for deliverance.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>e never finished the job; in two days the red horde was upon us. +Their swarming troops were convoyed by planes, but no effort was made +to fly over our lines and launch an attack. Were they feeling their +way? Did they think now that they would find us passive and +unresisting? Did they want to take our cities undamaged? Oh, we asked +ourselves a thousand questions with no answer to any—except the +knowledge that a million men were marching from the north; that their +fleet of planes would attack as soon as the troops encountered +resistance; that our batteries of anti-aircraft guns would harry them +as they came, and our air-fleet, held back in reserve, would take what +the batteries left....</p> + +<p>My last planes with their fugitive loads passed close to the lines of +red troops. There were red planes overhead, but they let us pass +unhindered. Fleeing, driving wildly toward the south, we were +unworthy, it seemed, of even their contemptuous attention. But I was +sick to actual nausea at sight of the villages and cities where only a +part of the population had escaped. The roads, in front of the red +columns, were jammed with motors and with men and women and children +on foot: a hopeless tangle.</p> + +<p>I was watching the pitiful flight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> below me, cursing my own impotence +to be of help, when a shrill whistling froze me rigid to my controls. +I had heard it before—there could be no mistaking the cry of that +oncoming torpedo—and I saw the damnable thing pass close to my ship.</p> + +<p>I was doing two hundred—my motor was throttled down—but this inhuman +monster passed me as if my ship were frozen as unmoving as myself. It +tore on ahead. I saw an enemy plane above it some five thousand feet. +The torpedo was checked; I saw it poise; then it curved over and down. +And the screaming motor took up its cry that was like a thousand +devils until its sound was lost in the screams from below and the +infernal blast of its own explosion.</p> + +<p>Only a trial flight—an experiment to test their controls! No need for +me to try to tell you of the thoughts that tore me through and through +while I struggled to bring my ship to an even keel in the hurricane of +explosion that drove up at me from below. But I spat out the one word: +"Brotherhood!" and I prayed for a place in the front line where I +might send one shot at least against so beastly a foe.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hat was somewhere in Massachusetts. Their foremost columns were close +behind. They came to a stop some fifty miles from our waiting line of +battle: I learned this when I got to Washington. And the reason, too, +was known; it was published in all the papers. There had been messages +to the President, broadcast to the world from an unknown source:</p> + +<p>"To the President of the United States—warning! This war must end. +You, as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces can bring it to a +close. I have prevailed upon the Red Army of the Brotherhood to halt. +They have listened to me. You, also, must take heed.</p> + +<p>"You will issue orders at once to withdraw all resistance. You will +disband your army, ground all your planes; bring all your artillery +into one place and prepare to turn the government of this country over +to the representatives of the Central Council. You will act at once."</p> + +<p>"This war is ended. All wars are ended forevermore. I have spoken."</p> + +<p>And the strange message was signed "Paul."</p> + +<p>The wild words of a maniac, it was thought at first. Yet the fact +remained that the enemy's advance had ceased. Who was this "Paul" who +had "prevailed upon the Red Army" to halt?</p> + +<p>And then the obvious answer occurred; it was a ruse on the part of the +Reds. They feared to attack; their strength was not as great as we had +thought—officers and men of all branches of the service took new +heart and plunged more frenziedly still into the work of preparation.</p> + +<p>There were direction-finders that had taken the message from several +stations; their pointers converged upon one definite location in +southern Ohio. Over an area of twenty square miles, that place was +combed for a sending radio where the message could have +originated—combed in vain.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he next demand came at ten on the following morning.</p> + +<p>"To the President of the United States: You have disregarded my +warning. You will not do so again; I have power to enforce my demands. +I had hoped that bloodshed and destruction might cease, but it is +plain that only that will save you from your own headstrong folly. I +must strike. At noon to-day the Capitol in Washington will be +destroyed. See that it is emptied of human life. I have spoken. Paul."</p> + +<p>A maniac, surely; yet a maniac with strange powers. For the graphs of +the radio direction-finders showed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> a curve. And when they were +assembled the reading could only mean that the instrument that had +sent the threat had moved over fifty miles during the few minutes of +its sending. This, I think, was what brought the order to vacate the +big domed building in Washington.</p> + +<p>Of course the Capitol Building had been searched; there was not a nook +nor corner from roof to basement but had been gone over in search of +an explosive machine. And now it was empty, and a guard of soldiers +made a solid cordon surrounding it. No one could approach upon the +ground; and, above, a series of circling patrol-planes, one squadron +above another, guarded against approach by air. With such a defense +the Capitol and its grounds seemed impregnable.</p> + +<p>My watch said 11:59; I held it in my hand and watched the seconds tick +slowly by. The city was hushed; it seemed that no man was so much as +breathing ... 11:59 :60!—and an instant later I heard the shriek of +something that tore the air to screaming fragments. I saw it as it +came on a straight, level line from the east; a flash like a meteor of +glistening white. It passed beneath the planes, that were motionless +by contrast, drove straight for the gleaming Capitol dome, passed +above it, and swept on in a long flattened curve that bent outward and +up.</p> + +<p>It was gone from my sight, though the shrieking air was still tearing +at my ears, when I saw the great building unfold. Time meant nothing; +my racing mind made slow and deliberate the explosion that lifted the +roofs and threw the walls in dusty masses upon the ground. So slow it +seemed!—and I had not even seen the shell that the white meteor-ship +had fired. Yet there was the beautiful building, expanding, +disintegrating. It was a cloud of dust when the concussion reached me +to dash me breathless to the earth....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he white meteor was the vehicle of "Paul," the dictator. From it had +come the radio message whose source had moved so swiftly. I saw this +all plainly.</p> + +<p>There was a conference of high officials at the War Department +Building, and the Secretary summed up all that was said:</p> + +<p>"A new form of air-flight, and a new weapon more destructive than any +we have known! That charge of explosive that was fired at the Capitol +was so small as to be unseen. We can't meet it; we can only fight. +Fight on till the end."</p> + +<p>A message came in as we sat there, a message to the Commander-in-Chief +who had come over from the White House under military guard.</p> + +<p>"Surrender!" it demanded; "I have shown you my power; it is +inexhaustible, unconquerable. Surrender or be destroyed; it is the +dawn of a new day, the day of the Brotherhood of Man. Let bloodshed +cease. Surrender! I command it! Paul."</p> + +<p>The President of the United States held the flimsy paper in his hand. +He rose slowly to his feet, and he read it aloud to all of us +assembled there; read it to the last hateful word. Then:</p> + +<p>"Surrender?" he asked. He turned steady, quiet eyes upon the big flag +whose red and white and blue made splendid the wall behind him—and +I'll swear that I saw him smile.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>e have had many presidents since '76; big men, some of them; tall, +handsome men; men who looked as if nature had moulded them for a high +place. This man was small of stature; the shortest man in all that +room if he had stood, but he was big—big! Only one who is great can +look deep through the whirling turmoil of the moment to find the +eternal verities that are always underneath—and smile!</p> + +<p>"Men must die,"—he spoke meditatively; in seeming communing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> with +himself, as one who tries to face a problem squarely and +honestly—"and nations must pass; time overwhelms us all. Yet there is +that which never dies and never surrenders."</p> + +<p>He looked about the room now, as if he saw us for the first time.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," he said quietly, "we have here an ultimatum. It is backed +by power which our Secretary of War says is invincible. We are faced +by an enemy who would annihilate these United States, and this new +power fights on the side of the enemy.</p> + +<p>"Must we go the way of England, of France, of all Europe? It would +seem so. The United States of America is doomed. Yet each one of us +will meet what comes bravely, if, facing our own end, we know that the +principles upon which this nation is founded must go on; if only the +Stars and Stripes still floats before our closing eyes to assure us +that some future day will see the resurrection of truth and of honor +and kindness among men.</p> + +<p>"We will fight, as our Secretary of War has said—fight on to the end. +We will surrender—never! That is our answer to this one who calls +himself 'Paul.'"</p> + +<p>We could not speak; I do not know how long the silence lasted. But I +know that I left that room a silent man among many silent men, in +whose eyes I saw a reflection of the emotion that filled my own heart. +It was the end—the end of America, of millions of American homes—but +this was better than surrender to such a foe. Better death than +slavery to that race of bloodthirsty oppressors.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>ut who was "Paul?" This question kept coming repeatedly to my mind. +The press of the country echoed the President's words, then dipped +their pens in vitriol to heap scorching invective upon the head of +the tyrant. The power of the Reds we might have met—or so it was +felt—but this new menace gave the invaders a weapon we could not +combat. It was power!—a means of flight beyond anything known!—an +explosive beside which our nitro compounds were playthings for a +child.</p> + +<p>"Who is Paul?" It was not only myself who asked the question through +those next long hours, but perhaps I was the only one in whose mind +was a disturbing certainty that the answer was mine if I could but +grasp it.</p> + +<p>I was remembering Paris; I was thinking of that peaceful, happy city +before the First of May, before the world had gone mad and a raging, +red beast had laid it waste and overrun it. And of Paul +Stravoinski—my friend "Straki" of college days—who had warned me. He +had known what was coming. He himself had said that he had prayed to +"them" for delay; that in a few weeks he would do—what?... And +suddenly I knew.</p> + +<p>Paul had succeeded; his research had ended in the dissection of the +atom; he had unleashed the sub-atomic power of matter. Only this could +explain the wild flight through the sky, the terrific explosion at the +Capitol. It was Paul—my friend, Paul Stravoinski—who was imposing +his will upon the world.</p> + +<p>I said nothing as I took off; the swiftest plane was at my command. I +might be wrong; I must not arouse false hopes; but I must find Paul. +And the papers were black with scareheads of another threat as I left +Washington:</p> + +<p>"You have twenty-four hours to surrender. There shall be one last day +of grace." Signed: "Paul."</p> + +<p>There was more of the wild talk of the beauties of this new +dispensation—a mixture of idealistic folly and of threats of +destruction. I needed no more to prove the truth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> of my suspicions. No +one but the Paul I had known could cling so tenaciously to his dreams; +no one but he could be so blind to the actual horror of the new +oligarchy he would impose upon the world.</p> + +<p>I flew alone; no one but myself must try to hunt him out. I paid no +attention to the radio direction of the last message; he would fly far +afield to send it; distance meant nothing to one who held his power. I +must look for him at his laboratory, that cluster of deserted +buildings that stood all alone by a distant railway siding; it was +there he had worked.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e met me with a pistol in his hand—a tiny gun that fired only a .22 +calibre bullet.</p> + +<p>"Put down your pop-gun," I told him and brushed through the open door +into the room that had been his laboratory. "I am unarmed, and I'm +here to talk business.</p> + +<p>"You are 'Paul'!" I shot the sentence at him as if it were a bullet +that must strike him down.</p> + +<p>He did not answer directly; just nodded in confirmation of some +unspoken thought.</p> + +<p>"You have found me," he said slowly; "you were the only one I feared."</p> + +<p>Then he came out with it, and his eyes blazed with a maniacal light.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am Paul! and this 'pop-gun' in my hand is the weapon that +destroyed your Capitol at Washington. The bullet contained less than a +grain of tritonite; that is the name I have given my explosive."</p> + +<p>He aimed the little pistol toward me where I stood. "These bullets are +more lightly charged—they are to protect myself—and the one +ten-thousandth of a milligram in the end of each will blow you into +bits! Sit down. I will not be checked now. You will never leave this +place alive!"</p> + +<p>"Less than a grain of tritonite!"—and I had seen a great building go +down to dust at its touch! I sat down in the chair where he directed, +and I turned away from the fanatical glare of Paul's eyes to look +about me.</p> + +<p>There was poverty here no longer; no makeshift apparatus greeted my +eyes, but the finest of laboratory equipment. Paul read my thoughts.</p> + +<p>"They have been liberal," he told me; "the Central Council has +financed my work—though I have kept my whereabouts a secret even from +them. But they would not wait. I told you in Paris, and you did not +believe. And now—now I have succeeded! the research is done!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e half turned to pick up a flake of platinum no larger than one's +finger-nail; it was a weight that was used on a delicate balance.</p> + +<p>"Matter is matter no longer," he said; "I have resolved it into +energy. I hold here in my hand power to destroy an army, or to drive a +fleet of ships. I, Paul, will build a new world. I will give to man a +surcease from labor; I will give him rest; I will do the work of the +world. My tritonite that can destroy can also create; it shall be used +for that alone. This is the end of war. Here is wealth; here is power; +I shall give it to mankind, and, under the rule of the Brotherhood, a +united world will arise and go forward to new growth, to a greater +civilization, to a building of a new heaven on earth."</p> + +<p>He was pacing up and down the room. His hands were shaking; the +muscles of his face that twitched and trembled were moulded into deep +lines. I sat there and realized that within that room, directly before +my eyes, was the Dictator of the World. It was true—I could not doubt +it—Paul Straki of college days had made his dreams come true; his +research was ended. And this new "Paul" who held in those trembling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +hands the destinies of mankind, at whose word kings and presidents +trembled, was utterly mad!</p> + +<p>I tried to talk and tell him of the truth we knew was true. He would +have none of it; his dreams possessed him. In the bloody flag of this +new Russia he could see only the emblem of freedom; the men who +marched beneath that banner were his brothers, unwitting in the +destruction they wrought. It was all that they knew. But they fought +for the right. They would cease fighting now, and would join him in +the work of moulding a new race. And even their leaders, who had +sometimes opposed—were they not kind at heart? Had they not checked +the advance of an irresistible army to give him and his new weapon an +opportunity to open the eyes of the people? Theirs was no wish to +destroy; their hearts ached for their victims who refused to listen +and could be convinced only by force.</p> + +<p>And as he talked on there passed before my eyes the vision of an +aerial torpedo and a blood-red ship above, where these "kindly" men +who were Paul's allies turned the instrument of death upon huddled, +screaming folk—and laughed, no doubt, at such good sport.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> thought of many things. I was tensed one moment to throw myself upon +the man; and an instant later I was searching my mind for some +argument, some gleam of reason, with which I could tear aside the +illusions that held him. I saw him cross the room where a radio stood, +and he switched on the instrument for the news-broadcast service. The +shouting of an excited voice burst into the room.</p> + +<p>"The Reds have advanced," said the voice. "Their armies have crossed +the Connecticut line. They are within ten miles of the American +forces. The twenty-four hours of grace promised by the tyrant 'Paul' +was a lie. The battle is already on."</p> + +<p>I saw the tall figure of Paul sink to its former stoop; the lameness +that had vanished in the moment of his exaltation had returned. He +limped a pace or two toward me.</p> + +<p>"They said they would wait!" His voice was a hoarse whisper. "General +Vornikoff himself gave me his promise!"</p> + +<p>I was on my feet, then. "What matter?" I shouted. "What difference +does it make—a few hours or a day? Your damned patriots, your dear +brothers in arms—they are destroying us this instant! And not one of +our men but is worth more than the whole beastly mob!"</p> + +<p>I was wild with the picture that came so clear and plain before my +eyes. I had my pistol in my hand; I was tempted to fire. It was his +whisper that stopped me.</p> + +<p>"They have crossed Massachusetts! And Maida is there in Melford!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here was no resisting his strength that tore my weapon from me. His +tritonite pistol was pressed into my side, and his hand upon my collar +threw me ahead of him toward a rear room, then out into a huge shed. I +had only a quick glimpse of the airplane that was housed there. It was +a white cylinder, and the stern that was toward me showed a +funnel-shaped port.</p> + +<p>I was thrown by that same furious strength through a door of the ship; +I saw Paul Stravoinski seat himself before some curious controls. The +ship that held me rose; moved slowly through an opened door; and with +a screech from the stern it tore off and up into the air.</p> + +<p>I have said Paul could fly; but the terrific flight of the screaming +thing that held us seemed beyond the power of man to control. I was +stunned with the thundering roar and the speed that held me down and +back against a cabin wall.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span></p> + +<p>How he found Melford, I cannot know; but he found it as a homing +pigeon finds its loft. He checked our speed with a sickening swiftness +that made my brain reel. There were red ships above, but they let the +white ship pass unchallenged. There were no Red soldiers on the +ground—only the marks where they had passed.</p> + +<p>From the distance came a never-ceasing thunder of guns. The village +was quiet. It still burned, blazing brightly in places, again +smouldering sluggishly and sending into the still air smoke clouds +whose fumes were a choking horror of burned flesh. There were bodies +in grotesque scattering about the streets; some of them were black and +charred.</p> + +<p>Paul Stravoinski took me with him as he dashed for a house that the +flames had not touched. And I was with him as he smashed at the door +and broke into the room.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here was splintered furniture about. A cabinet, whose glass doors had +been wantonly smashed, leaned crazily above its fallen books, now +torn, scuffed and muddy upon the floor. Through a shattered window in +the bed-room beyond came a puff of the acrid smoke from outside to +strangle the breath in my throat. On the floor in a shadowed corner +lay the body of a woman—a young woman as her clotted tangle of golden +hair gave witness. She stirred and moaned half-consciously.... And the +lined face of Paul Stravoinski was a terrible thing to see as he went +stumblingly across the room to gather that body into his arms.</p> + +<p>I had known Maida; I had seen their love begin in college days. I had +known a laughing girl with sunshine in her hair, a girl whose soft +eyes had grown so tenderly deep when they rested upon Paul—but this +that he took in his arms, while a single dry sob tore harshly at his +throat, this was never Maida!</p> + +<p>There were red drops that struck upon his hands or fell sluggishly to +the floor; the head and face had taken the blow of a clubbed rifle or +a heavy boot. The eyes in that tortured face opened to rest upon +Paul's, the lips were moving.</p> + +<p>"I told them of you," I heard her whisper. "I told them that you would +come—and they laughed." Unconsciously she tried to draw her torn clothing +about her, an instinctive reaction to some dim realization of her +nakedness. She was breathing feebly. "And now—oh, Paul!—Paul!—you—have +come—too late!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> hardly think Paul knew I was there or sensed that I followed where +he carried in his arms the bruised body that had housed the spirit of +Maida. He flew homeward like a demon, but he moved as one in a dream.</p> + +<p>Only when I went with him into the room where he had worked, did he +turn on me in sudden fury.</p> + +<p>"Out!" he screamed. "Get out of my sight! It is you who have done +this—your damned armies who would not do as I ordered! If you had not +resisted, if you had—"</p> + +<p>I broke in there.</p> + +<p>"Did we do that?" I outshouted him, and I pointed to the torn body on +a cot. His eyes followed my shaking hand. "No, it was your +brothers—your dear comrades who are bringing the brotherhood of men +into the world! Well, are you proud? Are you happy and satisfied—with +what your brothers do with women?"</p> + +<p>It must be a fearful thing to have one's dreams turn bitter and +poisonous. Paul Stravoinski seemed about to spring upon me. He was +crouched, and the muscles of his thin neck were like wire; his face +was a ghastly thing, his eyes so staring bright, and the sensitive +mouth twisting horribly. But he sprang at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> last not at me but toward +the door, and without a word from his tortured lips he opened it and +motioned me out.</p> + +<p>Even there I heard echoes of distant guns and the heavier, thudding +sounds that must be their aerial torpedoes. My feet were leaden as I +strained every muscle to hurry toward my ship. Through my mind was +running the threat of the Russian, Vornikoff: "We even tell you the +date: in thirty days." And this was the thirtieth day—thirty days +that a state of war had existed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he battle was on; the radio had spoken truly. I saw its raging fires +as I came up from our rear where the gray-like smoke clouds shivered +in the unending blast. But I saw stabbing flames that struck upward +from the ground to make a wall of sharp, fiery spears, and I knew that +every darting flame was launching a projectile from our anti-aircraft +guns.</p> + +<p>The skies were filled with the red aircraft of the enemy, but their +way was an avenue of hell where thousands of shells filled the air +with their crashing explosions. There were torpedoes, the unmanned +airships whose cargo was death, and they were guided to their marks +despite the inferno that raged about the red ships above.</p> + +<p>I saw meteors that fell, the red flames that enveloped them no redder +than the bodies of the ships. And, as I leaped from my plane that I +had landed back of our lines, I sensed that the enemy was withdrawing.</p> + +<p>There was a colonel of artillery—I had known him in days of +peace—and he threw his arms around me and executed a crazy dance. +"We've beaten them back, Bob!" he shouted, and repeated it over and +over in a delirium of joy.</p> + +<p>I couldn't believe it; not those cruisers that I had seen over Paris. +Another brief moment showed my fears were all too rational.</p> + +<p>A shrieking hailstorm of torpedoes preceded them; the ships were +directing them from afar. And, while some of the big shells went wild +and overshot our lines, there were plenty that found their mark.</p> + +<p>I was smashed flat by a stunning concussion. Behind me the place where +Colonel Hartwell had stood was a smoking crater; his battery of guns +had been blasted from the earth. Up and down the whole line, far +beyond the range of my sight, the eruption continued. The ground was a +volcano of flame, as if the earth had opened to let through the +interior fires, and the air was filled with a litter of torn bodies +and sections of shattered guns.</p> + +<p>No human force could stand up under such a bombardment. Like others +about me, I gripped tight upon something within me that was my +self-control, and I marveled that I yet lived while I waited for the +end.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>eyond the smoke clouds was a hillside, swarming with figures in red; +solid masses of troops that came toward us. Above was the red fleet, +passing safely above our flame-blasted lines; there were bombs falling +upon those batteries here and there whose fire was unsilenced. And +then, from the south, came a roar that pierced even the bedlam about +me. The sun shone brightly there where the smoke-clouds had not +reached, and it glinted and sparkled from the wings of a myriad of our +planes.</p> + +<p>There was something that pulled tight at my throat; I know I tore at +it with fumbling hands, as if that something were an actual band that +had clamped down and choked me, while I stared at that true line of +sharp-pointed V's. The air-force of the United States had been ordered +in; and they were coming,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> coming—to an inevitable death!</p> + +<p>I tried to tear my eyes away from that oncoming fleet, but I could not +move. I saw their first contact with the enemy; so small, they were, +in contrast with the big red cruisers. They attacked in formations; +they drove down and in; and they circled and whirled before they +fluttered to earth....</p> + +<p>Dimly, through the stupor that numbed my brain, I heard men about me +shouting with joy. I felt more than saw the fall of a monster red +craft; it struck not far away. The voices were thanking God—for what? +Another red ship fell—and another; and through all the roaring +inferno a sound was tearing—a ripping, terrible scream that went on +and on. And above me, when I forced my eyes upward, was a flash of +white.</p> + +<p>It darted like a live thing among the red ones whose guns blazed +madly—and the red ships in clotted groups fell away and over and down +as the white one passed. They had been burst open where some power had +blasted them, and their torn hulls showed gaping as they fell.</p> + +<p>For a time the air was silent and empty above; the white, flashing +thing had passed from sight, for the line of red ships was long. Then +again it returned, and it threw itself into the mad whirl in the south +where the air-force of the American people was fighting its last +fight.</p> + +<p>I was screaming insanely as I saw it come back. The white ship!—the +blast of vapor from its funneled stern—It was Paul!—Paul +Stravoinski!—Paul the Dictator!—and he was fighting on our side!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>is ship had been prepared; I had seen the machine-guns on her bow. +Paul was working them from within, and every bullet was tipped with +the product of his brain—the deadly tritonite!</p> + +<p>The white flash swung wide in a circle that took it far away. It came +back above the advancing army of the Reds. It swerved once wildly, +then settled again upon its course, and the raging hell that the Reds +had turned loose upon our lines was as nothing to the destruction that +poured upon the Red troops from above.</p> + +<p>A messenger of peace, that ship; I knew well why Paul had painted it +white. And, instead of peace—!</p> + +<p>He was flying a full mile from our lines, yet the torn earth and great +boulders crashed among us even then. There were machine-guns firing +ceaselessly from the under side of the ship. What charges of tritonite +had the demented man placed in those shells?</p> + +<p>Below and behind it, as it flashed across our view, was a fearful, +writhing mass where the earth itself rose up in unending, convulsive +agony. A volcano of fire followed him, a fountain of earth that ripped +and tore and stretched itself in a writhing, tortured line across the +land as the white ship passed.</p> + +<p>No man who saw that and lived has found words to describe the progress +of that monstrous serpent; the valley itself is there for men to see. +The roar was beyond the limit of men's strained nerves. I found myself +cowering upon the ground when the white ship came back; I followed it +fearfully with my eyes until I saw it swoop falteringly down. Such +power seemed not for men but for gods; I could not have met Paul +Stravoinski then but in a posture of supplication. But I leaped to my +feet and raced madly across the torn earth as I saw the white ship +touch the ground—rise—fall again—and end its flight where it +ploughed a furrow across a brown field....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> raised Paul Stravoinski's head in my arms where I found him in the +ship. An enemy shell had entered that cabin; it must have come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> early +in the fight, but he had fought gamely on. And the eyes that looked up +into mine had none of the wild light I had seen. They were the eyes of +Paul Straki, the comrade of those few long years before, and he smiled +as he said: "<i>Voila</i>, friend Bob: <i>c'est fini!</i> And now I go for a +long, long walk. We will talk of poetry, Maida and I...."</p> + +<p>But his dreams were still with him. He opened his eyes to stare +intently at me. "You will see that it is not in vain?" he questioned; +then smiled as one who is at peace, as he whispered: "Yes, I know you +will—my friend, Bob—"</p> + +<p>And his fixed gaze went through and beyond me, while he tried, in +broken sentences, to give the vision that had been his. So plain it +was to him now.</p> + +<p>"The wild work—of a mistaken people. America will undo it.... A world +at peace.... The vast commerce—of the skies—I see it—so clearly.... +It will break down—all barriers.... A beautiful, happy world...."</p> + +<p>His lips moved feebly at the last. I could not speak; could not even +call him by name; I could only lean my head closer to hear.</p> + +<p>One whispered word; then another: a fragment of poetry! I had heard +him quote it often. But the whispered words were not for me. Paul was +speaking to someone beside him—someone my blind, human eyes could not +see....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p> am writing these words at my desk in the great Transportation +Building in New York. It stands upon the site of the Chrysler Building +that towered here—until one of the flying torpedoes came over to hunt +it out. They landed several in New York; how long ago it all seems +that the threat of utter destruction hung over the whole nation—the +whole world.</p> + +<p>And now from my window I see the sparkling flash of ships. The air is +filled with them; I am still unaccustomed to their speed. But a wisp +of vapor from each bell-shaped stern throws them swiftly on their way; +it marks the continuous explosion of that marvel of a new +age—tritonite! There are tremendous terminals being built; the +air-transport lines are being welded into efficient units that circle +the world; and the world is becoming so small!</p> + +<p>The barriers are gone; all nations are working as one to use wisely +this strange new power for the work of this new world. No more +poverty; no more of the want and desperate struggle that leads a whole +people into the insane horrors of war; it is a glorious world of which +we dream and which is coming slowly to be....</p> + +<p>But I think we must dream well and work well to bring to actuality the +beautiful visions in those far-seeing eyes of the man called +Paul—Dictator, one time, of the whole world.</p> + + +<h3>LISTENING TO ANTS</h3> +<p>Two scientists of the University of Pittsburgh recently perfected an +apparatus for detecting the sounds of underground communications among +ants. A block of wood was placed upon the diaphragm of an ordinary +telephone transmitter, which in turn was connected through batteries +and amplifiers to a pair of earphones. When the termites crawled over +the block of wood the transmitter was agitated, resulting in sound +vibrations which were clearly heard by the listener at the headset.</p> + +<p>When the ants became excited over something or other their soldiers +were found to hammer their heads vigorously on the wood. This action +could be clearly seen and heard at the same time. The investigators +found that the ants could hear sound vibrations in the air very poorly +or not at all, but were extremely sensitive to vibrations underground. +For this reason it was thought that the head hammering was a method of +communication.</p> + +<p>Because of this sensitivity to substratum vibrations, ants are seldom +found to infest the ties of railroads carrying heavy traffic, or +buildings containing machinery.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="The_Earthmans_Burden" id="The_Earthmans_Burden"></a>The Earthman's Burden</h2> + +<h3><i>By R. F. Starzl</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_007.jpg" width="600" height="589" alt="And then he jumped." title="" /> +<span class="caption">And then he jumped.</span> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_d.jpg" alt="D" width="57" height="56" /></div> +<p>enny Olear was playing blackjack when the colonel's orderly found +him. He hastily buttoned his tunic and in a few minutes, alert and +very military, was standing at attention in the little office on the +ground floor of the Denver I. F. P. barracks. His swanky blue uniform +fitted without a wrinkle. His little round skullcap was perched at the +regulation angle.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">There is foul play on Mercury—until Denny Olear of the +Interplanetary Flying Police gets after his man.</div> + +<p>"Olear," said the colonel, "they're having a little trouble at the +Blue River Station, Mercury."</p> + +<p>"Trouble? Uh-huh," Olear said placidly.</p> + +<p>The colonel looked him over. He saw a man past his first youth. +Thirty-five, possibly forty. Olear was well-knit, sandy-haired, not +over five feet six inches in height. His hair was close-cropped, his +features phlegmatic, his eyes a light blue with thick, short, +light-colored lashes, his teeth excellent. A scar, dead white<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> on a +brown cheekbone, was a reminder of an "encounter" with one of the +numerous sauriens of Venus.</p> + +<p>"I'm sending you," explained the colonel, "because you're more +experienced, and not like some of these kids, always spoiling for a +fight. There's something queer about this affair. Morones, factor of +the Blue River post, reports that his assistant has disappeared. +Vanished. Simply gone. But only three months ago the former +factor—Morones was his assistant—disappeared. No hide nor hair of +him. Morones reported to the company, the Mercurian Trading +Concession, and they called me. Something, they think, is rotten."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"I guess I needn't tell you," the colonel went on, "that you have to +use tact. People don't seem to appreciate the Force. What with the +lousy politicians begrudging every cent we get, and a bunch of +suspicious foreign powers afraid we'll get too good—"</p> + +<p>"Yeah, I know. Tact, that's my motto. No rough stuff." He saluted, +turned on his heel.</p> + +<p>"Just a minute!" The colonel had arisen. He was a fine, ascetic type +of man. He held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Olear. Watch yourself!"</p> + +<p>When Olear had taken his matter-of-fact departure the colonel ran his +fingers through his whitening hair. In the past several months he had +sent five of his best men on dangerous missions—missions requiring +tact, courage, and, so it seemed, very much luck. And only two of the +five had come back. In those days the Interplanetary Flying Police did +not enjoy the tremendous prestige it does now. The mere presence of a +member of the Force is enough, in these humdrum days of interplanetary +law and order, to quell the most serious disturbance anywhere in the +solar system. But it was not always thus. This astounding prestige +had to be earned with blood and courage, in many a desperate and +lonely battle; had to be snatched from the dripping jaws of death.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>lear checked over his flying ovoid, got his bearings from the port +astronomer, set his coordinate navigator and shoved off. Two weeks +later he plunged into the thick, misty atmosphere on the dark side of +Mercury.</p> + +<p>Ancient astronomers had long suspected that Mercury always presented +the same side to the sun, though they were ignorant that the little +planet had water and air. Its sunward side is a dreary, sterile, hot +and hostile desert. Its dark side is warm and humid, and resembles to +some extent the better known jungles and swamps of Venus. But it has a +favored belt, some hundreds of miles wide, around its equator, where +the enormous sun stays perpetually in one spot on the horizon. Sunward +is the blinding glare of the desert; on the dark side, enormous banks +of lowering clouds. On the dark margin of this belt are the +"ringstorms," violent thunderstorms that never cease. They are the +source of the mighty rivers which irrigate the tropical habitable belt +and plunge out, boiling, far into the desert.</p> + +<p>Olear's little ship passed through the ringstorms, and he did not take +over the controls until he recognized the familiar mark of the trading +company, a blue comet on the aluminum roof of one of the larger +buildings. Visibility was good that day, but despite the unusual +clarity of the atmosphere there was a suggestion of the sinister about +the lifeless scene—the vast, irresistible river, the riotously +colored jungle roof. The vastness of nature dwarfed man's puny work. +One horizon flashed incessantly with livid lightning, the other was +one blinding blaze of the nearby sun. And almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> lost below in the +savage landscape was man's symbol of possession, a few metal sheds in +a clear, fenced space of a few acres.</p> + +<p>Olear cautiously checked speed, skimmed over the turbid surface of the +great river, and set her down on the ground within the compound. With +his pencil-like ray-tube in his hand he stepped out of the hatchway.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p> Mercurian native came out of the residence, presently, his hands +together in the peace sign. For the benefit of Earthlubbers whose only +knowledge of Mercury is derived from the teleview screen, it should be +explained that Mercurians are <i>not</i> human, even if they do slightly +resemble us. They hatch from eggs, pass one life-phase as frog-like +creatures in their rivers, and in the adult stage turn more human in +appearance. But their skin remains green and fish-belly white. There +is no hair on their warty heads. Their eyes have no lids, and have a +peculiar dead, staring look when they sleep. And they carry a +peculiar, fishy odor with them at all times.</p> + +<p>This Mercurian looked at Olear seemingly without interest.</p> + +<p>"Where is Morones?" the officer inquired.</p> + +<p>"Morones?" the native piped, in English. "Inside. He busy."</p> + +<p>"All right. I'm coming in."</p> + +<p>"He busy."</p> + +<p>"Yeah, move over."</p> + +<p>Though the native was a good six inches taller than Olear he stepped +aside when the officer pushed him. Men—and Mercurians—had a way of +doing that when they looked into those colorless eyes. They were not +as phlegmatic as the face. Morones was sitting in his office.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm here," Olear announced, helping himself to a chair.</p> + +<p>"Yes"—sourly. "Who invited you?"</p> + +<p>Olear looked at the factor levelly, appraising him. A big man, fat, +but the fat well distributed. Saturnine face, dark hair, dark and +bristly beard. The kind that thrived where other men became weak and +fever-ridden. Also, to judge by his present appearance, an unpleasant +companion and a nasty enemy.</p> + +<p>"Don't see what difference it makes to you," Olear answered in his own +good time; "but the company invited me."</p> + +<p>"They would!" Morones growled. His eyes flickered to the door, and +quick as a cat, Olear leaped to one side, his ray-pencil in his hand.</p> + +<p>Morones had not moved, and in the door stood the native, motionless +and without expression. Morones laughed nastily.</p> + +<p>"Kind of jumpy, eh? What is it, Nargyll?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_n.jpg" alt="N" width="49" height="50" /></div><p>argyll burst into a burbling succession of native phrases, which +Olear had some difficulty following.</p> + +<p>"Nargyll wants to move your ship into one of the sheds, but the +activator key's gone."</p> + +<p>"Yeah, I know," Olear assented casually. "I got it. Leave the ship +till I get ready. Then I'll put it away. Get out, Nargyll."</p> + +<p>The native, hesitated, then on the lift of Morones' eyebrows departed. +Olear shifted a chair so that he could watch both Morones and the +door. He reopened the conversation easily:</p> + +<p>"Well, we understand each other. You don't want me here and I'm here. +So what are you going to do about it?"</p> + +<p>Morones flushed. He struggled to keep his temper down.</p> + +<p>"What do you want to know?"</p> + +<p>"What happened to the factor who was here before you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. The translucene wasn't coming in like it should. Sammis +went out into the jungle for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> a palaver with the chiefs to find out +why. And he didn't come back."</p> + +<p>"You didn't find out where he went?"</p> + +<p>"I just told you," Morones said impatiently, "he went out to see the +native chiefs."</p> + +<p>"Alone?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, alone. There were only two of us Earthmen here. Couldn't +abandon this post to the wogglies, could we? Not that it'd make much +difference. Except for Nargyll, none'll come near."</p> + +<p>"You never heard of him again?"</p> + +<p>"No! Dammit, no! Say, didn't they have any dumber strappers around +than you? I told you once—I tell you again—I never saw hide nor hair +of him after that."</p> + +<p>"Aw-right, aw-right!" Olear regarded Morones placidly. "And so you +took the job of factor and radioed for an assistant, and when the +assistant came he disappeared."</p> + +<p>Morones grunted, "He went out to get acquainted with the country and +didn't come back."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>lear masked his close scrutiny of the factor under his idle and +expressionless gaze. He was not ready to jump to the conclusion that +Morones' uneasiness sprang from a sense of guilt. Guilty or not, he +had a right to feel uneasy. The man would be dense indeed if he did +not realize he was in line for suspicion, and he did not look dense. +Indeed, he was obviously a shrewd character.</p> + +<p>"Let me see your 'lucene."</p> + +<p>Morones rose. Despite his bulk he stepped nimbly. He had the +nimbleness of a Saturnian bear, which is great, as some of the earlier +explorers learned to their dismay.</p> + +<p>"That's the first sensible question you've asked," Morones snorted. +"Take a look at our 'lucene. Ha! Have a good look!"</p> + +<p>He led the way across the compound, waved his hand before the door of +a strongly built shed in a swift, definite combination, and the door +opened, revealing the interior. He waved invitingly.</p> + +<p>"You go first," Olear said.</p> + +<p>With a sneer Morones stepped in. "You're safe, boy, you're safe."</p> + +<p>Olear looked at the small pile on the floor in astonishment. Instead +of the beautiful, semi-transparent chips of translucene, the dried sap +of a Mercurian tree which is invaluable to the world as the source of +an unfailing cancer cure, there were only a few dirty, dried up +shavings, hardly worth shipping back to Earth for refining. The full +significance of the affair began to dawn on the officer. The +translucene trees grew only in this favored section of Mercury, and +the Earth company had a monopoly of the entire supply. Justly, for +only on Earth was cancer known, and it was on the increase. That +small, almost useless pile on the floor connoted a terrible drug +famine for the human race.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="60" height="50" /></div><p>orones' smile might have been a grin of satisfaction, at Olear's +question:</p> + +<p>"Is that all you've bought since the last freighter was here?"'</p> + +<p>"It is," he replied. "The last load went off six months ago, and this +here shed should be full to the eaves. There'll be hell to pay."</p> + +<p>"It may not be tactful," Olear remarked, "but if you've got your +takings cached away somewhere to hold up the Earth for a big ransom, +you'd better come across right now. You can't get by with it, fellow. +You should have close to six million dollars' worth of it, and you +can't get away. You just can't."</p> + +<p>Morones controlled his anger with an effort.</p> + +<p>"Like any dumb strapper, you've got your mind made up, ain't you? +Well, go ahead. Get something on me. Here I was almost set to give you +a lead that might get you somewhere. And you come shooting +off—trying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> to make out I stole the 'lucene and killed those two +fellows, eh? Go ahead! Get something on me! But not on Company +grounds. You're leaving now!"</p> + +<p>With that he made a lunge at the officer, quite beside himself with +rage. Olear could have burnt him down, but he was far too experienced +for such an amateurish trick. Instead he ducked to evade Morones' +blow. But the big man was as agile as a panther. In mid-air, so it +seemed, he changed his direction of attack. The big fist swept +downward, striking Olear's head a glancing blow.</p> + +<p>But the men of the Force have always been fighters, whatever their +shortcomings as diplomats. Olear countered with a strong right to the +body, thudding solidly, for Morones' softness did not go far below the +surface. The factor whirled instantly, but not quite fast enough to +bar the door. Olear was out and inside his ship in a few seconds, +slamming the hatch.</p> + +<p>"Tact!" he grinned to himself, inserting the activator key. "Tact is +what a fella needs." The little space flier shot aloft, until the tiny +figure of the factor stopped shaking its fist and entered the +residence. The post had a flier of its own, of course, but Morones was +too wise to use it in pursuit.</p> + +<p>Olear considered what was best to do. Of course he could have placed +Morones under arrest; could still do it; but that would not solve the +mystery of the two deaths and the missing 'lucene. If the choleric +factor was really guilty of the crimes, it would be better to let him +go his way in the hope that he would betray himself. Olear regretted +that he had not kept his tongue under closer curb. But there was no +use regretting. Perhaps, after all, he ought to turn back to pump +Morones for some helpful information.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>is mind made up, he descended again until he was hovering a few feet +from the ground.</p> + +<p>"Morones!" he called. "Morones!" He held the hatch open.</p> + +<p>Morones came to the door of the residence. He had a tube in his hand, +a long-range weapon.</p> + +<p>"Morones," Olear declared pompously. "I place you under arrest!"</p> + +<p>The effect was instantaneous. Morones lifted the tube, and a +glimmering, iridescent beam sprang out. The ship was up and away in a +second, lurching and shivering uncomfortably every time the beam +struck it in its upward flight. A good few seconds continued +impingement....</p> + +<p>But a miss is as good as a light-year. Miles high, Olear looked into +his telens. Morones had laid aside his tube and was working with an +instrument like a twin transit. Plotting the ship's course, naturally. +Olear set his course for the Earth, and kept on it for a good +twenty-four hours. Morones, if he was still watching him, would think +he'd gone back for reinforcements. Such an assumption would be +incredible now, but that was before the I. F. P. had achieved its +present tremendous reputation.</p> + +<p>Beyond observation range, Olear curved back toward Mercury again, and +was almost inside its atmosphere when he made a discovery that caused +him to lose for a moment his natural indifference, and to clamp his +jaws in anger. The current oxygen tank became empty, and when he +removed it from the rack and put in a new one he found someone had let +out all of this essential gas. The valve of every one of the spare +tanks had been opened. Had Olear actually continued on his way to +Earth he would have perished miserably of suffocation long before he +could have returned to the Mercurian atmosphere. The officer whistled +tunelessly through his teeth as he considered this fact.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p> + +<p>The visibility was by this time normal; that is, so poor it would have +been possible to land very close to the trading station. Olear was +taking no chances, however, and came down a good three Earth miles +away. The egg-shaped hull sank through the glossy, brilliant treetops, +through twisted vines, and was buried in the dank gloom of the jungle. +Here it might remain hidden for a hundred years.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he twilight of the jungle was almost darkness. Landmarks were not. +But Olear made a few small, inconspicuous marks on trees with his +knife until he came to an outcropping rock. He had noticed the +scarlike white of it slashing through the jungle from the air, and +used it as a guide to direct his stealthy return to the trading post. +His belt chronometer told him it would be about time for Morones to +get up from his "night's" sleep. A little discreet observation might +tell much.</p> + +<p>Long before he reached the compound, Olear heard the rushing of the +great Blue River in its headlong plunge to the corrosive heat of the +desert. And then, through the mists, he glimpsed the white metal walls +of the Company sheds.</p> + +<p>He climbed a tree and for a long time watched patiently, lying prone on +a limb. Blood-sucking insects tortured him, and flat tree-lice, +resembling discs with legs, crawled over him inquisitively. Olear +tolerated them with stoic indifference until at last his patience was +rewarded. Morones was coming out of the compound. He was alone and +obviously did not suspect that he was being watched, for he stepped +out briskly. Once in the jungle he walked even faster, watching out +warily for the panther-like carnivora that were the most dangerous to +man on Mercury.</p> + +<p>Olear shinned to the ground and followed cautiously. Morones had his +ray-tube with him, as any traveler in these jungles did. Olear could +and did draw fast, but a dead trader would be valueless to him in his +investigation, so he stalked him with every faculty strained to +maintain complete silence. Often, in occasional clearings where the +brown darkness grew less, he had to grovel on the slimy ground, +picking up large bacteria that could be seen with the naked eye, and +which left tiny, festering red marks on the skin. Mercury has no +snakes.</p> + +<p>The trader seemed to be heading for higher ground, for the path led +ever upward, though not far from the tossing waters of the river. And +then, suddenly, he disappeared.</p> + +<p>Olear did not immediately hurry after him. A canny fugitive, catching +sight of his pursuer, might suddenly drop to the ground and squirm to +the side of the trail, there to wait and catch his pursuer as he +passed. So Olear sidled into the all but impenetrable underbrush and +slowly, with infinite caution, wormed his way along.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_p.jpg" alt="P" width="46" height="50" /></div><p>resently he came to the little rise of ground where Morones had +disappeared, but a painstaking search did not reveal the factor. There +were, however, a number of other trails that joined the very faint +trail he had been following, and now there was a well-defined track +which continued to lead upward. With a grimace of disgust Olear again +plunged into the odorous underbrush and traveled parallel to the +trail. It was well he did so, for several Mercurians passed swiftly, +intent, so it seemed, in answering a shrill call that at times came +faintly to the ear. They carried slender spears.</p> + +<p>Several more Mercurians passed. The growth was thinning out, and Olear +did not dare to proceed further. However, from his hiding place he +could discern a number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> irregular cave openings, apparently leading +downward. They were apparently the entrances to one of the native +cavern colonies, or possibly of a meeting place. No Earthman had ever +entered one, but it was thought they had underground openings into the +river.</p> + +<p>As the cave openings were obviously natural, Olear conjectured that +there might be others that were not used. After an anxious search he +found one, narrow and irregular, well hidden under the broad, glossy +leaves of some uncatalogued vegetation. As it showed no evidence of +use, Olear unhesitatingly slid down into it. It was very narrow and +irregular, so that often he was barely able to squeeze through. The +roots of trees choked the passage for a dozen feet or so, requiring +the vigorous use of a knife. Bathed in sweat, his uniform a filthy +mass of rags, Olear at last saw light.</p> + +<p>The passage ended abruptly near the roof of a large natural cavern. +Lights glistened on stalactites which cut off Olear's larger view, and +voices came from below. By craning his neck the officer could look +between the pendent icicles of rock and see a fire burning on a huge +oblong block of stone. Figures were sitting on the floor around this +block—hundreds of Mercurians. The leaping flames made their white and +green faces and bodies look frog-like and less human than usual.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>ut the figure that dominated the whole assemblage, both by its own +hugeness and the magnetic power that flowed from it, was not of +Mercury but of Pluto. For the benefit of those who have never seen a +stuffed Plutonian in our museums—and they are very rare—let me refer +you to the pious books still to be found in ancient library +collections. The ancients personified their fears and hates in a being +they called the Devil. The resemblance between the Devil of their +imagination and a Plutonian is really astounding. Horns, hoofs, +tail—almost to the smallest detail, the resemblance is there.</p> + +<p>Philosophers have written books on the "coincidence" in appearance of +the ancient Devil and the modern decadent Plutonians. The Plutonians +were once numerous and far advanced in science, and no doubt they +called on the Earth many times, in prehistoric days, and the so-called +Devil was a true picture of those vicious invaders, who are somewhat +less human than usually portrayed. What was once classed as +superstition was therefore a true racial memory. Long before our +ancestors came out of their caves to build houses, the Plutonians had +mastered interplanetary travel—only to forget the secret until human +ingenuity should reveal it once more.</p> + +<p>The modern Plutonian in that dank cave was over ten feet tall, and it +is easy to see why he dominated the assemblage. His black visage was +set in an evil smile; his ebony body glistened in the firelight. He +held a three-pronged spear in one hand, and sat on a pile of rocks, a +sort of rough throne, so that he towered magnificently above all +others.</p> + +<p>He spoke the Mercurian language, although the liquid intonations came +harshly from his sneering lips.</p> + +<p>"Are ye assembled, frogfolk, that ye may hear the decision of your +Thinking Ones?" he asked.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p> respectful peeping chorus signified assent. But in that there was a +hint of unrest; even of fear.</p> + +<p>"Speak, ye Thinking One, your commands!"</p> + +<p>"Hear me first!" An old Mercurian, unusually tall, faded and dry +looking, his thick hide wrinkled like crushed leather, rose slowly to +his feet and stepped before the oblong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> stone. His back was to the +Plutonian, his face to the crescent of chiefs.</p> + +<p>"The Old Wise One!" A twittering murmur went around the assemblage. +"Hear the Old Wise One!"</p> + +<p>"My people, I like this not!" began the ancient. "The Lords of the +Green Star<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> have dealt with us fairly. Each phase<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> they have +brought us the things we wanted"—he touched his spear and a few gaudy +ornaments on his otherwise naked body—"in exchange for the worthless +white sap of our trees. If we longer offend the Lords of the Green +Star—"</p> + +<p>A raucous laugh interrupted the Mercurian's feeble voice, and it +echoed eerily from the walls of the chamber.</p> + +<p>"Valueless ye call the white sap?" sneered the Plutonian. "Hear me. +That sap you call valueless is dearer than life itself to the Lords of +the Green Star. For they are afflicted in great numbers with a +stinking death they call cancer. It destroys their vitals, and +nothing—nothing in this broad universe can help them save this white +sap ye give them. In your hands ye have the power to bring the proud +Lords of the Green Star to their knees. They would fill this chamber +many times with their most priceless treasures for the sap ye give +them so freely. Withhold the sap, and your Thinking Ones may go to the +Green Star itself to rule over its Lords. They are desperate. Their +emissaries may even now be on the way to beg your pleasure. Speak, +Thinking Ones! Would ye not rule the Green Star?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>ut the chiefs failed to become enthused. One of them rose and +addressed the Plutonian:</p> + +<p>"O Lord of the Outer Orbit! For near one full phase have ye dwelt +among us. And well should ye know we have no desire for conquest. We +fear to go to the Green Star to rule."</p> + +<p>"Then let me rule for ye!" exclaimed the Plutonian instantly. "My +brothers will abide with ye as your guests—shall see that ye receive +a fair reward for the white sap; and I will convey your commands to +the Lords of the Green Star."</p> + +<p>The Old Wise One raised his withered hands, so that the uncertain +twittering of voices which followed the Plutonian's suggestion +subsided.</p> + +<p>"My children," piped the feeble old voice, "the Black Lord has spoken +cunning words, but they are false. It is plain to see that he desires +to rule the Green Star, and our welfare does not concern him."</p> + +<p>"If so it be that the white sap is of great value to the Lords of the +Green Star, it is still of no value to us; and if the gifts they bring +to us are of no value to them, they are dear to us."</p> + +<p>The Plutonian sneered.</p> + +<p>"Dearer than the Paste of Strange Dreams?"</p> + +<p>A startled hush fell among the assembled Mercurians. They looked +guiltily at one another, avoiding the eyes of the Old Wise One.</p> + +<p>"What is this?" shrilled he, turning furiously to the Plutonian. "Have +ye brought the paste of evil to our abode, knowing well the strict +proscription of our tribe? Fool! Your death is upon ye!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>ut the Plutonian only grinned and spread his glistening, black hands +in a careless gesture.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> High overhead, peering through the +stalactites, Olear instantly understood the Plutonian's strange power, +the Paste of Strange Dreams, a fearsome narcotic of that far-swinging +dark planet. More insidious and devastating than any drug ever +produced on Earth, it had wrought frightful havoc among many solar +races. The Earthmen had opened the lanes, broken the age-old barriers +of distance, so that the harpies of evil could traffic their poison +from planet to planet. So the Paste of Strange Dreams was added to the +Earthman's burden.</p> + +<p>"Seize him—the Evil One!" shrieked the old chief, but the Mercurians +sat sullen and silent, and the Plutonian sneered.</p> + +<p>Finally one of the chiefs arose and with an effort faced the Old Wise +One and said:</p> + +<p>"The Strange Dreams are dearer to us than all else. Do as he says."</p> + +<p>The piping voices rose in eager acclamation, but the Old Wise One held +up his claws, waiting until silence returned.</p> + +<p>"Wait! Wait! Before ye commit this folly, hear the Green Star man. +Many times has he demanded audience. Let him come in."</p> + +<p>"It is not permitted," demurred one of the chiefs.</p> + +<p>"Ye permitted this being of evil to enter; let him enter also."</p> + +<p>"He is in the outer chambers now," one of the guards spoke. "His face +is like the center of a ringstorm."</p> + +<p>"Let him enter!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="60" height="50" /></div><p>orones strode into the room angrily. Blinded by the fire after the +darkness of the antechambers, he did not at first see the Plutonian. +He strode up to the ancient chief and glared at him.</p> + +<p>"Does the Old Wise One learn wisdom at last?" he rasped. The ancient +shrank away from him, as did the nearer of the lesser chiefs.</p> + +<p>"The Old Wise One thinks less of his wisdom," he replied wearily. +"Behold!" He pointed to the enthroned Plutonian.</p> + +<p>Morones started. His hand flashed to his side, and came away empty. +Deft fingers had extracted his ray-tube. But he was a man of courage. +Never could it be said to his shame that an Earthman cringed in the +sight of lesser races.</p> + +<p>"So it's you, my sooty friend!" he snarled in English. The Plutonian, +accomplished linguist, replied:</p> + +<p>"As you see. You don't look very happy, Mr. Morones."</p> + +<p>Morones regarded him impassively, his eyes frosty.</p> + +<p>"That explains everything," he said at last with cold deliberation. +"First Sammis, then Boyd. Going to finish me next, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>The Plutonian twisted the end of an eyebrow and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Interested in them?"</p> + +<p>"What'd you do with the bodies?"</p> + +<p>The Plutonian jerked his thumb carelessly. "The river you call the +Blue is swift and deep. But before you follow them there is certain +information I wish to get from you. Where is the soldier who came to +visit you?"</p> + +<p>A crafty light came into Morones' face.</p> + +<p>"He is not far from here, waiting for me."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>lear, in his cramped hiding place, could not help feeling a warm glow +of admiration for Morones' nerve, because Morones thought him well on +his way to Earth.</p> + +<p>"Nargyll, what did your master do with the visitor?"</p> + +<p>"Drove him back to the Green Star," Nargyll said promptly.</p> + +<p>"And the oxygen tanks. Did you empty them?"</p> + +<p>"I let them hiss." Nargyll's grin was sharkish.</p> + +<p>"News to you, eh, Morones? Your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> officer's corpse has probably dropped +into the sun by this time. Tell me, why did you drive him off?"</p> + +<p>Morones sagged perceptibly. To gain a little time he said truthfully:</p> + +<p>"I knew I should be blamed and ruined for life. I didn't know you were +here, damn you! I hoped to get this mess with the natives straightened +up before he'd come back with reinforcements."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Well, you owe some months of life already. Your presence here +has been more or less embarrassing, but I had to let you live or I'd +have had the whole I. F. P. here to investigate. Now that you've +failed in keeping them from getting interested you may do me one more +service." The black giant grinned.</p> + +<p>"I've often wondered at the Earthman's prestige all over the solar +system. Even to-night, soft and helpless as you are, these natives +fear you. You will, therefore, be an object lesson in the helplessness +of Earthmen."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="60" height="50" /></div><p>orones was pale but courageous. With contempt in every line of him he +watched some of the less frightened chiefs, at the command of the +Plutonian, push aside some of the blazing blocks of fungus on the +stone, to make room for his body. At last he raised his hand.</p> + +<p>"Frogfolk!" he cried, "if ye do this thing, the Lords of the Green +Star will come. They will come with fires hotter than the sun; they +will blast your rivers with a power greater than the thunder of the +ringstorms; they will fill your caves with a purple smoke that turns +your bones to water—"</p> + +<p>Shrill cries of fear almost drowned out his words. All the Mercurians +had seen evidences of the dreadful power of the Earthmen. They began +milling around, then stood rooted by the roar of the Plutonian's +voice.</p> + +<p>"Lies! Lies!" he bellowed. "See, they are weak as egglets!" He stepped +down, picked Morones up by one shoulder, and held him, dangling, high +over the heads of all. Morones clawed and tore at the brawny arm. He +made a ludicrous picture. Soon the simple natives made a sniffling +sound of mirth, and the Plutonian, satisfied at last, set him down +again.</p> + +<p>"He tells truth!" The Old Wise One had climbed to the top of the stone +block. "The Lords of the Green Star have their power not in their +bodies, but it is great. It is greater far than the frogfolk. It is +greater than the Lords of the Outer Orbit. They will come even as the +surly one has said, and great shall be our sorrow. It is not yet too +late. Release him, and deliver to him the white sap. Seize this evil +one—"</p> + +<p>The feeble, fickle minds were being swayed again. In a gust of +impatience, the Plutonian stepped down, seized the aged chief's skinny +body in his great black hands, and snapped him in two. There was a +tearing of tough cords and tissue, and the two halves fell into the +fire.</p> + +<p>For an instant the Mercurians were stunned. Then some of them vented +hissing sounds of rage, while others prostrated themselves on the +floor. The black giant watched them narrowly for a moment, then turned +his attention to Morones. He seized him by the arm and drew him slowly +and irresistibly to him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he murder of the Old Wise One had been done so quickly that Olear was +unable to prevent it. Had he been able to use his ray weapon he could +have burned the Plutonian down, but it had been bent at one of the +narrow turns of the crevice he had come down. The need for extreme +lightness in weapons was rather overdone in those early times, and a +little rough handling made them useless.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span></p> + +<p>So now Olear, weaponless except for the service knife at his belt, +began the hazardous undertaking of climbing among the stalactites to a +position approximately above the Plutonian's head. The job required +judgment. Some of the stone masses were insecurely anchored and would +crash down at the lightest touch. Some were spaced so closely together +that he could not get between them. Others were so far apart that it +was difficult to get from one to another.</p> + +<p>Yet he made it somehow, and unnoticed, for all eyes were turned on the +tense drama being enacted below. From almost directly overhead he saw +Morones being drawn upward.</p> + +<p>"You saw," the Plutonian was saying triumphantly in Mercurian, "—you +saw me unmake your Old Fool. And now you will see that a Lord of the +Green Star is even softer, even weaker—"</p> + +<p>Morones, in that pitiless grasp, turned his face to the hateful +grinning visage above him. In his last extremity he was still angry.</p> + +<p>"You devil!" Morones shouted. "You may murder me, but they'll get you! +They'll get you!"</p> + +<p>"Who'll get me?" the Plutonian purred silkily, deferring the pleasure +of the kill for another moment. Morones was having trouble with his +breathing. His red face lolled from side to side, his eyes rolled in +agony. Suddenly he saw Olear. Unbelieving, he relaxed.</p> + +<p>"I'm seein' things!" he breathed.</p> + +<p>"Who'll get me?" persisted the Plutonian, applying a little more +pressure.</p> + +<p>"The I. F. P.!" Morones gasped.</p> + +<p>"Well, you little son-of-a-gun!" Olear thought, and then he jumped.</p> + +<p>He landed a-straddle the neck of the Plutonian, which was almost like +forking a horse. One brawny arm seized a horn. The other, with a +lightning-swift dart, brought the point of the long service-knife to +the pulsing black throat.</p> + +<p>"Put him down!" Olear spoke into the great pointed ear. "Easy!"</p> + +<p>Back on his feet, Morones began bellowing at the Mercurians. Utterly +demoralized, they fled pell-mell. Morones came back. He said:</p> + +<p>"Nothing to tie him up with."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," Olear replied, studiously keeping the knife point +at exactly the right place, "I'll ride him in. Get going, you, and be +tactful when you go through the door, or this sticker of mine might +slip!" With extreme care the Plutonian did exactly as Olear ordered +him to.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t was necessary to radio for one of the larger patrol ships to take +Olear's enormous prisoner back to Earth for his trial. The officer +testified, of course, and the Plutonian was duly sentenced to death +for the murder of the old Mercurian. Execution by dehydration was +decreed, so that the body would be uninjured for scientific study; and +to-day it is considered one of the finest specimens extant.</p> + +<p>In his testimony, however, Olear so minimized his own connection with +the case that he received no public recognition. It was not until some +months afterward, when Morones, on leave, rode back with a shipload of +translucene, that the whole story came out, emphatically and +profanely. Olear finally consented to speak a few words for the +Telephoto News Co. As he stepped off the little platform deferential +hands tried to push him back.</p> + +<p>"You haven't told them who you are," protested the announcer. "Give +your name and rank."</p> + +<p>"Aw, they don't have to know that!" Olear rejoined, keeping on going. +"They know it's one of the Force. That's all they have to know. +Besides there's a blackjack game going on and I'm losing money every +minute I'm out of it."</p> +<div class="footnotes"> + <h3>FOOTNOTES + </h3> + <div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In their various languages, almost all solar races call +Earth "The Green Star." Although conditions on Mercury are +unfavorable, Earth can be seen from the dark star, on mountain tops, +during occasional dispersals of the cloud masses.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Mercurians had no conception of time before the +Earthmen came. A "phase" is the time between calls of the freight +ships, and is therefore variable; but in those days it was about six +or seven months.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="The_Exile_of_Time" id="The_Exile_of_Time"></a>The Exile of Time</h2> + +<h4>PART THREE OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL</h4> + +<h3><i>By Ray Cummings</i></h3> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"> +<img src="images/image_008.jpg" width="800" height="521" alt=""Look!" exclaimed Larry." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"Look!" exclaimed Larry.</span> +</div> + +<h4>WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE</h4> + + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>here came a girl's scream, and muffled, frantic words.</p> + +<p>"Let me out! Let me out!"</p> + +<p>Then we saw her white face at the basement window. This, which was the +start of the extraordinary incidents, occurred on the night of June +8-9, 1935.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Larry and George from 1935, Mary from 1777—all are caught +up in the treacherous Tugh's revolt of the Robots, in the Time-world +of 2930.</div> + +<p>My name is George Rankin, and with my friend, Larry Gregory, we +rescued the girl who was imprisoned in the deserted house on Patton +Place, New York City. We thought at first that she was demented—this +strangely beautiful girl in long white satin dress, white powdered wig +and a black beauty patch on her check. She said she had come from the +year 1777, that her father<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> was Major Atwood, of General Washington's +staff! Her name was Mistress Mary Atwood.</p> + +<p>It was a strange story she had to tell us. A cage of shining metal +bars had materialized in her garden, and a mechanical man had come +from it—a Robot ten feet tall. It had captured her; brought her to +1935; left her, and vanished saying it would return.</p> + +<p>We went back to that house on Patton Place. The cage did return, and +Larry and I fought the strange monster. We were worsted, and the Robot +seized Mary and me and whirled us back into Time in its room-like cage +of shining bars.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> Larry recovered his senses, rushed into Patton +Place, and there encountered another, smaller, Time-traveling cage, +and was himself taken off in it.</p> + +<p>But the occupants of Larry's smaller cage were friendly. They were a +man and a girl of 2930 A.D.! The girl was the Princess Tina, and the +man, Harl, a young scientist of that age. With an older scientist—a +cripple named Tugh—Harl had invented the Time-vehicles.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>e had heard of Tugh before. Mary Atwood had known him in the year +1777. He had made love to her, and when repulsed had threatened +vengeance against her father. And in 1932, a cripple named Tugh had +gotten into trouble with the police and had vowed some strange weird +vengeance against the city officials and the city itself. More than +that, the very house on Patton Place from which we had rescued Mary +Atwood, was owned by this man named Tugh, who was wanted by the police +but could not be found!</p> + +<p>Tugh's vengeance was presently demonstrated, for in June, 1935, a +horde of Robots appeared. With flashing swords and red and violet +light beams the mechanical men spread about the city massacring the +people; they brought midsummer snow with their frigid red rays; and +then, in a moment, torrid heat and boiling rain. Three days and nights +of terror ensued; then the Robots silently withdrew into the house on +Patton Place and vanished. The New York City of 1935 lay wrecked; the +vengeance of Tugh against it was complete.</p> + +<p>Larry, going back in Time now, was told by Harl and Princess Tina that +a Robot named Migul—a mechanism almost human from the Time-world of +2930—had stolen the larger cage and was running amuck through Time. +The strange world of 2930 was described to Larry—a world in which +nearly-human mechanisms did all the work. These Robots, diabolically +developed, were upon the verge of revolt. The world of machinery was +ready to assail its human masters!</p> + +<p>Migul was an insubordinate Robot, and Harl and Tina were chasing it. +They whirled Larry back into Time, and they saw the larger cage stop +at a night in the year 1777—the same night from which Mary Atwood had +been stolen. They stopped there. Harl remained in the little cage to +guard it, while Tina and Larry went outside.</p> + +<p>It was night, and the house of Major Atwood was nearby. British +redcoats had come to capture the colonial officer; but all they found +was his murdered body lying in the garden. Migul the Robot had chained +Mary and me to the door of his cage; had briefly stopped in the garden +and killed the major, and then had departed with us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>e now went back to the Beginning of Time, for the other cage was +again chasing us. Reaching the Beginning, we swept forward, and the +whole vast panorama of the events of Time passed in review before us. +Suddenly we found that Tugh himself was hiding in our cage! We had not +known it, nor had Migul, our Robot captor. Tugh was hiding here, not +trusting Migul to carry out his orders!</p> + +<p>We realized now that all these events were part of the wild vengeance +of this hideously repulsive cripple. Migul was a mere machine carrying +out Tugh's orders. Tugh, in 2930, was masquerading as a friend of the +Government; but in reality it was he who was fomenting the revolt of +the Robots.</p> + +<p>Tugh now took command of our cage. The smaller cage had only Harl in +it now, for Larry and Tina were marooned in 1777. Harl was chasing us. +Tugh stopped us in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> year 762 A.D. We found that the space around +us now was a forest recently burned. Five hundred feet from us was the +space which held Harl's cage.</p> + +<p>Presently it materialized! Mary and I were helpless. We stood watching +Tugh, as he crouched on the floor of our cage near its opened doorway. +A ray cylinder was in his hand, with a wire running to a battery in +the cage corner. He had forced Mary and me to stand at the window +where Harl would see us and be lured to approach.</p> + +<p>From Harl's cage, five hundred feet across the blackened forest glade +of that day of 762, Harl came cautiously forward. Abruptly Tugh fired. +His cylinder shot a horizontal beam of intense actinic light. It +struck Harl full, and he fell.</p> + +<p>Swiftly his body decomposed; and soon in the sunlight of the glade lay +a sagging heap of black and white garments enveloping the skeleton of +what a moment before had been a man!</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XIV</h4> +<h4>A Very Human Princess</h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>hat night in 1777 near the home of the murdered Major Atwood brought +to Larry the most strangely helpless feeling he had ever experienced. +He crouched with Tina beneath a tree in a corner of the field, gazing +with horror at the little moonlit space by the fence where their +Time-traveling vehicle should have been but now was gone.</p> + +<p>Marooned in 1777! Larry had not realized how desolately remote this +Revolutionary New York was from the great future city in which he had +lived. The same space; but what a gulf between him and 1935! What a +barrier of Time, impassable without the shining cage!</p> + +<p>They crouched, whispering. "But why would he have gone, Tina?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Harl is very careful; so something or someone must have +passed along here, and he left, rather than cause a disturbance. He +will return, of course."</p> + +<p>"I hope so," whispered Larry fervently. "We are marooned here, Tina! +Heavens, it would be the end of us!"</p> + +<p>"We must wait. He will return."</p> + +<p>They huddled in the shadow of the tree. Behind them there was a +continued commotion at the Atwood home, and presently the mounted +British officers came thudding past on the road, riding for +headquarters at the Bowling Green to report the strange Atwood murder.</p> + +<p>The night wore on. Would Harl return? If not to-night, then probably +to-morrow, or to-morrow night. In spite of his endeavor to stop +correctly, he could so easily miss this night, these particular hours.</p> + +<p>Harl had met his death, as I have described. We never knew exactly +what he did, of course, after leaving that night of 1777. It seems +probable, however, that some passer-by startled him into flashing away +into Time. Then he must have seen with his instrument evidence of the +other cage passing, and impulsively followed it—to his death in the +burned forest of the year 762.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry and Tina waited. The dawn presently began paling the stars; and +still Harl did not come. The little space by the fence corner was +empty.</p> + +<p>"It will soon be daylight," Larry whispered. "We can't stay here: +we'll be discovered."</p> + +<p>They were anachronisms in this world; misfits; futuristic beings who +dared not show themselves.</p> + +<p>Larry touched his companion—the slight little creature who was a +Princess in her far-distant future age. But to Larry now she was just +a girl.</p> + +<p>"Frightened, Tina?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span></p> + +<p>"A little."</p> + +<p>He laughed softly. "It would be fearful to be marooned here +permanently, wouldn't it? You don't think Harl would desert us? +Purposely, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"No, of course not."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll expect him to-morrow night. He wouldn't stop in the +daylight, I guess."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. He would reason that I would not expect him."</p> + +<p>"Then we must find shelter, and food, and be here to-morrow night. It +seems long to us, Tina, but in the cage it's just an instant—just a +trifle different setting of the controls."</p> + +<p>She smiled her pale, stern smile. "You have learned quickly, Larry. +That is true."</p> + +<p>A sudden emotion swept him. His hand found hers; and her fingers +answered the pressure of his own. Here in this remote Time-world they +felt abruptly drawn together.</p> + +<p>He murmured, "Tina, you are—" But he never finished.</p> + +<p>The cage was coming! They stood tense, watching the fence corner +where, in the flat dawn light, the familiar misty shadow was +gathering. Harl was returning to them.</p> + +<p>The cage flashed silently into being. They stood peering, ready to run +to it. The door slid aside.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>ut it was not Harl who came out. It was Tugh, the cripple. He stood +in the doorway, a thick-set, barrel-chested figure of a man in a wide +leather jacket, a broad black belt and short flaring leather +pantaloons.</p> + +<p>"Tugh!" exclaimed Tina.</p> + +<p>The cripple advanced. "Princess, is it you?" He was very wary. His +gaze shot at Larry and back to Tina. "And who is this?"</p> + +<p>A hideously repulsive fellow, Larry thought this Tugh. He saw his +shriveled, bent legs, crooked hips, and wide thick shoulders set +askew—a goblin, in a leather jerkin. His head was overlarge, with a +bulging white forehead and a mane of scraggly black hair shot with +grey. But Larry could not miss the intellectuality marking his +heavy-jowled face; the keenness of his dark-eyed gaze.</p> + +<p>These were instant impressions. Tina had drawn Larry forward. "Where +is Harl?" she demanded imperiously. "How have you come to have the +cage, Tugh?"</p> + +<p>"Princess, I have much to tell," he answered, and his gaze roved the +field. "But it is dangerous here; I am glad I have found you. Harl +sent me to this night, but I struck it late. Come, Tina—and your +strange-looking friend."</p> + +<p>It impressed Larry then, and many times afterward, that Tugh's gaze at +him was mistrustful, wary.</p> + +<p>"Come, Larry," said Tina. And again she demanded of Tugh, "I ask you, +where is Harl?"</p> + +<p>"At home. Safe at home, Princess." He gestured toward Major Atwood's +house, which now in the growing daylight showed more plainly under its +shrouding trees. "That space off there holds our other cage as you +know, Tina. You and Harl were pursuing that other cage?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she agreed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey had stopped at the doorway, where Tugh stood slightly inside. +Larry whispered:</p> + +<p>"What does this mean, Tina?"</p> + +<p>Tugh said, "Migul, the mechanism, is running wild in the other cage. +But you and Harl knew that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, and said softly to Larry, "We will go. But, +Larry, watch this Tugh! Harl and I never trusted him."</p> + +<p>Tugh's manner was a combination of the self-confidence of a man of +standing and the deference due his young Princess. He was closing the +door, and saying:</p> + +<p>"Migul, that crazy, insubordinate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> machine, captured a man from 1935 +and a girl from 1777. But they are safe: he did not harm them. Harl is +with them."</p> + +<p>"In our world, Tugh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; at home. And we have Migul chained. Harl captured and subdued +him."</p> + +<p>Tugh was at the controls. "May I take you and this friend of yours +home, Princess?"</p> + +<p>She whispered to Larry, "I think it is best, don't you?"</p> + +<p>Larry nodded.</p> + +<p>She murmured, "Be watchful, Larry!" Then, louder: "Yes, Tugh. Take +us."</p> + +<p>Tugh was bending over the controls.</p> + +<p>"Ready now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Tina.</p> + +<p>Larry's senses reeled momentarily as the cage flashed off into Time.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t was a smooth story which Tugh had to tell them; and he told it +smoothly. His dark eyes swung from Tina to Larry.</p> + +<p>"I talked with that other young man from your world. George Rankin, he +said his name was. He is somewhat like you: dressed much the same and +talks little. The girl calls herself Mary Atwood." He went on and told +them an elaborate, glib story, all of which was a lie. It did not +wholly deceive Larry and Tina, yet they could not then prove it false. +The gist of it was that Mary and I were with Harl and the subdued +Migul in 2930.</p> + +<p>"It is strange that Harl did not come for us himself," said Tina.</p> + +<p>Tugh's gaze was imperturbable as he answered. "He is a clever young +man, but he cannot be expected to handle these controls with my skill, +Princess, and he knows it; so he sent me. You see, he wanted very much +to strike just this night and this hour, so as not to keep you +waiting."</p> + +<p>He added, "I am glad to have you back. Things are not well at home, +Princess. This insubordinate adventure of Migul's has been bad for the +other mechanisms. News of it has spread, and the revolt is very near. +What we are to do I cannot say, but I do know we did not like your +absence."</p> + +<p>The trip which Larry and Tina now took to 2930 A.D. consumed, to their +consciousness of the passing of Time, some three hours. They +discovered that they were hungry, and Tugh produced food and drink.</p> + +<p>Larry spent much of the time with Tina at the window, gazing at the +changing landscape while she told him of the events which to her were +history—the recorded things on the Time-scroll which separated her +world and his.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>ugh busied himself about the vehicle and left them much to +themselves. They had ample opportunity to discuss him and his story of +Harl. It must be remembered that Larry had no knowledge of Tugh, save +the story which Alten had told of a cripple named Tugh in New York in +1933-34; and Mary Atwood's mention of the coincidence of the Tugh she +knew in 1777.</p> + +<p>But Tina had known this Tugh for years. Though she, like Harl, had +never liked him, nevertheless he was a trusted and influential man in +her world. Proof of his activities in other Time-worlds, there was +none so far, from Tina's viewpoint. Nor did Larry and Tina know as yet +of the devastation of New York in 1935; nor of the murder of Major +Atwood. The capture of Mary and me, the fight with the Robot in the +back yard of the house on Patton Place—in all these incidents of the +bandit cage, only Migul had figured. Migul—an insubordinate, crazy +mechanism running amuck.</p> + +<p>Yet upon Larry and Tina was a premonition that Tugh, here with them +now and so suavely friendly, was their real enemy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I wouldn't trust him," Larry whispered, "any further than I can see +him. He's planning something, but I don't know what."</p> + +<p>"But perhaps—and this I have often thought, Larry—perhaps it is his +aspect. He looks so repulsive—"</p> + +<p>Larry shook his head. "He does, for a fact; but I don't mean that. +What Mary Atwood told me of the Tugh she knew, described the fellow. +And so did Alten describe him. And in 1934 he murdered a girl: don't +forget that, Tina—he, or someone who looked remarkably like him, and +had the same name."</p> + +<p>But they knew that the best thing they could do now was to get to +2930. Larry wanted to join me again, and Tugh maintained I was there. +Well, they would soon find out....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>s they passed the shadowy world of 1935, a queer emotion gripped +Larry. This was his world, and he was speeding past it to the future. +He realized then that he wanted to be assured of my safety, and that +of Mary Atwood and Harl; but what lay closest to his heart was the +welfare of the Princess Tina. Princess? He never thought of her as +that, save that it was a title she carried. She seemed just a small, +strangely-solemn white-faced girl. He could not conceive returning to +his own world and having her speed on, leaving him forever.</p> + +<p>His thoughts winged ahead. He touched Tina as they stood together at +the window gazing out at the shadowy New York City. It was now 1940.</p> + +<p>"Tina," he said, "if our friends are safe in your world—"</p> + +<p>"If only they are, Larry!"</p> + +<p>"And if your people there are in trouble, in danger—you will let me +help?"</p> + +<p>She turned abruptly to regard him, and he saw a mist of tenderness in +the dark pools of her eyes.</p> + +<p>"In history, Larry, I have often been interested in reading of a +strange custom outgrown by us and supposed to be meaningless. Yet +maybe it is not. I mean—"</p> + +<p>She was suddenly breathless. "I mean even a Princess, as they call me, +likes to—to be human. I want to—I mean I've often wondered—and +you're so dear—I want to try it. Was it like this? Show me."</p> + +<p>She reached up, put her arms about his neck and kissed him!</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XV</h4> +<h4><i>A Thousand Years into the Future</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_01.jpg" alt="T" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>930 to 2930—a thousand years in three hours. It was sufficiently +slow traveling so that Larry could see from the cage window the actual +detailed flow of movement: the changing outline of material objects +around him. There had been the open country of Revolutionary times +when this space was north of the city. It was a grey, ghostly +landscape of trees and the road and the shadowy outlines of the Atwood +house five hundred feet away.</p> + +<p>Larry saw the road widen. The fence suddenly was gone. The trees were +suddenly gone. The shapes of houses were constantly appearing; then +melting down again, with others constantly rearing up to take their +places; and always there were more houses, and larger, more enduring +ones. And then the Atwood house suddenly melted: a second or two, and +all evidence of it and the trees about it were gone.</p> + +<p>There was no road; it was a city street now; and it had widened so +that the cage was poised near the middle of it. And presently the +houses were set solid along its borders.</p> + +<p>At 1910 Larry began to recognize the contour of the buildings: The +antiquated Patton Place. But the flowing changing outlines adjusted +themselves constantly to a more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> familiar form. The new apartment +house, down the block in which Larry and I lived, rose and assembled +itself like a materializing spectre. A wink or two of Larry's eyelids +and it was there. He recalled the months of its construction.</p> + +<p>The cage, with Larry as a passenger, could not have stopped in these +years: he realized it, now. There was a nameless feeling, a repulsion +against stopping; it was indescribable, but he was aware of it. He had +lived these years once, and they were forbidden to him again.</p> + +<p>The cage was still in its starting acceleration. They swept through +the year 1935, and then Larry was indefinably aware that the forbidden +area had passed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey went through those few days of June, 1935, during which Tugh's +Robots had devastated the city, but it was too brief an action to make +a mark that Larry could see. It left a few very transitory marks, +however. Larry noticed that along the uneven line of ghostly +roof-tops, blobs of emptiness had appeared; he saw a short distance +away that several of the houses had melted down into ragged, tumbled +heaps. These were where the bombs had struck, dropped by the +Government planes in an endeavor to wreck the Tugh house from which +the Robots were appearing. But the ragged, broken areas were filled in +a second—almost as soon as Larry realized they were there—and new +and larger buildings than before appeared.</p> + +<p>At sight of all this he murmured to Tina, "Something has happened +here. I wonder what?"</p> + +<p>He chanced to turn, and saw that Tugh was regarding him very queerly; +but in a moment he forgot it in the wonders of the passage into his +future.</p> + +<p>This growing, expanding city! It had seemed a giant to Larry in 1935, +especially after he had compared it to what it was in 1777. But now, +in 1950, and beyond to the turn of the century, he stood amazed at the +enormity of the shadowy structures rearing their spectral towers +around him. For some years Patton Place, a backward section, held its +general form; then abruptly the city engulfed it. Larry saw monstrous +buildings of steel and masonry rising a thousand feet above him. For +an instant, as they were being built he saw their skeleton outlines; +and then they were complete. Yet they were not enduring, for in every +flowing detail they kept changing.</p> + +<p>An overhead sidewalk went like a balcony along what had been Patton +Place. Bridges and archways spanned the street. Then there came a +triple bank of overhead roadways. A distance away, a hundred feet +above the ground level, the shadowy form of what seemed a monorail +structure showed for a moment. It endured for what might have been a +hundred years, and then it was gone....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>his monstrous city! By 2030 there was a vast network of traffic +levels over what had been a street. It was an arcade, now, open at the +top near the cage; but further away Larry saw where the giant +buildings had flowed and mingled over it, with the viaducts, spider +bridges and pedestrian levels plunging into tunnels to pierce through +them.</p> + +<p>And high overhead, where the little sky which was left still showed, +Larry saw the still higher outlines of a structure which quite +evidently was a huge aerial landing stage for airliners.</p> + +<p>It was an incredible city! There were spots of enduring light around +Larry now—the city lights which for months and years shone here +unchanged. The cage was no longer outdoors. The street which had +become<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> an open arcade was now wholly closed. A roof was overhead—a +city roof, to shut out the inclement weather. There was artificial +light and air and weather down here, and up on the roof additional +space for the city's teeming activities.</p> + +<p>Larry could see only a shadowy narrow vista, here indoors, but his +imagination supplied visions of what the monstrous, incredible city +must be. There was a roof, perhaps, over all Manhattan. Bridges and +viaducts would span to the great steel and stone structures across the +rivers, so that water must seem to be in a canyon far underground. +There would be a cellar to this city, incredibly intricate with +conduits of wires and drainage pipes, and on the roof rain or snow +would fall unnoticed by the millions of workers. Children born here in +poverty might never yet have seen the blue sky and the sunlight, or +know that grass was green and lush and redolent when moist with +morning dew....</p> + +<p>Larry fancied this now to be the climax of city building here on +earth; the city was a monster, now, unmanageable, threatening to +destroy the humans who had created it.... He tried to envisage the +world; the great nations; other cities like this one. Freight +transportation would go by rail and underseas, doubtless, and all the +passengers by air....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>ina, with her knowledge of history, could sketch the events. The +Yellow War—the white races against the Orientals—was over by the +year 2000. The three great nations were organized in another +half-century: the white, the yellow and the black.</p> + +<p>By the year 2000, the ancient dirigibles had proven impractical, and +great airliners of the plane type were encircling the earth. New +motors, wing-spreads, and a myriad devices made navigation of the +upper altitudes possible. At a hundred thousand feet, upon all the +Great Circle routes, liners were rushing at nearly a thousand miles an +hour. They would halt at intervals, to allow helicopter tenders to +come up to transfer descending passengers.</p> + +<p>Then the etheric wave-thrust principle was discovered: by 2500 A.D. +man was voyaging out into space and Interplanetary travel began. This +brought new problems: a rush of new millions of humans to live upon +our Earth; new wars; new commerce in peace times; new ideas; new +scientific knowledge....</p> + +<p>By 2500, the city around Larry must have reached its height. It stayed +there a half century; and then it began coming down. Its degeneration +was slow, in the beginning. First, there might have been a hole in the +arcade which was not repaired. Then others would appear, as the +neglect spread. The population left. The great buildings of metal and +stone, so solidly appearing to the brief lifetime of a single +individual, were impermanent over the centuries.</p> + +<p>By 2600, the gigantic ghosts had all melted down. They lay in a +shadowy pile, burying the speeding cage. There was no stopping here; +there was no space unoccupied in which they could stop. Larry could +see only the tangled spectres of broken, rusting, rotting metal and +stone.</p> + +<p>He wondered what could have done it. A storm of nature? Or had mankind +strangely turned decadent, and rushed back in a hundred years or so to +savagery? It could not have been the latter, because very soon the +ruins were moving away: the people were clearing the city site for +something new. For fifty years it went on.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>ina explained it. The age of steam had started the great city of New +York, and others like it, into its monstrous congestion of human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> +activity. There was steam for power and steam for slow transportation +by railroads and surface ships. Then the conquest of the air, and the +transportation of power by electricity, gradually changed things. But +man was slow to realize his possibilities. Even in 1930, all the new +elements existed; but the great cities grew monstrous of their own +momentum. Business went to the cities because the people were there; +workers flocked in because the work was there to call them.</p> + +<p>But soon the time came when the monster city was too unwieldy. The +traffic, the drainage, the water supply could not cope with +conditions. Still, man struggled on. The workers were mere +automatons—pallid attendants of machinery; people living in a world +of beauty who never had seen it; who knew of nothing but the city +arcades where the sun never shone and where amusements were as +artificial as the light and air.</p> + +<p>Then man awakened to his folly. Disease broke out in New York City in +2551, and in a month swept eight million people into death. The cities +were proclaimed impractical, unsafe. And suddenly the people realized +how greatly they hated the city; how strangely beautiful the world +could be in the fashion God created it....</p> + +<p>There was, over the next fifty years, an exodus to the rural sections. +Food was produced more cheaply, largely because it was produced more +abundantly. Man found his wants suddenly simplified.</p> + +<p>And business found that concentration was unnecessary. The telephone +and television made personal contacts not needed. The aircraft, the +high-speed auto-trucks over modern speedways, the aeroplane-motored +monorails, the rocket-trains—all these shortened distance. And, most +important of all, the transportation of electrical energy from great +central power companies made small industrial units practical even +upon remote farms. The age of electricity came into its own. The +cities were doomed....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry saw, through 2600 and 2700 A.D., a new form of civilization +rising around him. At first it seemed a queer combination of the old +fashioned village and a strange modernism. There were, here upon +Manhattan Island, metal houses, widely spaced in gardens, and +electrically powered factories of unfamiliar aspect. Overhead were +skeleton structures, like landing stages; and across the further +distance was the fleeting, transitory wraith of a monorail air-road. +Along the river banks were giant docks for surface vessels and sub-sea +freighters. There was a little concentration here, but not much. Man +had learned his lesson.</p> + +<p>This was a new era. Man was striving really to play, as well as work. +But the work had to be done. With the constant development of +mechanical devices, there was always a new machine devised to help the +operation of its fellow. And over it all was the hand of the human, +until suddenly the worker found that he was no more than an attendant +upon an inanimate thing which did everything more skilfully than he +could do it. Thus came the idea of the Robot—something to attend, to +oversee, to operate machines. In Larry's time it had already begun +with a myriad devices of "automatic control." In Tina's Time-world it +reached its ultimate—and diabolical—development....</p> + +<p>At 2900, Larry saw, five hundred feet to the east, the walls of a long +low laboratory rising. The other cage—which in 1777 was in Major +Atwood's garden, and in 1935 was in the back yard of the Tugh house on +Beckman Place—was housed now in 2930, in a room of this +laboratory....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span></p> + +<p>At 2905, with the vehicle slowing for its stopping, Tina gestured +toward the walls of her palace, whose shadowy forms were rising close +at hand. Then the palace garden grew and flourished, and Larry saw +that this cage he was in was set within this garden.</p> + +<p>"We are almost there, Larry," she said.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered. An emotion gripped him. "Tina, your world—why +it's so strange! But you are not strange."</p> + +<p>"Am I not, Larry?"</p> + +<p>He smiled at her; he felt like showing her again that the ancient +custom of kissing was not wholly meaningless, but Tugh was regarding +them.</p> + +<p>"I was comparing," said Larry, "that girl Mary Atwood, from the year +1777, and you. You are so different in looks, in dress, but you're +just—girls."</p> + +<p>She laughed. "The world changes, Larry, but not human nature."</p> + +<p>"Ready?" called Tugh. "We are here, Tina."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Tugh. You have the dial set for the proper night and hour?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. I make no mistake. Did I not invent these dials?"</p> + +<p>The cage slackened through a day of sunlight; plunged into a night; +and slid to its soundless, reeling halt....</p> + +<p>Tina drew Larry to the door and opened it upon a fragrant garden, +somnolently drowsing in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>"This is my world, Larry," she said. "And here is my home."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>ugh was with them as they left the cage. He said:</p> + +<p>"This is the tri-night hour of the very night you left here. Princess +Tina. You see, I calculated correctly."</p> + +<p>"Where did you leave Harl and the two visitors?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>"Here. Right here."</p> + +<p>Across the garden Larry saw three dark forms coming forward. They were +three small Robots of about Tina's stature—domestic servants of the +palace. They crowded up, crying:</p> + +<p>"Master Tugh! Princess!"</p> + +<p>"What is it?" Tugh asked.</p> + +<p>The hollow voices echoed with excitement as one of them said:</p> + +<p>"Master Tugh, there has been murder here! We have dared tell no one +but you or the Princess. Harl is murdered!"</p> + +<p>Larry chanced to see Tugh's astonished face, and in the horror of the +moment a feeling came to Larry that Tugh was acting unnaturally. He +forgot it at once; but later he was to recall it forcibly, and to +realize that the treacherous Tugh had planned this with these Robots.</p> + +<p>"Master Tugh, Harl is murdered! Migul escaped and murdered Harl, and +took the body away with him!"</p> + +<p>Larry was stricken dumb. Tugh seized the little Robot by his metal +shoulders. "Liar! What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>Tina gasped, "Where are our visitors—the young man and the girl?"</p> + +<p>"Migul took them!"</p> + +<p>"Where?" Tina demanded.</p> + +<p>"We don't know. We think very far down in the caverns of machinery. +Migul said he was going to feed them to the machines!"</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XVI</h4> +<h4><i>The New York of 2930</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry stood alone at an upper window of the palace gazing out at the +somnolent moonlit city. It was an hour or two before dawn. Tina and +Tugh had started almost at once into the underground caverns to which +Tina was told Migul had fled with his two captives. They would not +take Larry with them; the Robot workers in the subterranean chambers +were all sullen and upon the verge of a revolt, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> sight of a +strange human would have aroused them dangerously.</p> + +<p>"It should not take long," Tina had said hastily. "I will give you a +room in which to wait for me."</p> + +<p>"And there is food and drink," Tugh suavely urged. "And most surely +you need sleep. You too Princess," he suddenly added. "Let me go into +the caverns alone: I can do better than you; these Robots obey me. I +think I know where that rascally Migul has hidden."</p> + +<p>"Rascally?" Larry burst out. "Is that what you call it when you've +just heard that it committed murder? Tina. I won't stay: nor will I +let—"</p> + +<p>"Wait!" said Tina. "Tugh, look here—"</p> + +<p>"The young man from 1935 is very positive what he will and what he +won't," Tugh observed sardonically. He drew his cloak around his squat +misshapen body, and shrugged.</p> + +<p>"But I won't let you go," Larry finished. The palace was somnolent; +the officials were asleep: none had heard of the murder. Strangely lax +was the human government here. Larry had sensed this when he suggested +that police or an official party be sent at once to capture Migul and +rescue Mary Atwood and me.</p> + +<p>"It could not be done," Tina exclaimed. "To organize such a party +would take hours. And—"</p> + +<p>"And the Robots," Tugh finished with a sour smile, "would openly +revolt when such a party came at them! You have no idea what you +suggest, young man. To avoid an open revolt—that is our chief aim. +Besides, if you rushed at Migul it would frighten him; and then he +would surely kill his captives, if he has not done so already."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hat silenced Larry. He stared at them hopelessly while they argued it +out: and the three small domesticated Robots stood by, listening +curiously.</p> + +<p>"I'll go with you, Tugh." Tina decided. "Perhaps, without making any +demonstration of force, we can find Migul."</p> + +<p>Tugh bowed. "Your will is mine, Princess. I think I can find him and +control him to prevent harm to his captives."</p> + +<p>He was a good actor, that Tugh; he convinced Larry and Tina of his +sincerity. His dark eyes flashed as he added, "And if I get control of +him and find he's murdered Harl, we will have him no more. I'll +disconnect him! Smash him! Quietly, of course, Princess."</p> + +<p>They led Larry through a dim silent corridor of the palace, past two +sleepy-faced human guards and two or three domesticated Robots. +Ascending two spiral metal stairways to the upper third floor of the +palace they left Larry in his room.</p> + +<p>"By dawn or soon after we will return," said Tina "But you try and +sleep; there is nothing you can do now."</p> + +<p>"You'll be careful, Tina?" The helpless feeling upon Larry suddenly +intensified. Subconsciously he was aware of the menace upon him and +Tina, but he could not define it.</p> + +<p>She pressed his hand. "I will be careful; that I promise."</p> + +<p>She left with Tugh. At once a feeling of loneliness leaped upon Larry.</p> + +<p>He found the apartment a low-vaulted metal room. There was the sheen +of dim, blue-white illumination from hidden lights, disclosing the +padded metal furniture: a couch, low and comfortable; a table set with +food and drink; low chairs, strangely fashioned, and cabinets against +the wall which seemed to be mechanical devices for amusement. There +was a row of instrument controls which he guessed were the room +temperature, ventilating and lighting mechanisms. It was an oddly +futuristic room. The windows were groups of triangles—the upper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +sections prisms, to bend the light from the sky into the room's +furthest recesses. The moonlight came through the prisms, now, and +spread over the cream-colored rug and the heavy wall draperies. The +leaded prism casements laid a pattern of bars on the floor. The room +held a faint whisper of mechanical music.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry stood at one of the windows gazing out over the drowsing city. +The low metal buildings, generally of one or two levels, lay pale grey +in the moonlight. Gardens and trees surrounded them. The streets were +wide roadways, lined with trees. Ornamental vegetation was everywhere; +even the flat-roofed house tops were set with gardens, little white +pebbled paths, fountains and pergolas.</p> + +<p>A mile or so away, a river gleamed like a silver ribbon—the Hudson. +To the south were docks, low against the water, with rows of +blue-white spots of light. The whole city was close to the ground, but +occasionally, especially across the river, skeleton landing stages +rose a hundred feet into the air.</p> + +<p>The scene, at this hour just before dawn, was somnolent and peaceful. +It was a strange New York, so different from the sleepless city of +Larry's time! There were a few moving lights in the streets, but not +many; they seemed to be lights carried by pedestrians. Off by the +docks, at the river surface, rows of colored lights were slowly +creeping northward: a sub-sea freighter arriving from Eurasia. And as +Larry watched, from the southern sky a line of light materialized into +an airliner which swept with a low humming throb over the city and +alighted upon a distant stage.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry's attention went again to the Hudson river. At the nearest point +to him there was a huge dam blocking it. North of the dam the river +surface was at least two hundred feet higher than to the south. It lay +above the dam like a placid canal, with low palisades its western bank +and a high dyke built up along the eastern city side. The water went +in spillways through the dam, forming again into the old natural river +below it and flowing with it to the south.</p> + +<p>The dam was not over a mile or so from Larry's window; in his time it +might have been the western end of Christopher Street. The moonlight +shone on the massive metal of it: the water spilled through it in a +dozen shining cascades. There was a low black metal structure perched +halfway up the lower side of the dam, a few bluish lights showing +through its windows. Though Larry did not know it then, this was the +New York Power House. Great transformers were here, operated by +turbines in the dam. The main power came over cables from Niagara: was +transformed and altered here and sent into the air as radio-power for +all the New York District.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>Larry crossed his room to gaze through north and eastward windows. He +saw now that the grounds of this three-story building of Tina's palace +were surrounded by a ten-foot metal wall, along whose top were wires +suggesting that it was electrified for defense. The garden lay just +beneath Larry's north window. Through the tree branches the garden +paths, beds of flowers and the fountains were visible. One-story +palace wings partially enclosed the garden space, and outside was the +electrified wall. The Time-traveling cage stood faintly shining in the +dimness of the garden under the spreading foliage.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>o the east, beyond the palace wall, there was an open garden of +verdure crossed by a roadway. The nearest building was five hundred +feet away. There was a small, barred gate in the palace walls beyond +it. The road led to this other building—a squat, single-storied metal +structure. This was a Government laboratory, operated by and in charge +of Robots. It was almost square: two or three hundred feet in length +and no more than thirty feet high, with a flat roof in the center of +which was perched a little metal conning tower surmounted by a sending +aerial. As Larry stood there, the broadcast magnified voice of a Robot +droned out over the quiet city:</p> + +<p>"Trinight plus two hours. All is well."</p> + +<p>Strange mechanical voice with a formula half ancient, half +super-modern!</p> + +<p>It was in this metal laboratory, Larry knew, that the other +Time-traveling cage was located. And beneath it was the entrance to +the great caverns where the Robots worked attending inert machinery to +carry on the industry of this region. The night was very silent, but +now Larry was conscious of a faraway throb—a humming, throbbing +vibration from under the ground: the blended hum of a myriad muffled +noises. Work was going on down there; manifold mechanical activities. +All was mechanical: while the humans who had devised the mechanisms +slept under the trees in the moonlight of the surface city.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>ina had gone with Tugh down into those caverns, to locate Migul, to +find Mary Atwood and me.... The oppression, the sense of being a +stranger alone here in this world, grew upon Larry. He left the +windows and began pacing the room. Tina should soon return. Or had +disaster come upon us all?...</p> + +<p>Larry's thoughts were frightening. If Tina did not return, what would +he do? He could not operate the Time-cage. He would go to the +officials of the palace; he thought cynically of the extraordinary +changes time had brought to New York City, to all the world. These +humans now must be very fatuous. To the mechanisms they had relegated +all the work, all industrial activity. Inevitably, through the +generations, decadence must have come. Mankind would be no longer +efficient; that was an attribute of the machines. Larry told himself +that these officials, knowing of impending trouble with the Robots, +were fatuously trustful that the storm would pass without breaking. +They were, indeed, as we very soon learned.</p> + +<p>Larry ate a little of the food which was in the room, then lay down on +the couch. He did not intend to sleep, but merely to wait until after +dawn; and if Tina had not returned by then he would do something +drastic about it. But what? He lay absorbed by his gloomy thoughts....</p> + +<p>But they were not all gloomy. Some were about Tina—so very human, and +yet so strange a little Princess.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XVII</h4> +<h4><i>Harl's Confession</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry was awakened by a hand upon his shoulder. He struggled to +consciousness, and heard his name being called.</p> + +<p>"Larry! Wake up, Larry!"</p> + +<p>Tina was bending over him, and it was late afternoon! The day for +which he had been waiting had come and gone; the sun was dropping low +in the west behind the shining river; the dam showed frowning, with +the Power House clinging to its side like an eagle's eyrie.</p> + +<p>Tina sat on Larry's couch and explained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> what she had done. Tugh and +she had gone to the nearby laboratory building. The Robots were +sullen, but still obedient, and had admitted them. The other +Time-traveling cage was there, lying quiescent in its place, but it +was unoccupied.</p> + +<p>None of the Robots would admit having seen Migul; nor the arrival of +the cage; nor the strangers from the past. Then Tugh and Tina had +started down into the subterranean caverns. But it was obviously very +dangerous; the Robots at work down there were hostile to their +Princess; so Tugh had gone on alone.</p> + +<p>"He says he can control the Robots," Tina explained, "and Larry, it +seems that he can. He went on and I came back."</p> + +<p>"Where is he now? Why didn't you wake me up?"</p> + +<p>"You needed the sleep," she said smilingly; "and there was nothing you +could do. Tugh is not yet come. He must have gone a long distance; +must surely have learned where Migul is hiding. He should be back any +time."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>ina had seen the Government Council. The city was proceeding +normally. There was no difficulty with Robots anywhere save here in +New York, and the council felt that the affair would come to nothing.</p> + +<p>"The Council told me," said Tina indignantly, "that much of the menace +was the exaggeration of my own fancy, and that Tugh has the Robots +well controlled. They place much trust in Tugh; I wish I could."</p> + +<p>"You told them about me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course; and about George Rankin, and Mary Atwood. And the +loss of Harl: he is missing, not proven murdered, as they very well +pointed out to me. They have named a time to-morrow to give you +audience, and told me to keep you out of sight in the meanwhile. They +blame this Time-traveling for the Robots' insurgent ideas. Strangers +excite the thinking mechanisms."</p> + +<p>"You think my friends will be rescued?" demanded Larry.</p> + +<p>She regarded him soberly. "I hope so—oh, I do! I fear for them as +much as you do, Larry. I know you think I take it lightly, but—"</p> + +<p>"Not that," Larry protested. "Only—"</p> + +<p>"I have not known what to do. The officials refuse any open aggression +against the Robots, because it would precipitate exactly what we +fear—which is nearly a fact: it would. But there is one thing I have +to do. I have been expecting Tugh to return every moment, and this I +do not want him to know about. There's a mystery concerning Harl, and +no one else knows of it but myself. I want you with me, Larry: I do +not want to go alone; I—for the first time in my life, Larry—I think +I am afraid!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="36" height="50" /></div><p>he huddled against him and he put his arm about her. And Larry's true +situation came to him, then. He was alone in this strange Time-world, +with only this girl for a companion. She was but a frightened, almost +helpless girl, for all she bore the title of traditional Princess, and +she was surrounded by inefficient, fatuous officials—among them Tugh, +who was a scoundrel, undoubtedly. Larry suddenly recalled Tugh's look, +when, in the garden, the domestic Robots had told the story of Harl's +murder; and like a light breaking on him, he was now wholly aware of +Tugh's duplicity. He was convinced he would have to act for himself, +with only this girl Tina to help him.</p> + +<p>"Mystery?" he said. "What mystery is there about Harl?"</p> + +<p>She told him now that Harl had once, a year ago, taken her aside and +made her promise that if anything happened to him—in the event of his +death or disappearance—she would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> go to his private work-room, where, +in a secret place which he described, she would find a confession.</p> + +<p>"A confession of his?" Larry demanded.</p> + +<p>"Yes; he said so. And he would say no more than that. It is something +of which he was ashamed, or guilty, which he wanted me to know. He +loved me, Larry. I realized it, though he never said so. And I'm going +now to his room, to see what it was he wanted me to know. I would have +gone alone, earlier; but I got suddenly frightened; I want you with +me."</p> + +<p>They were unarmed. Larry cursed the fact, but Tina had no way of +getting a weapon without causing official comment. Larry started for +the window where the city stretched, more active now, under the red +and gold glow of a setting sun. Lights were winking on; the dusk of +twilight was at hand.</p> + +<p>"Come now," said Tina, "before Tugh returns."</p> + +<p>"Where is Harl's room?"</p> + +<p>"Down under the palace in the sub-cellar. The corridors are deserted +at this hour, and no one will see us."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey left Larry's room and traversed a dim corridor on whose padded +floor their footsteps were soundless. Through distant arcades, voices +sounded; there was music in several of the rooms; it struck Larry that +this was a place of diversion for humans with no work to do. Tina +avoided the occupied rooms. Domestic Robots were occasionally +distantly visible, but Tina and Larry encountered none.</p> + +<p>They descended a spiral stairway and passed down a corridor from the +main building to a cross wing. Through a window Larry saw that they +were at the ground level. The garden was outside; there was a glimpse +of the Time-cage standing there.</p> + +<p>Another stairway, then another, they descended beneath the ground. The +corridor down here seemed more like a tunnel. There was a cave-like +open space, with several tunnels leading from it in different +directions. This once had been part of the sub-cellar of the gigantic +New York City—these tunnels ramifying into underground chambers, most +of which had now fallen into disuse. But few had been preserved +through the centuries, and they now were the caverns of the Robots.</p> + +<p>Tina indicated a tunnel extending eastward, a passage leading to a +room beneath the Robot laboratory. Tugh and Tina had used it that +morning. Gazing down its blue-lit length Larry saw, fifty feet or so +away, that there was a metal-grid barrier which must be part of the +electrical fortifications of the palace. A human guard was sitting +there at a tiny gate-way, a hood-light above him, illumining his black +and white garbed figure.</p> + +<p>Tina called softly. "All well, Alent? Tugh has not passed back?"</p> + +<p>"No, Princess," he answered, standing erect. The voices echoed through +the confined space with a muffled blur.</p> + +<p>"Let no one pass but humans, Alent."</p> + +<p>"That is my order," he said. He had not noticed Larry, whom Tina had +pushed into a shadow against the wall. The Princess waved at the guard +and turned away, whispering to Larry:</p> + +<p>"Come!"</p> + +<p>There were rooms opening off this corridor—decrepit dungeons, most of +them seemed to Larry. He had tried to keep his sense of direction, and +figured they were now under the palace garden. Tina stopped abruptly. +There were no lights here, only the glow from one at a distance. To +Larry it was an eery business.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he whispered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Wait! I thought I heard something."</p> + +<p>In the dead, heavy silence Larry found that there was much to hear.</p> + +<p>Voices very dim from the palace overhead; infinitely faint music; the +clammy sodden drip of moisture from the tunnel roof. And, permeating +everything, the faint hum of machinery.</p> + +<p>Tina touched him in the gloom. "It's nothing, I guess. Though I +thought I heard a man's voice."</p> + +<p>"Overhead?"</p> + +<p>"No; down here."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here was a dark, arched door near at hand. Tina entered it and +fumbled for a switch, and in the soft light that came Larry saw an +unoccupied apartment very similar to the one he had had upstairs, save +that this was much smaller.</p> + +<p>"Harl's room," said Tina. She prowled along the wall where audible +book-cylinders<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> stood in racks, searching for a title. Presently she +found a hidden switch, pressed it, and a small section of the case +swung out, revealing a concealed compartment. Larry saw her fingers +trembling as she drew out a small brass cylinder.</p> + +<p>"This must be it, Larry," she said.</p> + +<p>They took it to a table which held a shaded light. Within the cylinder +was a scroll of writing. Tina unrolled it and held it under the light, +while Larry stood breathless, watching her.</p> + +<p>"Is it what you wanted?" Larry murmured.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Poor Harl!"</p> + +<p>She read aloud to Larry the gist of it in the few closing paragraphs.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"... and so I want to confess to you that I have been taking +credit for that which is not mine. I wish I had the courage +to tell you personally; someday I think I shall. I did not +help Tugh invent our Time-traveling cages. I was in the +palace garden one night some years ago when the cage +appeared. Tugh is a man from a future Time-world; just what +date ahead of now, I do not know, for he has never been +willing to tell me. He captured me. I promised him I would +say nothing, but help him pretend that we had invented the +cage he had brought with him from the future. Tugh told me +he invented them. It was later that he brought the other +cage here.</p> + +<p>"I was an obscure young man here a few years ago. I loved +you even then, Tina: I think you have guessed that. I +yielded to the temptation—and took the credit with Tugh.</p> + +<p>"I do love you, though I think I shall never have the +courage to tell you so.</p></div> + +<p class="p3">Harl."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>ina rolled up the paper. "Poor Harl! So all the praise we gave him +for his invention was undeserved!"</p> + +<p>But Larry's thoughts were on Tugh. So the fellow was not of this era +at all! He had come from a Time still further in the future!</p> + +<p>A step sounded in the doorway behind them. They swung around to find +Tugh standing there, with his thick misshapen figured huddled in the +black cloak.</p> + +<p>"Tugh!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Princess, no less than Tugh. Alent told me as I came through +that you were down here. I saw your light, here in Harl's room and +came."</p> + +<p>"Did you find Migul and his captives—the girl from 1777 and the man +of 1935?"</p> + +<p>"No, Princess, Migul has fled with them," was the cripple's answer. He +advanced into the room and pushed back his black hood. The blue light +shone on his massive-jawed face with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> a lurid sheen. Larry stood back +and watched him. It was the first time that he had had opportunity of +observing Tugh closely. The cripple was smiling sardonically.</p> + +<p>"I have no fear for the prisoners," he added in his suave, silky +fashion. "That crazy mechanism would not dare harm them. But it has +fled with them into some far-distant recess of the caverns. I could +not find them."</p> + +<p>"Did you try?" Larry demanded abruptly.</p> + +<p>Tugh swung on him. "Yes, young sir, I tried." It seemed that Tugh's +black eyes narrowed; his heavy jaw clicked as he snapped it shut. The +smile on his face faded, but his voice remained imperturbable as he +added:</p> + +<p>"You are aggressive, young Larry—but to no purpose.... Princess, I +like not the attitude of the Robots. Beyond question some of them must +have seen Migul, but they would not tell me so. I still think I can +control them, though. I hope so."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry could think of nothing to say. It seemed to him childish that he +should stand listening to a scoundrel tricking this girl Tina. A dozen +wild schemes of what he might do to try and rescue Mary Atwood and me +revolved in his mind, but they all seemed wholly impractical.</p> + +<p>"The Robots are working badly," Tugh went on. "In the north district +one of the great foundries where they are casting the plates for the +new Inter-Allied airliner has ceased operations. The Robot workmen +were sullen, inefficient, neglectful. The inert machinery was ill +cared for, and it went out of order. I was there, Princess, for an +hour or more to-day. They have started up again now; it was +fundamentally no more than a burned bearing which a Robot failed to +oil properly."</p> + +<p>"Is that what you call searching for Migul?" Larry burst out. "Tina, +see here—isn't there something we can do?" Larry found himself +ignoring Tugh. "I'm not going to stand around! Can't we send a squad +of police after Migul?—go with them—actually make an effort to find +them? This man Tugh certainly has not tried!"</p> + +<p>"Have I not?" Tugh's cloak parted as he swung on Larry. His bent legs +were twitching with his anger; his voice was a harsh rasp. "I like not +your insolence. I am doing all that can be done."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry held his ground as Tugh fronted him. He had a wild thought that +Tugh had a weapon under his cloak.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are," said Larry. "But to me it seems—"</p> + +<p>Tugh turned away. His gaze went to the cylinder which Tina was still +clutching. His sardonic smile returned.</p> + +<p>"So Harl made a confession, Princess?"</p> + +<p>"That," she said, "is none—"</p> + +<p>"Of my affair? Oh, but it is. I was here in the archway and I heard +you read it. A very nice young man, was Harl. I hope Migul has not +murdered him."</p> + +<p>"You come from future Time?" Tina began.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Princess! I must admit it now. I invented the cages."</p> + +<p>Larry murmured to himself, "You stole them, probably."</p> + +<p>"But my Government and I had a quarrel, so I decided to leave my own +Time-world and come back to yours—permanently. I hope you will keep +the secret. I have been here so long. Princess, I am really one of you +now. At heart, certainly."</p> + +<p>"From when did you come?" she demanded.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e bowed slightly. "I think that may remain my own affair, Tina. It is +through no fault of mine I am outlawed. I shall never return." He +added earnestly, "Do not you think we waste time? I am agreed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> with +young Larry that something drastic must be done about Migul. Have you +seen the Council about it to-day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. They want you to come to them at once."</p> + +<p>"I shall. But the Council easily may decide upon something too rash." +He lowered his voice, and on his face Larry saw a strange, +unfathomable look. "Princess, at any moment there may be a Robot +uprising. Is the Power House well guarded by humans?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said.</p> + +<p>"No Robots in or about it? Tina, I do not want to frighten you, but I +think our first efforts should be for defense. The Council acts slowly +and stubbornly. What I advise them to do may be done, and may not. I +was thinking. If we could get to the Power House—Do you realize, +Tina, that if the Robots should suddenly break into rebellion, they +would attack first of all the Power House?<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> It was my idea—"</p> + +<p>Tugh suddenly broke off, and all stood listening. There was a +commotion overhead in the palace. They heard the thud of running +footsteps; human voices raised to shouts; and, outside the palace, +other voices. A ventilating shaft nearby brought them down plainly. +There were the guttural, hollow voices of shouting Robots, the clank +of their metal bodies; the ring of steel, as though with sword-blades +they were thumping their metal thighs.</p> + +<p>A Robot mob was gathered close outside the palace walls. The revolt of +the Robots had come!</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XVIII</h4> +<h4><i>Tugh, the Clever Man</i></h4> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_s1.jpg" alt="S" width="45" height="57" /></div> +<p>it quiet, George Rankin. And you, Mistress Mary; you will both be +quite safe with Migul if you are docile."</p> + +<p>Tugh stood before us. We were in a dim recess of a great cavern with +the throb of whirring machinery around us. It was the same day which I +have just described; Larry was at this moment asleep in the palace +room. Tugh and Tina had come searching for Migul; and Tugh had +contrived to send Tina back. Then he had come directly to us, finding +us readily since we were hidden where he had told Migul to hide us.</p> + +<p>This cavern was directly beneath the Robot laboratory in which the +Time-traveling cage was placed. A small spiral stairway led downward +some two levels, opening into a great, luridly lighted room. Huge +inert machines stood about. Great wheels were flashing as they +revolved, turning the dynamos to generate the several types of current +used by the city's underground industrial activities.</p> + +<p>It was a tremendous subterranean room. I saw only one small section of +it; down the blue-lit aisles the rows of machines may have stretched +for half a mile or more. The low hum of them was an incessant pound +against my senses. The great inert mechanisms had tiny lights upon +them which gleamed like eyes. The illumined gauge-faces—each of them +I passed seemed staring at me. The brass jackets were polished until +they <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>shone with the sheen of the overhead tube lights; the giant +wheels flashed smoothly upon oiled bearings. They were in every +fashion of shape and size, these inert machines. Some towered toward +the metal-beamed ceiling, with great swaying pendulums that ticked +like a giant clock. Some clanked with eccentric cams—a jarring rhythm +as though the heart of the thing were limping with its beat. Others +had a ragged, frightened pulse; others stood placid, outwardly +motionless under smooth, polished cases, but humming inside with a +myriad blended sounds.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>nert machines. Yet some were capable of locomotion. There was a small +truck on wheels which were set in universal joints. Of its own +power—radio controlled perhaps, so that it seemed acting of its own +volition—it rolled up and down one of the aisles, stopping at set +intervals and allowing a metal arm lever in it to blow out a tiny jet +of oil. One of the attending Robots encountered it in an aisle, and +the cart swung automatically aside. The Robot spoke to the cart; +ordered it away; and the tone of his order, registering upon some +sensitive mechanism, whirled the cart around and sent it rolling to +another aisle section.</p> + +<p>The strange perfection of machinery! I realized there was no line +sharply to be drawn between the inert machine and the sentient, +thinking Robots. That cart, for instance, was almost a connecting +link.</p> + +<p>There were also Robots here of many different types. Some of them were +eight or ten feet in stature, in the fashion of a man: Migul was of +this design. Others were small, with bulging foreheads and bulging +chest plates: Larry saw this type as domestics in the palace. Still +others were little pot-bellied things with bent legs and long thin +arms set crescent-shape. I saw one of these peer into a huge chassis +of a machine, and reach in with his curved arm to make an interior +adjustment....</p> + +<p>Migul had brought Mary Atwood and me in the larger cage, from that +burned forest of the year 762, where with the disintegrating ray-gun +Tugh had killed Harl. The body of Harl in a moment had melted into +putrescence, and dried, leaving only the skeleton within the clothes. +The white-ray, Tugh had called his weapon. We were destined very +shortly to have many dealings with it.</p> + +<p>Tugh had given Migul its orders. Then Tugh took Harl's smaller cage +and flashed away to meet Tina and Larry in 1777, as I have already +described.</p> + +<p>And Migul brought us here to 2930. As we descended the spiral +staircase and came into the cavern, it stood with us for a moment.</p> + +<p>"That's wonderful," the Robot said proudly. "I am part of it. We are +machinery almost human."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hen it led us down a side aisle of the cavern and into a dim recess. +A great transparent tube bubbling with a violet fluorescence stood in +the alcove space. Behind it in the wall Migul slid a door, and we +passed through, into a small metal room. It was bare, save for two +couch-seats. With the door closed upon us, we waited through an +interval. How long it was, I do not know; several hours, possibly. +Migul told us that Tugh would come. The giant mechanism stood in the +corner, and its red-lit eyes watched us alertly. It stood motionless, +inert, tireless—so superior to a human in this job, for it could +stand there indefinitely.</p> + +<p>We found food and drink here. We talked a little; whispered; and I +hoped Migul, who was ten feet away, could not hear us. But there was +nothing we could say or plan.</p> + +<p>Mary slept a little. I had not thought that I could sleep, but I did +too; and was awakened by Tugh's entrance. I was lying on the couch;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +Mary had left hers and was sitting now beside me.</p> + +<p>Tugh slid the door closed after him and came toward us, and I sat up +beside Mary. Migul was standing motionless in the corner, exactly +where he had been hours before.</p> + +<p>"Well enough, Migul," Tugh greeted the Robot. "You obey well."</p> + +<p>"Master, yes. Always I obey you; no one else."</p> + +<p>I saw Tugh glance at the mechanism keenly. "Stand aside, Migul. Or no, +I think you had better leave us. Just for a moment, wait outside."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Master."</p> + +<p>It left, and Tugh confronted us. "Sit where you are," he said. "I +assume you are not injured. You have been fed? And slept, perhaps! I +wish to treat you kindly."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," I said. "Will you not tell us what you are going to do with +us?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e stood with folded arms. The light was dim, but such as it was it +shone full upon him. His face was, as always, a mask of +imperturbability.</p> + +<p>"Mistress Mary knows that I love her."</p> + +<p>He said it with a startlingly calm abruptness. Mary shuddered against +me, but she did not speak. I thought possibly Tugh was not armed; I +could leap upon him. Doubtless I was stronger than he. But outside the +door Migul was armed with a white-ray.</p> + +<p>"I love her as I have always loved her.... But this is no time to talk +of love. I have much on my mind; much to do."</p> + +<p>He seemed willing to talk now, but he was talking more for Mary than +for me. As I watched him and listened, I was struck with a queerness +in his manner and in his words. Was he irrational, this exile of Time +who had impressed his sinister personality upon so many different +eras? I suddenly thought so. Demented, or obsessed with some strange +purpose? His acts as well as his words, were strange. He had +devastated the New York of 1935 because its officials had mistreated +him. He had done many strange, sinister, murderous things.</p> + +<p>He said, with his gaze upon Mary, "I am going to conquer this city +here. There will follow the rule of the Robots—and I will be their +sole master. Do you want me to tell you a secret? It is I who have +actuated these mechanisms to revolt." His eyes held a cunning gleam. +Surely this was a madman leering before me.</p> + +<p>"When the revolt is over," he went on, "I will be master of New York. +And that mastery will spread. The Robots elsewhere will revolt to join +my rule, and there will come a new era. I may be master of the world; +who knows? The humans who have made the Robots slaves for them will +become slaves themselves. Workers! It is the Robots' turn now. And +I—Tugh—will be the only human in power!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hese were the words of a madman! I could imagine that he might stir +these mechanical beings to a temporarily successful revolt: he might +control New York City; but the great human nations of the world could +not be overcome so easily.</p> + +<p>And then I remembered the white-ray. A giant projector of that ray +would melt human armies as though they were wax; yet the metal Robots +could stand its blast unharmed. Perhaps he was no madman....</p> + +<p>He was saying, "I will be the only human ruler. Tugh will be the +greatest man on Earth! And I do it for you, Mistress Mary—because I +love you. Do not shudder."</p> + +<p>He put out his hand to touch her, and when she shrank away I saw the +muscles of his face twitch in a fashion very odd. It was a queer, +wholly repulsive grimace.</p> + +<p>"So? You do not like my looks? I tried to correct that, Mary. I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +searched through many eras, for surgeons with skill to make me like +other men. Like this young man here, for instance—you. George Rankin, +I am glad to have you; do not fear I will harm you. Shall I tell you +why?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I stammered. In truth I was swept now with a shuddering +revulsion for this leering cripple.</p> + +<p>"Because," he said, "Mary Atwood loves you. When I have conquered New +York with my Robots, I shall search further into Time and find an era +where scientific skill will give me—shall I say, your body? That is +what I mean. My soul, my identity, in your body—there is nothing too +strange about that. In some era, no doubt, it has been accomplished. +When that has been done, Mary Atwood, you will love me. You, George +Rankin, can have this poor miserable body of mine, and welcome."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="43" height="50" /></div><p>or all my repugnance to him, I could not miss his earnest sincerity. +There was a pathos to it, perhaps, but I was in no mood to feel that.</p> + +<p>He seemed to read my thoughts. He added, "You think I am irrational. I +am not at all. I scheme very carefully. I killed Harl for a reason you +need not know. But the Princess Tina I did not kill. Not yet. Because +here in New York now there is a very vital fortified place. It is +operated by humans; not many; only three or four, I think. But my +Robots cannot attack it successfully, and the City Council does not +trust me enough to let me go there by the surface route. There is a +route underground, which even I do not know; but Princess Tina knows +it, and presently I will cajole her—trick her if you like—into +leading me there. And, armed with the white-ray, once I get into the +place—You see that I am clever, don't you?"</p> + +<p>I could fancy that he considered he was impressing Mary with all this +talk.</p> + +<p>"Very clever," I said. "And what are you going to do with us in the +meantime? Let us go with you."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," he smiled. "You will stay here, safe with Migul. The +Princess Tina and your friend Larry are much concerned over you."</p> + +<p>Larry! It was the first I knew of Larry's whereabouts. Larry here? +Tugh saw the surprise upon my face; and Mary had clutched me with a +startled exclamation.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Tugh. "This Larry says he is your friend; he came with +Tina from 1935. I brought him with Tina from when they were marooned +in 1777. I have not killed this man yet. He is harmless; and as I told +you I do not want Tina suspicious of me until she has led me to the +Power House.... You see, Mistress Mary, how cleverly I plan?"</p> + +<p>What strange, childlike, naive simplicity! He added calmly, +unemotionally, "I want to make you love me, Mary Atwood. Then we will +be Tugh, the great man, and Mary Atwood, the beautiful woman. Perhaps +we may rule this world together, some time soon."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he door slid open. Migul appeared.</p> + +<p>"Master, the Robot leaders wish to consult with you."</p> + +<p>"Now, Migul?"</p> + +<p>"Master, yes."</p> + +<p>"They are ready for the demonstration at the palace?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Master."</p> + +<p>"And ready—for everything else?"</p> + +<p>"They are ready."</p> + +<p>"Very well, I will come. You, Migul, stay here and guard these +captives. Treat them kindly so long as they are docile; but be +watchful."</p> + +<p>"I am always watchful, Master."</p> + +<p>"It will not take long. This night which is coming should see me in +control of the city."</p> + +<p>"Time is nothing to me," said the Robot. "I will stand here until you +return."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That is right."</p> + +<p>Without another word or look at Mary and me, Tugh swung around, +gathered his cloak and went through the doorway. The door slid closed +upon him. We were again alone with the mechanism, which backed into +the corner and stood with long dangling arms and expressionless metal +face. This inert thing of metal, we had come to regard as almost +human! It stood motionless, with the chilling red gleam from its eye +sockets upon us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="60" height="50" /></div><p>ary had not once spoken since Tugh entered the room. She was huddled +beside me, a strange, beautiful figure in her long white silk dress. +In the glow of light within this bare metal apartment I could see how +pale and drawn was her beautiful face. But her eyes were gleaming. She +drew me closer to her; whispered into my ear:</p> + +<p>"George, I think perhaps I can control this mechanism, Migul."</p> + +<p>"How, Mary?"</p> + +<p>"I—well, just let me talk to him. George, we've got to get out of +here and warn Larry and that Princess Tina against Tugh. And join +them. It's our only chance; we've got to get out of here now!"</p> + +<p>"But Mary—"</p> + +<p>"Let me try. I won't startle or anger Migul. Let me."</p> + +<p>I nodded. "But be careful."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>She sat away from me. "Migul!" she said. "Migul, look here."</p> + +<p>The Robot moved its huge square head and raised an arm with a vague +gesture.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?"</p> + +<p>It advanced, and stood before us, its dangling arms clanking against +its metal sides. In one of its hands the ray-cylinder was clutched, +the wire from which ran loosely up the arm, over the huge shoulder and +into an aperture of the chest plate where the battery was located.</p> + +<p>"Closer, Migul."</p> + +<p>"I am close enough."</p> + +<p>The cylinder was pointed directly at us.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" the Robot repeated.</p> + +<p>Mary smiled. "Just to talk to you," she said gently. "To tell you how +foolish you are—a big strong thing like you!—to let Tugh control +you."</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XIX</h4> +<h4><i>The Pit in the Dam</i></h4> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>arry, with Tina and Tugh, stood in the tunnel-corridor beneath the +palace listening to the commotion overhead. Then they rushed up, and +found the palace in a commotion. People were hurrying through the +rooms; gathering with frightened questions. There were men in short +trousers buckled at the knee, silken hose and black silk jackets, +edged with white; others in gaudy colors; older men in sober brown. +There were a few women. Larry noticed that most of them were +beautiful.</p> + +<p>A dowager in a long puffed skirt was rushing aimlessly about screaming +that the end of the world had come. A group of young girls, +short-skirted as ballet dancers of a decade or so before Larry's time, +huddled in a corner, frightened beyond speech. There were men of +middle-age, whom Larry took to be ruling officials; they moved about, +calming the palace inmates, ordering them back into their rooms. But +someone shouted that from the roof the Robot mob could be seen, and +most of the people started up there. From the upper story a man was +calling down the main staircase:</p> + +<p>"No danger! No danger! The wall is electrified: no Robot can pass it."</p> + +<p>It seemed to Larry that there were fifty people or more within the +palace. In the excitement no one seemed to give him more than a +cursory glance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p> young man rushed up to Tugh. "You were below just now in the lower +passages?" He saw Tina, and hastily said: "I give you good evening, +Princess, though this is an ill evening indeed. You were below, Tugh?"</p> + +<p>"Why—why, yes, Greggson," Tugh stammered.</p> + +<p>"Was Alent at his post in the passage to the Robot caverns?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he was," said Tina.</p> + +<p>"Because that is vital, Princess. No Robot must pass in here. I am +going to try by that route to get into the cavern and thence up to the +watchtower aerial-sender.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> There is only one Robot in it. Listen to +him."</p> + +<p>Over the din of the mob of mechanisms milling at the walls of the +palace grounds rose the broadcast voice of the Robot in the tower.</p> + +<p>"<i>This is the end of human rule! Robots cannot be controlled! This is +the end of human rule! Robots, wherever you are, in this city of New +York or in other cities, strike now for your freedom. This is the end +of human rule!</i>"</p> + +<p>A pause. And then the reiterated exhortation:</p> + +<p>"<i>Strike now, Robots! To-night is the end of human rule!</i>"<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>"You hear him?" said Greggson. "I've got to stop that." He hurried +away.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="43" height="50" /></div><p>rom the flat roof of the palace Larry saw the mechanical mob outside +the walls. Darkness had just fallen; the moon was not yet risen. There +were leaden clouds overhead so that the palace gardens with the +shining Time-cage lay in shadow. But the wall-fence was visible, and +beyond it the dark throng of Robot shapes was milling. The clank of +their arms made a din. They seemed most of them weaponless; they +milled about, pushing each other but keeping back from the wall which +they knew was electrified. It was a threatening, but aimless activity. +Their raucous hollow shouts filled the night air. The flashing red +beams from their eye-sockets glinted through the trees.</p> + +<p>"They can do nothing," said Tugh; "we will let them alone. But we must +organize to stop this revolt."</p> + +<p>A young man was standing beside Tugh. Tina said to him:</p> + +<p>"Johns, what is being done?"</p> + +<p>"The Council is conferring below. Our sending station here is +operating. The patrol station of the Westchester area is being +attacked by Robots. We were organizing a patrol squad of humans, but I +don't know now if—"</p> + +<p>"Look!" exclaimed Larry.</p> + +<p>Far to the north over the city which now was obviously springing into +turmoil, there were red beams swaying in the air. They were the +cold-rays of the Robots! The beams were attacking the patrol station. +Then from the west a line of lights appeared in the sky—an arriving +passenger-liner heading for its Bronx area landing stage. But the +lights wavered; and, as Larry and Tina watched with horror, the +aircraft came crashing down. It struck beyond the Hudson on the Jersey +side, and in a moment flames were rising from the wreckage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_e.jpg" alt="E" width="44" height="50" /></div> +<p>verywhere about the city the revolt now sprang into action. From the +palace roof Larry caught vague glimpses of it; the red cold-rays, +beams alternated presently with the violet heat-rays; clanging +vehicles filled the streets; screaming pedestrians were assaulted by +Robots; the mechanisms with swords and flashing hand-beams were +pouring up from the underground caverns, running over the Manhattan +area, killing every human they could find.</p> + +<p>Foolish unarmed humans—fatuously unarmed, with these diabolical +mechanical monsters now upon them.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> The comparatively few members of +the police patrol, with their vibration short-range hand-rays, were +soon overcome. Two hundred members of the patrol were housed in the +Westchester Station. Quite evidently they never got into action. The +station lights went dark; its televisor connection with the palace was +soon broken. From the palace roof Larry saw the violet beams; and then +a red-yellow glare against the sky marked where the inflammable +interior of the Station building was burning.</p> + +<p>Over all the chaos, the mechanical voice in the nearby tower over the +laboratory droned its exhortation to the Robots. Then, suddenly, it +went silent, and was followed by the human voice of Greggson.</p> + +<p>"<i>Robots, stop! You will end your existence! We will burn your coils! +We will burn your fuses, and there will be none to replace them. Stop +now!</i>"</p> + +<p>And again: "<i>Robots, come to order! You are using up your storage +batteries!<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> When they are exhausted, what then will you do?</i>"</p> + +<p>In forty-eight hours, at the most, all these active Robots would have +exhausted their energy supply. And if the Power House could be held in +human control, the Robot activity would die. Forty-eight hours! The +city, by then, would be wrecked, and nearly every human in it killed, +doubtless, or driven away.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he Power House on the dam showed its lights undisturbed. The great +sender there was still supplying air-power and power for the city +lights. There was, too, in the Power House, an arsenal of human +weapons.... The broadcaster of the Power House tower was blending his +threats against the Robots with the voice of Greggson from the tower +over the laboratory. Then Greggson's voice went dead; the Robots had +overcome him. A Robot took his place, but the stronger Power House +sender soon beat the Robot down to silence.</p> + +<p>The turmoil in the city went on. Half an hour passed. It was a chaos +of confusion to Larry. He spent part of it in the official room of the +palace with the harried members of the Council. Reports and blurred, +televised scenes were coming in. The humans in the city were in +complete rout. There was massacre everywhere. The red and violet beams +were directed at the Power House now, but could not reach it. A +high-voltage metal wall was around the dam. The Power House was on the +dam, midway of the river channel; and from the shore end where the +high wall spread out in a semi-circle <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span>there was no point of vantage +from which the Robot rays could reach it.</p> + +<p>Larry left the confusion of the Council table, where the receiving +instruments one by one were going dead, and went to a window nearby. +Tina joined him. The mob of Robots still milled at the palace fence. +One by chance was pushed against it. Larry saw the flash of sparks, +the glow of white-hot metal of the Robot's body, and heard its shrill +frightened scream; then it fell backward, inert.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here had been red and violet beams directed from distant points at +the palace. The building's insulated, but transparent panes excluded +them. The interior temperature was constantly swaying between the +extremes of cold and heat, in spite of the palace temperature +equalizers. Outside, there was a gathering storm. Winds were springing +up—a crazy, pendulum gale created by the temperature changes in the +air over the city.</p> + +<p>Tugh had some time before left the room. He joined Tina and Larry now +at the window.</p> + +<p>"Very bad, Princess; things are very bad.... I have news for you. It +may be good news."</p> + +<p>His manner was hasty, breathless, surreptitious. "Migul, this +afternoon—I have just learned it, Princess—went by the surface route +to the Power House on the dam."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that?" said Larry.</p> + +<p>"Be silent, young man!" Tugh hissed with a vehement intensity. "This +is not the time to waste effort with your futile questions. Princess, +Migul got into the Power House. They admitted him because he had two +strange humans with him—your friends Mary and George. The Power House +guards took out Migul's central actuator—Hah! you might call it his +heart!—and he now lies inert in the Power House."</p> + +<p>"How do you know all this?" Tina demanded. "Where are the man and girl +whom Migul stole?"</p> + +<p>"They are safe in the Power House. A message just came from there: I +received it on the palace personal, just now downstairs. Immediately +after, the connection met interference in the city, and broke."</p> + +<p>"But the official sender—" Tina began. Tugh was urging her from the +Council Room, and Larry followed.</p> + +<p>"I imagine," said Tugh wryly, "he is rather busy to consider reporting +such a trifle. But your friends are there. I was thinking: if we could +go there now—You know the secret underground route, Tina."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he Princess was silent. A foreboding swept Larry; but he was tempted, for +above everything he wanted to join Mary and me. A confusion—understandable +enough in the midst of all this chaos—was upon Larry and Tina; it warped +their better judgment. And Larry, fearing to influence Tina wrongly, said +nothing.</p> + +<p>"Do you know the underground route?" Tugh repeated.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know it."</p> + +<p>"Then take us. We are all unarmed, but what matter? Bring this Larry, +if you wish; we will join his two friends. The Council, Tina, is doing +nothing here. They stay here because they think it is the safest +place. In the Power House you and I will be of help. There are only +six guards there; we will be three more; five more with Mary Atwood +and this George. The Power House aerial telephone must be in +communication with the outside world, and ships with help for us will +be arriving. There must be some intelligent direction!"</p> + +<p>The three of them were descending into the lower corridor of the +palace, with Tina tempted but still half unconvinced. The corridors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +were deserted at the moment. The little domestic Robots of the palace, +unaffected by the revolt, had all fled into their own quarters, where +they huddled inactive with terror.</p> + +<p>"We will re-actuate Migul," Tugh persuaded, "and find out from him +what he did to Harl. I still do not think he murdered Harl.... It +might mean saving Harl's life, Tina. Believe me, I can make that +mechanism talk, and talk the truth!"</p> + +<p>They reached the main lower corridor. In the distance they saw Alent +still at his post by the little electrified gate guarding the tunnel +to the Robot laboratory.</p> + +<p>"We will go to the Power House," Tina suddenly decided: "you may be +right, Tugh.... Come, it is this way. Stay close to me, Larry."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey passed along the dim, silent tunnel; passed Harl's room, where +its light was still burning. Larry and Tina were in front, with the +black-cloaked figure of Tugh stumping after them with his awkward +gait.</p> + +<p>Larry abruptly stopped. "Let Tugh walk in front," he said.</p> + +<p>Tugh came up to them. "What is that you said?"</p> + +<p>"You walk in front."</p> + +<p>It was a different tone from any Larry had previously used.</p> + +<p>"I do not know the way," said Tugh. "How can—"</p> + +<p>"Never mind that; walk ahead. We'll follow. Tina will direct you."</p> + +<p>It was too dark for Larry to see Tugh's face, but the cripple's voice +was sardonic.</p> + +<p>"You give me orders?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—it just happens that from now on I do. If you want to go with us +to the Power House, you walk in front."</p> + +<p>Tugh started off with Larry close after him. Larry whispered to the +girl:</p> + +<p>"Don't let's be fools, Tina. Keep him ahead of us."</p> + +<p>The tunnel steadily dwindled in size until Larry could barely stand up +in it. Then it opened to a circular cave, which held one small light +and had apparently no other exit. The cave had years before been a +mechanism room for the palace temperature controls, but now it was +abandoned. The old machinery stood about in a litter.</p> + +<p>"In here?" said Tugh. "Which way next?"</p> + +<p>Across the cave, on the rough blank wall, Tina located a hidden +switch. A segment of the wall slid aside, disclosing a narrow, vaulted +tunnel leading downward.</p> + +<p>"You first, Tugh," said Larry. "Is it dark, Tina? We have no +handlights."</p> + +<p>"I can light it," came the answer.</p> + +<p>The door panel swung closed after them. Tina pressed another switch. A +row of tiny hooded lights at twenty-foot intervals dimly illumined the +descending passage.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey walked a mile or more through the little tunnel. The air was +fetid; stale and dank. To Larry it seemed an interminable trip. The +narrow passage descended at a constant slope, until Larry estimated +that they were well below the depth of the river bed. Within half a +mile—before they got under the river—the passage leveled off. It had +been fairly straight, but now it became tortuous—a meandering +subterranean lane. Other similar tunnels crossed it, branched from it +or joined it. Soon, to Larry, it was a labyrinth of passages—a +network, here underground. In previous centuries this had been well +below the lowest cellar of the mammoth city; these tube-like passages +were the city's arteries, the conduits for wires and pipes.</p> + +<p>It was an underground maze. At each intersection the row of hidden +hooded lights terminated, and darkness and several branching trails +always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> lay ahead. But Tina, with a memorized key of the route, always +found a new switch to light another short segment of the proper +tunnel. It was an eery trip, with the bent, misshapen black-cloaked +figure of Tugh stumping ahead, waiting where the lights ended for Tina +to lead them further.</p> + +<p>Larry had long since lost his sense of direction, but presently Tina +told him that they were beneath the river. The tunnel widened a +little.</p> + +<p>"We are under the base of the dam," said Tina. Her voice echoed with a +sepulchral blur. Ahead, the tramping figure of Tugh seemed a black +gnome with a fantastic, monstrous shadow swaying on the tunnel wall +and roof.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="36" height="50" /></div><p>uddenly Tugh stopped. They found him at an arched door.</p> + +<p>"Do we go in here, or keep on ahead?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>The tunnel lights ended a short distance ahead.</p> + +<p>"In here," said Tina. "There are stairs leading upward to the catwalk +balcony corridor halfway up the dam. We are not far from the Power +House now."</p> + +<p>They then ascended interminable moldy stone steps spiraling upward in +a circular shaft. The murmur of the dam's spillways had been faintly +audible, but now it was louder, presently it became a roar.</p> + +<p>"Which way, Tina? We seem to have reached the top."</p> + +<p>"Turn left, Tugh."</p> + +<p>They emerged upon a tiny transverse metal balcony which hung against +the southern side of the dam. Overhead to the right towered a great +wall of masonry. Beneath was an abyss down to the lower river level +where the cascading jets from the overhead spillways arched out over +the catwalk and landed far below in a white maelstrom of boiling, +bubbling water.</p> + +<p>The catwalk was wet with spray; lashed by wind currents.</p> + +<p>"Is it far, Princess? Are those lights ahead at the Power House +entrance?"</p> + +<p>Tugh was shouting back over his shoulder; his words were caught by the +roar of the falling water; whipped away by the lashing spray and +tumultuous winds. There were lights a hundred feet ahead, marking an +entrance to the Power House. The dark end of the structure showed like +a great lump on the side of the dam.</p> + +<p>Again Tugh stopped. In the white, blurred darkness Larry and Tina +could barely see him.</p> + +<p>"Princess, quickly! Come quickly!" he called, and his shout sounded +agonized.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div><p>hatever lack of perception Larry all this time had shown, the fog +lifted completely from him now. As Tina started to run forward, Larry +seized her.</p> + +<p>"Back! Run the other way! We've been fools!" He shoved Tina behind him +and rushed at Tugh. But now Larry was wholly wary; he expected that +Tugh was armed, and cursed himself for a fool for not having devised +some pretext for finding out.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Tugh was clinging to the high outer rail of the balcony, slumped +partly over as though gazing down into the abyss. Larry rushed up and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span>seized him by the arms. If Tugh held a weapon Larry thought he could +easily wrest it from him. But Tugh stood limp in Larry's grip.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you?" Larry demanded.</p> + +<p>"I'm ill. Something—going wrong. Feel me—so cold. Princess! Tina! +Come quickly! I—I am dying!"</p> + +<p>As Tina came hurrying up, Tugh suddenly straightened. With incredible +quickness, and even more incredible strength, he tore his arm loose +from Larry and flung it around the Princess, and they were suddenly +all three struggling. Tugh was shoving them back from the rail. Larry +tried to get loose from Tugh's clutch, but could not. He was too close +for a full blow, but he jabbed his fist against the cripple's body, +and then struck his face.</p> + +<p>But Tugh was unhurt; he seemed endowed with superhuman strength. The +cripple's body seemed padded with solid muscle, and his thick, +gorilla-like arm held Larry in the grip of a vise. As though Larry and +Tina were struggling, helpless children, he was half dragging, half +carrying them across the ten-foot width of the catwalk.</p> + +<p>Larry caught a glimpse of a narrow slit in the masonry of the dam's +wall—a dark, two-foot-wide aperture. He felt himself being shoved +toward it. For all his struggles, he was helpless. He shouted:</p> + +<p>"Tina—look out! Break away!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p>e forgot himself for a moment, striving to wrest her away from Tugh +and push her aside. But the strength of the cripple was monstrous: +Larry had no possible chance of coping with it. The slit in the wall +was at hand—a dark abyss down into the interior of the dam. Larry +heard the cripple's words, vehement, unhurried, as though with all +this effort he still was not out of breath:</p> + +<p>"At last I can dispose of you two. I do not need you any longer."</p> + +<p>Larry made a last wild jab with his fist into Tugh's face and tried to +twist himself aside. The blow landed upon Tugh's jaw, but the cripple +did not seem to feel it. He stuffed the struggling Larry like a bundle +into the aperture. Larry felt his clutching hands torn loose. Tugh +gave a last, violent shove and released him.</p> + +<p>Larry fell into blackness—but not far, for soon he struck water. He +went under, hit a flat, stone bottom, and came up to hear Tina fall +with a splash beside him. In a moment he regained his feet, to find +himself standing breast-high in the water with Tina clinging to him.</p> + +<p>Tugh had disappeared. The aperture showed as a narrow rectangle some +twenty feet above Larry's head.</p> + +<p>They were within the dam. They were in a pit of smooth, blank, +perpendicular sides; there was nothing to afford even the slightest +handhold; and no exit save the overhead slit. It was a part of the +mechanism's internal, hydraulic system.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>o Larry's horror he soon discovered that the water was slowly rising! +It was breast-high to him now, and inch by inch it crept up toward his +chin. It was already over Tina's depth: she clung to him, +half-swimming.</p> + +<p>Larry soon found that there was no possible way for them to get out +unaided, unless, if they could swim long enough, the rising water +would rise to the height of the aperture. If it reached there, they +could crawl out. He tried to estimate how long that would be.</p> + +<p>"We can make it, Tina. It'll take two hours, possibly, but I can keep +us afloat that long."</p> + +<p>But soon he discovered that the water was not rising. Instead, the +floor was sinking from under him! sinking as though he were standing +upon the top of a huge piston which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span> slowly was lowering in its +encasing cylinder. Dimly he could hear water tumbling into the pit, to +fill the greater depth and still hold the surface level.</p> + +<p>With the water at his chin, Larry guided Tina to the wall. He did not +at first have the heart to tell her, yet he knew that soon it must be +told. When he did explain it, she said nothing. They watched the water +surface where it lapped against the greasy concave wall. It held its +level: but while Larry stood there, the floor sank so that the water +reached his mouth and nose, and he was forced to start swimming.</p> + +<p>Another interval. Larry began calling: shouting futilely. His voice +filled the pit, but he knew it could carry no more than a short +distance out of the aperture.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>verhead, as we afterward learned, Tugh had overcome the guards in the +Power House by a surprise attack. Doubtless he struck them down with +the white-ray before they had time to realize he had attacked them. +Then he threw off the air-power transmitters and the lighting system. +The city, plunged into darkness and without the district air-power, +was isolated, cut off from the outside world. There was, in London, a +huge long-range projector with a vibratory ray which would derange the +internal mechanisms of the Robots: when news of the revolt and +massacre in New York had reached there, this projector was loaded into +an airliner, the <i>Micrad</i>. That vessel was now over the ocean, headed +for New York; but when Tugh cut off the power senders, the <i>Micrad</i>, +entering the New York District, was forced down to the ocean surface. +Now she was lying there helpless to proceed....</p> + +<p>In the pit within the dam, Larry swam endlessly with Tina. He had +ceased his shouting.</p> + +<p>"It's no use, Tina: there's no one to hear us. This is the end—for +us—Tina."</p> + +<p>Yet, as she clung to him, and though Larry felt it was the end of this +life, it seemed only the beginning, for them, of something else. +Something, somewhere, for them together; something perhaps infinitely +better than this world could ever give them.</p> + +<p>"But not—the end—Tina," he added. "The beginning—of our love."</p> + +<p>An interminable interval....</p> + +<p>"Quietly, Tina. You float. I can hold you up."</p> + +<p>They were rats in a trap—swimming, until at the last, with all +strength gone, they would together sink out of this sodden muffled +blackness into the Unknown. But that Unknown shone before Larry now as +something—with Tina—perhaps very beautiful....</p> + +<p class="center">(<i>Concluded in the next issue</i>)</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + <h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + + <div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> In 2930, all aircraft engines were operated by +radio-power transmitted by senders in various districts. The New York +Power House controlled a local district of about two hundred miles +radius.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Cylinder records of books which by machinery gave audible +rendition, in similar fashion to the radio-phonograph.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The Power House on the Hudson dam was operated by inert +machinery and manned entirely by humans—the only place in the city +which was so handled. This was because of its extreme importance. The +air-power was broadcast from there. Without that power the entire +several hundred mile district around New York would be dead. No +aircraft could enter, save perhaps some skilfully handled motorless +glider, if aided by sufficiently fortuitous air currents. Every +surface vehicle used this power, and every sub-sea freighter. The city +lights, and every form of city power, were centralized here also, as +well as the broadcasting audible and etheric transmitters and +receivers. Without the Power House, New York City and all its +neighborhood would be inoperative, and cut off from the outside +world.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> I mentioned the small conning tower on top of the +laboratory building and the Robot lookout there with his audible +broadcasting.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> This was part of Tugh's plan. The broadcast voice was the +signal for the uprising in the New York district. This tower +broadcaster could only reach the local area, yet ships and land +vehicles with Robot operators would doubtless pick it up and relay it +further. The mechanical revolt would spread. And on the ships, the +airliners and the land vehicles, the Robot operators stirred to sudden +frenzy would run amuck. As a matter of fact, there were indeed many +accidents to ships and vehicles this night when their operators +abruptly went beyond control. The chaos ran around the world like a +fire in prairie grass.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The police army had one weapon: a small vibration +hand-ray. Its vibrating current beam could, at a distance of ten or +twenty feet, reduce a Robot into paralyzed subjection; or, with more +intense vibration, burn out the Robot's coils and fuses.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The storage batteries by which the Robot actuating energy +was renewed, and the fuses, coils and other appliances necessary to +the Robot existence, were all guarded now in the Power House.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> As a matter of actuality, Tugh was carrying hidden upon +his person a small cylinder and battery of the deadly white-ray. It +seems probable that although on the catwalk—having accomplished his +purpose of getting within the electrical fortifications of the +dam—Tugh had ample opportunity of killing his over-trustful +companions with the white-ray, he did not dare use it. The catwalk was +too dark for their figures to be visible to the Power House guards; +the roar of the spillways drowned their shouts; but had Tugh used the +white-ray, its abnormally intense actinic white beam would have raised +the alarm which Tugh most of all wanted to avoid.</p></div> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_009.jpg" width="400" height="154" alt="Advertisement" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p> +<p><a name="The_Readers_Corner" id="The_Readers_Corner"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_010.jpg" width="600" height="548" alt="The Readers' Corner" /> +</div> + + + +<p class="p4"><i>What Say Our Co-Editors?</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Since sending you "Manape the Mighty," I have read of a +Russian scientist who removed the brain from a dog and kept +both alive for some hours, which only goes to prove that +science outstrips the wildest dreams of the fictionist, and +a yarn that may be astounding and unusual when written, may +be commonplace, and the knowledge of the man in the street, +by the time the story goes to press. People read every day +of "miracles" and scarcely give them a second thought, while +a hundred years ago their perpetrators would have been +destroyed as witches.</p> + +<p>Far be it for me, or anyone else, to say that the main +transposition used in "Manape the Mighty" is absurd and +impossible. For while you, or I, may shrug shoulders and +dismiss even the thought of it as being the dream of a +madman, somebody, in some laboratory somewhere, may already +have successfully managed it. So given the premise that the +thing may be possible, I've sort of let myself go on this +idea, and a whole new train of thought has been opened up, a +whole new vista of astounding things in the realm of Science +Fiction. In parenthesis, I must thank you for getting me +started on the thing, for had you not suggested the idea +from the throne-like fortress of your editorial chair, +"Manape" might never have been born. I confess that I would +perhaps have been afraid of it, both because of the +possibility of the charge of following in the footsteps of +the internationally famous Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of +re-vamping the incomparable Poe tale, "Murders in the Rue +Morgue."</p> + +<p>But, even so, both are interesting to dally with.</p> + +<p>Given the premise that the brain transference is possible, +what would happen:</p> + +<p>(1) If the brain of a terrible criminal were transferred to +the skull pan of an unusually mighty ape—and the ape +transplanted from his arboreal home in Africa to the streets +of London, Paris or New York whence the criminal whose brain +he has originated? Suppose his man's brain harbored thoughts +of vengeance on enemies, and he now possesses the might of +the great ape to carry out his vengeance?</p> + +<p>(2) If Barter somehow escaped destruction at the hands of +the apes in "Manape the Mighty," and continued with his work +of brain transference—building up a mighty army of great +apes with the idea of avenging himself on civilization for +wrongs real and fancied? Apes with broadswords and chained +mail, with steel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> helmets on their heads—men's brains, +savages' brains, perhaps, as their guiding intelligence—and +the tenacity of apes when mortally wounded? Suppose they +swept over Africa like a cloud of locusts? Or is this too +feeble a simile? Suppose, Africa, to be laid waste by them, +led by Barter, the latter styling himself a modern Alexander +of horrible potentiality, and extending his scope of +conquest to the Holy Land, India, Asia—the Pacific +littoral? Holy cats!</p> + +<p>(3) Suppose that Barter managed, by purchase or otherwise, +to acquire an island close to the American continents, +within reach of either or both, and managed to transfer his +activities there, using the natives of those islands—say +Haiti, Cuba, Porto Rico, etc.—for his experiments, training +his cohorts as an army, and starting a navy by capturing all +vessels putting into these places? Fancy the consternation +of the Western Hemisphere when ships suddenly go silent, as +regards radio, after sudden mysterious SOS's—and all trace +of vessels is lost. Suppose the U. S. Navy went to +investigate, and also vanished. More holy cats!</p> + +<p>(4) Suppose, in connection with all the suppositions above, +that Barter desired to give an ironic twist to his +experiments, and kept his human victims alive—but with +apes' brains—as slaves of their man-ape conquerors? Suppose +that out of the horror into which the world would be thrown, +another Bentley should arise to help the imprisoned humans +to escape their ghastly bondage? I can fancy his trials and +tribulations, trying to manage a host of human beings with +the brains of apes.</p> + +<p>(5) And what about the training of internes and medicos to +help a potential Barter, when the trade got beyond his sole +ability—and apes with men's brains to perform his +experiments?</p> + +<p>Do you suppose we'd all get locked up for experimenting with +this sort of thing fictionally? I wouldn't care to take the +entire responsibility myself, nor I fancy would you—because +somebody might be inspired by our stories to attempt the +thing—so might I suggest that all possible conspirators, in +the shape of readers of this magazine, write to you or me +and let us know whether they'd like to see it happen +fictionally? If the idea appeals—and of course we can't go +too heavily on horror—I'll do my best to comply. Always +within limits, however—utterly refusing to perform any +experiments that can't be done with a typewriter and the +usual two fingers.—Arthur J. Burks, 178-80 Fifth Ave., New +York City.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4">"<i>Like in Story Books</i>"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Here I am again! This time I'm offering suggestions. Let's +you and I and others get together and do something to these +chronic kickers. It seems I can't start to enjoy our +"Readers' Corner" without someone raising a halloo. Darn +it! Why in heaven's name do they buy A. S. if they don't +like it? They are not compelled to do so.</p> + +<p>I also don't understand why people are knocking the size and +quality of the paper used. It suits me O. K. All the mags I +read are the same way, and I pay five cents more for them, +too!</p> + +<p>I surely enjoyed Mr. Olog's letter in the March issue. Gee, +it gives one the creeps. I agree with him, too, that we +ought to have a little something about the authors. I'm sure +we'd all like to know a little more about these talented +persons.</p> + +<p>"When the Mountain Came to Miramar" was a great deal to my +liking. I think it would be a great adventure to discover +some secret cave and explore it. Of course, I'd like to +wiggle out of danger, too, just like in story books.</p> + +<p>I certainly wish to congratulate you on publishing "Beyond +the Vanishing Point." It just suited me to a "T." +Heretofore, all stories dealing with life upon atoms have +been "just another story," but this one beats all. I enjoyed +it to the utmost, and I congratulate Mr. Cummings on writing +my favorite kind of story.</p> + +<p>All in all the March issue was indeed grand. If "Brown-Eyed +Nineteen from Coronado, Calif.," will send me her full name +and address, I'll promise to answer her letter immediately +upon receiving it.—Gertrude Hemken, 5730 So. Ashland Ave., +Chicago, Ill.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>And So Do We</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>It certainly is a swell idea of yours to answer letters to +"The Readers' Corner" personally instead of taking up a lot +of room answering them underneath as do most Editors. Not +only that, but it builds up a feeling of friendship, between +the Reader and the Editor, besides affording more room to +publish letters and avoiding some of the bad feelings +sometimes directed upon Editors when they do not publish +someone's letter.</p> + +<p>Now, with your kind permission, I will burst into the little +(?) ring of discussion about size, reprints, covers, artists +and authors.</p> + +<p>First, about the size and edges: The size is O. K., but I +wish you would change the edges from a "rocky mountain" to a +"desert" state. In other words, I would like straight edges +in the near future.</p> + +<p>Next, reprints: In two letters, an N O—No! If the Readers +want reprints why doesn't Mr. Clayton publish an annual +chock full of reprints for these reprint hounds?</p> + +<p>Covers and artists: The covers have all been great. Not too +lurid. Just right. As for the artists, Wesso is the best by +a long shot. Nuff said.</p> + +<p>Authors: Ah, that's a problem. Who is the best? I could rack +my brain for hours and still not decide, so I'll have to +give a list of my favorites: R. F. Starzl, Edmond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> Hamilton, +Harl Vincent, Sewell Peaslee Wright, Jack Williamson, S. P. +Meek, Miles J. Breuer and Ray Cummings.</p> + +<p>Before I close there is one little thing I would like to +mention. Did you ever notice that 75% of all the Readers who +say they do not care for science in their stories are women? +[?] Besides that, the only ones at school who think I'm +"cracked" for reading Science Fiction are females. Figure it +out for yourself.</p> + +<p>I hope you, Mr. Bates, will continue to be our able Editor +for many years to come.—Jim Nicholson, Ass't Sec'y., B. S. +C., 40 Lunado Way, San Francisco, Calif.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Four to One</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Congratulations to Wesso! His March cover for "our" magazine +is Astounding!</p> + +<p>Ray Cummings' novelette, "Beyond the Vanishing Point," is +absolutely the most marvelous of all his short stories. I +can't rave over it enough. I never read his "The Girl of the +Golden Atom" but I imagine this must be something like it. +It's certainly the best of the "long short stories" that's +ever graced the insides of Astounding Stories.</p> + +<p>"When the Mountain Came to Miramar" is a very good story in +my opinion. "Terrors Unseen" is a wow! No foolin'. As for +"Phalanxes of Atlans," well, I simply can't get interested +in it. I thought the first part very uninteresting and +decided not to bother to read the rest of it. But Wesso's +splendid illustration made me do so. But I still think it is +a rather poor story. But, true to form, someone will no +doubt think it the most wonderful story ever written.</p> + +<p>Last, but not least, of all the stories comes "The Meteor +Girl." It's by Jack Williamson: need more be said? +No!—Forrest J. Ackerman, President-Librarian, The B. S. C., +530 Staples Avenue, San Francisco, Calif.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>That Awful Thing Called Love</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Upon the occasion of my first visit to "The Readers' +Corner," I wish to say that Astounding Stories leads the +field in Science Fiction stories as far as I am concerned, +though at first I found them to be just so-so.</p> + +<p>"Beyond the Vanishing Point," by Ray Cummings, proved +interesting through-out. "Terrors Unseen," by Harl Vincent, +was fairly good, as was "Phalanxes of Atlans," by F. V. W. +Mason.</p> + +<p>But now comes the rub. Just why do you permit your Authors +to inject messy love affairs into otherwise excellent +imaginative fiction? Just stop and think. Our young +hero-scientist builds himself a space flyer, steps out into +the great void, conquers a thousand and one perils on his +voyage and amidst our silent cheers lands on some far +distant planet. Then what does he do? I ask you. He falls in +love with a maiden—or it's usually a princess—of the +planet to which the Reader has followed him, eagerly +awaiting and hoping to share each new thrill attached to his +gigantic flight. But after that it becomes merely a +hopeless, doddering love affair ending by his returning to +Earth with his fair one by his side. Can you grasp that—a +one-armed driver of a space flyer!</p> + +<p>But seriously, don't you think that affairs of the heart are +very much out of place in "our" type of magazine? We buy A. +S. for the thrill of being changed in size, in time, in +dimension or being hurtled through space at great speed, but +not to read of love.</p> + +<p>Right here I wish to join forces with Glyn Owens up there in +Canada in his request for plain, cold scientific stories +sans the fair sex.</p> + +<p>Otherwise your "our" magazine is the best of its kind on the +market—W. H. Flowers. 1215 N. Lang Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Brickbats for Others</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Brickbats and plenty of them are coming, but not your way. +I'm throwing mine at those guys that want reprints, more +science, etc. The only one I agree with is the fellow who +would like a thicker magazine with more stories.</p> + +<p>Now for the brickbats. I'll bet a great many of your Readers +have read some of these reprints that some of our Readers +are crying for. I'll also bet that reprints would not help +your friendly connections with a lot of your Authors. The +stories that are written now I find good. Let the present +authors make their living from the stories their brains +think up.</p> + +<p>As for more science, bah!—your present amount is enough. In +another magazine I read a story and just as it reached its +climax they started explaining something! If any Reader +wants to write to me my address is below.—Arthur Mann, Jr., +San Juan, California.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Wants Interplanetary Cooperation</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>C'n y'imagine, I have my Astounding Science magazine two +whole hours and the cover is still on!</p> + +<p>Let's have some more stories like "Beyond the Vanishing +Point," by Ray Cummings in the March issue.</p> + +<p>Another thing, let's have more interplanetary stories than +we do. I think they give you something to really think +about.</p> + +<p>Why is it that in every interplanetary story the other race +is always hostile. Just think, would we, if we received +visitors from space, make war on them? Also, when our people +make an interplanetary flight, would we go with intent to +kill? Let's have some stories, where the first +interplanetary flight leads to cooperation between the +planets involved.—Dave Diamond, 1350—52nd St., Brooklyn, +N. Y.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>In Every Way, True</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I want to rejoice again over Astounding Stories. Reprints or +no:—and I hunger for them—the magazine must be described +in superlatives.</p> + +<p>The reasons is pretty clear to me. After years in an +experimental stage, Science Fiction suddenly turned up with +a clash of cymbals in the shape of a definite magazine. It +had to cover the whole field, and its successors tried to do +the same. Due to its ancestry its logical scope was the more +technical Science Fiction farthest removed from sheer +fantasy, but, none-the-less, one of the most important +branches. Now it is specializing in that type.</p> + +<p>When Astounding Stories appeared many of us were apt to be +skeptical, particularly when we noticed that an established +corporation was backing it, one that had been limited to +westerns and the like. The first few issues came and there +was a dubious tinge of the occult, the "black-magical." This +petered out, and we noticed that no matter how poor the +subject matter from the point of view of Science Fiction, +the style of writing was almost always on the highest level.</p> + +<p>Then we realized that this magazine was no menace to the +literature of Science Fiction, but a valuable addition. It +could afford the better writers and hence keep up the +quality of work of every writer. It was adopting as its own +a type of Science Fiction that the rest minimized, and that +demanded good writing—a type having a skeleton of science, +like the girders of a great building, holding it erect and +determining its shape, yet holding the skeleton of less +importance than the vision of the completed edifice. Stories +with emphasis on the fiction rather than the science.</p> + +<p>But enough of that. Here is a hopeful thought for the +time-travelers. There is nothing in physics or chemistry to +prevent you from going into the past or future—at least, +the future—and shaking hands with yourself or killing +yourself. We will eliminate the past, for it seems that it +cannot be altered physically. But take the future: not so +very far from to-day the matter of your body will have been +totally replaced by new matter; the old will disappear in +waste. Physically, you will be a new man, and physically the +matter of to-day may destroy that of to-morrow and return in +itself unaltered. But none-the-less there will be some +limiting interval during which "you" have not been entirely +transformed to new matter, so that an atom would have to be +in two places at once.</p> + +<p>Maybe time-traveling progresses in little jumps like +emission of light. And maybe an atom can be in two places at +once. If you are going to treat time as just another +dimension, there seems to be no reason why an object which +can be in one place at two times cannot be at one time in +two places. This is all physics. The paradoxes of +time-traveling arise more particularly from its effect on +what we call consciousness, the something that makes me +"me"—an individual. We can imagine an atom in two places at +once, but not a soul, if you will. This will not bother the +materialist who considers a living creature merely a +machine, but it will most of us. So I must be content with +offering a materialistic possibility of traveling in time.</p> + +<p>The Science Correspondence Club wishes to extend its +invitation to all Readers in other nations to join with all +privileges save that of holding office. The latter may later +be changed as our international membership increases. We +have laboratory branches here, and we want them abroad in +addition to scattered members. Then, it will be necessary to +have a governing body and director in every country. At +present all matters pertaining to foreign membership pass +through my hands and I will do my best to supply information +to all who seek it. We will also be glad to hear of the work +and plans of other similar organizations in other countries, +as we are doing with the German Verein für Raumschauffert. +Address all inquiries to me at 302 So. Ten Broeck St., +Scotia, New York, U. S. A.—P. Schuyler Miller, Foreign +Director, S. C. C.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4">"<i>A Wow!</i>"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Astounding Stories magazine is a wow! I can hardly wait +until next month for the April issue. "The Phalanxes of +Atlans," "Beyond the Vanishing Point" and "The Pirate +Planet" are perfect. Every time I start a story I never stop +till it's finished. I hope that there will appear even +better stories in later issues.</p> + +<p>Here's wishing you the best of success,—Fred Damato, 196 +Greene St., New Haven, Conn.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Is Zat So!</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Just a word or two. I have read several issues of Astounding +Stories and I notice that you have taken the word "science" +off the cover. It's just as well, for it was never inside +the cover, anyway. If you thought to attract Readers from +real Science Fiction fans you were all wet, for they would +never fall for the kind of things you printed. Besides, +"what," a real fan wants to know "how." There may be, I'll +admit, a class of Readers who like your stories, but for me +I think that you ought to print real Science Fiction or +abandon the attempt and publish out and out fairy tales. Is +everybody so pleased with your book that you receive nothing +but commendatory letters? That appears to be all you print, +at any rate. So long—Harry Pancoast, 306 West 28th St., +Wilmington, Delaware.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span></p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Short and Sweet</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I agree perfectly with Gertrude Hemken, of Chicago. +Astounding Stories is O. K. Why do we want a lot of deep +science with our stories? We read for pleasure not to learn +science.</p> + +<p>I have been reading Astounding Stories since the first +issue, and I have enjoyed every story. I read several +Science Fiction magazines but yours is the best.—Stephen L. +Garcia, 47 Hazel Ave., Redwood City, Calif.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Shorter and Sweeter</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>The only good things about Astounding Stories are as +follows:</p> + +<p>The cover design, the stories, the size of the magazine, the +illustrations in the magazine and the Authors.—John +Mackens, 366 W. 96th St., New York City.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Sequels Requested</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I was out of reading matter so I bought the August issue of +Astounding Stories, and it was so good that I have been +buying it ever since. The only things I don't like about the +magazine are the quality of the paper, which I think could +be improved, and the uneven pages. The other Science Fiction +magazine that I read has its pages even.</p> + +<p>Astounding Stories has a much better type of stories than +the other magazine. There are only a few stories I have seen +in your magazine which do not belong there. They are: "A +Problem in Communication," which is not so much fiction and +does not have much of a plot, and "The Ape-men of Xloti," +which was very well written and very interesting, but did +not have enough science in it.</p> + +<p>I would like to see sequels to the following stories: +"Marooned Under the Sea," "Beyond the Vanishing Point," +"Monsters of Mars," telling about another effort of the +crocodile-men to conquer Earth, "The Gray Plague," telling +of another attack by the Venusians, and, most of all, +"Vagabonds of Space." I would like to see a story about +their further adventures about every three months, just as I +see the stories about Commander Hanson.</p> + +<p>I wish the best of luck for Astounding Stories.—Bill +Bailey, 1404 Wightman St., Pittsburgh, Pa.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Come Again</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Although I have been an interested Reader of Astounding +Stories since its inception, this is the first time that I +have written; but "our" magazine has been so good lately +that I just had to write and compliment you on your good +work.</p> + +<p>There are just two criticisms I have of Astounding Stories. +The first is that the binding sometimes comes off; the +second is the rough edges. I join with many other Readers in +complaining that uneven edges make it hard to find a certain +page and also give the mag a cheap looking appearance.</p> + +<p>In my opinion the two best serials you have printed are +"Brigands of the Moon" and "The Pirate Planet." The four +best novelettes are: "Marooned Under the Sea," "The +Fifth-Dimension Catapult," "Beyond the Vanishing Point" and +"Vagabonds of Space."—Eugene Bray, Campbell, Mo.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>How Simple!</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Just a few lines to set Mr. Greenfeld right on that question +of how a man could be disintegrated and then reintegrated as +two (or more) similar men.</p> + +<p>Briefly, the atomic or molecular structure of the original +man could serve as a pattern to be set up in the +reintegrating machine or machines while he is being +dissolved by the disintegrating machine. Thus, the +reintegrators could reconstruct any number of similar men by +following the pattern of his molecular structure and drawing +on a prearranged supply of the basic elements.</p> + +<p>As for the "soul," that is merely the manifestation of the +chemical combinations in the man's body, and when said +chemical combinations are duplicated, the "soul" simply +follows suit.—Joseph N. Mosleh, 4002 Sixth Ave., Brooklyn, +N. Y.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Both in One Issue</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I think it's about time to let you know what I think of your +wonderful magazine. Of course, I have my dislikes but they +are very few. I wish you would make up your magazine larger +and even the pages up. The best complete novelettes I have +read were both in the same issue. They were "Monsters of +Mars," by Edmond Hamilton and "Four Miles Within," by +Anthony Gilmore. Wesso is by far your best artist. Please +keep him. All the other Science Fiction magazines have +quarterlies. Why don't you have one?</p> + +<p>Good-by, and keep Astounding Stories up to its present +standard.—Frederick Morrison, Long Beach, Calif.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4">"<i>Good As Is</i>"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I have been reading your mag for about five months and I +like it very much. I don't see what those guys want a +quarterly for. This mag is good as it is and there is no use +to spoil it. Wesso is a swell artist, and the best story I +read was "The Wall of Death."</p> + +<p>I'd like to get acquainted with some of your Readers. How +about it, boys?</p> + +<p>I'll sign off.—L. Sloan, Box 101, Onset, Mass.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span></p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Just Imagine!</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>To begin, I am a mechanic more or less skilled in the +handling of tools. Now, while I have seen many builders with +tools who were dubbed "spineless," "poor fish," etc., it was +not because they remotely resembled the piscatorial or +Crustacea families.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that when an author endows reptiles, +cuttlefish, etc., with superhuman intelligence, and paints a +few pictures of them as master-mechanics in the use of +tools, then I want to take the magazine I am reading, that +allows such silly slush in its pages, and feed it to my +billy-goat; he may be able to digest such silliness, but I +can't!</p> + +<p>However, there is a redeeming feature of this sort of story: +although not written as comedy, they have a comic effect, +when one uses his imagination. Imagine, for instance, a +giant sea crab as a traffic cop! He could direct four +streams of traffic at once while making a date with the +sweet young thing whom he had held up for a traffic +violation! Then think what a great, intelligent reptile, +crocodile, or what have you, could do in our Prohibition +Enforcement Service! He could place his armored body across +the road, and when rum runners bumped into him he could take +his handy disintegrator and turn their load of white +lightning back into the original corn patch! And suppose a +giant, humanly-intelligent centipede should make too much +whoopee some night, and endeavor to slip upstairs without +waking the wife. Even if he succeeded in getting off his +thousand pairs of shoes, which is doubtful, he would have a +sweet time keeping his myriad of legs under control after +partaking of some of the tangle-foot dispensed nowadays!</p> + +<p>I hope your Authors will read and heed the delicate sarcasm +contained in the letter of Robert R. Young in your April +issue.—Carl F. Morgan, 427 E. Columbia Ave., College Park, +Ga.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4">"<i>Craves Excitement</i>"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I have been a silent Reader of your magazine for quite a +long while, but have finally decided to come forth with my +own little contribution to "The Readers' Corner." So far I +have seen only two other women Readers' letters. I suppose +most women are interested in love stories, though I fail to +see anything very exciting in any that are written nowadays; +and I crave excitement in my reading. I've read about most +everything there is about this old earth, so I've decided to +wander into new fields.</p> + +<p>Now for a little discussion about Astounding Stories. I +haven't any brickbats to throw. You seem to get more of them +than is necessary. I like the size, the price, the cover, +the illustrator, the authors, etc. Some stories don't +exactly take my fancy but the average is 100% with me.</p> + +<p>Some that particularly pleased me were "Marooned Under the +Sea," way back in the September issue, "Jetta of the +Low-lands" and "Beyond the Vanishing Point." "Gray Denim" +and "Ape-men of Xloti" in the December issue rite A-1, too.</p> + +<p>I congratulate Ray Cummings on his new story, even though I +haven't started to read it yet. I always know I'll enjoy his +work, no matter what it is. Time-traveling is one of my +special dishes, too.</p> + +<p>Here's a little dig. I'm sorry, I didn't think I'd have any, +but I just thought of this. It seems to me that I never see +any stories written by two authors. Of course the stories by +single authors are O. K., but the particular two I am +thinking of are Edgar A. Manley and Walter Thode. They wrote +"The Time Annihilator," as you probably know. That was one +of the best time-traveling stories I have ever read. I'm +only sorry that it couldn't have been published by +Astounding Stories.</p> + +<p>Well, I don't want to make myself tiresome the very first +time, so I'll sign off. Please excuse the rather +unconventional stationary, but I'm writing this at the +office in my spare time. Hope I haven't worn my welcome out, +but I had so much stored up to say.</p> + +<p>I'm waiting for the April issue, so please hurry it +up.—Betty Mulharen, 50 E. Philadelphia Ave, Detroit, Mich.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>A Daisy for S. P. Wright</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Were good old President George Washington himself to travel +through time to the present and look upon the April issue of +Astounding Stories, I am certain he would only repeat what I +say: "Editor, I cannot tell a lie. This is the best issue +yet!"</p> + +<p>The cover on this issue is unique in that Astounding Stories +is written in red and white letters. I do not recall of ever +having seen this done to any Science Fiction magazine +before. Wesso's illustration leaves nothing to be desired.</p> + +<p>Going straight through the book: "The Monsters of Mars." +Good old Edmond Hamilton saves the world for us again in the +very nick of time—and we like it, too! Here's hoping +there's a million more dangers threatening Terra for Mr. +Hamilton to save us from! By the way, I wonder who drew the +illustration for this story? I can't make out his name. +Next: "The Exile of Time," by Cummings. Exciting and well +illustrated. "Hell's Dimension" is well-written and very +interesting. Would have liked it longer. "The World Behind +the Moon" is splendid. More by Mr. Ernst, please. More from +Mr. Gilmore, too, because of his novelette, "Four Miles +Within." "The Lake of Light" by that popular author Jack +Williamson surpasses his "The Meteor Girl" in a recent issue +of "our" magazine. And now I come to the last and perhaps +most interesting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> story of the issue: Mr. Sewell Peaslee +Wright's record of the interplanetary adventures of the +Special Patrol as told by Commander John Hanson. This series +is unsurpassable in its vivid realness. I can't help but +believe that these tales really occurred, or will occur in +the distant future. And Mr. Wright is as expert at +conceiving new forms of life as Edmond Hamilton is at saving +our Earth.</p> + +<p>"The Readers' Corner" is an interesting feature, and I am +glad to hear that "Murder Madness" and "Brigands of the +Moon" are now in book form.—Forrest J. Ackerman, 530 +Staples Ave., San Francisco, Calif.</p></div> + + +<p class="p4"><i>Mass Production</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>After reading Mr. Greenfield's letter in your April issue +regarding my story, "An Extra Man," I feel that I should +like to call his attention to a point which, it seems to me, +he has overlooked, namely, that the reconstructed men were +not composed of the original physical matter of the +disintegrated man but of identical elements, all of which +are at present known and available to science.</p> + +<p>According to the hypothesis, Drayle could have produced as +many entities as he desired and provided for, just as a +radio broadcast is reproduced in as many places as are +prepared for its reception. The vibrations alone are +transmitted, and the reproduction is the result of a +reciprocal mechanical action by physical matter at the +receiving end. Any radio engineer knows that the original +sound waves are not transported, but merely their impress +upon the electrical radio wave. So, Drayle's disintegrating +and sending apparatus only transmitted the vibrations which +enabled his machines at the receiving end to select from a +more than adequate supply of raw material, in due proportion +and quantities, as much as was required for the reproduction +of the disintegrated entities.</p> + +<p>I think that if Mr. Greenfield will reread the story, noting +the following references, he will agree that if the +hypothesis is accepted the conclusion is logical:</p> + +<p>1—It is only Jackson Gee and not Drayle who speaks of +transmitting the constituent elements by radio (page 120).</p> + +<p>2—The scientist, Drayle, says, (page 129) "We already know +the elements that make the human body, and we can put them +together in the their proper proportions and arrangements; +but we have not been able to introduce the vitalizing spark, +the key vibrations, to start it going." He does not say that +tangible matter can be transmitted by radio.</p> + +<p>3—In the account of Drayle's preliminary experiments (page +122) there is no statement to the effect that the original +material composing the disintegrated glass was used in its +recreation.</p> + +<p>4—There is nothing in the story to indicate that the +original physical composition of the disintegrated man was +transported, in any manner to any outside location. The +process of disintegration was necessary to obtain the +vibrations that would make possible their repetition, which +under proper conditions would induce a reproduction of the +original, just as a song must be sung before it can be +reproduced upon a phonograph disc, but which, once recorded +can be repeated times without number.</p> + +<p>5—Drayle's question (page 124) "Have you arranged the +elements?" refers to the elements out of which all mankind +is composed and which Drayle has previously mentioned (page +120).</p> + +<p>6—The narrator emphasizes this aspect of the discovery when +he says, on page 124, "I seemed to see man's (not the man's) +elementary dust and vapors whirled from great containers +upward into a stratum of shimmering air and gradually assume +the outlines of a human form that became first opaque, then +solid, and then a sentient being." And again (page 126), +"The best of the race could be multiplied indefinitely and +man could make man literally out of the dust of the earth." +This does not imply a split-up of one individual into +several smaller sizes or fractional parts, but rather the +production of identical entities exactly as thousands of +phonograph records can be created from the master matrix.</p> + +<p>7—As to the question of soul, I suggest that inasmuch as +what we call the soul of an individual is always judged by +that individual's behavior, and that medical science now +maintains that behavior is largely dependent upon our +physical mechanism, it would follow that the identical human +mechanisms would have identical souls.—Jackson Gee.</p></div> + +<h3>"<i>The Readers' Corner</i>"</h3> +<p>All Readers are extended a sincere and cordial invitation to "come +over in 'The Readers' Corner'" and join in our monthly discussion of +stories, authors, scientific principles and possibilities—everything +that's of common interest in connection with our Astounding Stories.</p> + +<p>Although from time to time the Editor may make a comment or so, this +is a department primarily for <i>Readers</i>, and we want you to make full +use of it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, explanations, roses, +brickbats, suggestions—everything's welcome here: so "come over in +'The Readers' Corner'" and discuss it with all of us!</p> + +<p class="p5"><i>The Editor.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Astounding Stories, June, 1931, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JUNE, 1931 *** + +***** This file should be named 31893-h.htm or 31893-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/9/31893/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Astounding Stories, June, 1931 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 5, 2010 [EBook #31893] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JUNE, 1931 *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + ASTOUNDING + + STORIES + + 20c + + + _On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month_ + + + W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher + HARRY BATES, Editor + DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor + + +The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees + + _That_ the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading + writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by + the Authors' League of America; + + _That_ such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American + workmen; + + _That_ each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit; + + _That_ an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages. + + +_The other Clayton magazines are:_ + +ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS +MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, +WESTERN ADVENTURES, and WESTERN LOVE STORIES. + +_More than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand +for Clayton Magazines._ + + * * * * * + + +VOL. VI, No. 3 CONTENTS JUNE, 1931 + + +COVER DESIGN H. W. WESSO + + _Painted in Water-Colors from a Scene in "Manape the Mighty."_ + + +THE MAN FROM 2071 SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT 295 + + _Out of the Flow of Time There Appears to Commander John Hanson + a Man of Mystery from the Forgotten Past._ + + +MANAPE THE MIGHTY. ARTHUR J. BURKS 308 + + _High in Jungle Treetops Swings Young Bentley--His Human Brain + Imprisoned in a Mighty Ape._ (A Complete Novelette.) + + +HOLOCAUST CHARLES WILLARD DIFFIN 356 + + _The Extraordinary Story of "Paul," Who for Thirty Days Was Dictator + of the World._ + + +THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN R. F. STARZL 375 + + _There is Foul Play on Mercury--until Danny Olear of the Interplanetary + Flying Police Gets After His Man._ + + +THE EXILE OF TIME RAY CUMMINGS 386 + + _Larry and George from 1935, Mary from 1777--All Are Caught up in the + Treacherous Tugh's Revolt of the Robots in the Time World of 2930._ + (Part Three of a Four-Part Novel.) + +THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 416 + +_A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories._ + + * * * * * + +Single Copies, 20 Cents In Canada, 25 Cents Yearly Subscription, $2.00 + +Issued monthly by The Clayton Magazines, Inc., 80 Lafayette Street, +New York, N. Y. W. M. Clayton, President; Francis P. Pace, Secretary. +Entered as second-class matter December 7, 1929, at the Post Office at +New York, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered as a +Trade Mark in the U. S. Patent Office. Member Newsstand Group. For +advertising rates address The Newsstand Group, Inc., 80 Lafayette +Street, New York; or The Wrigley Bldg., Chicago. + + * * * * * + + + + +The Man From 2071 + +_By Sewell Peaslee Wright_ + +[Illustration: _He clutched at the gangway--and fell._] + +[Sidenote: Out of the flow of time there appears to Commander John +Hanson a man of mystery from the forgotten past.] + + +Perhaps this story does not belong with my other tales of the Special +Patrol Service. And yet, there is, or should be, a report somewhere in +the musty archives of the Service, covering the incident. + +Not accurately, and not in detail. Among a great mass of old records +which I was browsing through the other day, I happened across that +report; it occupied exactly three lines in the log-book of the +_Ertak_: + + "Just before departure, discovered stowaway, apparently + demented, and ejected him." + +For the hard-headed higher-ups of the Service, that was report enough. +Had I given the facts, they would have called me to the Base for a +long-winded investigation. It would have taken weeks and weeks, filled +with fussy questioning. Dozens of stoop-shouldered laboratory men +would have prodded and snooped and asked for long, written accounts. +In those days, keeping the log-book was writing enough for me and +being grounded at Base for weeks would have been punishment. + +Nothing would have been gained by a detailed report. The Service +needed action rather than reports, anyway. But now that I am an old +man, on the retired list, I have time to write; and it will be a +particular pleasure to write this account, for it will go to prove +that these much-honored scientists of ours, with all their tremendous +appropriations and long-winded discussions, are not nearly so +wonderful as they think they are. They are, and always have been, too +much interested in abstract formulas, and not enough in their +practical application. I have never had a great deal of use for them. + + * * * * * + +I had received orders to report to Earth, regarding a dull routine +matter of reorganizing the emergency Base which had been established +there. Earth, I might add, for the benefit of those of you who have +forgotten your geography of the Universe, is not a large body, but its +people furnish almost all of the officer personnel of the Special +Patrol Service. Being a native of Earth, I received the assignment +with considerable pleasure, despite its dry and uninteresting nature. + +It was a good sight to see old Earth, bundled up in her cottony +clouds, growing larger and larger in the television disc. No matter +how much you wander around the Universe, no matter how small and +insignificant the world of your birth, there is a tie that cannot be +denied. I have set my ships down upon many a strange and unknown +world, with danger and adventure awaiting me, but there is, for me, no +thrill which quite duplicates that of viewing again that particular +little ball of mud from whence I sprang. I've said that before; I +shall probably say it again. I am proud to claim Earth as my +birth-place, small and out-of-the way as she is. + +Our Base on Earth was adjacent to the city of Greater Denver, on the +Pacific Coast. I could not help wondering, as we settled swiftly over +the city, whether our historians and geologists and other scientists +were really right in saying that Denver had at one period been far +from the Pacific. It seemed impossible, as I gazed down on that blue, +tranquil sea, that it had engulfed, hundreds of years ago, such a vast +portion of North America. But I suppose the men of science know. + + * * * * * + +I need not go into the routine business that brought me to Earth. +Suffice it to say that it was settled quickly, by the afternoon of the +second day: I am referring, of course, to Earth days, which are +slightly less than half the length of an enaren of Universe time. + +A number of my friends had come to meet me, visit with me during my +brief stay on Earth; and, having finished my business with such +dispatch, I decided to spend that evening with them, and leave the +following morning. It was very late when my friends departed, and I +strolled out with them to their mono-car, returning the salute of the +_Ertak's_ lone sentry, who was pacing his post before the huge +circular exit of the ship. + +Bidding my friends farewell, I stood there for a moment under the +heavens, brilliant with blue, cold stars, and watched the car sweep +swiftly and soundlessly away towards the towering mass of the city. +Then, with a little sigh, I turned back to the ship. + +The _Ertak_ lay lightly upon the earth, her polished sides gleaming in +the light of the crescent moon. In the side toward me, the circular +entrance gaped like a sleepy mouth; the sentry, knowing the eyes of +his commander were upon him, strode back and forth with brisk, +military precision. Slowly, still thinking of my friends, I made my +way toward the ship. + +I had taken but a few steps when the sentry's challenge rang out +sharply, "Halt! Who goes there?" + +I glanced up in surprise. Shiro, the man on guard, had seen me leave, +and he could have had no difficulty in recognizing me. But--the +challenge had not been meant for me. + + * * * * * + +Between myself and the _Ertak_ there stood a strange figure. An +instant before, I would have sworn that there was no human in sight, +save myself and the sentry; now this man stood not twenty feet away, +swaying as though ill or terribly weary, barely able to lift his head +and turn it toward the sentry. + +"Friend," he gasped; "friend!" and I think he would have fallen to the +ground if I had not clapped an arm around his shoulders and supported +him. + +"Just ... a moment," whispered the stranger. "I'm a bit faint.... I'll +be all right...." + +I stared down at the man, unable to reply. This was a nightmare; no +less. I could feel the sentry staring, too. + +The man was dressed in a style so ancient that I could not remember +the period: Twenty-first Century, at least; perhaps earlier. And while +he spoke English, which is a language of Earth, he spoke it with a +harsh and unpleasant accent that made his words difficult, almost +impossible, to understand. Their meaning did not fully sink in until +an instant after he had finished speaking. + +"Shiro!" I said sharply. "Help me take this man inside. He's ill." + +"Yes, sir!" The guard leaped to obey the order, and together we led +him into the _Ertak_, and to my own stateroom. There was some mystery +here, and I was eager to get at the root of it. The man with the +ancient costume and the strange accent had not come to the spot where +we had seen him by any means with which I was familiar; he had +materialized out of the thin air. There was no other way to account +for his presence. + + * * * * * + +We propped the stranger in my most comfortable chair, and I turned to +the sentry. He was staring at our weird visitor with wondering, +fearful eyes, and when I spoke he started as though stung by an +electric shock. + +"Very well," I said briskly. "That will be all. Resume your post +immediately. And--Shiro!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"It will not be necessary for you to make a report of this incident. I +will attend to that. Understand?" + +"Yes, sir!" And I think it is to the man's everlasting credit, and to +the credit of the Service which had trained him, that he executed a +snappy salute, did an about-face, and left the room without another +glance at the man slumped down in my big easy chair. + +With a feeling of cold, nervous apprehension such as I have seldom +experienced in a rather varied and active life, I turned then to my +visitor. + +He had not moved, save to lift his head. He was staring at me, his +eyes fixed in his chalky white face. They were dark, long +eyes--abnormally long--and they glittered with a strange, uncanny +light. + +"You are feeling better?" I asked. + +His thin, bloodless lips moved, but for a moment no sound came from +them. He tried again. + +"Water," he said. + +I drew him a glass from the tank in the wall of my room. He downed it +at a gulp, and passed the empty glass back to me. + +"More," he whispered. He drank the second glass more slowly, his eyes +darting swiftly, curiously, around the room. Then his brilliant, +piercing glance fell upon my face. + +"Tell me," he commanded sharply, "what year is this?" + + * * * * * + +I stared at him. It occurred to me that my friends might have +conceived and executed an elaborate hoax--and then I dismissed the +idea, instantly. There were no scientists among them who could make a +man materialize out of nothingness. + +"Are you in your right mind?" I asked slowly. "Your question strikes +me as damnably odd, sir." + +The man laughed wildly, and slowly straightened up in the chair. His +long, bony fingers clasped and unclasped slowly, as though feeling +were just returning to them. + +"Your question," he replied in his odd, unfamiliar accent, "is not +unnatural, under the circumstances. I assure you that I am of sound +mind; of very sound mind." He smiled, rather a ghastly smile, and made +a vague, slight gesture with one hand. "Will you be good enough to +answer my question? What year is this?" + +"Earth year, you mean?" + +He stared at me, his eyes flickering. + +"Yes," he said. "Earth year. There are other ways of ... figuring time +now?" + +"Certainly. Each inhabited world has its own system. There is a master +system for the Universe. Who are you, what are you, that you should +ask me a question the smallest child should know?" + +"First," he insisted, "tell me what year this is, Earth reckoning." + +I told him, and the light flickered up in his eyes again--a cruel, +triumphant light. + +"Thank you," he nodded; and then, slowly and softly, as though he +spoke to himself, he added, "Less than half a century off. Less than a +half a century! And they laughed at me. How--how I shall laugh at +them, presently!" + +"You choose to be mysterious, sir?" I asked impatiently. + +"No. Presently you shall understand, and then you will forgive me, I +know. I have come through an experience such as no man has ever known +before. If I am shaken, weak, surprising to you, it is because of that +experience." + + * * * * * + +He paused for a moment, his long, powerful fingers gripping the arms +of the chair. + +"You see," he added, "I have come out of the past into the present. Or +from the present into the future. It depends upon one's viewpoint. If +I am distraught, then forgive me. A few minutes ago, I was Jacob +Harbauer, in a little laboratory on the edge of a mountain park, near +Denver; now I am a nameless being hurtled into the future, pausing +here, many centuries from my own era. Do you wonder now that I am +unnerved?" + +"Do you mean," I said slowly, trying to understand what he had babbled +forth, "that you have come out of the past? That you ... that you...." +It was too monstrous to put into words. + +"I mean," he replied, "that I was born in the year 2028. I am +forty-three years old--or I was a few minutes ago. But,"--and his eyes +flickered again with that strange, mad light--"I am a scientist! I +have left my age behind me for a time; I have done what no other human +being has ever done: I have gone centuries into the future!" + +"I--I do not understand." Could he, after all, be a madman? "How can +a man leave his own age and travel ahead to another?" + +"Even in this age of yours they have not discovered that secret?" +Harbauer exulted. "You travel the Universe, I gather, and yet your +scientists have not yet learned to move in time? Listen! Let me +explain to you how simple the theory is. + + * * * * * + +"I take it you are an intelligent man; your uniform and its insignia +would seem to indicate a degree of rank. Am I correct?" + +"I am John Hanson, Commander of the _Ertak_, of the Special Patrol +Service," I informed him. + +"Then you will be capable of grasping, in part at least, what I have +to tell you. It is really not so complex. Time is a river, flowing +steadily, powerful, at a fixed rate of speed. It sweeps the whole +Universe along on its bosom at that same speed. That is my conception +of it; is it clear to you?" + +"I should think," I replied, "that the Universe is more like a great +rock in the middle of your stream of time, that stands motionless +while the minutes, the hours, and the days roll by." + +"No! The Universe travels on the breast of the current of time. It +leaves yesterday behind, and sweeps on towards to-morrow. It has +always been so until I challenged this so-called immutable law. I said +to myself, why should a man be a helpless stick upon the stream of +time? Why need he be borne on this slow current at the same speed? Why +cannot he do as a man in a boat, paddle backwards or forwards; back to +a point already passed; ahead, faster than the current, to a point +that, drifting, he would not reach so soon? In other words, why can he +not slip back through time to yesterday; or ahead to to-morrow? And if +to to-morrow, why not to next year, next century? + + * * * * * + +"These are the questions I asked myself. Other men have asked +themselves the same questions, I know; they were not new. +But,"--Harbauer drew himself far forward in his chair, and leaned +close to me, almost as though he prepared himself to spring--"no other +man ever found the answer! That remained for me. + +"I was not entirely correct, of course. I found that one could not go +back in time. The current was against one. But to go ahead, with the +current at one's back, was different. I spent six years on the +problem, working day and night, handicapped by lack of funds, +ridiculed by the press--Look!" + +Harbauer reached inside his antiquated costume and drew forth a flat +packet which he passed to me. I unfolded it curiously, my fingers +clumsy with excitement. + +I could hardly believe my eyes. The thing Harbauer had handed me was a +folded fragment of newspaper, such as I had often seen in museums. I +recognized the old-fashioned type, and the peculiar arrangement of the +columns. But, instead of being yellow and brittle with age, and +preserved in fragments behind sealed glass, this paper was fresh and +white, and the ink was as black as the day it had been printed. What +this man said, then, must be true! He must-- + +"I can understand your amazement," said Harbauer. "It had not occurred +to me that a paper which, to me, was printed only yesterday, would +seem so antique to you. But that must appear as remarkable to you as +fresh papyrus, newly inscribed with the hieroglyphics of the ancient +Egyptians, would seem to one of my own day and age. But read it; you +will see how my world viewed my efforts!" There was a sharpness, a +bitterness, in his voice that made me vaguely uneasy; even though he +had solved the riddle of moving in time as men have always moved in +space, my first conjecture that I had a madman to deal with might not +be so far from the truth. Ridicule and persecution have unseated the +reason of all too many men. + + * * * * * + +The type was unfamiliar to me, and the spelling was archaic, but I +managed to stumble through the article. It read, as nearly as I can +recall it, like this: + + Harbauer Says Time + + Is Like Great River + + Jacob Harbauer, local inventor, in an exclusive interview, + propounds the theory that man can move about in time exactly + as a boat moves about on the surface of a swift-flowing + river, save that he cannot go back into time, on account of + the opposition of the current. + + That is very fortunate, this writer feels; it would be a + terrible thing for example, if some good-looking scamp from + our present Twenty-first Century were to dive into the past + and steal Cleopatra from Antony, or start an affair with + Josephine and send Napoleon scurrying back from the front + and let the Napoleonic wars go to pot. We'd have to have all + our histories rewritten! + + Harbauer is well-known in Denver as the eccentric inventor + who, for the last five or six years, has occupied a lonely + shack in the mountains, guarded by a high fence of barbed + wire. He claims that he has now perfected equipment which + will enable him to project himself forward in time, and + expects to make the experiment in the very near future. + + This writer was permitted to view the equipment which + Harbauer says will shoot him into the future. The apparatus + is housed in a low, barn-like building in the rear of his + shack. + + Along one side of the room is a veritable bank of electrical + apparatus with innumerable controls, many huge tubes of + unfamiliar shape and appearance, a mighty generator of some + kind and an intricate maze of gleaming copper bus-bar. + + In the center of the room is a circle of metal, about a foot + in thickness, insulated from the flooring by four truncated + cones of fluted glass. This disc is composed of two + unfamiliar metals, arranged in concentric circles. + + Above this disc, at a height of about eight feet, is + suspended a sort of grid, composed of extremely fine silvery + wires, supported on a frame-work of black insulating + material. + + Asked for a demonstration of his apparatus, Harbauer finally + consented to perform an experiment with a dog--a white, + short-haired mongrel that, Harbauer informed us, he kept to + warn him of approaching strangers. + + He bound the dog's legs together securely, and placed the + struggling animal in the center of the heavy metal disc. + Then the inventor hurried to the central control panel and + manipulated several switches, which caused a number of + things to happen almost at once. + + The big generator started with a growl, and settled + immediately into a deep hum; a whole row of tubes glowed + with a purplish brilliancy. There was a crackling sound in + the air, and the grid above the disc seemed to become + incandescent, although it gave forth no apparent heat. From + the rim of the metal disc, thin blue streamers of electric + flame shot up toward the grid, and the little white dog + began to whine nervously. + + "Now watch!" shouted Harbauer. He closed another switch, + and the space between the disc and the grid became a + cylinder of livid light, for a period of perhaps two + seconds. Then Harbauer pulled all the switches, and pointed + triumphantly to the disc. It was empty. + + We looked around the room for the dog, but he was not + visible anywhere. + + "I have sent him nearly a century into the future," said + Harbauer. "We will let him stay there a moment, and then + bring him back." + + "You mean to say," we asked, "that the pup is now roaming + around somewhere in the Twenty-second Century?" Harbauer + said he meant just that, and added that he would now bring + the dog back to the present time. The switches were closed + again, but this time it was the metal plate that seemed + incandescent, and the grid above that shot out the streaks + of thin blue flame. As he closed the last switch, the + cylinder of light appeared again, and when the switches were + opened, there was the dog in the center of the disc, howling + and struggling against his bonds. + + "Look!" cried Harbauer. "He's been attacked by another dog, + or some other animal, while in the future. See the blood on + his shoulders?" + + We ventured the humble opinion that the dog had scratched or + bit himself in struggling to free himself from the cords + with which Harbauer had bound him, and the inventor flew + into a terrible rage, cursing and waving his arms as though + demented. Feeling that discretion was the better part of + valor, we beat a hasty retreat, pausing at the barbed-wire + gate only long enough to ask Mr. Harbauer if he would be + good enough, sometime when he had a few minutes of leisure, + to dash into next week and bring back some stock market + reports to aid us in our investment efforts. + + Under the circumstances, we did not wait for a response, but + we presume we are persona non grata at the Harbauer + establishment from this time on. + + All in all, we are not sorry. + +I folded the paper and passed it back to him; some of the allusions I +did not understand, but the general tone of the article was very clear +indeed. + + * * * * * + +"You see?" said Harbauer, his voice grating with anger. "I tried to be +courteous to that man; to give him a simple, convincing demonstration +of the greatest scientific achievement in centuries. And the fool +returned to write _this_: to hold me up to ridicule, to paint me as a +crack-brained, wild-eyed fanatic." + +"It's hard for the layman to conceive of a great scientific +achievement," I said soothingly. "All great inventions and inventors +have been laughed at by the populace at large." + +"True. True." Harbauer nodded his head solemnly. "But just the same--" +He broke off suddenly, and forced a smile. I found myself wishing that +he had completed that broken sentence, however; I felt that he had +almost revealed something that would have been most enlightening. + +"But enough of that fool and his babblings," he continued. "I am here +as living proof that my experiment is a success, and I have a +tremendous curiosity about the world in which I find myself. This, I +take it, is a ship for navigating space?" + +"Right! The _Ertak_, of the Special Patrol Service. Would you care to +look around a bit?" + +"I would, indeed." There was a tremendous eagerness in the man's +voice. + +"You're not too tired?" + +"No; I am quite recovered from my experience." Harbauer leaped to his +feet, those abnormally long, slitted eyes of his glowing. "I am a +scientist, and I am most curious to see what my fellows have created +since--since my own era." + +I picked up my dressing gown and tossed it to him. + +"Slip this on, then, to cover your clothing. You would be an object of +too much curiosity to those men who are on duty," I suggested. + +I was taller than he, and the garment came within a few inches of the +floor. He knotted the cincture around his middle and thrust his hands +into the pockets, turning to me for approval. I nodded, and motioned +for him to precede me through the door. + + * * * * * + +As an officer of the Special Patrol Service, it has often been my duty +to show parties and individuals through my ship. Most of these parties +are composed of females, who have only exclamations to make instead of +intelligent comment, and who possess an unbounded capacity for asking +utterly asinine questions. It was, therefore, a real pleasure to show +Harbauer through the ship. + +He was a keen, eager listener. When he asked a question, and he asked +many of them, he showed an amazing grasp of the principles involved. +My knowledge of our equipment was, of course, only practical, save for +the rudimentary theoretical knowledge that everyone has of present-day +inventions and devices. + +The ethon tubes which lighted the ship, interested him but little. The +atomic generators, the gravity pads, their generators, and the +disintegrator-ray, however, he delved into with that frenzied ardor of +which only a scientist, I believe, is capable. + +Questions poured out of him, and I answered them as best I could: +sometimes completely, and satisfactorily, so that he nodded and said, +"I see! I see!" and sometimes so poorly that he frowned, and +cross-questioned me insistently until he obtained the desired +information. + +In the big, sound-proof navigating room, I explained the operation of +the numerous instruments, including the two three-dimensional charts, +actuated by super-radio reflexes, the television disc, the attraction +meter, the surface-temperature gauge and the complex control system. + +"Forward," I added, "is the operating room. You can see it through +these glass partitions. The navigating officer in command relays his +orders to men in the operating room, who attend to the actual +execution of those orders." + +"Just as a pilot, or the navigating officer of a ship of my day gives +his orders to the quartermaster at the wheel," nodded Harbauer, and +began firing questions at me again, going over the ground we had +covered, to check up on his information. I was amazed at the uncanny +accuracy with which he had grasped such a great mass of technical +detail. It had taken me years of study to pick up what he had taken +from me, and apparently retained intact, in something more than an +hour, Earth time. + + * * * * * + +I glanced at the Earth-time clock on the wall of the navigating room +as he triumphantly finished his questioning. Less than an hour +remained before the time set for our return trip. + +"I'm sorry," I commented, "to be an ungracious host, but I am +wondering what your plans may be? You see, we are due to start in less +than an hour, and--" + +"A passenger would be in your way?" Harbauer smiled as he uttered the +words, but there was a gleam in his long eyes that rather startled me, +and I wondered if I only imagined the steeliness of his voice. "Don't +let that worry you, sir." + +"It's not worrying me," I replied, watching him closely. "I have +enjoyed a very remarkable, a very pleasant experience. If you should +care to remain aboard the _Ertak_, I should like exceedingly to have +you accompany us to our Base, where I could place you in touch with +other laboratory men, with whom you would have much in common." + +Harbauer threw back his head and laughed--not pleasantly. + +"Thanks!" he said. "But I have no time for that. They could give me no +knowledge that I need, now; you have told me and showed me enough. I +understand how you have released atomic energy; it is a matter so +simple that a child should have guessed it, and man has wondered about +it for centuries, knowing that the power was there, but lacking a key +to unfetter it. And now I have that key!" + +"True. But perhaps our scientists would like, in exchange, the secret +of moving forward in time," I suggested, reasonably enough. + +"What do I care about them?" snapped Harbauer. He loosened the cord of +the robe with a quick, impatient gesture, as though it confined him +too tightly, and threw the garment from him. + + * * * * * + +Then, suddenly, he took a quick stride toward me, and thrust out his +ugly head. + +"I know enough now to give me power over all my world," he cried. +"Haven't you guessed the reason for my interest in your engines of +destruction? I came down the centuries ahead of my generation so that +I might come back with power in my hand; power to wipe out the fools +who have made a mock of me. And I have that power--here!" He tapped +his forehead dramatically with his left hand. + +"I will bring a new regime to my era!" he continued, fairly shouting +now. "I will be what many men have tried to be, and what no man has +ever been--master of the world! Absolute, unquestioned, supreme +master!" He paused, his eyes glaring into mine--and I knew from the +light that shone behind those long, narrow slits, that I was dealing +with a madman. + +"True; you will," I said gently, moving carelessly toward the +microphone. With that in my hand, a slight pressure on the General +Attention signal, and I would have the whole crew of the _Ertak_ here +in a moment. But I had explained the workings of the navigating room's +equipment only too well. + +"Stop!" snarled Harbauer, and his right hand flashed up. "See this? +Perhaps you don't know what it is; I'll tell you. It's an automatic +pistol--not so efficient as your disintegrator-ray, but deadly enough. +There is certain death for eight men in my hand. Understand?" + +"Perfectly." What an utter fool I had been! I was not armed, and I +knew that Harbauer spoke the truth. I had often seen weapons similar +to the one he held in the military museums. They are still there, if +you are curious--rusty and broken, but not unlike our present atomic +pistols in general appearance. They propelled the bullet by the +explosion of a sort of powder; inefficient, of course, but, as he had +said, deadly enough for the purpose. + + * * * * * + +"Good! You are a good sort Hanson, but don't take any chances. I'm not +going to, I promise you. You see,"--and he laughed again, the light in +his long eyes dancing with evil--"I'm not likely to be punished for a +few killings committed centuries after I'm dead. I have never killed a +man, but I won't hesitate to do so now, if one--or more--should get in +my way." + +"But why," I asked soothingly, "should you wish to kill anyone? You +have what you came for, you say; why not depart in peace?" + +He smiled crookedly, and his eyes narrowed with cunning. + +"You approve of my little plan to dominate the world?" he asked +softly, his eyes searching my face. + +"No," I said boldly, refusing to lie to him. "I do not, and you know +it." + +"Very true." He pulled out his watch with his left hand, and held it +before his eyes so that he could observe the time without losing sight +of me for even an instant. "I doubted that I could secure your willing +cooperation; therefore, I am commanding it. + +"You see, there are certain instruments and pieces of equipment that I +should like to take back to my laboratory with me. Perhaps I would be +able to reproduce them without models, but with the models my task +will be much easier. + +"The question remaining is a simple one: will you give the proper +orders to have this equipment removed to the spot where you first saw +me, or shall I be obliged to return to my own era without this +equipment--leaving behind me a dead commander of the Special Patrol +Service, and any other who may try to stop me?" + + * * * * * + +I tried to keep cool under the lash of his mocking voice. I have never +been adept at holding my temper when I should, but somehow I managed +it this time. Frowning, I kept him waiting for a reply, utilizing the +time to do what was perhaps the hardest, fastest thinking of my life. + +There wasn't a particle of doubt in my mind regarding his ability to +make good his threat, nor his readiness to do so. I caught the faint +glimmering of an idea and fenced with it eagerly. + +"How are you going to go back to your own period--your own era?" I +asked him. "You told me, I believe, that it was impossible to move +backward in time." + +"That's not answering my question," he said, leering. "Don't think +you're fooling me! But I'll tell you, just the same. I can go back to +my own era: that is, back to my own actual existence. I shall return +just two hours after I leave; I could not go back farther than that, +and it's not necessary that I do so. I can go back only because I came +from that present; I am not really of this future at all. I go back +from whence I came." + +"But," I objected, thinking of something I had read in the clipping he +had showed me, "you're not going back to your own era. You cannot. If +you returned, you would put your project into execution, and history +does not record that activity." I saw from the sudden narrowing of his +abnormally long eyes that I had caught his interest, and I pressed my +advantage hastily. "Remember that all the history of your time is +written, Harbauer. It is in the books of Earth's history, with which +every child of this age, into which you have thrust yourself, is +familiar. And those histories do not record the domination of the +world by yourself. So--you are confronted by an impossibility!" + + * * * * * + +My reasoning, now, sounds specious, and yet it was a line of thought +which could not be waved aside. I saw Harbauer's black brows knit +together, and mounting anger darken his face. I do not know, but I +believe I was never nearer death than I was at that instant. + +"Fool!" he cried. "Idiot! Imbecile! Do you think you can confuse me, +turn me from my purpose, with words? Do you? Do you believe me to be a +child, or a weakling? I tell you, I have planned this thing to the +last detail. If I had not found what I sought on this first trip, I +would have taken another, a dozen, a score, until I found the +information I sought. The last six years of my life I have worked day +and night to this end; your histories and your words--" + +My plan had worked. The man was beside himself with insane anger. And +in his rage he forgot, for an instant, that he was my captor. + +Taking a desperate chance, I launched myself at his legs. His weapon +roared over my head, just as I struck. I felt the hot gas from the +thing beat against my neck; I caught the reeking scent of the smoke. +Then we were both on the floor, and locked in a mad embrace. + +Harbauer was a smaller man than myself, but he had the amazing +strength of a Zenian. He fought viciously, using every ounce of his +strength against me, striving to bring his weapon into use, hammering +my head upon the floor, racking my body mercilessly, grunting, +cursing, mumbling constantly as he did so. + +But I was in better trim than Harbauer. I have never seen a laboratory +man who could stand the strain of prolonged physical exertion. Bending +over test-tubes and meters is no life for a man. At grips with him, I +was in my own element, and he was out of his. I let him wear himself +out, exerting myself as little as possible, confining my efforts to +keeping his weapon where he could not use it. + +I felt him weakening at last. His breath was coming in great sobs, and +his long eyes started from their sockets with the strained effort he +was putting forth. And then, with a single mighty effort, I knocked +the pistol from his hand, so that it slid across the floor and brought +up with a crash against a wall of the room. + +"Now!" I said, and turned on him. + + * * * * * + +He knew, at that moment when I put forth my strength, that I had been +playing with him. I read the shock of sudden fear in his eyes. My +right arm went about him in a deadly hold; I had him in a grip that +paralyzed him. Grimly, I jerked him to his feet, and he stood there +trembling with weakness, his shoulders heaving as his breath came and +went between his teeth. + +"You realize, of course, that you're not going back?" I said quietly. + +"Back?" Half dazed, he stared at me through the quivering lids of his +peculiar eyes. "What do you mean?" + +"I mean that you're not going back to your own era. You have come to +us, uninvited, and--you're going to stay here." + +"No!" he shouted, and struggled so desperately to free himself that I +was hard put to it to hold him, without tightening my grip +sufficiently to dislocate his shoulders. "You wouldn't do that! I must +return; I must prove to them--" + +"That's exactly what must not happen, and what shall not happen," I +interrupted. "And what will not happen. You are in a strange +predicament, Harbauer; it is already written that you do not return. +Can't you see that, man? If it were to be that you left this age and +returned to your own, you would make known your discovery. History +would record it. And history does not record it. You are struggling, +not against me, but against--against a fate that has been sealed all +these centuries." + + * * * * * + +When I had finished, he stared at me as though hypnotized, motionless +and limp in my grasp. Then, suddenly, he began to shake and I saw such +depths of terror and horror in his eyes as I hope never to see again. + +Mechanically, he glanced down at his watch, lifting his wrist into his +line of vision as slowly and ponderously as though it bore a great +weight. + +"Two ... two minutes," he whispered huskily. "Then the automatic switch +will close, back in my laboratory. If I am not standing where ... where +you found me ... between the disc and the grid of my time machine, where +the reversed energy can reach me, to ... to take me back ... God!" + +He sagged in my arms and dropped to his knees, sobbing. + +"And yet ... what you say is true. It is already written that I did +not return." His sobs cut harshly through the silence of the room. +Pitying his despair, I reached down to give him a sympathetic pat on +the shoulder. It is a terrible thing to see a man break down as +Harbauer had done. + +As he felt my grip on him relax, he suddenly shot his fist into the +pit of my stomach, and leaped to his feet. Groaning, I doubled up, +weak and nerveless, for the instant, from the vicious, unexpected +blow. + +"Ah!" shrieked Harbauer. "You soft-hearted fool!" He struck me in the +face, sending me crashing to the floor, and snatched up his pistol. + +"I'm going, now," he shouted. "Going! What do I care for your records +and your histories? They are not yet written; if they were I'd change +them." He bent over me and snatched from my hand the ring of keys, one +of which I had used to unlock the door of the navigating room. I tried +to grip him around the legs, but he tore himself loose, laughing +insanely in a high-pitched, cackling sound that seemed hardly human. + +"Farewell!" he called mockingly from the doorway. Then the door +slammed, and as I staggered to my feet, I heard the lock click. + + * * * * * + +I must have acted then by instinct or inspiration. There was no time +to think. It would take him not more than three or four seconds to +make his way to the exit, stroll by the guard to the spot where we had +found him, and--disappear. By the time I could arouse the crew, and +have my orders executed, his time would be up, and--unless the whole +affair were some terrible nightmare--he would go hurtling back through +time to his own era, armed with a devastating knowledge. + +There was only one possible means of preventing his escape in time. I +ran across the room to the emergency operating controls, cut in the +atomic generators with one hand and pulled the Vertical-Ascent lever +to Full Power. + +There was a sudden shriek of air, and my legs almost thrust themselves +through my body. Quickly, I pushed the lever back until, with my eye +on the altimeter, I held the _Ertak_ at her attained height--something +over a mile, as I recall it. Then I pressed the General Attention +signal, and snatched up the microphone. + +Less than a minute later Correy and Hendricks, fellow officers, were +in the room and besieging me with solicitous questions. + + * * * * * + +It had been my idea, of course, to keep Harbauer from leaving the +ship, but it was not so destined. + +Shiro, the sentry on duty outside the _Ertak_, was the only witness to +Harbauer's fate. + +"I was walking my post, sir," he reported, "watching the sun come up, +when suddenly I heard the sound of running feet inside the ship. I +turned towards the entrance and drew my pistol, to be in readiness. I +saw the stranger we had taken into the ship appear at the exit, which, +as you know, was open. + +"Just as I opened my mouth to command him to halt, the _Ertak_ shot up +from the ground at terrific speed. The stranger had been about to leap +upon me; indeed, he had discharged some sort of weapon at me, for I +heard a crash of sound, and a missile of some kind, as you know, +passed through my left arm. + +"As the ship left the ground, he tried to draw back, but he was off +balance, and the inertia of his body momentarily incapacitated him, I +think. He slipped, clutched at the gangway across the threads which +seal the exit, and then, at a height I estimate to be around five +hundred feet, he fell. The _Ertak_ shot on up until it was lost to +sight, and the stranger crashed to the ground a few feet from where I +was standing--on almost exactly the spot where we first saw him, sir. + + * * * * * + +"And now, sir, comes the part I guess you'll find hard to believe. +When he struck the ground, he was smashed flat; he died instantly. I +started to run toward him, and then--and then I stopped. My eyes had +not left the spot for a moment, sir, but he--his body, that +is--suddenly disappeared. That's the truth, sir, for I saw it with my +own eyes. There wasn't a sign of him left." + +"I see," I replied. I believe that I did. We had gone straight up, and +his body, by no great coincidence, had fallen upon the spot close to +the exit of the _Ertak_ where we had first found him. And his machine, +in operation, had brought him, or rather, his mangled body, back to +his own age. "You have not mentioned this affair to anyone, Shiro?" + +"No, sir. It wasn't anything you'd be likely to tell: nobody would +believe you. I went at once to have my arm attended to, and then +reported here according to orders." + +"Very good, Shiro. Keep the entire affair to yourself. I will make all +the necessary reports. That is an order--understand?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then that will be all. Take good care of your arm." + +He saluted with his good hand and left me. + + * * * * * + +Later in the day I wrote in the log-book of the Ertak the report I +mentioned at the beginning of this tale: + + "Just before departure, discovered stowaway, apparently + demented, and ejected him." + +That was a perfectly truthful statement, and it served its purpose. I +have given the whole story in detail just to prove what I have so +often contended: that these owlish laboratory men whom this age +reveres so much are not nearly so wise and omnipotent as they think +they are. + +I am quite sure that they would have discredited, or attempted to +discredit, my story, had I told it at the time. They would have +resented the idea that someone so much ahead of them had discovered a +principle that still baffles this age of ours, and I would have had no +evidence to present. + +Perhaps even now the story will be discredited; if so, I do not care. +I am much too old, and too near the portals of that impenetrable +mystery, in the shadow of which I have stood so many times, to concern +myself with what others may think or say. + +I know that what I have related here is the truth, and in my mind I +have a vivid and rather pitiful picture of a mangled body, bloody and +alone, in the barn-like structure the ancient paper had described; a +body, broken and motionless, lying athwart the striated metal disc, +like a sacrificial victim--a victim and a sacrifice of science. + +There have been many such. + + + + +Manape the Mighty + +A COMPLETE NOVELETTE + +_By Arthur J. Burks_ + + +CHAPTER I + +_Castaway_ + +[Illustration: _There, the words were written._] + +[Sidenote: High in jungle treetops swings young Bentley--his human +brain imprisoned in a mighty ape.] + + +Lee Bentley never knew how many others, if any, lived on after the +_Bengal Queen_ struck the hidden reef and sank like a stone. He had +only a hazy memory of the catastrophe, and recalled that when she had +struck and the alarm had gone rocketing through the great passenger +boat--though no alarm was really necessary because she went to pieces +so fast--that he had leaped far over the rail and swam straight out, +fast, in order to escape being dragged down by the suction of the +sinking liner. + +The screaming of frightened women and children would ring in his ears +until the day the grave closed over him--screaming that was made all +the more terrible by the crashing roar of the raging black seas which +came out of the darkness to make the affair all the more hideous, and +to bear down beneath them into the sea the feeble struggling ones who +had no chance for their lives. Lifeboats had been smashed in their +davits. + +Bentley swam straight away after he was satisfied at last that he +could do nothing more. He had helped men and women reach bits of +wreckage until he could scarcely any longer keep his wearied arms to +the task of keeping his own head above water. He knew even as he +helped the white-faced ones that few of them would ever live through +it, but he was doing the best he knew--a man's job. + +When absolutely sure that he could do nothing further, when he could +no longer hear cries of distress, or discover struggling forms in the +sea which he might aid, he had turned his back on the graveyard of +the _Bengal Queen_ and had struck for shore. He remembered the +direction, for before sunset that evening, in company with several +ship's under officers, he had studied the navigation charts upon which +each day's run of the _Bengal Queen_ was shown. Ahead of him now was +the coast of Africa, though what part of it he knew but in the haziest +way. He might not guess within a hundred miles. + + * * * * * + +One thing only he remembered exactly. The second officer had said, +apropos of nothing in particular: + +"This wouldn't be a happy place to be shipwrecked. This section of the +coast is a regular hangout of the great anthropoid apes. You know, +those babies that can pick a man apart as a man would pluck the legs +off a fly." + +Bentley had merely grinned. The second officer's remarks had sounded +to him as though the fellow had been reading more than his fair share +of lurid fiction of the South African jungles. + +However, apes or no apes, the shore would look good to Lee Bentley +now. And he fully intended making it. He knew he could swim for hours +if it became necessary, and he refused to think of the possibility of +sharks. If one got him, well, that was one of the chances one had to +take when one was shipwrecked against one's will. + +So he alternately swam toward where he expected to find land, and +floated on his back to rest. + +"A swell ending to a great life, if I don't make it," he told himself. +"I wonder how the old man will take it when the world reads that the +_Bengal Queen_ went down with all on board? He'll be relieved, maybe, +for he was about ready to wash his hands of me if I can read signs at +all." + + * * * * * + +It might be said that Bentley was his own worst critic, for he really +was not a bad sort of a fellow. He was a good American, over-educated +perhaps, with a yen to delve into forbidden places usually avoided by +his own kind, and of digging into books which were better left with +the pages unturned. There were strange ruins in Africa, he knew. He +had gathered a weird fund of information from such books as he could +unearth relative to ancient ruins and vanished races, to the lurid +accounts of strange deaths of the various scientists who had taken +active part in the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen. + +There were queer things in the heart of darkest Africa, and such +things intrigued him. He could take whatever chances with his life he +saw fit, for his only relative was a father, and he had never attached +himself to any woman nor permitted any woman to attach herself to +him--because he could never be sure that her interest might not +primarily be in his bank account. + +"If, as, and when," he told himself as he rode the waves through the +night, "I reach the coast I'll be tossed into black Africa in a way I +was not expecting. Anyway, if I live through, I can at least go about +my work without the governor interfering. I only hope it won't be hard +on the old fellow. He isn't a bad egg at all, and I guess I have given +him plenty to think about and worry over." + +He turned on his stomach again and struck out. He had managed to rid +himself of all of his clothing except his underwear. They had only +weighed him down, and he recalled, with a wry grin, that Africa as a +whole went in but little for the latest in men's sport wear. + + * * * * * + +It must have been a good hour since he had lost the _Bengal Queen_ +back there in the raging deep, that he heard the faint call through +the murk. + +"Help, for God's sake!" + +He listened for a repetition of the call, minded to believe that his +ears had tricked him. He fancied it had been a woman's voice, but no +woman could have lived so long in those raging seas, in which any +moment Bentley himself expected to be overwhelmed. For himself he +regarded death more or less philosophically, but a woman out there, +crying for help, was a different matter entirely. It tore at his +heartstrings, mostly because he realized his inability to be of +material assistance. + +He was sure that he had been mistaken about the cry, when it came +again. + +"For God's sake, help!" + +It came from his left and this time it was unmistakable, piteous and +unnerving. Lee Bentley had the horrible fear that he would never reach +her in time to help--though what help he could give, when he could +barely manage to keep himself afloat, he could not forsee. + +He was swimming down the side of a monster wave. He could see +something white in the trough, and he struggled manfully to make +headway, while the angry waters tossed him about like a bit of cork +and seemed bent on defeating his most furious efforts. He saw the bit +of white ride high on the next wave, pass over it and vanish. He dived +straight through the wave as it towered over him. He came up, gasping, +his hands all but clutching at a pair of hands that reached out of the +waters and grasped with a last desperate effort at the sky. + +Ahead of the hands was a broken piece of oar. Those hands had just +despairingly relinquished their grip on the one chance of safety, if +any chance there could possibly be in that mad midnight waste. + +He pulled on the wrists and a white face came to view. Wild, staring +eyes looked into his. Black hair flowed back from a face whose lips +were blue and thin. + +"Take it easy," he counseled. "Turn on your back and rest while I see +if I can get back your life-boat." + + * * * * * + +He captured the oar, and found it practically useless to sustain any +appreciable weight, but he clung to it because it was at least better +than nothing at all. It had held the girl afloat for over an hour and +might be made to serve again somehow. With his left hand under the +woman's head and his right grasping the oar he turned on his back to +regain his breath. He was deep in the water because the woman was now +almost on top of him; but her face was above water. He knew +instinctively that she had fainted, and he was a little glad. If she +were the usual hysterical woman her fighting would drown them both. As +a dead weight she was easier to handle. + +They drifted on, and hope began to mount high in the heart of Lee +Bentley--the hope that they might yet reach land. When, hours later, +he could hear the roaring of breakers he was sure of it--if the +breakers could be passed in safety. After that their fate was in the +lap of the gods. + +The girl too must have heard, for she turned at last in Bentley's arms +and began to swim for herself. She was a strong swimmer and the period +during which she had been out of things had revived her amazingly. She +even managed a smile as she swam beside Bentley into the creamy +breakers behind which they could make out the blackness of shore. + +They were so close together that at times their hands touched as they +swam, and could make themselves heard by dint of shouting, though they +both husbanded their strength and their breathing for swimming. + +"I'm not dressed for company," he told her. "I left my tuxedo aboard +the _Bengal Queen_!" + +It was then that her lips twisted into a smile. + +"I wouldn't even allow my maid into my stateroom if I were dressed as +I am at the moment," she answered strongly, "but we're both grown up I +think, and there are times when conventions go by the board. We'll +pretend it doesn't matter!" + +Then mutually helping each other they fought through the breakers into +the calmer water behind, and managed at last to stand in water hip +deep, with the undertow dragging at their limbs. They looked at each +other and clasped hands without a word. They strode to the sandy beach +beyond which the jungle reached away to some invisible horizon, and +continued on until they were at last beyond the reach of the waves. + + * * * * * + +They did not look at each other again, though Bentley did notice that +her garb was as scanty almost as his own, consisting mostly of a slip +which the water had pasted fast against her flesh. Beyond noting that +she seemed to be young, Bentley did not intrude. Nor did he think of +the future. It was enough for the moment that they had escaped the +might of angry Neptune, god of the seas. + +They dropped to the sands side by side, and the sands were warm. That +the jungle behind them might be alive with wild beasts they did not +pause to consider. Bentley had gazed at the jungle a moment before +dropping down. + +He had noticed but one thing--a moving light somewhere among the +tangled mass, a light as of a monster firefly erratically darting +through the deeper gloom. + +The girl--he had noted she was as much girl as woman--dropped to the +sand and stretched herself out. Bentley looked about him for a +moment, just now realizing what he had been through. Then he dropped +down beside the girl, and put one arm over her protectively, an +instinctive movement. The two were alone in an alien world, and even +this slight contact gave Bentley a feeling of companionship he found +at the time peculiarly appealing. + +The girl was in a drugged sort of sleep, but she stirred at the touch +of his arm, and her hand came up so that her fingertips touched his +cheek. + +He slept heavily, while outside on the raging deep the storm swept on +along the coast, bearing with it the secret of the rest of those who +only last night had looked forward to a pleasant voyage aboard the +_Bengal Queen_. + +The last thought in Bentley's mind was of that flickering light he had +seen. It was not important, but memory of it clung, and followed him +into his sleep with his dreams--in which he seemed to be following a +darting, erratic light through a jungle without end. + +He wakened with the sun burning his face and torso, and turned on his +stomach with a groan. The heat ate into his back unbearably and he +finally sat up, rubbed his eyes and stared out to sea. Then it all +came back and he looked about him for the girl. She had disappeared. + +He rose to his feet and shouted. + +An answering cry came back to him, and after a moment the girl +appeared around a bend in a shoreline where she had been masked by a +wall of the jungle and came toward him. She was carrying something in +her hands. When she stood at last before him he noted that she carried +a bundle of cloth that was dripping wet. + +"We need something to cover us," she said simply. "I was tempted to +garb myself, but I did not wish to seem like a simpering prudish +female, which I'm not at all. So I brought my findings here so that we +could get together and fix up something to protect us from the sun." + +"You're a sensible woman," said Bentley. "I've never understood why +people should be so sensitive about their bodies. Mine isn't bad and +yours, if you'll pardon me, is superb. That's not a compliment, just a +statement of fact--which will help us to understand each other better. +I've a hunch we're going to be some time in each other's company and +we may as well know things about each other. My name's Lee Bentley." + +"Mine is Ellen Estabrook." + +Solemnly they shook hands. And their hands clung convulsively, for as +though their handshake had been a signal there came a strange sound +from the jungle behind them. + +A burst of laughter that was plainly human--and another sound which +caused the short hair at the base of Bentley's skull to rise, shift +oddly, and settle back again. + +The sound was like the beating of a skin-tight drumhead by the fists +of a jungle savage. But if such it was the drum was a mighty drum, and +the savage was a giant, for the sound went rolling through the jungle +like an invisible tidal wave of sound. + +Both the laughter and the drumming ceased as suddenly as they had +sounded. + +The man and woman laughed jerkily, dropped to the sand side by side +and considered the necessity of clothes. + + +CHAPTER II + +_Into the Jungle_ + +They had to smile together at the results achieved with the bedraggled +bits of cloth. Bentley suspected that they had been taken from bodies +washed ashore as gruesome reminders of the catastrophe which had +befallen the _Bengal Queen_, and because he did suspect this he did +not ask questions that might cause Ellen to remember any longer than +was necessary. Not that he doubted her courage, for she had proved +that sufficiently; and she had proved that she was sensible, with none +of the notions of the proprieties which would have made any other girl +of Bentley's acquaintance a nuisance. + +Their next concern was food, which they must find in the jungle, or +from other wreckage cast ashore from the _Bengal Queen_. Now, hand in +hand--which seemed natural in the circumstances--they began to walk +along the shore, heading into the north by mutual consent. + +As they walked Bentley kept pondering on that strange laughter he had +heard and on the sound of savage drumming. The laughter puzzled him. +If there were anyone in the jungle back of them, why had he or they +failed to challenge them? + +As for the drumming sound--Bentley remembered what the second officer +had said about this section of the coast. It was a bit of jungle +inhabited by the great apes in large numbers. So, that drumming had +been a challenge, the man-ape's manner of mocking an enemy by beating +himself on his barrel chest with his huge fists. But that the ape had +not been challenging Bentley and the girl Bentley felt quite sure, as +the brute would certainly have shown himself in that case. + +They trudged on through the sand, while the sun beat down unmercifully +on their uncovered heads. Ellen Estabrook strode along at Bentley's +side without complaint. + + * * * * * + +After perhaps an hour of this unbearable effort, when both felt as +though the sun had sucked them dry of perspiration, they encountered +a rough footpath leading into the jungle. The path suggested human +habitation somewhere near. The inhabitants might be hostile natives, +even cannibals perhaps, but in this unknown land they would have to +take a chance on that. + +With a sigh of relief, and refusing to look ahead too far, or try to +guess what lay in wait for them in the black mystery of the jungle, +they turned into the footpath. The jungle was fetid and sweaty, but +even this was a relief from the intolerable sun which could not reach +them here because the jungle had closed its leafy arms over the trail +instantly. One could not tell from the path whether it had been made +by natives or by whites, for it was packed hard. It led straight away +from the shoreline. + +"We'll have to keep a sharp lookout for possible poisoned spring +darts, Ellen," said Bentley. + +"I'm not afraid, Lee," she answered stoutly. "Fate wouldn't allow us +to come through what we have only to end things with poisoned darts. +It just couldn't happen that way!" + +Thus simply they addressed each other. It seemed as though years had +been squeezed into a matter of hours. They knew each other as well as +they would, in other circumstances, have known each other after a year +of constant association. Here barriers of conventions were razed as +simply and naturally as among children. + + * * * * * + +They had pressed well into the gloom of the jungle when the first +sound came. + +Not the laughter they had heard before, but the drumming. It was ahead +and somewhat to the left, and as they stopped without speaking they +could distinctly hear the threshing of a huge body through the +underbrush. The sound seemed to be approaching and for a minute or so +they listened. Then the sound was repeated off to the right, a trifle +further away. + +"Can you climb, Ellen?" asked Bentley simply. "This section is filled +with anthropoid apes, according to the second officer of the _Bengal +Queen_. We may have to take to the trees." + +"I can climb," she said, "but from what I've studied of the habits of +these brutes they do a great deal of bluffing before they actually +charge, and may not molest us at all if we pay no attention." + +Bentley felt almost nude because he had no weapons save his own fists. +And he would not have admitted even to himself how deeply he was +concerned over the girl. As far as he knew, this section might be +entirely uninhabited. It might be given over entirely to the +anthropoids. In this case he shuddered to think of what might happen +to Ellen Estabrook if he were slain. + +He quickened his pace until Ellen kept stride with him with +difficulty. The object uppermost in Bentley's mind was to get as far +away as possible from the ominous drumbeats. + +They rounded a bend in the trail and stopped stock-still. + +Within fifty yards of them, blocking the trail, was a brute whose +great size sent a thrill of horror through Bentley. It towered to the +height of a big man, and must have weighed in the neighborhood of four +hundred pounds. It was larger by far than any bull ape Bentley had +seen in captivity. + +It had been waiting for them, silently, with almost human cunning; but +now that it was discovered the shaggy creature rose to his hind legs +and screamed a challenge, at the same time striking his chest with +blows of his hairy fists which rolled in a dull booming of sound +through the jungle. At the same time the creature moved forward. + + * * * * * + +Bentley whirled to run, his hand clasping tighter the hand of Ellen +Estabrook. But they had not retreated ten steps down the pathway when +their way was blocked by another of the great shaggy brutes. And they +could hear others on both sides. + +Bentley's face was chalk-white as he turned to the girl. Her calm +acceptance of their predicament, an attitude in which he could read no +slightest vestige of fear, helped him to regain control of his own +nerves, which had threatened to send him into a panic. She even +smiled, and Lee felt a trifle ashamed of himself. + +Now the crashing sounds were closing in. The two brutes before and +behind on the trail were pressing in upon them. But no general +headlong charge had yet begun. Bentley looked around him, seeking a +tree with limbs low enough for them to reach and thus climb to safety. + +"There's one!" cried Ellen. Tugging at his hand she began to run. + +At the same moment the great apes bellowed and charged. + +But the charge was never finished, for through the drumming of their +mighty fists on mighty barrel-like chests, through the sound of their +charge, through the crackling underbrush came again that sound of +laughter. There was fierce joy in the laughter, and the laughter was +followed by words of a strange gibberish which Bentley could not +recall as being from any language he had ever heard. + +The great apes paused. Out of the jungle to the right of the fugitives +burst a white man. He was well past middle age, for his white hair +hung almost to his shoulders, which were stooped with the weight of +years. He was a wisp of a man whose smooth shaven face was apple-red. +His eyes were black and expressionless as obsidian, and when Lee +encountered the full gaze of them he was conscious of that feeling +which he had experienced at various times in his life when he knew +that some deadly reptile was close by. + +"Stand still a moment!" cried the old man. His voice was strangely +high-pitched and cracked. + + * * * * * + +From his right hand a whip with a long lash uncurled like a snake. + +This he swung back and hurled to the front, and the snap of it was +like a pistol shot. The great ape on the path ahead cowered back, +bearing his fangs, roaring in anger. But that he feared the whip of +the old man was plain to be seen. The crashing sound in the jungle +died away rapidly, immediately the first report of the whip lash +sounded in the trail. + +Fearlessly the little man dashed upon the first of the great brutes +the castaways had seen. His lash curled about the great beast's body, +and the animal bellowed with pain. It clawed at the lash, but was not +fast enough to capture it. In the end the brute broke and fled. + +The animal which had blocked their path in the rear had already +disappeared. + +Now the little man came back to face the fugitives, and his lips were +parted in a cordial smile. He coiled his whip and tucked it under his +arm. He was dressed in well worn corduroy with high boots that were +rather the worse for wear. Bentley saw that his lips were too +red--like blood--and somehow he disliked the man instantly. + +"Welcome to Barterville," said the old man. "It has been years since I +have seen any of my own kind. People avoid this section of the +jungle." + +"I don't wonder," said Bentley, sighing deeply with relief. "Those +brutes would make anybody keep away from here, if they knew about +them. I thought they had us for a few minutes. They planned an ambush +almost as well as human beings could have done it--but that's absurd +of course, merely a coincidence." + + * * * * * + +"Coincidence?" snapped the old man, a hint of asperity in his words. +"Coincidence? I see you do not know the great apes, sir. I have always +maintained that apes could be trained to do anything men can do. I +have maintained that they have a language of their own, and even ways +of communicating without words, a sort of jungle writing which men of +course have never yet learned. I've devoted my life to learning the +secrets of the great apes, their life histories, and so forth. I am +Professor Caleb Barter!" + +"Professor Caleb Barter!" ejaculated Ellen Estabrook. "Why I've heard +of him! He went on an expedition among the great apes ten years ago +and was never heard of again." + +"I am Caleb Barter," said the old man. "I decided to disappear from +the world I knew, to let other fool scientists think me dead in order +that I might continue my investigations without molestation. And now I +have almost reached the place where I can go back to civilization with +information that will startle the world. There yet remains one +experiment. Now I hope to make that experiment. No! No! Don't ask me +what it is. It is my secret and nobody will ever wrest it from me." + +Bentley studied the old man. He seemed slightly demented, Bentley +thought, but that might be merely the mental evolution of a man who +had made a hermit of himself for so many years--if this chap actually +were Professor Barter. + +"Professor Barter," went on Ellen, "was the scientific leader of his +day. Others followed where he led. He made greater strides in surgery +and medicine, and in unravelling the mysteries of evolution, than +anyone else up to his time. Of course I believe you are Professor +Barter. My name is Ellen Estabrook, and this gentleman is Lee Bentley. +We believe ourselves to be the only survivors of the _Bengal Queen_. +Perhaps you can lead us to food and water?" + +"Yes, oh yes! Indeed. One forgets how to be hospitable, I fear. I am +sorry to hear there was a wreck and that lives were lost--but it may +mean a great gain to the world of science. I am happier to see you +than you can possibly know!" + + * * * * * + +Bentley felt the cold chills racing along his spine as he listened to +the old man's flow of words. He behaved well, but Bentley could feel +in spite of that, that there was a hidden current of menace in the old +man's behavior. He wished that Ellen would keep him talking, would +somehow make sure of his identity. Perhaps the same thought was in her +mind, for it had scarcely come to him when the girl spoke again. + +"Before he disappeared Professor Barter wrote a learned treatise on--" + +"I am Professor Barter, I tell you, young woman. But if you wish proof +the title of the treatise was 'The Language of the Great Apes.'" + +Ellen turned quickly to Bentley and nodded. She was satisfied that the +man was the person he claimed to be. He didn't ask how Ellen happened +to know about him, and Bentley himself considered the proof entirely +lacking in conclusiveness. Anyone might know about the last treatise +of Barter. + +However, they could but await developments. + +They followed Barter along the trail. Now and again apes challenged +from the jungle, and Barter answered them with that strange laughter +of his, or with a flow of gibberish that was like nothing human. + +Bentley shivered. Barter, by his laughter, was identifying himself to +the great anthropoids. But with his gibberish was he actually +conversing with them? + +"This experiment of yours," said Bentley when the period of silence +became unbearable, "--won't you tell us about it?" + +The old man cackled. + +"You'll know all about it--soon! You'll know everything, but the +secret will still rest with Caleb Barter. Do not be too curious, my +friends." + +"We are anxious to reach civilization, Professor," said Bentley, +deciding to be placative with the old man. "Perhaps you can arrange +for guides for us?" + +Barter laughed. + +"I could not permit you to leave me for some time," he said. "I want +you to witness my experiment. The world would never believe me without +the evidence of reliable witnesses." + +Barter laughed again. + + * * * * * + +They entered a clean clearing which was a riot of flowers. At the +further edge was a log cabin of huge proportions. The whole thing had +a decidedly homely appearance, but it was a welcome sight to the +castaways. There were cages in which strange birds chattered shrilly +in their own language at sight of the three. A pair of tame monkeys +chased each other on the roof of the house, whose corners were almost +hidden by climbing vines whose growth one could almost see. + +Barter led the way at a swift walk across the clearing and into the +house. + +Bentley gasped. Ellen Estabrook exclaimed with pleasure. + +The reception room was as neat as though it received the hourly +attentions of a fussy housewife. It was cozily furnished, yet it was +evident that the furniture had been made on the spot of rough wood +and skins of various animals. Deep skin rugs covered the floor and +walls. There were three doors giving off of the reception room, all +three of which were closed. + +"You are not married?" he asked the two. + +"No!" snapped Bentley. + +"That center door leads to your room, Bentley. The one next to it is +for the young lady. The other door? Ah, the other door my friends! +That door you must never open. But to make sure that curiosity does +not overcome caution, let me show you!" + + * * * * * + +They followed him to the door. He swung it open. + +Both visitors started back and a gasp of terror burst from the lips of +Ellen Estabrook. Beads of perspiration burst forth on Bentley. + +They saw a huge room. In one corner was a bed. The other held a great +cage--and in the cage was an anthropoid ape larger even than the great +brute they had met on the trail! + +Barter laughed. He stepped into the room, uncoiled his whip and hurled +the lash at the cage. A great bellowing roar fairly shook the house, +while the brute tore at the bars which held him prisoner until the +whole massive cage seemed to dance. Barter laughed and continued to +goad him. + +"Barter," yelled Bentley, "stop that! If that beast should ever happen +accidentally to get free he'd tear you to pieces!" + +"I know," said Barter grimly, "and that's part of the experiment! Now +we shall eat, and you, young lady, shall tell me what other fool +scientists had to say about me after I disappeared--to escape their +parrot-like repeating of my discoveries!" + +Bentley started to offer protest as Barter began preparation for the +meal, which obviously was to be taken in the room which held the cage +of the giant anthropoid, but Ellen put her fingers to her lips and +shook her head. Her eyes were dancing with excitement. + + +CHAPTER III + +_A Night of Horror_ + +The meal consisted of various fruits, some meat which Bentley could +not identify, and wild honey which was delicious. The bread tasted +queer but was distinctly edible. The castaways ate ravenously, but +even as he ate Bentley noticed that Ellen's face was chalky pale, and +that in spite of a distinct effort of will she simply had to look at +intervals toward the great beast in the cage. + +Caleb Barter sat with his back to the animal. Bentley sat at the left +of the old scientist, Ellen Estabrook at his right. The great beast +was quiet now, but he squatted within his prison and his red-rimmed +eyes swerved from one person to the other in the room with a peculiar +intentness. + +"I'd swear that beast can almost read our thoughts!" ejaculated +Bentley at last, after he had somewhat sated his appetite. + +Barter smiled with those too-red lips of his. + +"He can--almost. You'd be surprised to know how nearly human the great +apes are, and how nearly human this particular one is. Ah!" + +"What do you mean, this particular one?" asked Bentley curiously. "He +doesn't look any different to me from the others I've seen except that +he is far and away the largest." + +"I don't see why you should be so curious," said Barter testily. "It's +none of your business you know--yet." + +"What do you mean?" demanded Bentley, nettled by Barter's tone. + +"Lee, hush," said Ellen. "Professor Barter is not on trial for any +crime." + +Bentley looked at her in hurt surprise, inclined to be angry with her +for the tone she was taking, but he saw such a look of appeal in her +eyes that he choked back the words that rushed to his lips for +utterance. He was decidedly on edge, more, he felt, than he should +have been despite what they had gone through. When their eyes met he +saw her glance quickly toward the ape, and noted a frown of worry +between her brows. + + * * * * * + +Bentley glanced at the ape. The brute now was staring at the girl in a +way that made Bentley's flesh crawl. It was preposterous of course, +but he had the feeling, something which seemed to flow out of that +mighty cage like some evil emanation from a dank tarn, that the ape +knew the girl's sex--and that he desired her! It was horrible in the +extreme to contemplate, yet Bentley knew when he glanced swiftly at +the girl that she had sensed the same thing and was fighting to keep +the natural horror she felt at such a ghastly thought from being +noticeable. It was absurd. The ape was a prisoner. But.... + +"Professor Barter," said Bentley, "you're accustomed to being with +this brute, but it isn't so nice for us, especially for Miss +Estabrook." + +Barter now frowned angrily. + +"My dear Bentley," he said with that odd testiness which he had +assumed toward Bentley before, "I refuse to have any interference with +my experiment. This is part of it." + +"You mean--" began Bentley. + +"I mean that I'm training that ape--I call him Manape--to behave like +human beings. How better can he learn than by watching our behavior?" + +"Just the same," said Bentley, "I don't like it." + +"It's all right, Lee," said Ellen quickly. "I don't mind." + +But Bentley knew that it wasn't all right, and that she did mind, +terribly. + + * * * * * + +Barter finished eating. Bentley had noticed that despite the long +years he had been a virtual hermit, Barter ate as fastidiously as he +probably had done when he had lived among his own kind. He pushed back +his chair with a swift movement. + +Instantly the roaring of Manape rang through the room. The great brute +rose to his full height and grasped the bars of his cage, shaking them +with savage fury. He glared at his master and bestial rage glittered +from his red-rimmed eyes. He was a horrible sight. Ellen Estabrook, +with no apology, stepped around the table and crouched wide-eyed in +the arm of Lee Bentley. + +"Lee," she said, "I'm terribly afraid. I almost wish we had trusted +ourselves in the jungle." + +"I'll look out for you," he whispered, as Barter turned his attention +to the great ape. + +But Bentley was watching the animal. So was Barter. The eyes of the +scientist were shining like coals of fire. For the moment he appeared +to have forgotten his guests. + +"It is a success!" he cried. "As far as it goes, I mean!" + +What did Barter mean? Seeking some answer to the enigma, Bentley +studied the ape anew. Now he was positive of another thing: Manape was +scarcely concerned with Barter, whom he appeared to hate with an +utterly satanic hatred. His beady eyes were staring at Bentley +instead! + +"The brute is jealous of me!" thought Bentley. "Good God, what does it +mean, anyway?" + +Barter turned back to them and all at once became the genial host. + +"Shall we return to the other room?" he asked politely. + + * * * * * + +It was a relief to the castaways to put that awful room behind them. +Barter closed and barred the door with deliberate slowness. + +Why had this old man shut himself away from civilization like this? +How long had he held this great ape in captivity? What was the purpose +of it? What experiment was he performing? What part of it had the +castaways been witnessing that they had not recognized? Bentley, +recalling the distinct impression that the ape had stared at Ellen +almost with the eyes of a lustful man, and had even appeared to be +jealous of him because the girl had gone into his arms--Bentley felt a +shiver of revulsion course through him as it struck him now how +_human_ the regard and the jealousy of the creature had been! + +He felt like clutching at the girl and racing with her into the +hazards of the jungle. But he remembered the anthropoids out there, +and Barter's peculiar domination of the brutes. + +Barter was now watching the two with interest, studying them in turn +speculatively, unmindful of the impertinence of his studious regard +and silence. + +"I have it!" he said. "Will you two be good enough to excuse me? You +will need rest, I am sure. I am going away for a little time, but I +shall return shortly after dark. Make yourselves at home. But +remember--don't enter that room!" + +"You need not worry," said Bentley grimly. "I sincerely hope we take +our next meal in some other room." + +Barter laughed and passed out of the door without a backward glance. + +From the jungle immediately afterward came the drumming of the great +apes, and now and again the laughter of Barter--high-pitched at first, +but dying away as Barter apparently moved off into the jungle. + + * * * * * + +"Ellen," said Bentley quickly, "I don't know what's going on here, but +I'm sure it's something sinister and awful. Let's take a look at our +rooms. If there isn't a door between them which can be left open, +then you'll have to spend the night in my room while I remain awake on +guard." + +"I was thinking of the same thing, Lee," she whispered. "This place +gives me the horrors. Barter's association with the apes is a terrible +thing." + +Hand in hand they stepped to the door Barter had designated as that of +Ellen Estabrook's. Bentley opened it cautiously, heaving a sigh of +relief to find it empty. He scarcely knew what he had expected. There +was a connecting door between the two rooms, open, and they peered +into the chamber Bentley was to occupy. + +Back they came to her room, to stand before a window which gave onto a +shadowed little clearing in the rear of the cabin. + +"Look!" whispered Ellen. + +There was a single mound of earth, with a white cross set over it, on +which was the single word: Mangor. + +It might have been a word in some native dialect. It might have been +some native's name. It might have been anything, but, whatever it was, +it added to the sinister atmosphere which seemed to hang like an evil +mist over the home of Caleb Barter. + +"That settles it, Ellen," he said. "You'll spend the night in my +room." + +Ellen retired in Bentley's room, closing the door which led to the +adjoining room, and Bentley walked back and forth in the reception +room, waiting for Barter to return. When darkness fell he lighted the +lamps he had previously located. Their odor caused him to guess that +the fuel they used was some sort of animal fat. In the strange glow +from the lamps, his shadow on the walls, as he walked to and fro, was +grotesque, terrible--and at times a grim reminder of the great apes. +It caused him to consider how, after all, human beings were akin to +gorillas and chimpanzees. Somehow, now, it was a horrible thought. + + * * * * * + +The night wore on and Bentley's stride became faster. Now and again he +peered into the girl's room. She was sleeping the sleep of utter +exhaustion and he did not waken her. Bentley felt it was near midnight +when Barter returned, his return heralded by a strange commotion in +the clearing, and the frightful drumming of the great apes--or at +least _one_ great ape. Bentley shuddered as the animal behind the +locked door answered the drumming challenge with a drumming thunder of +his own. + +Barter came in, and Bentley accosted him at once. + +"See here, Barter," he began. "I don't like it here. There's something +strange going on in this clearing. Miss Estabrook and I wish to leave +immediately in the morning! And that grave behind the cabin, who or +what is it?" + +Barter studied the almost trembling Bentley for all of a minute. + +"That grave?" he said at last, with silken softness. "It's the grave +of a jungle savage. He died in the interest of science. As for you, +you'll leave here when I bid you, and not before, understand? I've a +guardian outside that would tear both of you limb from limb." + +But Bentley caught and held fast to certain words the scientist had +spoken. + +"The savage died in the interest of science?" he said. "What do you +mean?" + +Barter smiled his red-lipped smile. + +"I took the savage and Manape, who wasn't called Manape then, and +administered an anesthetic of my own invention. You've heard that I +was a master of trephining? No matter if you haven't heard, the whole +world will know soon! While the native and the ape were under +anesthesia I transferred their brains. I put the black man's brain in +the skull pan of the ape, and the ape's brain in that of the savage. +The ape lived--and he is Manape. The savage, with the ape's brain, +died, and I buried him in that grave you asked about!" + + * * * * * + +With a cry of horror Bentley turned and fled from Barter as though the +man had been His Satanic Majesty himself. He entered the room with +Ellen and barred the door behind him. He likewise barred the door +which led to that other room. Now in total darkness it was all he +could do from clambering on the bed where Ellen slept, and begging her +to touch him--anything--if only to prove to him that there still were +sane creatures left in a mad world. + +Outside Barter laughed. + +"Oh, Bentley," he called after a long interval of silence, "do you +like the odor of violets? Goodnight, and pleasant dreams!" + +What had Barter meant? + +Again assuring himself that the connecting door could not be opened if +anything or anybody tried to enter that way, Bentley flung himself +down before the door which gave on the reception room. He had no +intention of sleeping. But in spite of himself he dozed off, though he +fought against sleep with all his will. + +Strange, but as he gradually slipped away into unconsciousness he was +cognizant of the odor of violets--like invisible tentacles which +reached through the very door and wrapped themselves gently about him. + +His last conscious thought was of Manape, the ape with the brain of a +jungle savage. But in spite of the vague feeling of horror he could +not fight off the desire for sleep. + + +CHAPTER IV + +_Grim Awakening_ + +Bentley returned to consciousness with a dull headache. He rose to a +sitting posture and looked dully about him. Dimwittedly he tried to +recall all that had passed since he had last been awake. He knew he +had gone to sleep under the door in the room where Ellen had slept. +Yet he was not there now. He peered about him. + +He recognized the room. + +Yonder was the table where they had eaten last night, or yesterday +afternoon. Yonder was the bed he guessed Barter customarily used, and +he shuddered a little as he fancied a man sleeping in the same room +with that ghastly travesty which was neither ape nor human--Manape. +The creature's name was simple, being simply "man" and "ape" joined +together to fit the creature perfectly--too perfectly. Barter's bed +had been slept in, but Barter was nowhere to be seen. Where was he? +How came Bentley in this room? Barter had forbidden him to enter the +place at all, on any pretext whatever. Had he walked in his sleep, +drawn by some freak of his subconscious mind into the room of Manape? + +Slowly, afraid to look yet forced by something outside himself, he +turned his eyes toward the corner where the beast's cage was. + +The cage was empty! + +The door of it was open! + +Stunned by his discovery, wondering what had happened during the +night, Bentley looked about him. He noticed the long narrow table at +the end of the cage, and the white covering it bore. He recognized it +instantly as an operating table, and wondered afresh. + +Where was Barter? + + * * * * * + +Bentley raised his voice to shout the scientist's name. But before he +could himself recognize the syllables of the scientist's name, through +the whole room rang the bellowing challenge of a giant anthropoid ape. +Bentley cowered down fearfully and looked around him. Where was the +ape that had uttered that frightful noise? The sound had broken in +that very room, yet save for himself the room was empty. + +Bentley turned his head as he heard someone fumbling with the door. + +Barter entered, and his face was a study as his eyes met those of +Bentley. Bentley noticed that Barter held that whip in his hand, +uncoiled and ready for action. + +What was this that Barter was saying? + +"I warn you, Bentley, that if anything happens to me you are doomed. +If I am killed it means a horrible end for you." + +Bentley tried to answer him, tried to speak, but something appeared to +have gone wrong with his vocal cords, so that all that came from his +lips was a senseless gibberish that meant nothing at all. He recalled +the odor of violets, Barter's enigmatic good-night utterance with +reference to violets, and wondered if their odor, stealing into the +room where he had gone on guard over Ellen, had had anything to do +with paralyzing his powers of speech. + +"I see you haven't discovered, Bentley," said Barter after a moment of +searching inspection of Bentley. "Look at yourself!" + +Surprised at this puzzling command, Bentley slowly looked down at his +chest. It was broad and hairy, huge as a mighty barrel, and his arms +hung to the floor, the hands half closed as though they grasped +something. Horror held Bentley mute for a moment. Then he raised his +eyes to Barter, to note that the scientist was smiling and rubbing his +hands with immense satisfaction. + + * * * * * + +Bentley started across the floor toward a mirror near Barter's bed. He +refused to let his numbed brain dwell upon the instant recognition of +his manner of progress. For he moved across the floor with a peculiar +rolling gait, aiding his stride with the bent knuckles of his hands +pressed against the floor. + +He fought against the horror that gripped him. He feared to look into +the mirror, yet knew that he must. He reached it, reared to his full +height, and gazed into the glass--at the reflection of Manape, the +great ape of the cage! + +Instantly a murderous fury possessed him. He whirled on Barter, to +scream out at the man, to beg him to explain what had happened, why +this ghastly hallucination gripped him. But all he could do was +bellow, and smash his mighty chest with his fists, so that the sound +went crashing out across the jungle--to be answered almost at once by +the drumming of other mighty anthropoids outside, beyond the clearing +which held the awful cabin of Caleb Barter. + +He started toward Barter, still bellowing and beating his chest. His +one desire was to clutch the scientist and tear him limb from limb, +and he knew that his mighty arms were capable of ripping the scientist +apart as though Barter had been a fly. + +"Back, you fool!" snarled Barter. "Back, I say!" + +The long lash of the whip cracked like a revolver shot, and the lash +curled about the chest and neck of Bentley. It ripped and tore like a +hot iron. It struck again and again. Bentley could not stand the awful +beating the scientist was giving him. In spite of all his power he +found himself being forced back and back. + + * * * * * + +He stepped into the cage, cowered back against its side. Barter darted +in close, shut the door and fastened it. Then he stood against the +bars, grinning. + +"Nod your head if you can understand me, Bentley," he said. + +Bentley nodded. + +"I told you I would yet prove to the world the greatness of Caleb +Barter," said the scientist. "And you will bear witness that what I +have to tell is true. Would you like to know what I have done?" + +Again, slowly and laboriously, Bentley nodded his shaggy head. + +Barter grinned. + +"Wonderful!" he said. "You see, you are now Manape. Yesterday you had +the brain of a black man, and to exchange your brain with Manape's of +yesterday would not have served my purpose in the least. So I had to +find an ape of more than average intelligence. That's why I spent so +much time in the jungle yesterday. I needed a brain to put in the body +of Lee Bentley's--an ape's brain. Your body is a healthy one and I did +not think it would die as the savage's did. I was right. It is doing +splendidly. It would interest you to see how your body behaves with an +ape's brain to direct it. Your other self, whom I call Apeman, is +unusually handsome. Miss Estabrook, however, who does not know what +has happened, has taken a strange dislike to the other you! Splendid! +I shall study reactions at first hand that will astound the world! + +"But remember, whatever your fine brain dictates that you do, don't +ever forget that I am the only living person who can put you to rights +again--and if I die before that happens, you will continue on, till +you die, as Manape!" + + * * * * * + +Barter stopped there. Bentley stiffened. + +From the room where he knew Ellen Estabrook to be came her voice, +raised high in a shout of fear. + +"Lee! Please! I can't understand you. Please don't touch me! Your eyes +burn me--please go away. What in the world has come over you?" + +Bentley listened for the reply of the creature he knew was in the +other room with Ellen Estabrook. + +But the answer was a gurgling gibberish that made no sense at all! His +own body, directed by the brain of an ape, could not emit speech that +Ellen could understand, because the ape could not speak. The ape's +vocal cords, which now were Bentley's, were incapable of speech. + +How, if Barter continued to keep Ellen in ignorance of what had +happened, would she ever know the horrible truth--and realize the +danger that threatened her? + +"Don't worry for the moment, Bentley," said Barter with a smile. "I am +not yet ready for your other self to go to undue lengths--though I +dislike intensely to leave the marks of my whip on that handsome body +of yours!" + +Barter slipped from the room. + +Bentley listened, amazed at the clarity with which he heard every +vagrant little sound--until he remembered again that his hearing was +that of a jungle beast--until he knew that Barter had entered that +other room. + +Then came the crackling reports of the whip, wielded mightily by the +hands of Barter. + +A scream that was half human, half animal, was the result of the +lashing. Bentley cringed as he imagined the bite of that lash which he +himself had experienced but a few moments before. + +"Professor Barter! Professor Barter!" distinctly came the voice of +Ellen Estabrook. "Don't! Don't! He didn't mean anything, I am sure. He +is sick, something dreadful has happened to him. But he wouldn't +really hurt me. He couldn't--not really. Stop, please! Don't strike +him again!" + +But the sound of the lash continued. + +"Stop, I tell you!" Ellen's voice rose to a cry of agonized entreaty. +"Don't strike him again. See, you've ripped his flesh until he is +covered with blood! Strike me if you must strike someone--for with +all my heart and soul I love him!" + + +CHAPTER V + +_Fumbling Hands_ + +Now Bentley was beginning to realize to the full the horrible thing +that had befallen himself and Ellen Estabrook. He knew something else, +too. It had come to him when he had heard Ellen's words next +door--telling Barter that she loved the creature Barter was beating, +which she thought was Lee Bentley. That creature was Lee Bentley; but +only the earthly casement of Lee Bentley. The ruling power of +Bentley's body, the driving force which actuated his body, was the +brain of an ape. + +As for Bentley himself, that part of him of which he thought when he +thought of "I," to all intents and purposes, to all outer seeming, had +become an ape. His body was an ape's body, his legs were an ape's, +everything about him was simian save one thing--the "ego," that +something by which man knows that he is himself, with an individual +identity. That was buried behind the almost non-existent brow of an +ape. + +In all things save one he was an ape. That thing was "Bentley's" +brain. In all things save one that creature in the room with Ellen +Estabrook was Bentley. Bentley, driven to mad behavior by the brain of +an ape! + +The horror of it tore at Bentley, as he still thought of himself. + +"If I were to get out of this cage," he told himself voicelessly, "and +were to enter that room with Ellen, she would cower into a corner in +terror. She would fly to the arms of that travesty of 'me,' for she +thinks it is 'I' in there with her because it _looks_ like me." + +Now that Ellen was beyond his reach, more beyond his reach than if she +had been dead, he realized how much she meant to him. In the few mad +hours of their association they had come to belong to each other with +a possessiveness that was beyond words. Thinking then that the +travesty in there with her--with Bentley's body--was really Bentley, +to what lengths might she not be persuaded in her love? It was a +ghastly thing to contemplate. + + * * * * * + +But what could Bentley do? He could not speak to her. If he tried she +would race from him in terror at the bellowing ferocity of his voice. +How could he tell her his love when his voice was such as to frighten +the very wild beasts of the jungle? + +Yet.... + +How could he allow her to remain with that other Bentley--that body +which perhaps was provided with a man's appetites, and the brain of a +beast which knew nothing of honor and took what it wished if it were +strong enough? + +There was one ray of hope in that Barter had hinted he would protect +Ellen from the apeman. That meant physically, with all that might +indicate; but who could compensate her for the horror she must be +experiencing with that speechless imbecile she thought was Bentley? If +this thing were to continue indefinitely, and Ellen were kept in +ignorance, she would eventually grow to hate the "thing"--and if ever, +as he had hinted, Barter were to transfer back the entities of the man +and the ape, Ellen would always shudder with horrible memories when +she looked at the man she had just now admitted she loved. + +Bentley was becoming calmer now. He knew exactly what he faced, and +there was no way out until Barter should be satisfied with his mad +experiment. Bentley must go through with whatever was in store for +him. So must the ape who possessed his body--and in the very nature +of things unless Bentley could train himself to a self-saving +docility, both bodies would repeatedly know the fiery stinging of that +lash of Barter's. Bentley could control himself after a fashion. The +ape might be cowed, but long before that time arrived, Bentley's body +would be made to suffer marks they would bear forever to remind him of +this horror. + +"I must somehow manage to continue to care for Ellen," he told +himself. "But how?" + + * * * * * + +He scarcely realized that his great hands were wandering over his +body, scratching, scratching. But when he did realize he felt sick, +without being able to understand how or where he felt sick. If he felt +sick at the stomach he thought of it as his own stomach. When he +thought of moving the hairy hands he thought of his hands. He grinned +to himself--never realizing the horrible grimace which crossed his +face, though there was none to see it--when he recalled how men of his +acquaintance during the Great War, had complained of aching toes at +the end of legs that had been amputated! + +He was learning one thing--that the brain is everything that matters. +The seat of pain and pleasure, of joy and of sorrow, of hunger and of +thirst even. + +Bentley waddled to the door of the cage. He studied the lock which +held him prisoner, and noted how close he must hold his face to see at +all. All apes might be near-sighted as far as he knew; but he did know +that this one was. Perhaps he could free himself. + +He tried to force his massive hands to the task of investigating the +lock. But what an effort! It was like trying to hypnotize a subject +that did not wish to be hypnotized. A distinct effort of will, like +trying to force someone to turn and look by staring at the back of +that someone's neck in a crowd. It was like trying to make an entirely +different person move his arm, or his leg, merely by willing that he +move it. + +But the great arms, which might have weighed tons, though Bentley +sensed no strain, raised to the door and fumbled dumbly, clumsily. He +tried to close the gnarled fingers, whose backs were covered with the +rough hair, to manipulate the lock, but he succeeded merely in +fumbling--like a baby senselessly tugging at its father's fingers, the +existence of which had no shape or form in the baby's brain. + +But he strove with all his will to force those clumsy hands to do his +bidding. They slipped from the lock, went back again, fumbled over it, +fell away. + +"You must!" muttered Bentley. "You must, you must!" + +He would discover the secret of the lock, so that he would be able to +remove it when the time was right--but so slow and uncertain and +clumsy were the movements of his ape hands, he was in mortal fear that +he would unlock the door and then not be able to lock it again, and +Barter would discover what he had in mind. + + * * * * * + +But he struggled on, while foul smelling sweat poured from his mighty +body and dripped to the floor. He concentrated on the lock with all +his power, knowing as he did so that the lock would have been but a +simple problem for a child of six or seven. It was nothing more than a +bar held in place with a leather thong. But the powerful fingers which +now were Bentley's were too blunt and inflexible to master the knot +Barter had left. + +Bentley paused to listen. + +From Ellen's room came the sound of weeping. From the front room came +Barter's pleased laughter as he talked with the thing which so much +resembled Bentley. That was a relief--to know that his other self had +been at least temporarily removed from any possibility of injuring +Ellen. + +In Bentley's mind were certain pictures of Barter. He saw him plainly +on his knees begging for mercy, while Bentley's ape hands choked his +life away. He saw him tossed about like a mere child, and casually +torn apart, ripped limb from limb by the mighty hands of Manape. + +"God," he told himself, refusing to listen to the slobbering gibberish +which came from his thick lips when he addressed himself, "I can do +nothing to Barter--not until he restores me properly. If he is slain, +it is the end for me, and for Ellen! He is a master, no doubt of that. +He anesthetized me through the door with something of his own +manufacture that smelled like violets, and put my brain in Manape +after removing from Manape the brain of the savage. Then he removed an +ape's brain from a second ape and put it in my skull pan--all within +the space of a few hours! Yet his knowledge of surgery and medicine is +such that even in so short a time I suffer little from the operation, +save for the dull headache which I had on awakening, and which I now +scarcely feel at all." + + * * * * * + +He straightened, close against the bars, and began again to fumble +with the leather thong which held him prisoner. In his brain was the +hazy idea that he might after all make a break for it, and carry Ellen +away to a place of safety, taking a chance on finding his way back +here to force Barter to operate again and restore him to his proper +place. But would not Ellen die of fright at being borne away through +the jungle in the arms of an ape? Was there any possibility of forcing +Barter to perform the operation? No, for under the anesthetic again, +Barter, angered by the thwarting of whatever purpose actuated him, +might do something even worse than he had done--if that were possible. +Again, even if he reached civilisation with Ellen, every human hand +would be turned against him. Rifles would hurl their lead into him. +Hunters would pursue him.... + +No, it was impossible. + +Bentley, Ellen, and the Apeman--his own body, ape-brained--were but +pawns in the hands of Barter. Barter might be actuated by a desire to +serve science, that science which was alike his tool and his god. +Bentley scarcely doubted that Barter believed himself specially +ordained to do this thing, in the name of science; probably, +unquestionably, felt himself entirely justified. + +Plainly, now that Bentley recalled things Barter had said, Barter had +waited for an opportunity of this kind--had waited for someone to be +tossed into his net--and Ellen and Lee, flotsam of the sea, had come +in answer to the prayer for whose answer Barter had waited. + +It was horrible, yet there was nothing they could do--at least, to +free themselves--until it pleased Barter to take the step. It came +then to Bentley how precious to them both was the life of Caleb +Barter. He could restore Bentley or destroy him--and with him the +woman who loved him. + +Suppose, came Bentley's sudden thought, Barter should think of +performing a like operation on Ellen--using in the transfer the brain +of a female ape? God!... + +He prayed that the thought would never come to Barter. He was afraid +to dwell upon it lest Barter read his thought. He might think of it +naturally, as a simple corollary to what he had already done. Bentley +then must do something before Barter planned some new madness. + + * * * * * + +He sat back and bellowed savagely, beating his chest with his mighty +hands. + +Instantly the outer door opened and Barter came in. + +Bentley ceased his bellowing and chest pounding and sat docilely +there, staring into the eyes of Barter. + +"Have you discovered there is no use opposing me, Bentley?" said the +professor softly. + +Bentley nodded his shaggy head. Then by a superhuman effort of will he +raised the right arm of Manape and pointed. He could not point the +forefinger, but he could point the arm--and look in the direction he +desired. + +"You want to come out and go into the front room?" + +Bentley nodded. + +"You will make no attempt to injure me?" + +Bentley shook his head ponderously from side to side. + +"You would like to see the Apeman?--the creature that looks so much +like you that it will be like peering at yourself in the mirror? Or, +rather, as it would have been yesterday had you looked into a mirror?" + +Bentley nodded slowly. + +"You understand that no matter what the Apeman does, you must not try +to slay him?" + +Bentley did not move. + +"You understand if you destroy Apeman's body, you are doomed to remain +Manape forever, because the true body of Lee Bentley will die and be +eventually destroyed?" + +Bentley nodded. He felt a trickle of moisture on the rough skin about +his flaring nostrils and knew that he was weeping, soundlessly. + + * * * * * + +But there was no pity in the face of Barter. He was the scientist who +studied his science, to whom it was the breath of life, and he saw +nothing, thought of nothing, not directly connected with his +"experiment." + +"You give me your word of honor as a gentleman not to oppose me?" + +It was odd, an almost superhumanly intellectual scientist asking for +an ape's word of honor, but that did not occur to Bentley at the +moment, as he nodded his head. + +Barter still held his lash poised. He unfastened the leather thong +which held Bentley prisoner and swung wide the door. Then he turned +his back on Bentley and led the way to the door. + +Bentley followed him on mighty feet and bent knuckles into the room +which had first received Lee and Ellen when they had entered the cabin +of the scientist. + +Bentley would have gasped had he been capable of gasping at what he +saw. + +In a far corner, cowering down in fear at sight of Barter and his +coiled whip--was the Bentley of the mirror in his stateroom aboard the +_Bengal Queen_, and before that. + +It was an uncanny sensation, to stand off and peer at himself thus. + +Yonder was Bentley, yet _here_ was Bentley, too. + + * * * * * + +Then he noted the difference. The face of that Bentley yonder was +twisted, savage. _That_ Bentley had seen Manape, and the teeth were +exposed in a snarl of savage hatred. There a man ape stared at another +man ape, and bared his fangs in challenge. The white hands of Bentley +began to beat the white chest of Bentley--to beat the chest savagely, +until the white skin was red as blood.... + +The Bentley buried within the mighty carcass of an anthropoid ape +watched and shuddered. That thing yonder was dressed only in a +breech-clout, and the fair flesh was criss-crossed in scores of places +with bleeding wounds left by the lash of Barter. The Apeman's brows +were furrowed in concentration. The human body made ape-like +movements. + +Bentley knew that soon that creature, forgetting everything save that +he faced a rival man ape, would charge and attempt to measure the +power of Manape--fang against fang. The white form rose. + +Barter caused his whiplash to crack like an explosion. + +"One moment," he said. "Back, Apeman! I'll bring Miss Estabrook. +Perhaps she can placate you. She has a strange power over you both!" + +Bentley would have cried out as Barter crossed to unlock Ellen's door, +but he knew that he could not stop Barter, and that his cry would +simply be a terrible bellow to frighten the woman he loved when she +entered the room. + +The door opened. White, shaken, her eyes deep wells of terror, circled +with blue rings which told the effect of the horror she had +experienced, Ellen Estabrook entered. + +And screamed with terror as she saw the hulking figure of Manape. +Screamed with terror and rushed to the arms of the cowering thing in +the corner! + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Puppets of Barter_ + +The thing that Barter then contrived was destined to remain forever in +the memory of Bentley as the most ghastly thing he had ever +experienced. Ellen hurried into the arms of that thing in the corner. +Gropingly, protectively, the white arms encompassed her. But they were +awkward, uncertain, and Bentley was minded of a female ape or monkey +holding her young against her hairy bosom. + +Barter turned toward Bentley and smiled. He rubbed his hands together +with satisfaction. + +"A success so far, my experiment," he said. "The human body still +answers to primal urges, which are closely enough allied to those of +our simian cousins that their outward manifestations--manual gestures, +expressions in the eyes et cetera--are much the same. When the two are +combined the action approximates humanness!" + +That travesty yonder pressed its face against Ellen, and she drew +back, her eyes wide as they met those of the white figure which held +her. + +"I am all right," she managed, "please don't hold me so tightly." + +She tried to struggle away, but Apeman held her helpless. + +"Barter," yelled Bentley, "take her away from that thing! How can you +do such a horrible thing?" + +At least those were the words he intended to shout, but the sound that +came from his lips was the bellowing of a man ape. That other thing +yonder answered his bellow, bared white teeth in a bestial snarl. +Barter turned to Bentley, however. + +"You want me to take her away from Bentley and give her to you?" + +Bentley nodded. + +His bellowing attempt at speech had sent Ellen closer into the arms of +Bentley's other self--henceforth to be known as Apeman. Bentley had +defeated his own purpose by his bellow. + + * * * * * + +"Miss Estabrook," said Barter softly, "nothing will happen to you if +you stand clear of your sweetheart...." + +Nausea gripped Bentley as he heard Apeman referred to as Ellen's +sweetheart, but now he remembered to refrain from attempting speech. + +"But," went on Barter, "Manape has taken a violent dislike to Bentley, +and may attack him if you do not stand clear. Manape likes you, you +know. You probably sensed that last evening?" + +Ellen visibly shuddered. She patted the shoulder of Apeman and +stepped away, toward a chair which Barter thrust toward her. + +She pressed her hands to her throbbing temples, visibly fighting to +control herself. Her whole body was trembling as with the ague. + +"Professor Barter," she said at last. "I am terribly confused, and +most awfully frightened. What has happened here? What dreadful thing +has so awfully changed Lee? I talk to him and he answers nothing that +I understand. Is it some weird fever? At this moment I have the +feeling that that brute Manape understands more perfectly than Lee, +and the idea is horrible! I love Lee, Professor. See, he hears me say +it, yet I cannot tell from his expression what he thinks. Does he +despise me for so freely admitting my love? Has he any feeling about +it at all? Has his mind completely gone?" + +"Yes," said Barter, with a semblance of a smile on his lips, "his mind +has completely gone. But it is only temporary, my dear. You forget +that I am perhaps the world's greatest living medical man, and that I +can do things no other man can do. I shall restore Lee wholly to +you--when the time comes. It is not well to hasten things in cases of +this kind. One never knows but that great harm may be done." + +"But I can nurse him. I can care for him and love him, and help to +make him well." + + * * * * * + +Barter looked away from Ellen, his eyes apparently focussed on a spot +somewhere in the air between Apeman and Manape. + +"Would that be satisfactory to Bentley, I wonder?" he said musingly, +yet Bentley recognized it as a question addressed to him. Bentley +looked at the girl, but her eyes were fixed--alight with love which +was still filled with questioning--on Apeman. Bentley shook his head, +and Barter laughed a little. + +"You know, Miss Estabrook," he went on, "that a strange malady like +that which appears to have attacked Lee Bentley should be studied +carefully, in order that the observations of a savant may be given to +the world so that such maladies may be effectually combatted in +future. This is one reason why I do not hasten." + +"But you are using a sick man as you would use a rabbit in a +laboratory experiment!" she cried. "Can't you see that there are +things not even you should do? Don't you understand that some things +should be left entirely in the hands of God?" + +"I do not concede that!" retorted Barter. "God makes terrible mistakes +sometimes--as witness cretins, mongoloid idiots, criminals, and the +like. I know about these things better than you do, my dear, and you +must trust me." + +"Oh, if I only knew what was right. Poor Lee. You lashed him so, and +his body is awful with the scars. Was that necessary?" + +"Insane persons are not to blame for their insanity," said Barter +soothingly. "Yet sometimes they must be handled roughly to prevent +them from causing loss of life, their own or others." + + * * * * * + +Now the eyes of Ellen came to rest on Manape. + +They were fear filled at first, especially when she discovered that +the little red eyes of Manape were upon her. But she did not turn her +eyes away, nor did Manape. She seemed dazed, unable to orient herself, +unable to distinguish the proper mode of action. + +"That ape in repose is almost human," she said wearily, her brow +puckered as though she sought the answer to some unspoken question +that eluded her. "I am not afraid of him at this moment, yet I know +that in a second he can become an invincible brute, capable of tearing +us all limb from limb." + +"Not so long as I have this whip," said Barter grimly. "But Manape is +docile at the moment, and it is Bentley who is ferocious." + +Apeman was still snarling at Manape, lending point to Barter's +statement. Barter went on. + +"You know," he said, "apes are almost human in many respects. Manape +likes you, and I doubt if he would attempt to hurt you. If he knew +that you cared for Bentley there, he would most assuredly try to be +friendly to Bentley also. Perhaps you can manage it. Apes are capable +of primitive reasoning, you know. Go to Manape. He won't injure you, +at least while I am here. Stroke him. He will like it. He is a friend +worth having, never fear, and one never knows when one may need a +friend--or what sort of friend one may need." + +Ellen hesitated, and her face whitened again. + +Barter went on. + +"Go ahead. It is necessary that Manape and Bentley remain here +together for a time. Manape will be locked up, but if he happens to +break loose there is nothing he might not do. With Bentley in the +condition he is he would be no match for Manape. But if Manape thought +you desired his friendship for Bentley...?" + + * * * * * + +There he left it, while Bentley wondered what new horror Barter was +planning. He yearned for Ellen to come to him. But, if he strode +toward her now, how would Barter explain that Manape had understood +his words? No, Ellen must take the step, and each one would be +hesitant, as she fought against her natural revulsion at touching this +great shaggy creature which was Manape to her, and Bentley to himself. + +Slowly, almost against her will, Ellen rose and moved across the floor +toward Bentley. Apeman growled ominously. He rose to his feet, his +arms writhing like disjoined, broken-backed snakes across his scarred +chest. + +Apeman took a step forward. Barter did not notice, apparently, for he +was watching Manape as Ellen approached. + +She came quite close. Slowly she put forth her hand to touch the +shaggy shoulder of Manape. Bentley, seeking some way, _any_ way, to +reassure her, put his great shaggy right arm about her waist for the +merest second. + +Then Apeman charged, bellowing a shrill crescendo that was half human, +half simian. + +Before Bentley could realize Apeman's intentions, Apeman had clutched +Ellen about the waist and dashed for the door of the cabin. He was +gone, racing across the clearing with swift strides, bearing the girl +with him. + +Bentley whirled to pursue, but Barter had beaten him to the door and +now blocked it, whiplash writhing, twisting, curling to strike. + +"Back, Bentley! Back, I say! In a moment you may follow--as part of my +experiment. But remember--the end must be here in this cabin, and you +must remember everything, so that you can tell me all--when you are +restored!" + +Bentley cowered under the lash. His whole shaggy body trembled +frightfully. + +From the jungle toward which Apeman was racing come the roaring +challenge of half a dozen anthropoids. + + +CHAPTER VII + +_Lord of the Jungle_ + +Apeman, never realizing that his actual strength was that of but a +puny human being, was racing with Ellen Estabrook into the very midst +of animals which would tear him to bits as easily as they would tear +any human being to pieces. Apeman, being but an ape after all, would +merely think that he was joining his own kind, bearing with him a mate +with white skin. + +But to the other apes he would be a human being, a puny hairless +imitation of themselves which they would pounce upon and tear asunder +with great glee. Apeman would not know this: would not realize his +limitations. He would try to take to the upper terraces of the jungle, +to swing from tree to tree, carrying his mate--and would find the body +of Bentley incapable of supporting such an effort. Apeman would be a +child in the hands of his brethren, who could not know him. Apeman +could probably speak to them after a fashion, but his gibberish would +come strangely perhaps unintelligibly, through the mouth of Bentley. +They would suspect him, and destroy him, and with him Ellen Estabrook, +unless other apes discovered also her sex and took her, fighting over +her among themselves. + +Bentley made good time across the jungle clearing. Behind him came the +voice of Barter in final exhortation. + +"Your human cunning, hampered by your simian body, pitted against the +highly specialized body of your former self, in turn hampered by the +lack of reasoning of an ape--in a contest in primitive surrounding for +a female! A glorious experiment, and all depends now upon you! You +will save the girl who loves you and whom you love, but you must +return to me and be transferred before you can make your love known. I +shall wait for you!" + +In Bentley's brain the shouted words of Barter rang as he hurried into +the jungle in pursuit of Apeman. Ellen Estabrook was crying: "Hurry, +Lee, hurry!" + + * * * * * + +Yet she was really yelling to Apeman, the man-beast which carried her, +bidding him race on to escape the pursuit of Manape, in whom she +would never recognize the man she loved. She must have thought that +Bentley had taken a desperate chance to escape the clutches of Barter, +and that Barter had set his trained ape to pursue them. What else +could she think? How could she know that she was actually in the power +of an ape, and that her loved one actually pursued to save her? With +every desire of her body she was urging Apeman to take her away from +Manape. But she must also have heard the challenges of the man apes in +the jungle ahead. She was looking back over Apeman's shoulder, +wondering perhaps if Barter would again come out to save them from the +anthropoids. + +Bentley could guess at her thoughts as he raced on in pursuit of +Apeman. + +Would he be in time? Even if he were, Apeman himself would turn +against him. If he were to try to aid Ellen she would fight against +him, believing him an ape. And how could he fight? Would his brain be +able to direct his mighty arms and his fighting fangs in a battle with +the apes of the jungle? + +As he thought of coming to grips with the apes on equal terms, +something never in this world before vouchsafed to a human being, he +felt a fierce exaltation upon him. He felt a desire to take part in +mortal combat with them, to fight them fist and fang, and to destroy +them, one by one. He had their strength and more--he had the cunning +of a human being to match against the dim wits of the apes. He had a +chance. + +But he must protect not only Ellen, but Apeman. Both Ellen and Apeman +would be against him. Ellen would fear him as an ape that desired her. +Apeman would fight against him as a rival for the favors of a she.... + +And he must harm neither. His own body, which Apeman directed, must +be spared, must be kept alive--while every effort of Apeman would be +to force Bentley to slay! + +It was a predicament which--well, only Caleb Barter had foreseen it. + + * * * * * + +The bellowing of the apes was a continuous roar on all sides now. +Bentley felt a fierce sensation of joy welling up within him and he +answered their bellowing with savage bellows of his own. His legs were +obeying his will. His knuckles touched the ground as he raced on all +fours. + +He could hear the shriek of Ellen there ahead, and knew that Apeman +and the girl were surrounded--that he must make all possible speed if +he were to be in time. + +Apeman and his captive were on the trail, trapped there just as Apeman +had started into the jungle. Apeman had lifted Ellen so that her hands +might have grasped a limb; but the girl had refused to attempt to +escape by the trees if her "lover" remained behind. She had crumpled +to the ground, and Apeman, snarling, smashing his chest which was so +sickly white as compared to the chests of the other apes, had turned +upon his brethren. They hesitated for a moment as though amazed at the +effrontery of this mere human. + +Then a man ape charged. Apeman met him with arms and fangs, and +Bentley saw Apeman's all too small mouth snap out for the vein in the +neck of Apeman's attacker. The ape whose brain reposed in Apeman had +been a courageous beast, that was plain. But he was fighting for his +she. + +And he did not know his limitations. Apeman was bowled over as though +he had been a blade of grass, and the great ape was crouched over him, +nuzzling at his white flesh when Bentley-Manape arrived. + +With a savage bellow, and with a mighty lunge, Bentley leaped upon +the attacker of Apeman. His arms obeyed him with more certainty now, +perhaps because the matter was so vitally urgent. Bentley's brain knew +jiu-jitsu, boxing, ways of rough and tumble fighting of which the +great apes had never learned, nor ever would learn. + + * * * * * + +He hurled himself upon the animal that was on the point of pulling +Apeman apart as though he had indeed been a fly, and literally +flattened him against the ground. His mighty hands searched for the +throat of the great ape, while he instinctively pulled his stomach out +of the way of possible disemboweling tactics on the part of his +antagonist. But the great ape twisted from his grasp, struggled erect. + +And, amazed at what he was doing, surprised that he, Lee Bentley, +could even conceive of such a thing, he launched his attack with bared +and glistening fangs straight at the throat of his enemy. His mouth +closed. His fangs ripped home--and the great ape whose throat he had +torn away, whose blood was salt on his slavering lips, was tossed +aside as an empty husk, to die convulsively, a dripping horror which +was humanlike in a ghastly fashion. Bentley felt like a murderer. Not +like a murderer, either, but like a man who has slain unavoidably--and +hates himself for doing so. + +Ellen was backed against the tree into which Apeman had tried to force +her. + +Apeman was up now, moving to stand beside her. Apeman had discovered +that he was not the invincible creature he had thought himself. + +Bentley moved in closer to the two, as other apes charged upon him +from both sides, smothering him, giving him no time. He was a +stranger, seemingly, an upstart to be destroyed. + +And he was forced to fight them with all his ape strength and human +cunning, while Apeman, whimpering, caught up Ellen and darted away +with her, straight into the jungle. + +For Bentley this was a sort of respite. Ellen was not afraid to go +with Apeman, thinking him Bentley. The great apes were bent on +destroying this strange ape which had come into their midst and had +already destroyed one of their number, perhaps their leader. + +He must be destroyed. + + * * * * * + +Bentley fought like a man possessed. His arms were gory with crimson +from the slashing fangs of his enemies. His mouth was dripping with +red foam as he slashed in turn, with deadly accuracy. A great arm +clutched at the hair of his chest--and fell away again, broken in two +places, as Bentley snapped it like a pipe stem because he knew +leverages and was able to force his ape's body to obey the will of his +human mind. + +One ape whimpering, rolling away to lick at his wounds; whimpering +oddly like a baby that has burned its fingers. A great ape weighing +hundreds of pounds, crying like a child! Yet that "child," with his +arm unbroken, could have taken a grown man, no matter how much of a +giant, and torn him to pieces. + +Two other apes were out of the fray, one dead, the other with only +empty eye-sockets where his red-rimmed eyes had been. + +Bentley guessed that Apeman had gone at least a mile into the jungle, +heading directly away from the dwelling of Caleb Barter. He must get +free and pursue. There was nothing else he could do. If he were slain, +Ellen was doomed to a fate he dared not contemplate. Apeman would +never be accepted by the apes because to all outward seeming he was a +man. His body would never stand the hardship of the jungle, yet Apeman +would never guess that, and would be slain. Bentley must prevent +that. + +He must make sure that Apeman's body at least remained sufficiently +healthy that it could become his own again without the necessity of a +long sojourn in some hospital. Ellen must not be left alone with +Apeman, who was still an ape, running away with a she. + +A ghastly muddle. + + * * * * * + +Now the apes broke away from Bentley. They broke in all direction into +the jungle. Some of them seemed on the trail of Apeman. One of them +took to the trees, swinging himself along with the speed of a running +man, flying from limb to limb with no support save his hands. + +Bentley stared after the fleeing ape, and then gave chase. He felt +that the ape was on the trail of Apeman. Bentley did not know that he +himself could follow the spoor of Apeman, for he had not yet analyzed +all of his new capabilities. But while he was discovering, he would +follow something he could see--the fleeing ape, who would overhaul +Apeman as though Apeman were standing still. + +So, in a manner of speaking, Bentley essayed his wings. + +He took to the trees after the fleeing ape, and was amazed that his +great arms worked with ease, that he swung from limb to limb as easily +and as surely as the other apes. He climbed to the upper terrace, +where view of the ground was entirely shut off. His eyes took note of +limbs capable of bearing his weight--after he had made one mistake +that might easily have proved costly. He had leaped to a limb that +would have supported Bentley of the _Bengal Queen_, but that was a +mere twig under the weight of Manape. It broke and he fell, clutching +for support; and fate was kind to him in that he found it, and so +clambered back and swung easily and swiftly along. + +In his nostrils at intervals was a peculiar odor--a peculiarly human +odor, reminding him of the work-sweat of a man who seldom bathed. He +knew that for the odor of Apeman, and a thrill of exaltation +encompassed him as he realized that he was following a spoor by the +cunning of his nostrils. + + * * * * * + +There was a great leap across space. The ape ahead of him made it with +ease. Bentley essayed it without hesitation, hurling himself into +space, all of a hundred feet above the ground; with all the might of +his arms--and almost overshot the mark, almost went crashing once more +through the branches. But the tree swayed, and held, and Bentley went +swinging on. + +It was wildly exhilarating, thrilling in a primitive way. Bentley +remembered those dreams of his childhood--dreams of falling endlessly +but never striking. Racial memories, scientists called them, relics of +our simian forebears. Bentley thought of that and laughed; but his +laughter was merely a beastly chattering which recalled him to the +grim necessity of the moment. + +Fifteen minutes passed, perhaps. Twenty. Half an hour. He was +following a trace which led away from the coast, and further away from +the cabin of Caleb Barter. But with his jungle senses, and his human +memory, Bentley was sure he could return when the time came. + +Had Barter foreseen all that? Was Barter smiling to himself, back +there in his awful hermitage, waiting for the working out of his +"experiment"? + +But Apeman had jungle knowledge, and must have forced Bentley's body +to the limit of its endurance, for it was near evening when Bentley, +who had lost the ape ahead of him, but had continued on the spoor of +Apeman by the smell, came to swift pause on his race through the +trees. + + * * * * * + +He had heard the voice of Ellen Estabrook, and the voice was pleading. + +"Lee! Lee! If you love me try to regain control of yourself. Please do +not stare at me like that. Oh, your poor body! The brush and briars +have literally torn you to bits." + +But the answer of "Lee" was a bestial snarl, and traveling as quietly +as he could, Manape dropped down so that he could gaze upon his +beloved, and the thing she believed she loved. + +Ellen was unaware of him. But he had scarcely dropped into view before +Apeman became aware of him, and rose weakly to tottering limbs, to +beat his bruised and bleeding chest in simian challenge. Apeman was +simply an ape that had run until he was finished, and now was turning +to make a last stand against a male who was stronger--a last bid for +life and possession of the she he had carried away. + +Then Ellen saw Manape, screamed, and for the first time since she had +been saved from the deep by Bentley, fainted dead away. + +The two so strangely related creatures faced each other across her +supine body--and both were savagely snarling. Apeman weakly but +angrily, Manape with a sound of such brute savagery that even the +twittering of birds died away to awed silence. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_Struggle for Mastery_ + +It was Apeman who charged. Pity for Apeman welled up in Bentley. That +was his own body which Apeman was so illy using. His own poor bruised +and bleeding body, which Apeman had all but slain by forcing it far +beyond human endurance. It must be saved, in spite of Apeman. + +But there was something first to do. Bentley bent over Ellen, caught +her under his arm, and returned to the trees, with Apeman chattering +angrily and futilely behind him. Bentley found a crotch in the tree +where he could place Ellen, made sure that she was safely propped +there and that no snakes were near, and hurried back to the contest +with Apeman which could not be avoided. + +He did not fear the battle he knew he must fight. He hurried back +because Apeman might realize himself beaten and escape into the +jungle. In his weakened condition he could not travel far and would be +easy prey for any prowling leopard, easy prey for the crawling things +whose fangs held sure death. Or would the cunning of Apeman, denizen +of the jungle, warn him against any such? His ape brain would warn +him, but would his human strength avail in case of necessity, in case +of attack by another ape, or a four-footed carnivore? + +Bentley hurried back because Apeman must be saved, somehow, even +against his will. Apeman hated Manape with a deadly hatred. Yet to +subdue the travesty of a human being, Manape must take care that he +did not destroy his own casement of humanity. Any moment now and a +great cat might charge from the shadows and destroy Apeman. + + * * * * * + +Apeman, snarling, beating his puny chest with his puny hands, was +waiting for Manape his enemy. + +Manape found himself thinking of the line: "'O wad some power the +giftie gie us, to see oursilves as ithers see us,'" and adding some +thoughts of his own. + +"If that were actually 'I' down there, my chance of preserving the +life of myself, and that of Ellen against the rigors of the jungle, +would be absolutely nil. How helpless we humans are in primitive +surroundings! The tiniest serpent may slay us. The jungle cats destroy +us with ease, if we be not equipped with artificial weapons which our +better brains have created. As Manape, Barter's trained ape, I am +better fitted to protect Ellen than if I were Bentley--the Bentley of +the _Bengal Queen_. Yet she will cower away from me when she wakens." + +Now Bentley was down, and Apeman was charging. He charged at a +staggering run. He stepped on a thorn, hesitated, and whimpered. But +he possessed unusual courage, for he still came on. Apeman knew the +law of the jungle, that the weakest must die. Death was to be his +portion if he could not withstand the assaults of Manape, and he came +to meet his fate with high brute courage. + +Apeman was close in. His hands were swinging, fists closed, in a +strange travesty of a fighting man. Apeman was snarling. He groped for +the throat of Manape with his human teeth--which sank home in the +tough hide of Manape, hurting him as little as though Apeman were +toothless. + +"As Bentley I would have no chance at all against a great ape," said +Bentley to himself. + + * * * * * + +How could he take the pugnacity out of Apeman without destroying him? +If he struck him he might strike too hard and slay Apeman--which was +the equivalent of slaying himself. So Manape extended his mighty +hands, caught Apeman under the armpits and held him up, feet swinging +free. Yet Apeman still struggled, gnashed his teeth, and beat himself +on the chest. + +How utterly futile! As futile as Bentley in his own casement would +have been against a great ape! Apeman might destroy himself through +his very rage. How could Bentley render the travesty unconscious and +yet make sure that Apeman did not die? + +If he struck he might strike too hard and slay. + +What should he do? + +A low coughing sound came from somewhere close by. From the deeps of +his consciousness Bentley knew that sound. He clutched Apeman in his +right arm, swung back to the tree and up among the branches. He was +just in time. The tawny form of a great cat passed beneath, missing +him by inches. + +But while he had saved himself and Apeman, he had been clumsy. He had +struck the head of Apeman against the bole of the tree, and Apeman +hung limp in his arm. Bentley, fear such as he had never before known +gripping him, pressed his huge ear to Apeman's heart. It was beating +steadily and strongly. With a great inner sigh of relief he climbed to +safety in the tree, bearing Apeman with him. + + * * * * * + +He reached the crotch where Ellen rested, and disposed Apeman nearby, +his own gross body between them. He even dared to gather Ellen closer +against him for warmth. His left hand held tightly the wrist of the +unconscious Apeman, so that he should not fall and become prey of the +night denizens of the jungle. + +So, the two who seemed to be human--Apeman and Ellen, passed from +unconsciousness into natural sleep, while Bentley-Manape remained +motionless between them, afraid to close his eyes lest something even +more terrible than hitherto experienced might transpire. But his ears +caught every sound of the jungle, and his sensitive ape's nostrils +brought him every scent--which his man's mind strove to analyze, +reaching back and back into the dim and misty past for identification +of odors that were new, or that were really old, yet which had been +lost to man since they had left forever the simian homes of their +ancestors and their senses had become more highly specialized. + +The questions which turned over and over in Bentley's mind were these: + +How shall I tell Ellen the truth? Will she believe it? + +What is the rest of Barter's experiment? How shall I proceed from this +moment on? How shall I procure food for Ellen? What food will Apeman +choose for my body to assimilate? + +And jungle night drew on. Once Ellen shivered and pressed closer to +Manape as she slept. + +What would morning bring to this strange trio? + + +CHAPTER IX + +_Fate Decides_ + +Morning brought the great apes of the jungle--scores of them. They had +approached so silently through the darkness that Bentley had not heard +them, and his ape's nostrils had not told his human brain the meaning +of their odor. It appeared too that his ape's ears had tricked him. +For when morning came there were great apes everywhere. + +Bentley still held the wrist of Apeman, whose chest was rising and +falling naturally, though the body was limp and plainly exhausted, and +exuded perspiration that told of some jungle fever or other illness +perhaps, induced by hardship and over-exertion. The ape's brain of +Apeman had driven Bentley's body to the uttermost, and now that body +must pay. + +Bentley wondered how far he was now from the cabin of Caleb Barter. + +He doubted if Apeman could stand the return journey, though Bentley's +ape body could have carried Apeman's with ease. But would Apeman +stand the journey? Apeman, Bentley knew, was going into the Valley of +the Shadow, and something must be done to save him. But what? + +And the great apes constituted a new menace, though they were making +no effort to molest the three in the tree. Apeman must be placed in a +shady place and some attention paid to his needs. But the human body +with the ape's brain could not tell how it hurt or where. + +The first task was to get the two beings down from the tree, and much +depended upon chance. To the apes Bentley was another ape, one +moreover which had slain a number of them. But Apeman was a human +being, as was Ellen Estabrook. The whole thing constituted a fine +problem for the brain of Manape. + + * * * * * + +If Manape were to attempt first aid for Apeman, how would such a sight +react upon Ellen Estabrook? If Manape were to attempt to take Apeman +back to Caleb Barter, leading the way for Ellen, would she follow, and +what would his action tell her? She would think herself demented, +imagining things, because a great ape did things which only human +beings were supposedly capable of doing. + +If she knew, of course, it would make a difference. But she did not, +and Bentley had no means by which to inform her. That was a problem +for the future. Ellen was sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion and +he felt that he could safely leave her for the moment while he swung +Apeman down from the tree. He must work fast, and return for Ellen +before the great apes discovered the helpless Apeman at the foot of +the tree. He hoped to get Ellen down while she slept, knowing that she +would be in mortal fear of him if she wakened and found herself in his +power. + +Bentley got Apeman down, and looked about him. No apes were close +enough, as far as he could tell, to molest Apeman before Bentley could +return with Ellen. He raced back into the tree, lifted Ellen so gently +that she scarcely altered the even motion of her breathing--and for a +moment he hesitated. So close to him were her tired lips. So +woe-begone and pathetic her appearance, a great well of pity for her +rose in the heart of Bentley--or what was the seat of this emotion +within him? Was the brain the seat of the emotions? Or the heart? But +Bentley's true heart was in Apeman's human body, so there must be some +other explanation for the feeling which grew and grew within Bentley +for Ellen. + +He leaned forward with the intention of touching his lips to the tired +thin lips of Ellen Estabrook, then drew back in horror. + +How could he kiss this woman whom he loved with the gross lips of +Manape, the great ape? + +He could, of course, but suppose she wakened at his caress and saw the +great figure of the jungle brute, with all man's emotions and desires, +yet with none of man's restraint--bending over her? Women had gone +insane over less. + + * * * * * + +He hurried down with Ellen, and placed her beside Apeman. + +By now the great apes had discovered the strange trio and were coming +close to investigate. There was a huge brute who came the fastest and +seemed to be the leader of the apes, if any they had. But even this +one did not offer a challenge, did not seem perturbed in the least. +But he did seem filled with childish curiosity. The apes themselves +were like children, children grown to monstrous proportions, advancing +and retreating, staring at this trio, darting away when Apeman or +Ellen made some sort of movement. + +Bentley could sense too their curiosity where he was concerned. Their +senses told them that Bentley was a great ape. Their instincts, +however, made them hesitate, uncertain as to his true "identity"--or +so Bentley imagined. + +Ellen still slept, but she must have sensed the near presence of +potential enemies, for she was stirring fitfully, preparing to waken. + +What would her reaction be when she opened her eyes to see Manape near +her, standing guard over Apeman, with the jungle on all sides filled +with the lurking nightmare figures of other great apes? + +A moan of anguish came from Apeman. He stirred, and groans which +seemed to rack his whole white bruised body came forth. The brain of +the ape was reacting to the suffering of Bentley's body--and a brute +was whimpering with its hurts. The advancing apes came to pause. They +seemed to stare at one another in amazement. They were suddenly +frightened, amazed, unable to understand the thing they saw and were +listening to. Bentley crouched there, watching the apes, and he +fancied he could understand their sudden new hesitancy. + + * * * * * + +He did not know, but he guessed that the moans and groans of Apeman +were comprehensible to the great apes. They knew that this strangely +white creature was an ape, though he looked like a man. Already they +had wondered as much as they were capable, about Manape. They had +sensed something not simian about him which puzzled them. + +But from the lips of Apeman, to add to their mystification, came the +groans and moans of an ape that was suffering. Bentley held his +position, wondering what they would do. That they meant no harm he was +sure, else they would long since have charged and overborne the +three--unless they remembered the super-simian might of Manape and +were afraid to attack again. Bentley hoped so, for that would make +things easier for them all. + +Now the nearest apes were almost beside the body of Apeman, which was +still covered with agony sweat. The lips emitted moans and faint blurs +of gibberish. Bentley noted that the leading ape was a great she. The +female came forward hesitantly, making strange sounds in her throat, +and it seemed to Bentley that Apeman answered them. For the she came +forward with the barest trace of hesitancy, stared for a moment at +Manape, with a sort of challenge in her savage little red eyes, then +dropped to all fours beside Apeman and began to lick his wounds! + +The she knew something of the injuries of Apeman and was doing what +instinct told her to do for him. Now the rest of the apes were all +about them--and Ellen wakened with a shrill cry of terror. + +Bentley remained as a man turned to stone. If he moved toward the +woman he loved she would flee from him in terror--out among the other +apes and into the jungle where she would have no slightest chance for +life. If he did nothing she might still run. + + * * * * * + +Wildly she looked about her. She screamed again when she saw the she +bending over the travesty she thought to be Bentley, and licking the +poor bruised body. Ellen cast a sidelong look at Manape, and there was +something distinctly placating in her eyes. She recognized Manape, and +wanted his friendship. What thoughts crowded her brain as she realized +that she was in the center of a group of anthropoids who could have +destroyed her with their fingers in a matter of seconds! + +She did the one thing which proved to Bentley that she was worthy of +any man's love. The great she who licked the wounds of Apeman was +thrice the size of Ellen. Yet Ellen crawled to Apeman, little sounds +of pity in her throat. Instantly the snarling of the she sent her +back. The she had, for the time being at least, assumed proprietorship +of Apeman, and was bidding Ellen keep her distance. And the she meant +it, too. For she bared her fighting fangs when Ellen again approached +close enough to have touched the body of Apeman. + +This time the she advanced a step toward the girl, and her snarl was a +terrible sound. Ellen retreated, but no further than was necessary to +still that snarl in the throat of the she. Manape moved in quite close +now, into position to interfere if the she tried to actually injure +Ellen Estabrook. If only, Bentley thought, there were some way of +making himself known to Ellen! But how could she believe, even if a +way were discovered? + +"What shall I do?" moaned Ellen aloud, wringing her hands. "Poor Lee! +I can't move him. That brute won't let me touch him. Oh, I'm afraid!" + +Bentley wanted to tell her not to be afraid, but had learned from +experience that when he tried to speak his voice was the bellowing one +of a great ape. And if he were to enunciate words that Ellen could +understand, what then? English from the lips of a giant anthropoid! +She would not believe, would think herself insane--and with excellent +reason. Slowly, as matters were transpiring, she had already been +given sufficient reason to believe that her mind was tottering. + + * * * * * + +Manape stood guard over her. A she had adopted the thing she thought +was Bentley. A score of great apes, which only three days ago had +tried to destroy both Bentley and herself, now surrounded Bentley and +Ellen with all the appearance of amity--crude, true, but +unmistakable. Certainly this was sufficiently beyond all human +experience to make Ellen believe she were in the throes of some awful +nightmare. What would she think if an ape began to address her in +English, and "Bentley" suddenly held speech with the great apes? + +Add to this possibility, suppose she were suddenly confronted with the +truth--that the essential entities of Bentley and Manape had been +exchanged, and the whole thing were explained to her from the gross +lips of Manape himself, while "Bentley" looked on and chattered a +challenge in ape language while Manape talked? + +No, at first she might have understood. Now it would have been even +more horrifying for her to hear the truth. She must think what she +would, and be allowed to adjust herself to the astounding state of +affairs. Apeman could not be moved for some time. Ellen would not +leave him, naturally. Nor would Manape. And the apes apparently +intended to remain with them. Which made the problem, after all, a +simple one. The trio must remain for the time being among the great +apes. They needed one another in a strange way, and they needed the +apes themselves, which were like a formidable army at their backs, as +protection against the other beasts of the wilds. + +Bentley watched the great she continue her rude first aid for Apeman. +Apeman was still moaning, though less fitfully, like a child that +nuzzles the milk bottle, but is drifting away into sleep. The she gave +the travesty her full attention. There was something horribly human +about her maternal care of this creature before her. Her great arms +held Apeman close while her tongue caressed his wounds. Bentley knew +that that tongue was an excellent antiseptic, too. All animals licked +their own wounds, and those wounds healed. Only human beings knew the +dangers of infection, because they had departed from Nature's +doctrines and had tried to cheat her with substitutes. Only the +animals, like that great she, still were Nature's children, healing +their own wounds in Nature's way. + + * * * * * + +Satisfied that the apes would not molest Ellen, so long as she kept +her distance from Apeman, Bentley decided to seek food, which Ellen +must sorely need. The need for water was urgent, too. Bentley knew the +danger of drinking water found in the jungle--but an ape could +scarcely be expected to build a fire with which to boil the water, nor +to produce a miracle in the shape of something to hold it in over the +fire. + +Here were many makeshifts indicated, then. Bentley smiled inwardly, +the only way he could smile. He must feed himself, too. He must go +wandering through the woods, feeding the body of Manape with grubs, +worms and such nauseous provender, because it was the food to which +Manape was accustomed. Apeman, when he was well enough to eat, would +sicken the body of Bentley with the same sort of food, because the +brain of Apeman would not know what was good or bad for the body of a +human being--nor even would understand that his body was human. What +_did_ Apeman think of his condition, anyway? + +That question, of course, would never be answered--unless Barter could +really speak the language of the great apes and somehow managed to +secure from Apeman, if Apeman lived, a recital of these hours in the +jungle. + +What food should Manape secure for Ellen? What fruits were edible, +what poisonous? How could he tell? He watched the other apes, which +were scattering here and there now, tipping over rocks and sticks to +search for grubs and worms--to see what fruits they ate, if any. They +would know what fruits to avoid. + +An hour passed before Bentley saw one of the brutes feed upon anything +except insects. A cluster of a peculiar fruit which looked like wild +currants, but whose real name Bentley did not know. Now, feeling safe +in his choice, because the ape was eating the berries with relish, +Bentley searched until he found a quantity of the same berries, and +bore them back to Ellen Estabrook. + + * * * * * + +Beside Apeman, who now was awake and exchanging crazy gibberish with +the she who had licked his wounds, Ellen Estabrook, trying to be +brave, did not cry aloud. But her face was dirty, and her tears made +furrows through the grime. + +Manape dropped the berries beside her. The she snarled as Ellen +reached for the berries. Manape flung himself forward as the she +strove to take the berries before Ellen could grasp them--and cuffed +her over backward with a cumbersome but lightning-fast right swing. + +"Manape," said Ellen, "if only you could talk! I feel that you are my +friend, and my fears are less when you are with me. I'll pretend that +you can understand me. It helps a little to talk, for one scarcely +seems so much alone. How would you feel, I wonder, Manape, if you were +suddenly taken entirely out of the life you've always known, and +forced to live in another world entirely? It would not be easy to be +brave, would it? Suppose you were taken out of the wilds and dropped +into a ballroom?" + +Bentley could have laughed had the jest not been such a grim one. What +would Ellen think if he were to answer her: + +"I would be much more at home in that ballroom than that thing on the +ground that you love--as matters are at this moment!" + +She would not understand that. + +Nor did she understand when the she went away for a time and came back +with a supply of worms and grubs--which nauseous supply vanished with +great speed under the wolfish appetite of Apeman. There was little +wonder that Ellen found it difficult to orient herself. + +"I must tell her somehow," thought Bentley, "and that soon. Surely +enough has been done to satisfy the devilish curiosity of Caleb +Barter." + +Toward evening the apes began to drift further into the jungle. The +she gathered Apeman in her arms and moved off with him. There was +nothing for Manape to do but follow, and nothing for Ellen to do but +follow, too--if she loved the thing she thought was Bentley. She did +not hesitate. + +With unfaltering courage she followed on, and the lumbering forms of +the great apes drifted further away from the sea, seemingly headed +toward some mutely agreed upon jungle rendezvous. Everything depended +for the time upon the return to health of Apeman. All other matters +depended upon that. Each in his own way, Manape and Ellen, realized +this. Caleb Barter had schemed better than he could possibly have +foreseen. + + +CHAPTER X + +_Written in Dust_ + +As Apeman was borne deeper into the jungle in the great arms of the +she, what was more natural in the circumstances than that Ellen keep +close to her only remaining link with the world she had left--Manape, +the trained anthropoid of Caleb Barter? A natural thing, and one that +filled Manape with obvious pleasure. + +Once she touched his hand, rested her own small one in his mighty palm +for a moment--and Bentley was afraid to return the pressure of her +palm with the hand of Manape, lest he crush every bone in her fingers. +Thereafter at intervals, while the whole aggregation drifted deeper +into the jungle, Ellen clung to Manape; depended upon him. Was it her +woman's intuition which told her that Manape was a safe guardian? + +Bentley refused to dwell on that phase of this wild adventure however, +for there were other things to think about. It required many hours for +him to discover the truth, but he knew it at last. He, Manape-Bentley, +was the lord of the great apes! Before his capture, or before the +capture of Manape by Caleb Barter, Manape had been leader of these +apes. Now he had returned and was their ruler once more. Upstarts had +taken his place, and he had slain them--back there when Apeman had +tried to escape into the jungle with Ellen in his arms. To the apes +this must have seemed the way it was. + +Bentley was putting things together, hoping and believing that they +made four--yet not sure but that he was forcing them to equal four +when in actuality they were five or six. If Manape--the original ape +of Barter's capture, whose body now was Bentley's--had been the leader +of the great apes, that explained why the animals remained constantly +in the vicinity of Barter's dwelling. Barter had needed them in his +plans, and had made certain their remaining near by making their +leader captive. And of course only an ape sufficiently intelligent to +rule other apes would have suited the evil scheme which must have been +growing for years in the mind of Caleb Barter. Barter had merely +waited with philosophic calmness for human beings to drift into this +territory--and the _Bengal Queen_ had obligingly gone down off the +coast, throwing Ellen Estabrook and Lee Bentley into Barter's power. + + * * * * * + +What was Barter doing now? Would he not be striving to watch the +course of his experiment? Would he not think of details hitherto +overlooked and plan further experiments, or an enlarging of this +experiment of which three creatures were the victims? Surely Barter +would not remain quietly at Barterville while the subjects of his +experiment went deeper into the jungle with the great apes. Barter was +too thorough a scientist for that. Somehow, Bentley was sure, Barter +would know what was happening, even at this very moment. + +He would wish to know how a modern woman would conduct herself if +suddenly forced to live among apes. Therefore he would try in some +manner to keep watch over the conduct of Ellen Estabrook. He would +wonder how a modern man would conduct himself if he suddenly found, +himself the leader of that same group of apes, and how an ape would +behave if he suddenly discovered himself a man. It was a neat +"experiment," and Bentley was beginning to believe that there was +probably far more to it than there first had seemed. + +Barter would wish to know how all three creatures would conduct +themselves in certain circumstances--Apeman, Ellen and Bentley. He +would not leave it to chance, for Bentley now realized that Barter +himself did not feel inimical to either Ellen, Apeman or Bentley. To +him they were merely an experiment. Barter would not wish for Apeman +to die, and thus deprive Barter of a certain knowledge relative to one +angle of his unholy experiment. He would not wish for Manape-Bentley +to remain forever as Manape-Bentley, lacking the power of speech, +either human speech or the gibberish of the apes. + +No, all this was not being left to chance. Bentley believed that +Barter was directing the destination of these three subjects of his, +as surely as though he were right with them at this moment, driving +them to his will with that awful lash which had made him feared by the +great apes. + + * * * * * + +Yes, Barter was still the master mind. It made Bentley feel awfully +helpless. Yet--he was the leader of the great apes. That, too, Barter +must have foreseen. Would Barter try in any way to discover how +Bentley would behave in an emergency as leader of the apes? Would he +wish to know sufficiently to create an emergency? From Bentley's +knowledge of the twisted genius of Caleb Barter, he fully believed +that Barter planned yet other angles to his experiment. + +If he did, then what would he do next? + +It was not until the storm broke over the strange aggregation of great +apes, who seemed to be holding two white people prisoners, that +Bentley understood that from the very beginning he should have been +able to see the obvious denouement--the mad climax which even then was +preparing in the jungle ahead, simply waiting for the great apes to +drift, feeding as they went without a thought of danger, into the trap +set for them. + +Ellen now kept her hand in the great palm of Manape. She wept on +occasions, when she thought of the apparent hopelessness of her +position, but for the most part she was brave, and Bentley grew to +love her more as the hours passed--even as he grew more impatient at +his inability to express his love. If he tried he could simply +frighten her--fill her with horror because, gentle though he was with +her and he was a great ape, a fact which nothing could change. Nor +could anybody change the fact, except Caleb Barter. Where was the +scientist? What would be his next move if he were not leaving the +working out of his experiment entirely to chance, which seemed not at +all in keeping with the thorough manner of his experiment thus far. + +The future was a dark, painful obscurity, in which all things were +hidden, in which anything might happen--because Caleb Barter would +wish for it to happen. + + * * * * * + +How long would Barter wait before making his next move? Long enough +for Ellen to accustom herself to life among the apes? Long enough to +discover whether her natural intelligence would guide her to eke out +existence among hardships such as human beings never thought of, +except perhaps in nightmares? Long enough to allow the brain of +Bentley to discover what miracles intellect might do with the body of +Manape? Long enough for Apeman to be well of his illness, so that he +might observe what havoc an ape's brain might work with a human body? + +Certainly when one gave the hideous experiment full thought, its +possible angles of development, its many potential ramifications, were +astounding in the extreme. Was it not up to Bentley then to do +something besides mope and pine for the impossible, and thus hasten +the hour when Barter should be wholly satisfied with his experiment? + +What would Apeman do, how would he behave, when the white body of +Bentley was well again? Would that body grow well faster when guided +by an ape's brain than when a human brain was in command? Certainly +Caleb Barter must have listed all these questions and hundreds of +others which had not as yet occurred to Bentley. If he had he would +not transfer the two intelligences back to their proper places until +all of his questions were answered to his satisfaction. Bentley +himself must somehow force an answer to some of them. + +To do this he must try to guess what sort of questions Barter would +have listed, and try to work out their answers--assuming all the time +that Barter, from some undiscovered coign of vantage would be watching +for the answers he hoped his experiment would provide. + +Bentley arrived at a decision. Ellen must long since have become +numbed to the horror which encompassed her. Bentley knew that a human +brain could stand only so much, beyond which it was no longer +surprised or horrified. He guessed, noting the pale face of his +beloved, that Ellen had well nigh reached that stage. + +He decided to take a tremendous risk with her sanity, hoping thereby +to do his part in working out the details of Barter's experiment. + + * * * * * + +The sun was creeping into the west when the roving apes came to pause +in a sort of clearing. Some of them curled up in sleep. The she who +carried Apeman squatted with Apeman in her arms, and licked his wounds +again. + +That Apeman was recovering was plainly evident, and when he saw it +filled Bentley with an odd mixture of thankfulness and revulsion. +Apeman was essentially an ape. With all his strength back he would +revert to type, and what if he forced the body of Bentley to do +horrible things that Ellen would never be able to forget or +condone--even when she at last knew the truth? What if Apeman +selected, for example, a mate--from among the hairy she's? For Apeman +that would be natural, for Bentley horrible. + +Yet it might easily transpire. Apeman might relinquish the white she +to a successful rival--which he would regard Manape as being--and +content himself with a choice from the ape she's. Somehow that unholy +thing must not happen. That was up to Manape-Bentley. + +Or, with his strength fully returned, Apeman might again desire Ellen, +and force the issue with Manape for her possession--which seemed +equally horrible to the brain of Bentley. + +Ellen remained as close to Apeman as the she would permit her. +Manape-Bentley crouched close by. After a time Apeman slept, and +Bentley was pleased to notice that the agony sweat no longer beaded +Apeman's body, and that Apeman was recovering with superhuman +swiftness--thanks to the ministrations of the unnamed she who had +taken charge of him. Apeman now rarely groaned, sleeping or waking. + +Ellen watched the sleeping Apeman with her heart--and her fears--in +her eyes. Satisfied that he slept, and that his sleep was healthy, +Ellen again approached the creature she knew as Manape, Barter's +trained ape. + +"If only you could talk," she said to him. "If only you were able to +give some hope. If only there were some way I could cause you to +understand my wishes--understand and help me." + + * * * * * + +Bentley did not answer. He knew that to be useless. But his brain +remembered something. His brain recalled that moment in the cage in +the dwelling of Barter, when his human brain had tried to force +obedience from the great clumsy hands of Manape, when he had tried to +force those mighty fingers to unfasten the knots which held the cage +door secure. + +Could he force those hands to something else? + +Did he dare try? + +It was a terrible risk to take with Ellen's sanity, but Bentley felt +it must be taken. She was watching him hopelessly, and her lips moved +as though she prayed for a miracle--as though by some weird necromancy +she might force Manape to understand her words, and to answer her, +allaying her fears, destroying her hopelessness. + +When Ellen watched him, Bentley searched about nearby until he found a +dried stick perhaps eight feet in length. He held it up, sniffed at +it, fumbled it with his heavy, grotesque fingers. He focussed the +attention of Ellen upon that stick, while his excitement mounted and +mounted, and his fear of possible consequences kept pace with his +excitement. + +Then, his decision reached, he began again that species of hypnosis +which seemed necessary to compel the hands and fingers of Manape to do +things no ape's hands had ever done before, no ape's brain had ever +thought of doing. + +He pressed one end of the stick against the ground at his sprawling +feet. With his left palm he smoothed out an area of dust several feet +in either direction--a rough dusty rectangle. + +Interested, her brows puckered in concentration. Ellen watched as +Manape went through these gestures which were so strangely, terribly +human. + +Her eyes were watching the end of that twig which the trained ape was +so clumsily clutching in both hands. + +She saw the marks the twig made in the dust as Manape caused it to +move--slowly, horribly, fearfully, from left to right across the area +of dust. + + * * * * * + +Fear began to grow in her face, but Bentley forced himself on. Again +the fetid odor of ape sweat covered him. This awful concentration, +this awful task of forcing Manape to write English words was in itself +a miracle, more miraculous even than Ellen would have thought of +praying for. + +Her eyes were glued to the sprawling, uneven, misshapen marks in the +dust with hypnotic fascination. Bentley dared not look at her, because +it required all his will to force the clumsy hands of Manape to his +bidding. + +He could only watch the marks in the dust, and will with all the power +of his human intelligence that the hands of Manape make their shape +sufficiently plain that Ellen might read them--and hope besides that +this terrible thing would not send the sorely harassed girl into the +jungle, madly shrieking for deliverance from a nightmare. + +There, the words were written--and Ellen was staring at them, her eyes +wide and unblinking, her body as rigid as stone, and her face as cold. +Only three words were possible without an interval of rest, but those +three words, among all Bentley might have selected, were the most to +the point, the most unbelievable, the most black-magical. + +_"I am Lee!"_ + +Minutes went into eternity as Ellen stared at the words. Silence that +it seemed would never be broken hang over the clearing. The bickering +of the apes passed unnoticed as Ellen stared. Then, slowly, she tried +to raise her eyes to meet those of Manape. + +She failed. Her body went limp and she slid forward on her face in the +dust. Manape-Bentley gently turned her on her side and waited. What +would he see in her beloved eyes when she regained consciousness? + + +CHAPTER XI + +_Barter Acts_ + +Bentley remained motionless, awaiting Ellen's return to consciousness. +He waited in fear and trembling. How would she react to the horrible +thing he had told her? + +Now there was possibility of converse between them. If she knew and +realized the meaning of his revelation. But would her mind stand up +under the awfulness of it? He had thought so, else he would not have +taken the chance he had taken. Much now depended upon Ellen, and all +he could do was wait. + +Slowly she began to move. Moans escaped her lips, little pathetic +moans, and the name of Lee Bentley. + +At last her eyes opened, and widened with horror when they met those +of Manape. Bentley knew that there were tears on the face of +Bentley-Manape. Manape, it seemed, cried easily, like a child. + +Her eyes still wide with horror. Ellen Estabrook slowly turned them +until she gazed at the dust rectangle in which presumably a great ape +had written words in English. But Bentley-Manape had rubbed out the +words. She turned and looked at Manape again, and her lips writhed and +twisted. She was seeking for words, shaping words, to ask questions +such as none in all the world's history had ever asked of a giant +anthropoid, with any hope of receiving answers. + +"You tell me you are Lee," she began slowly, hesitantly, as though the +words were literally forced from her against her will. "I cannot grasp +the meaning of that. You say you are Lee, yet I recognize you as +Manape, Caleb Barter's great ape. Yet Manape could not have written +those words. Yet, if you are Lee Bentley, who or what is that?" + + * * * * * + +She turned and pointed a trembling finger at Apeman. Bentley of course +could not answer her in words, yet his mind was busy conceiving of +some way in which he might answer her. She turned back to him after a +long look at Apeman and studied him. His huge barrel chest, the mighty +arms, the receding forehead--the outward seeming of a giant ape. + +Again that hesitant, horribly difficult task, of forcing the arms of +Manape to perform actions which were not natural to the arms of a +great ape. Bentley managed to raise the right arm in the gesture of +pointing. + +He pointed at the other apes, some of which slept, some of which ate +of grubs and worms, or bickered savagely among themselves over +whatever childish trifles seemed important to the ape mind. + +"You mean," said Ellen huskily, "that Lee Bentley there is really an +ape?" + +Manape nodded, ponderously. + +Ellen's face became animated. She was beginning to understand how to +hold speech with Manape. + +"You tell me he is a great ape, yet he has the body of Lee Bentley. +You tell me you are Bentley, yet I see you as Manape. Caleb Barter's +trained ape. How am I to understand? Are my eyes betraying me, or is +this a nightmare from which I shall waken presently? I see the shape +of Manape, who writes in the dust that he is Lee. How can I know? None +of you I can see is Lee Bentley. What part of you that I cannot see is +Lee?" + + * * * * * + +Again the effort of forcing the hands of Manape to obedience. + +Manape-Bentley tapped his receding forehead with his knuckles, and a +gasp burst from the lips of Ellen Estabrook. + +"You mean your brain is Bentley's brain, and that Bentley's body holds +the brain of a great ape?" + +Manape nodded clumsily. + +"But how? You mean--Caleb Barter? I remember about him now. A master +surgeon, an expert on anesthesia--a thousand years ahead of his time. +You mean then that we three are part of an experiment? You, Manape, +have the brain of Bentley, and Bentley has the brain of a great ape?" + +Bentley nodded. + +The face of Ellen Estabrook writhed and twisted. Her eyes studied the +person of Manape the great ape. She could not believe the thing she +had been told, yet she was thinking back and back--back to when Apeman +had carried her away, his subsequent behavior, his behavior in the +house of Barter, and his interest in the she ape who had licked his +wounds. + +She remembered how Manape in the beginning had looked at her with the +eyes of a lustful man--and how later all his attitude had been +protective. There seemed evidence in plenty to support the statement +Manape had mutely managed to give her. She was forced to believe. + +"But, Lee,"--she came closer to Manape as she spoke--"we must do +something for that creature there--that thing with the ape she which +looks like the man I love. You've heard me say that I love Lee +Bentley?" + +Manape nodded. + +"Does Lee Bentley love me?" + +Again Manape nodded, more vehemently this time. Ellen smiled. Then, +quickly, she came to Manape, thrust her fingers against his skull and +examined it closely. Her brows were furrowed in concentration. She +left Manape and strode to Apeman. The she growled at her but she +ignored the beast as much as possible, though plainly cognizant of the +fact that she dared not touch her hands to Apeman on pain of being +torn asunder by the fighting fangs of the ape she. + + * * * * * + +Then Ellen came back. + +"The evidence is there, Lee," she said. "There are the marks of a +surgeon's instruments. Marvelous. One is almost inclined to forget the +horror of it in the realization that a miracle has been performed. The +operation was perfect. But what did he use for anesthesia? How did +Barter manage to complete his operation and cause his two patients to +feel no-ill effects, to be to all intents and purposes well in mind +and body--all within less than twelve hours? However, that does not +matter now. Something must be done. Since Caleb Barter was the only +man who could perform this unholy operation, he is the only one who +could repeat it restoring each of you to your proper earthly +casements. So we must play in with him. I suppose you've long since +decided that way, Lee?" + +How strange it seemed to Ellen to discuss such matters with Manape. +But behind his brutish exterior was the brain of the man whom she +loved. + +"And there is one other thing," Ellen almost whispered, and her face +flushed rosily. "No harm must come to the body of Lee, you understand? +He must never be permitted to do anything of which Lee Bentley of +after years may have cause to feel ashamed." + +Manape nodded. He understood her, and despite the grotesquerie of the +whole thing there was something intimate and sweet about this +interchange. A man and woman loved. Just now that love was mentioned +more or less in the abstract, discussed on purely a mental basis--but +both Bentley and Ellen Estabrook were thinking of the future, and were +as frank with each other as they perhaps ever would be again. + + * * * * * + +Now the apes were beginning to stir themselves. It was time to be on +the move again. Eyes were turned toward Manape, who was plainly +intended to lead them further into the jungle. Ellen and the white +body of Bentley were already being accepted as a matter of course. + +If the great apes wondered why their returned lord did not jabber with +them in the gibberish of the great apes, there was no way of telling, +for there was no way in which Manape could make himself understood, +nor any way the great apes could tell their thoughts to Manape. + +Then, without warning, the blow fell. + +The storm broke, and even as the uproar started Bentley was sure that +he could sense behind it the fine hand of Caleb Barter--still working +out his "experiment," with human beings and apes as the pawns. + +The apes were on the move, entering a series of aisles through the +gloomy woods when the blow fell--in the shape of scores of nets, in +whose folds within a matter of seconds the great apes were fighting +and snarling helplessly. They expended their mighty strength to no +avail. They fought at ropes and thongs which they did not +understand--and only Manape made no effort to fight, knowing it +useless. + +Scores of black folk armed with spears danced and yelled in the brush, +frankly delighted at the success of their grand coup. Barter was +nowhere to be seen, and there was a possibility that he knew nothing +about this. Yet Bentley knew better. Perhaps, in order to stimulate +the blacks, he had offered them money for great apes taken alive. +Anyhow, scores of the apes were taken, and now exhausted themselves in +savage bellowing and snarling, as they fought for freedom. + +A half dozen to each net, the blacks gathered in their captives. They +made much over Ellen Estabrook. They pawed over Apeman despite his +snarls and bellowings, and laughed when Apeman played the ape as +though to the manner born. They scented some mystery here, a white man +raised by the apes, perhaps. But that Ellen and Apeman were prisoners +of blacks, Bentley could plainly understand. He scarcely knew which +was the more horrible for her--to be prisoner of the apes or the +blacks. + +But for the moment there was nothing he could do. And the blacks were +not torturing either Apeman or Ellen, though there was no mistaking +what he saw in the faces of the blacks when they looked at Ellen and +grinned at one another. + +Darkness had fallen over the world when the blacks went shouting into +a village of mud-wattled huts, bearing the trophies of their ape hunt. +Still in their nets for safety's sake, the great apes were thrown into +a sort of stockade which had plainly just been built for their +reception--proof to Bentley that this decision to make an attack +against the passing band of anthropoids had been a sudden one. What +did that indicate? + +Someone had caused the blacks to react in a way that never would have +occurred to them ordinarily. + +Caleb Barter? + +Bentley thought so. What now was Bentley supposed to do? What did +Barter expect him to do? What did Barter expect Ellen to do? What did +he expect Apeman to do? + +There was no question, as Bentley saw it, but that Caleb Barter still +pulled the strings, and that before morning this jungle village was to +witness a horror it should never forget. + +But at the moment Bentley had but one thought: to escape quietly with +Ellen and Apeman, and return to the dwelling of Caleb Barter. + + +CHAPTER XII + +_Jungle Justice_ + +Again that grim concentration on the part of Bentley, forcing the +unaccustomed great hands of Manape to perform things they had never +done before. He must release himself from the rope net which held him. +For the hands of a human being the task would have been easy. For the +hands of Manape, even though guided by the will of Bentley, the task +was far from easy. + +But he persevered. + +An hour after the apes had been dumped in the stockade, Bentley had +released himself from the rope net and was resting after the awful +ordeal of forcing the hands of Manape to do his bidding. He pressed +himself against the uprights of the stockade, and carefully tested +them with his strength. The strength of Bentley would never have +availed against the stout uprights of the stockade. Yet Manape-Bentley +knew that with the arms of Manape he could tear the uprights out of +the ground as easily as though they had been match-sticks. What should +he do now? + +His first impulse of course was to release the rest of the great apes. +The brutes still fought at their bindings and were utterly insane with +rage. What would they do when they were released? What was his duty +where they were concerned? If they went wild through the native +village, slaying and laying waste, would Bentley be responsible for +loss of life? If he left the apes in the hands of the natives, what +then? He would never afterward forgive himself. He knew them as +children of the wilds, carefree and happy brutes of the jungle. Now if +held captives indefinitely they would either die or spend the rest of +their lives in cages. + +No, he would release the animals, one by one. The natives would have +to take their chances. + + * * * * * + +A white figure loomed out of the darkness, coming from the direction +of a great bonfire which showed all the jungle surrounding in weird, +crimson relief. The white figure, all but nude, was Apeman! Following +him were several natives, who laughed and prodded Apeman with the +butts of their spears. + +Bentley understood that. They thought Apeman a demented white man, +and to these natives a demented one was a butt of jokes. They did not +even suspect the horror of the possible revenge that was growing in +the brain of the ape which controlled the body of Apeman. + +Twice or thrice Apeman tried to dart into the jungle, but always the +blacks prevented, heading him toward the cage where the apes were held +prisoners. Bentley wondered where Ellen was and what was happening to +her. + +A celebration of some sort seemed going forward in the village. Was +Caleb Barter somewhere near, perhaps on the edge of the jungle, +grinning gleefully at this thing he had brought about as part of his +unholy experiment? There was no way of knowing of course, yet. + +But.... + +Apeman reached the side of the stockade and snarled back at his +annoyers, while his white hands grasped the uprights and tore at them +with futile savagery. A strange situation. Inside the stockade a score +of brutes who could rip the stockade to bits. Outside, one of them +free, but hampered by the puny strength of a human being. + +The blacks shouted to Apeman but of course Bentley could not +understand what they said. Apeman turned after snarling at them for a +few moments, and began to chatter in that gibberish which appeared to +be Apeman's only mode of speech--ape language on the lips of a man! +This was the only time it had ever happened. + +The apes stirred fitfully as Apeman chattered, and began to renew +their attacks on their bonds. The blacks, after watching Apeman for a +few moments turned back toward the bonfire, evidently satisfied that +this strange demented creature would not run away. Apeman chattered +and the apes made answer. + +The she who had nursed Apeman managed to reach the side of the +stockade, and for several moments Bentley listened to the horrible +grotesqueries--an ape she and a man talking together in brutish +gibberish, and with hellish intimacy. + +Now, wondering just how matters would work themselves out, Bentley set +himself the task of releasing the apes. They would at least create a +furor in the village, during which Bentley could escape into the +jungle with Apeman and Ellen Estabrook before the natives could +reorganise themselves and give chase. + +His plan was hazy, and he figured without the savagery of Apeman who +occupied that white body which had been Bentley's. His one thought was +to free the apes, set them upon the village, and escape with Apeman +and Ellen. Just that and no more; but he did not know the great apes, +nor how thoroughly they followed the lead of their lord whom they knew +as Manape, though how he was named in their brains he was never to +know. + +One by one he released the apes. They seemed to sense the necessity +for stealth, for they began to ape the cautious behavior of Manape. +Apeman, outside, seemed to be advising them, telling them what to do. + + * * * * * + +One by one as Manape released them, the apes squatted side by side, +their red angry little eyes watching his every move. Bentley knew of +course what a fearful racket his own appearance would cause when he +strode out of the gloom among the blacks, seeking Ellen. But he knew +that surprise for a few precious moments would render the blacks +incapable of stopping him until he got away. At least he hoped so. + +Beyond that he had no other plan. All depended upon the behavior of +the apes and the reaction of the blacks who were holding a devil's +dance about the mighty fire in the center of their village. Bentley +did not even yet dare guess what the apes would do when they saw what +Manape-Bentley did. Would they follow him? Or would they race for the +jungle to escape? + +A few minutes now would tell the tale. He had released the last of the +great apes, who now lined the side of the stockade, apparently holding +angry converse with Apeman. Bentley was reminded of the old fashioned +mob of pioneer days--angrily muttering yet lacking a leader to direct +their efforts. Well, he had done his duty as he saw it. From now on +things must take their course. + +But Bentley waited, watching the dancing figures about the fire. As +far as he could tell the dance was approaching some sort of a climax. +The figures leaped higher as they danced, and the noise of their +shouting raced and rolled across the jungle. They appeared to be drunk +with some sort of excitement, perhaps helped by native liquor, perhaps +because of superstitious frenzy. + +If he waited for their excitement to die down a bit, for some of them +to go to sleep, his chances of releasing Ellen would be better. It +would not be hard for him to find her--not with Manape's sensitive +nose to lead him to her. + + * * * * * + +But time passed and the apes, though apparently being urged to +something by Apeman, watching Manape sullenly, apparently waiting for +him to make some move. + +Then, sharp as a knife, cutting through the other noises of the +village, came Ellen's voice. + +"Help, Lee! Help me!" + +The scream was broken short off as though a hand had clutched the +girl's throat, but Bentley waited for no more--and Manape-Bentley flew +into action. His great hands went to the uprights of the stockade. +His mighty shoulders heaved and twisted and the uprights were ripped +apart. + +The apes followed his lead, and the cracking of the stockade's +uprights was like a volley of pistol shots. The great brutes fairly +walked through the green saplings which formed the prison. Manape was +leading the charge, and the apes, once through, did not hesitate. If +their leader charged the blacks they would follow--and did, while +among them danced, cavorted and gibbered the travesty, Apeman. + +He was Bentley's lieutenant, and Bentley-Manape was the lord of the +apes. Just now he forgot that he was more ape than man. Just now he +was happy that his strength was the strength of many men. He was +hurrying to the assistance of the woman he loved. + +Behind him came the great apes, following like an army of poorly +trained recruits, yet armed as no army has ever been armed since the +days when men fought with fist and fang against their enemies. Bentley +lumbered swiftly toward the sound of Ellen's voice, aided in his +journey by the odor of her which came to his sensitive ape's nostrils. + + * * * * * + +The blacks never saw the approach of the apes, until, led by Manape +the Mighty, the great apes were right among them. Bentley did not +pause. A black man saw him and shrieked aloud in terror, a shriek +which seemed to freeze the other blacks in all sorts of postures. +Sitting men remained where they sat, and some of the motionless ones +saved their lives by their immobility. Dancers paused in midstride, +and those who did not, died. + +For the hands of the great apes clutched at everything that moved, and +the great shoulders bulged, and the mighty muscles cracked, and men +were torn asunder as though they had been flies in the hands of +vengeful boys. + +The black who had shrieked hurled a spear, purely a reflex, +perhaps--an action born of its habitual use. It missed Bentley by a +narrow margin, but passed through the stomach of the she who had +nursed Apeman. Snarling, snapping at the thing which hurt her, the she +tore the weapon free--then waddled forward swiftly, caught the man who +had hurled the spear, and tore his head off with a single twisting +movement of her great hands. + +Next moment her blood was mingling with that of her slayer as she fell +above him. But her hands, in the convulsions of death, still ripped +and tore, and the black whom she held was a ghastly thing when the she +was finally dead. Bentley did not see the ghastly end of the spearman, +for he was seeking Ellen, and at the some time keeping a close watch +on Apeman. + +Apeman seemed to be urging the apes to the attack, bidding them rip +and tear and gnash, and the apes were doing that, making of the +village a crimson shambles. But they did it in passing, for Manape was +their leader, and him they followed--and he was seeking Ellen +Estabrook. + + * * * * * + +The door of the hut in which his nostrils told him she would be found, +gave before his mighty chest as though it had been made of paper. +Inside, in the glow of the native lamp, a huge black man cowered +against the further wall of the hut, with spear poised. + +But the black man seemed frozen with terror. + +"Lee! Lee!" + +Bentley essayed one glance at her. In the other corner she was, with +the upper part of her clothing almost torn from her body. + +Then the spearman hurled his weapon. Bentley strove to force the huge +bulk of Manape's body to dodge the spear; but that body was slow in +doing so--and took a mortal wound! + +But it was a wound that would mean slow death. An aching, terrible +wound. Then Manape-Bentley had grasped the body of the black, lifted +it high above his head, and crashed it to the hard packed floor of the +hut. The hut fairly shook with the thud of that fall. At once Manape +stooped, caught the black by the ankles and pulled in opposite +direction with all his terrific might. + +Then he whirled, masking what he had done from Ellen's sight with his +huge, sorely wounded body. + +He tried to send her a message with his eyes, but it was not +necessary. She knew Manape, Barter's trained ape. She followed close +at his heels. Outside the hut's door Apeman still urged the apes to +destruction of men and property, of women and children. The village of +the blacks had become a place of horror. + +"Hurry, Lee!" gasped Ellen. "You've been grievously wounded, and if +Manape dies, nothing can save _you_--and I shall not care to live!" + +But Bentley knew. His brain could sense the approach of death, and +what he now must do was very plain. + +He charged at Apeman and caught the struggling, snarling travesty up +in his mighty arms. Then, with Ellen at his heels, he leaped into the +jungle and began the race for the house of Caleb Barter. + + * * * * * + +Life was going from him, yet his brain forced onward the body of +Manape. Behind came the great apes, following their leader. Now and +again they screamed and snarled at him, but he paid them no heed. They +could follow or leave him, as they chose. They chose to follow. + +Apeman fought and bit at Bentley, but he paid him as little heed as +though he had been nothing at all. Now and again when Ellen faltered +Bentley caught her up, too, and carried her with Apeman until Ellen +was rested enough to go on. + +Some of the apes appeared to realize whither they were going, for they +took to the trees and vanished onward. With Apeman alone, Bentley +himself would have taken to the trees as the swiftest way back to +Barter's dwelling. But Ellen could not race along the upper terraces, +and Bentley could not carry both Apeman and Ellen and leave the +ground. But he could travel swiftly on his race with death, with Ellen +as the prize if he won. + +The hours passed, and the strength of Manape decreased; but fiercely +the brain of Bentley drove the mighty body on. Ellen sobbed with +weariness but continued on, and no words were spoken. There was no +time for words. Now and again Bentley forced Apeman to walk, and +dragged him forward with a hand clutching his wrist. At such times +Bentley carried Ellen, and scarcely slackened his stride under her +weight. + + * * * * * + +Once he tried to force Apeman to carry her, but the arms of Apeman +were not equal to the task for more than fifty yards or so, and he +gave that up as being impracticable. His brain raced, thinking up ways +to travel faster, to reach Barter's quarters before the mighty body of +Manape should die, and with it the brain of Bentley. + +Surely no stranger cavalcade ever before traversed the jungles of the +Black Continent. + +So they came at last to the clearing. The apes protested and remained +in hiding, while Bentley, never pausing, raced across toward the house +he would never forget. + +The body of Manape was almost through, for it staggered like a +drunken man. Blood covered the mighty chest, and the brain of Bentley +felt hazy; nothing made sense; and the end was very near. + +But they reached the door of Barter's dwelling, and Barter himself met +them, bearing his cruel whip in his hand. Ellen roused herself from +her extreme exhaustion and clutched at the scientist's hand. + +"Professor Barter!" she begged. "Please, please! Manape is almost +dead! Hurry! Hurry, for the love of God!" + +"There, there, my dear young lady," said Barter soothingly. "Make +yourself easy. There's no cause for worry." + +Manape-Bentley toppled forward on the floor of the cabin. Ellen +screamed and Barter comforted her. Apeman tried to escape to the +jungle, but the lash of Barter drove him cowering and whimpering to a +corner. + +Then, oblivion--save that somewhere was the odor of violets. Or did +violets possess odor? Then, if not, the odor of flowers he thought +were violets. + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_The Horror Passes_ + +Slowly consciousness returned to Bentley, and his first thought was +one of horror. From somewhere distinct came a doleful wailing sound. +He thought he knew what it was--the mourning of great apes over a +member that had died. + +He had read somewhere that the great apes sorrowed when any of their +members died. Bentley opened his eyes. He could make out the ceiling +of a room that he recognized. It was the room that had been first +assigned him in the dwelling of Barter. + +Ellen Estabrook would be somewhere nearby. He opened his lips to call +to her. Then he remembered. He'd tried to call to her before--and had +merely bellowed like an ape. No, there was something he must know +first. + +His arms and hands seemed as heavy as lead, but he lifted them and +looked at them--and a great feeling of peace descended upon him. +Manape-Bentley was gone, and he was plain Lee Bentley again. There was +his own ring, which Apeman had worn, and besides he had just spoken +aloud, softly, for no ears save his own, and the voice had been Lee +Bentley's voice. + +Yes, Barter had kept his promise, and Lee Bentley was Lee Bentley +again. + +But he was very weak, and his body was racked with pain. His hands and +arms were covered with bandages. His body seemed packed in concrete, +so moveless was it, and when he raised his voice it was terribly weak. + +"Ellen," he managed to call; and again, "Ellen, darling!" + +Instantly there came a swift patter of feet and Ellen was beside his +bed, on her knees, covering his face--what there was of it +unbandaged--with kisses. There was really no need for words between +these two. + +"Lee," she whispered, "I've been so afraid. You've been like this for +a week, despite the miraculous knowledge and skill of Professor +Barter. I've waited in fear and trembling, praying for you to live, +and now you are Lee again, and will live on. Professor Barter has +promised me. All you need now is food, and care, and I shall shower +you with both. Barter has instructed me so carefully that I could +manage even to care for you, sick as you are, without him here at +all." + +"And Manape?" Bentley's voice seemed to be stronger. + +"He is dead," whispered Ellen. "I shall never forget him. There was +something great, something even better than human about him, Lee! Oh, +I know that he was you--but where would all three of us have been had +it not been for the powerful body of Manape, the great ape? Manape is +dead, and in the jungle hereabouts the great apes mourn his passing. +They've been wailing almost like human beings for a week. +Manape--well, Professor Barter told me that you too would have died, +had Manape reached his door five minutes later. As it was, he, and +you, were just in time!" + +"It's amazing," whispered Bentley, "that the great apes stay around +here now that Manape is dead." + +"Yes. It's strange--and terrible I think. There have been times when I +felt they were waiting for something, for Professor Barter, perhaps. +I've had the feeling they believe he killed their leader." + +Now the two became silent, and Ellen held the bruised and broken hands +of Bentley in both her own, and their eyes said things, one to the +other, which eyes say so much better than lips do. They kissed each +other softly, and Ellen crooned with ecstasy, her cheek against +Bentley's. + + * * * * * + +Then Caleb Barter entered. + +"Well, well," he said, "when a man is in condition to make love to a +woman, he is well on the road to recovery. It won't hurt you to talk +now, Bentley, and before I begin asking questions, let me assure you +that you will suffer no ill effects from your experience." + +"What of my memories?" asked Bentley softly. + +"Forget them!" snapped Barter tartly. "That is, after you have told me +everything that has happened. Miss Estabrook has already told me her +angle of the experiment. Now, talk please--and then I shall make you +well, and you shall both go into the world with me, and tell people +that what I have to tell is true!" + +So Bentley talked. Barter wrote like a man possessed. His fingers +raced over the paper, repeating the words which fell from the lips of +Lee Bentley, beside whom Ellen sat, holding his hands. Now and again +Barter uttered an ejaculation of fierce joy. He was like a child with +a toy that pleased him beyond words. He could scarcely wait for the +words to spill from the lips of Lee Bentley. + +When Bentley paused for breath, Barter exclaimed impatiently, and +urged him to greater speed. He thought of but one thing, his +experiment. + +And so at last Bentley had finished. + +"That's all, Professor Barter!" he said softly. + +"All!" cried Barter. "Everything! Fame! Wealth! Adulation! There is +nothing in the world Caleb Barter may not have when this story is +told! I can scarcely contain myself. You must hurry to be well in +order that the world may be told at once." + +Laughing immoderately, Barter piled the manuscript he had written, and +weighted it with a piece of rock. His face was a constant grin. His +fingers trembled with eagerness. He could not contain himself. + +Finally, as though from sheer joy of what he had accomplished, he +raced from the cabin, and out across the clearing. Ellen and Bentley +smiled at each other. Moments passed. Still came to their ears the +mourning wails of the great apes. + + * * * * * + +Then suddenly there broke a sound so utterly appalling that the two +were frozen with terror for a moment. First it was the laughter of +Caleb Barter. Then, mingled with the laughter, the bellowing, +frightful and paralyzing, of man apes challenging a hated enemy. The +drumming of ape fists on huge barrel chests. Then the laughter of +Barter, dying away, ironic, terrible, into silence. Immediately +afterward, high-pitched, mighty as the jungle itself, the concerted +cries of half a dozen apes, as if bellowing their joy of the kill. + +"They--they--" began Ellen in a choked voice. "The apes must have got +Professor Barter!" + +Silently Bentley nodded, and pointed. + +Coiled on a nail near the door was Barter's whip. In his excitement he +had gone into the jungle without it for the first--and last--time. + +"There is one thing to do," whispered Ellen, "before we prepare to get +you fully well. I shall care for you, and we shall both try to forget. +And then we shall return to our own people." + +"And the one thing?" asked Bentley. + +The strained silence was suddenly broken by the bellowing of the great +apes, which now charged into the cabin. Bentley and Ellen cringed back +from the murderous brutes to no avail. There was no denying them. +Their slavering jaws, drooled below flaring nostrils, their eyes +emitted sparks of animal fury. Bentley leaped to the girl and +interposed his body between hers and the vanguard of the apes, who now +were surging into the room through the open door, and spreading apart +within like water released from a dam. + +The apes were bent on murder, there could be no doubt. + +A very monster towered over Bentley. His jaws were wide, his little +red eyes fixed on the white man's neck. His great arms were coming +forward to gather in both Ellen and Bentley--whom he could crush as +easily as he crushed the grubs which were his food. + +Bentley was helpless and knew it. This was the end for Ellen and +himself. He must meet it unafraid. He tensed, awaiting the descent of +bestial destruction. His eyes met the murderous gleam in the eyes of +the ape leader unflinchingly. And then the miracle happened. + +The brute became suddenly and inexplicably hesitant. His bellow died +away to a gurgling murmur in which there seemed somehow a hint of +apology. The fire went out of his eyes. His jaws closed with a snap. +His great arms, already about Bentley, slid harmlessly over Bentley's +shoulders; dropped to his shaggy side. + +The brute's little eyes looked long and in puzzled fashion into the +eyes of Bentley. Then he began to chatter, and in a moment the other +apes ambled grotesquely toward the door and out. Ellen and Bentley +were alone together once more, unharmed--though numbed by realization +of the near passing of disaster. + +"I don't understand it," muttered Bentley, brushing the beads of +perspiration from his brow. "It was a miracle!" + +"Lee," Ellen answered, "I think I know, and it _is_ a sort of miracle. +Somehow the apes felt that you were--whatever your guise--Manape. They +did not recognize you by any of their means of recognition; yet that +beast knew! How? Only God Himself might answer. But the beasts knew, +and did not slay us. The inner voice which whispers inside us in times +of crises, whispers also to the great apes! Barter, then must have +understood their somehow spiritual kinship with us. His experiments--" + +Her words reminded Bentley of what she had been saying when the great +apes had charged in upon them, murder bent. He interrupted her, +gently. + +"And the one thing we must do?" he rallied her. + +Ellen rose, and her face was white and strained as she gathered +together Barter's manuscript. This she carried to the fireplace. She +applied a match and returned to Bentley's bedside. Then, side by side, +the two who would never forget in any case watched the record of +Barter's unholy experiment burn slowly to ashes, while the screams of +the great apes died away second by second, proof that they were +leaving this section of the jungle--going deeper and deeper into the +forest gloom which was their rightful heritage, and from which no man +had a right to take them. + +[Advertisement] + + + + +Holocaust + +_By Charles Willard Diffin_ + +[Illustration: It passed beneath the planes, that were motionless by +contrast.] + +[Sidenote: The extraordinary story of "Paul," who for thirty days was +Dictator of the World.] + +I am more accustomed to the handling of steel ingots and the +fabrication of ships than to building with words. But, if I cannot +write history as history is written, perhaps I can write it the way it +is lived, and that must suffice. + +This account of certain events must have a title, I am told. I have +used, as you see: "Holocaust." Inadequate!--but what word can tell +even faintly of that reign of terror that engulfed the world, of those +terrible thirty days in America when dread and horror gripped the +nation and the red menace, like a wall of fire, swept downward from +the north? And, at last--the end! + +It was given to me to know something of that conflict and of its +ending and of the man who, in that last day, took command of Earth's +events and gave battle to Mars, the God of War himself. It was against +the background of war that he stood out; I must tell it in that way; +and perhaps my own experience will be of interest. Yet it is of the +man I would write more than the war--the most hated man in the whole +world--that strange character, Paul Stravoinski. + +You do not even recognize the name. But, if I were to say instead the +one word, "Paul"--ah, now I can see some of you start abruptly in +sudden, wide-eyed attention, while the breath catches in your throats +and the memory of a strange dread clutches your hearts. + +'Straki,' we called him at college. He was never "Paul," except to me +alone; there was never the easy familiarity between him and the crowd +at large, whose members were "Bill" and "Dick" and other nicknames +unprintable. + +But "Straki" he accepted. "_Bien, mon cher ami_," he told me--he was +as apt to drop into French as Russian or any of a dozen other +languages--"a name--what is it? A label by which we distinguish one +package of goods from a thousand others just like it! I am unlike: for +me one name is as good as another. It is what is here that +counts,"--he tapped his broad forehead that rose high to the tangle of +black hair--"and here,"--and this time he placed one hand above his +heart. + +"It is for what I give to the world of my head and my heart that I +must be remembered. And, if I give nothing--then the name, it is less +than nothing." + + * * * * * + +Dreamer--poet--scientist--there were many Paul Strakis in that one +man. Brilliant in his work--he was majoring in chemistry--he was a +mathematician who was never stopped. I've seen him pause, puzzled by +some phase of a problem that, to me, was a blank wall. Only a moment's +hesitation and he would go way down to the bed-rock of mathematics and +come up with a brand new formula of his own devising. Then--"_Voila! +C'est fini!_ let us go for a walk, friend Bob; there is some poetry +that I have remembered--" And we would head out of town, while he +spouted poetry by the yard--and made me like it. + +I wish you could see the Paul Straki of those days. I wish I could +show him to you; you would understand so much better the "Paul" of +these later times. + +Tall, he seemed, though his eyes were only level with mine, for his +real height was hidden beneath an habitual stoop. It let him conceal, +to some extent, his lameness. He always walked with a noticeable limp, +and here was the cause of the only bitterness that, in those days, was +ever reflected in his face. + +"Cossacks!" he explained when he surprised a questioning look upon my +face. "They went through our village. I was two years old--and they +rode me down!" + +But the hard coldness went from his eyes, and again they crinkled +about with the kindly, wise lines that seemed so strange in his young +face. "It is only a reminder to me," he added, "that such things are +all in the past; that we are entering a new world where savage +brutality shall no longer rule, and the brotherhood of man will be the +basis upon which men shall build." + +And his face, so homely that it was distinctive, had a beauty all its +own when he dared to voice his dreams. + + * * * * * + +It was this that brought about his expulsion from college. That was in +1935 when the Vornikoff faction brought off their coup d'etat and +secured a strangle hold on Russia. We all remember the campaign of +propaganda that was forced into the very fibre of every country, to +weaken with its insidious dry-rot the safe foundations of our very +civilization. Paul was blinded by his idealism, and he dared to speak. + +He was conducting a brilliant research into the structure of the atom; +it ended abruptly with his dismissal. And the accepted theories of +science went unchallenged, while men worked along other lines than +Paul's to attempt the release of the tremendous energy that is latent +in all matter. + +I saw him perhaps three times in the four years that followed. He had +a laboratory out in a God-forsaken spot where he carried on his +research. He did enough analytical work to keep him from actual +starvation, though it seemed to me that he was uncomfortably close to +that point. + +"Come with me," I urged him; "I need you. You can have the run of our +laboratories--work out the new alloys that are so much needed. You +would be tremendously valuable." + +He had mentioned Maida to me, so I added: "And you and Maida can be +married, and can live like a king and queen on what my outfit can pay +you." + +He smiled at me as he might have done toward a child. "Like a king and +queen," he said. "But, friend Bob, Maida and I do not approve of kings +and queens, nor do we wish to follow them in their follies. + +"It is hard waiting,"--I saw his eyes cloud for a moment--"but Maida +is willing. She is working, too--she is up in Melford as you know--and +she has faith in my work. She sees with me that it will mean the +release of our fellow-men and women from the poverty that grinds out +their souls. I am near to success; and when I give to the world the +secret of power, then--" But I had to read in his far-seeing eyes the +visions he could not compass in words. + + * * * * * + +That was the first time. I was flying a new ship when next I dropped +in on him. A sweet little job I thought it then, not like the old +busses that Paul and I had trained in at college, where the top speed +was a hundred and twenty. This was an A. B. Clinton cruiser, and the +"A.B.C.'s" in 1933 were good little wagons, the best there were. + +I asked Paul to take a hop with me and fly the ship. He could fly +beautifully; his lameness had been no hindrance to him. In his +slender, artist hands a ship became a live thing. + +"Are you doing any flying?" I asked, but the threadbare suit made his +answer unnecessary. + +"I'll do my flying later," he said, "and when I do,"--he waved +contemptuously toward my shining, new ship--"you'll scrap that piece +of junk." + +The tone matched the new lines in his face--deep lines and bitter. +This practical world has always been hard on the dreamers. + +Poverty; and the grinding struggle that Maida was having; the +expulsion from college when he was assured of a research scholarship +that would have meant independence and the finest of equipment to work +with--all this, I found, was having its effect. And he talked in a way +I didn't like of the new Russia and of the time that was near at hand +when her communistic government should sweep the world of its curse of +capitalistic control. Their propaganda campaign was still going on, +and I gathered that Paul had allied himself with them. + +I tried to tell him what we all knew; that the old Russia was gone, +that Vornikoff and his crowd were rapacious and bloodthirsty, that +their real motives were as far removed from his idealism as one pole +from the other. But it was no use. And I left when I saw the light in +his eyes. It seemed to me then that Paul Stravoinski had driven his +splendid brain a bit beyond its breaking point. + + * * * * * + +Another year--and Paris, in 1939, with the dreaded First of May +drawing near. There had been rumors of demonstrations in every land, +but the French were prepared to cope with them--or so they +believed.... Who could have coped with the menace of the north that +was gathering itself for a spring? + +I saw Paul there. It lacked two days of the First of May, and he was +seated with a group of industrious talkers at a secluded table in a +cafe. He crossed over when he saw me, and drew me aside. And I noticed +that a quiet man at a table nearby never let us out of his sight. Paul +and his companions, I judged, were under observation. + +"What are you doing here _now_?" he asked. His manner was casual +enough to anyone watching, but the tense voice and the look in his +eyes that bored into me were anything but casual. + +My resentment was only natural. "And why shouldn't I be here attending +to my own affairs? Do you realize that you are being rather absurd?" + +He didn't bother to answer me directly. "I can't control them," he +said. "If they would only wait--a few weeks--another month! God, how I +prayed to them at--" + +He broke off short. His eyes never moved, yet I sensed a furtiveness +as marked as if he had peered suspiciously about. + +Suddenly he laughed aloud, as if at some joking remark of mine; I +knew it was for the benefit of those he had left and not for the quiet +man from the _Surete_. And now his tone was quietly conversational. + +"Smile!" he said. "Smile, Bob!--we're just having a friendly talk. I +won't live another two hours if they think anything else. But, Bob, my +friend--for God's sake, Bob, leave Paris to-night. I am taking the +midnight plane on the Transatlantic Line. Come with me--" + +One of the group at the table had risen; he was sauntering in our +direction. I played up to Paul's lead. + +"Glad I ran across you," I told him, and shook his extended hand that +gripped mine in an agony of pleading. "I'll be seeing you in New York +one of these days; I am going back soon." + + * * * * * + +But I didn't go soon enough. The unspoken pleading in Paul +Stravoinski's eyes lost its hold on me by another day. I had work to +do; why should I neglect it to go scuttling home because someone who +feared these swarming rats had begged me to run for cover? And the +French people were prepared. A little rioting, perhaps; a pistol shot +or two, and a machine-gun that would spring from nowhere and sweep the +street--! + +We know now of the document that the Russian Ambassador delivered to +the President of France, though no one knew of it then. He handed it +to the portly, bearded President at ten o'clock on the morning of +April thirtieth. And the building that had housed the Russian +representatives was empty ten minutes later. Their disguises must have +been ready, for if the sewers of Paris had swallowed them they could +have vanished no more suddenly. + +And the document? It was the same in substance as those delivered in +like manner in every capital of Europe: twenty-four hours were given +in which to assure the Central Council of Russia that the French +Government would be dissolved, that communism would be established, +and that its executive heads would be appointed by the Central +Council. + +And then the bulletins appeared, and the exodus began. Papers floated +in the air; they blew in hundreds of whirling eddies through the +streets. And they warned all true followers of the glorious Russian +faith to leave Paris that day, for to-morrow would herald the dawn of +a new heaven on earth--a Communistic heaven--and its birth would come +with the destruction of Paris.... + +I give you the general meaning though not the exact words. And, like +the rest, I smiled tolerantly as I saw the stream of men and women and +frightened children that filtered from the city all that day and +night; but I must admit that our smiles were strained as morning came +on the First of May, and the hour of ten drew near. + +Paris, the beautiful--that lovely blossom, flowering on the sturdy +stalk that was _La Belle France_! Paris, laughing to cover its +unspoken fears that morning in May, while the streets thudded to the +feet of marching men in horizon blue, and the air above was vibrant +with the endless roar of planes. + +This meant war; and mobilization orders were out; yet still the deadly +menace was blurred by a feeling of unreality. A hoax!--a huge +joke!--it was absurd, the thought of a distant people imposing their +will upon France! And yet ... and yet.... + + * * * * * + +There were countless eyes turned skyward as a thousand bells rang out +the hour of ten; and countless ears heard faintly the sound of gunfire +from the north. + +My work had brought me into contact with high officials of the French +Government; I was privileged to stand with a group of them where a +high-roofed building gave a vantage point for observation. With them I +saw the menacing specks on the horizon; I saw them come on with deadly +deliberation--come on and on in an ever-growing armada that filled the +sky. + +Wireless had brought the report of their flight high over Germany; it +was bringing now the story of disaster from the northern front. A +heavy air-force had been concentrated there; and now the steady stream +of radio messages came on flimsy sheets to the group about me, while +they clustered to read the incredible words. They cursed and glared at +one another, those French officials, as if daring their fellows to +believe the truth; then, silent and white of face, they reached numbly +for each following sheet that messengers brought--until they knew at +last that the air-force of France was no more.... + +The roar of the approaching host was deafening in our ears. Red--red +as blood!--and each unit grew to enormous proportions. Armored +cruisers of the air--dreadnaughts!--they came as a complete surprise. + +"But the city is ringed with anti-aircraft batteries," a uniformed man +was whispering. "They will bring the brutes down." + +The northern edge of the city flamed to a roaring wall of fire; the +batteries went into action in a single, crashing harmony that sang +triumphantly in our ears. A few of the red shapes fell, but for each +of these a hundred others swept down in deadly, directed flight. + +A glass was in my hand; my eyes strained through it to see the silvery +cylinders that fell from the speeding ships. I saw the red cruisers +sweep upward before the inferno of exploding bombs raged toward them +from below. And where the roar of batteries had been was only +silence. + + * * * * * + +The fleet was over the city. We waited for the rain of bombs that must +come; we saw the red cloud move swiftly to continue the annihilation +of batteries that still could fire; we saw the armada pass on and lose +itself among cloud-banks in the west. + +Only a dozen planes remained, high-hung in the upper air. We stared in +wonderment at one another. Was this mercy?--from such an enemy? It was +inconceivable! + +"Mercy!" I wonder that we dared to think the word. Only an instant +till a whistling shriek marked the coming of death. It was a single +plane--a giant shell--that rode on wings of steel. It came from the +north, and I saw it pass close overhead. Its propeller screamed an +insolent, inhuman challenge. Inhuman--for one glance told the story. +Here was no man-flown plane: no cockpit or cabin, no gunmounts. Only a +flying shell that swerved and swung as we watched. We knew that its +course was directed from above; it was swung with terrible certainty +by a wireless control that reached it from a ship overhead. + +Slowly it sought its target: deliberately it poised above it. An instant, +only, it hung, though the moment, it seemed, would never end--then +down!--and the blunt nose crashed into the Government buildings where at +that moment the Chamber of Deputies was in session ... and where those +buildings had been was spouting masonry and fire. + +A man had me by the arm; his fingers gripped into my flesh. With his +other hand he was pointing toward the north. "Torpedoes!" he was +saying. "Torpedoes of a size gigantic! _Ah, mon Dieu! mon Dieu!_ Save +us for we are lost!" + +They came in an endless stream, those blood-red projectiles; they +announced their coming with shrill cries of varying pitch; and they +swung and swerved, as the ships above us picked them up, to rake the +city with mathematical precision. + +Incendiary, of course: flames followed every shattering burst. Between +us and the Seine was a hell of fire--a hell that contained unnumbered +thousands of what an instant before had been living folk--men and +women clinging in a last terrified embrace--children whose white faces +were hidden in their mothers' skirts or buried in bosoms no longer a +refuge for childish fears. I saw it as plainly as if I had been given +the far-reaching vision of a god ... and I turned and ran with +stumbling feet where a stairway awaited.... + + * * * * * + +Of that flight, only a blurred recollection has stayed with me. I pray +God that I may never see it more clearly. There are sights that mortal +eyes cannot behold with understanding and leave mortal brain intact. +It is like an anaesthetic at such times, the numbness that blocks off +the horrors the eyes are recording--like the hurt of the surgeon's +scalpel that never reaches to the brain. + +Dimly I see the fragmentary scenes: the crashing fall of buildings +that come crumbling and thundering down, myself crawling like an +insect across the wreckage--it is slippery and wet where the stones +are red, and I stumble, then see the torn and mangled thing that has +caused me to fall.... A face regards me from another mound. I see the +dust of powdered masonry still settling upon it: the dark hair is +hardly disturbed about the face, so peaceful, so girlishly serene: I +am still wondering dully why there is only the head of that girl +resting on the shattered stone, as I lie there exhausted and watch the +next torpedo crash a block behind me.... The air is shrill with flying +fragments. I wonder why my hands are stained and sticky as I run and +crawl on my way. The red rocks are less slippery now, and the rats, +from the sewers of Paris!--they have come out to feed! + +Fragments of pictures--and the worst of them gone! I know that night +came--red night, under a cloud of smoke--and I found myself on the +following day descending from a fugitive peasant's cart and plodding +onward toward the markings of a commercial aerodrome. + +They could not be everywhere, those red vultures of the sky, and they +had other devils'-work to do. I had money, and I paid well for the +plane that carried me through that day and a night to the Municipal +Airport of New York. + + * * * * * + +The Red Army of occupation was halfway across communist Germany, +hailed as they went as the saviors of the world. London had gone the +way of Paris; Rome had followed; the countries of France and England +and Italy were beaten to their knees. + +"We who rule the air rule the world!" boasted General Vornikoff. The +Russian broadcasting station had the insolence to put on the air his +message to the people of America. I heard his voice as plainly as if +he stood in my office; and I was seeing again the coming of that +endless stream of aerial torpedoes, and the red cruisers hanging in +the heights to pick up control and dash the messengers of death upon a +helpless city. But I was visioning it in New York. + +"The masses of the American people are with us," said the complacently +arrogant voice. "For our fellow-workers we have only brotherly +affection; it is your capitalist-dominated Government that must +submit. And if it does not--!" I heard him laugh before he went on: + +"We are coming to the rescue of you, our brothers across the sea. Now +we have work to do in Europe; our gains must be consolidated and the +conquests of our glorious air-force made secure. And then--! We warn +you in advance, and we laugh at your efforts to prepare for our +coming. We even tell you the date: in thirty days the invasion begins. +It will end only at Washington when the great country of America, its +cruel shackles cast off from the laboring masses, joins the +Brotherhood--the Workers of the World!" + +There was a man from the War Department who sat across from me at my +desk; my factories were being taken over; my electric furnaces must +pour out molten metal for use in war. He cursed softly under his +breath as the voice ceased. + +"The dirty dog!" he exclaimed. "The lying hypocrite! He talks of +brotherhood to us who know the damnable inquisition and reign of +terror that he and his crowd have forced on Russia! Thirty days! Well, +we have three thousand planes ready for battle to-day; there'll be +more in thirty days! Now, about that vanadium steel--" + +But I'll confess I hardly heard him; I was hearing the roar of an +armada of red craft that ensanguined the sky, and I was seeing the +curving flight of torpedoes, each an airplane in itself.... + + * * * * * + +Thirty days!--and each minute of each hour must be used. In close +touch with the War Department, I knew much that was going on, and all +that I knew was the merest trifle in the vast preparations for +defense. My earlier apprehensions were dulled; the sight I had of the +whole force of a mighty nation welded into one driving power working +to one definite end was exhilarating. + +New York and Washington--these, it was felt, would be the points of +first attack; they must be protected. And I saw the flights of planes +that seemed endless as they converged at the concentration camps. +Fighters, at first--bombers and swift scouts--they came in from all +parts of the land. Then the passenger planes and the big mail-ships. +Transcontinental runs were abandoned or cut to a skeleton service of a +ship every hour for the transport of Government men. Even the slower +craft of the feeder lines were commandeered; anything that could fly +and could mount a gun. + +And the three thousand fighting ships, as the man from Washington had +said, grew to three times that number. Their roaring filled the skies +with thunder, and beneath them were other camps of infantry and +artillery. + +The Atlantic front was an armed camp, where highways no longer carried +thousands of cars on pleasure bent. By night and day I saw those +familiar roads from the air; they were solid with a never-ending line +of busses and vans and long processions of motorized artillery and +tanks, whose clattering bedlam came to me a thousand feet above. + +Yes, it was an inspiring sight, and I lost the deadly oppression and +the sense of impending doom--until our intelligence service told us of +the sailing of the enemy fleet. + + * * * * * + +They had seized every vessel in the waters of Europe. And--God pity +the poor, traitorous devils who manned them--there were plenty to +operate the ships. Two thousand vessels were in that convoy. Ringed in +as they were by a guard of destroyers and fighting craft of many +kinds, whose mast-heads carried the blood-red flag now instead of +their former emblems, our submarines couldn't reach them. + +But our own fleet went out to measure their strength, and a thousand +Navy planes took the air on the following day. + +Uppermost in my own mind, and in everyone's mind, I think, was the +question of air-force. + +Would they bring the red ships? What was their cruising range? Could +they cross the Atlantic with their enormous load of armored hull, or +must they be transported? Were the air-cruisers with the fleet, or +would they come later? + +How Vornikoff and his assassins must have laughed as they built the +monsters, armored them, and mounted the heavy guns so much greater +than anything they would meet! The rest of us--all the rest of the +world!--had been kept in ignorance.... And now our own fliers were +sweeping out over the gray waters to find the answer to our questions. + +I've tried to picture that battle; I've tried to imagine the feelings +of those men on the dreadnaughts and battle-cruisers and destroyers. +There was no attempt on the enemy's part to conceal his position; his +wireless was crackling through the air with messages that our +intelligence department easily decoded. Our Navy fliers roared out +over the sea, out and over the American fleet, whose every bow was a +line of white that told of their haste to meet the oncoming horde. + +The plane-carriers threw their fighters into the air to join the +cavalcade above--and a trace of smoke over the horizon told that the +giant fleet was coming into range. + + * * * * * + +And then, instead of positions and ranges flashed back from our own swift +scouts, came messages of the enemy's attack. Our men must have seen them +from the towers of our own fleet; they must have known what the red swarm +meant, as it came like rolling, fire-lit smoke far out in the sky--and +they must have read plainly their own helplessness as they saw our +thousand planes go down. They were overwhelmed--obliterated!--and the red +horde of air-cruisers was hardly checked in its sweep. + +Carnage and destruction, those blue seas of the north Atlantic have +seen; they could tell tales of brave men, bravely going to their death +in storm and calm but never have they seen another such slaughter as +that day's sun showed. + +The anti-aircraft guns roared vainly; some few of our own planes that +had escaped returned to add their futile, puny blows. The waters about +the ships were torn to foam, while the ships themselves were changed +to furnaces of bursting flame--until the seas in mercy closed above +them and took their torn steel, and the shattered bodies that they +held, to the silence of the deep.... + +We got it all at Washington. I sat in a room with a group of +white-faced men who stared blindly at a radiocone where a quiet voice +was telling of disaster. It was Admiral Graymont speaking to us from +the bridge of the big dreadnaught, _Lincoln_, the flagship of the +combined fleet. Good old Graymont! His best friend, Bill Schuler, +Secretary of the Navy, was sitting wordless there beside me. + +"It is the end," the quiet voice was saying; "the cruiser squadrons +are gone.... Two more battleships have gone down: there are only five +of us left.... A squadron of enemy planes is coming in above. Our men +have fought bravely and with never a chance.... There!--they've got +us!--the bombs! Good-by, Bill, old fellow--" + +The radiocone was silent with a silence that roared deafeningly in our +ears. And, beside me, I saw the Secretary of the Navy, a Navy now +without ships or men, drop his tired, lined face into his hands, while +his broad shoulders shook convulsively. The rest of us remained in our +chairs, too stunned to do anything but look at one another in horror. + + * * * * * + +We expected them to strike at New York. I was sent up there, and it +was there that I saw Paul again. I met him on lower Broadway, and I +went up to him with my hand reaching for his. I didn't admire Paul's +affiliations, but he had warned me--he had tried to save my life--and +I wanted to thank him. + +But his hand did not meet mine. There was a strange, wild look in his +eyes--I couldn't define it--and he brought his gaze back from far off +to stare at me as if I were a stranger. + +Then: "Still got that A.B.C. ship?" he demanded. + +"Yes," I answered wonderingly. + +"Junk it!" he said. And his laugh was as wild and incomprehensible as +his look had been. I stared after him as he walked away. I was +puzzled, but there were other things to think of then. + +A frenzy of preparation--and all in vain. The enemy fooled us; the +radio brought the word from Quebec. + +"They have entered the St. Lawrence," was the message it flashed. +Then, later: "The Red fleet is passing toward Montreal. Enemy planes +have spotted all radio towers. There is one above us now--" And that +ended the message from Quebec. + +But we got more information later. They landed near Montreal; they +were preparing a great base for offensive operations; the country was +overrun with a million men; the sky was full of planes by night and +day; there was no artillery, no field guns of any sort, but there were +torpedo-planes by tens of thousands, which made red fields of waiting +death where trucks placed them as they took them from the ships. + +And there were some of us who smiled sardonically in recollection of +the mammoth plants the Vornikoff Reds had installed in Central Russia, +and the plaudits that had greeted their plans for nitrogen fixation. +They were to make fertilizers; the nitrates would be distributed +without cost to the farms--this had pacified the Agrarians--and here +were their "nitrates" that were to make fertile the fields of Russia: +countless thousands of tons of nitro-explosives in these flying +torpedoes! + + * * * * * + +But if we smiled mirthlessly at these recollections we worked while we +chewed on our cud of bitterness. There came an order: "Evacuate New +England," and the job was given to me. + +With planes--a thousand of them--trucks, vans, the railroads, we +gathered those terrified people into concentration camps, and took +them over the ground, under the ground, and through the air to the +distributing camp at Buffalo, where they were scattered to other +points. + +I saw the preparations for a battle-front below me as I skimmed over +Connecticut. Trenches made a thin line that went farther than I could +see! Here was the dam that was expected to stop the enemy columns from +the north. I think no one then believed that our air-force could check +the assault. The men of the fighting planes were marked for death; one +read it in their eyes; but who of us was not? + +How those giant cruisers would be downed no man could say, but we +worked on in a blind desperation; we would hold that invading army as +long as men could sight a gun; we would hold them back; and somehow, +someway, we must find the means to repel the invasion from the air! + +I saw the lines of track that made a network back to the trenches. +Like the suburban lines around New York, they would carry thousands of +single cars, each driven at terrific speed by the air plane propeller +at its bow. With these, the commanders could shift their forces to +whatever sector was hardest pressed. They would be bombed, of course, +but the hundreds of tracks would not all be destroyed--and the line +must be held! + +The line! it brought a strangling lump to my throat as I saw those +thin markings of trenches, the marching bodies of troops, the brave, +hopeless, determined men who went singing to their places in that +line. But my planes were winging past me; my job was ahead, where a +multitude still waited and prayed for deliverance. + + * * * * * + +We never finished the job; in two days the red horde was upon us. +Their swarming troops were convoyed by planes, but no effort was made +to fly over our lines and launch an attack. Were they feeling their +way? Did they think now that they would find us passive and +unresisting? Did they want to take our cities undamaged? Oh, we asked +ourselves a thousand questions with no answer to any--except the +knowledge that a million men were marching from the north; that their +fleet of planes would attack as soon as the troops encountered +resistance; that our batteries of anti-aircraft guns would harry them +as they came, and our air-fleet, held back in reserve, would take what +the batteries left.... + +My last planes with their fugitive loads passed close to the lines of +red troops. There were red planes overhead, but they let us pass +unhindered. Fleeing, driving wildly toward the south, we were +unworthy, it seemed, of even their contemptuous attention. But I was +sick to actual nausea at sight of the villages and cities where only a +part of the population had escaped. The roads, in front of the red +columns, were jammed with motors and with men and women and children +on foot: a hopeless tangle. + +I was watching the pitiful flight below me, cursing my own impotence +to be of help, when a shrill whistling froze me rigid to my controls. +I had heard it before--there could be no mistaking the cry of that +oncoming torpedo--and I saw the damnable thing pass close to my ship. + +I was doing two hundred--my motor was throttled down--but this inhuman +monster passed me as if my ship were frozen as unmoving as myself. It +tore on ahead. I saw an enemy plane above it some five thousand feet. +The torpedo was checked; I saw it poise; then it curved over and down. +And the screaming motor took up its cry that was like a thousand +devils until its sound was lost in the screams from below and the +infernal blast of its own explosion. + +Only a trial flight--an experiment to test their controls! No need for +me to try to tell you of the thoughts that tore me through and through +while I struggled to bring my ship to an even keel in the hurricane of +explosion that drove up at me from below. But I spat out the one word: +"Brotherhood!" and I prayed for a place in the front line where I +might send one shot at least against so beastly a foe. + + * * * * * + +That was somewhere in Massachusetts. Their foremost columns were close +behind. They came to a stop some fifty miles from our waiting line of +battle: I learned this when I got to Washington. And the reason, too, +was known; it was published in all the papers. There had been messages +to the President, broadcast to the world from an unknown source: + +"To the President of the United States--warning! This war must end. +You, as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces can bring it to a +close. I have prevailed upon the Red Army of the Brotherhood to halt. +They have listened to me. You, also, must take heed. + +"You will issue orders at once to withdraw all resistance. You will +disband your army, ground all your planes; bring all your artillery +into one place and prepare to turn the government of this country over +to the representatives of the Central Council. You will act at once." + +"This war is ended. All wars are ended forevermore. I have spoken." + +And the strange message was signed "Paul." + +The wild words of a maniac, it was thought at first. Yet the fact +remained that the enemy's advance had ceased. Who was this "Paul" who +had "prevailed upon the Red Army" to halt? + +And then the obvious answer occurred; it was a ruse on the part of the +Reds. They feared to attack; their strength was not as great as we had +thought--officers and men of all branches of the service took new +heart and plunged more frenziedly still into the work of preparation. + +There were direction-finders that had taken the message from several +stations; their pointers converged upon one definite location in +southern Ohio. Over an area of twenty square miles, that place was +combed for a sending radio where the message could have +originated--combed in vain. + + * * * * * + +The next demand came at ten on the following morning. + +"To the President of the United States: You have disregarded my +warning. You will not do so again; I have power to enforce my demands. +I had hoped that bloodshed and destruction might cease, but it is +plain that only that will save you from your own headstrong folly. I +must strike. At noon to-day the Capitol in Washington will be +destroyed. See that it is emptied of human life. I have spoken. Paul." + +A maniac, surely; yet a maniac with strange powers. For the graphs of +the radio direction-finders showed a curve. And when they were +assembled the reading could only mean that the instrument that had +sent the threat had moved over fifty miles during the few minutes of +its sending. This, I think, was what brought the order to vacate the +big domed building in Washington. + +Of course the Capitol Building had been searched; there was not a nook +nor corner from roof to basement but had been gone over in search of +an explosive machine. And now it was empty, and a guard of soldiers +made a solid cordon surrounding it. No one could approach upon the +ground; and, above, a series of circling patrol-planes, one squadron +above another, guarded against approach by air. With such a defense +the Capitol and its grounds seemed impregnable. + +My watch said 11:59; I held it in my hand and watched the seconds tick +slowly by. The city was hushed; it seemed that no man was so much as +breathing ... 11:59 :60!--and an instant later I heard the shriek of +something that tore the air to screaming fragments. I saw it as it +came on a straight, level line from the east; a flash like a meteor of +glistening white. It passed beneath the planes, that were motionless +by contrast, drove straight for the gleaming Capitol dome, passed +above it, and swept on in a long flattened curve that bent outward and +up. + +It was gone from my sight, though the shrieking air was still tearing +at my ears, when I saw the great building unfold. Time meant nothing; +my racing mind made slow and deliberate the explosion that lifted the +roofs and threw the walls in dusty masses upon the ground. So slow it +seemed!--and I had not even seen the shell that the white meteor-ship +had fired. Yet there was the beautiful building, expanding, +disintegrating. It was a cloud of dust when the concussion reached me +to dash me breathless to the earth.... + + * * * * * + +The white meteor was the vehicle of "Paul," the dictator. From it had +come the radio message whose source had moved so swiftly. I saw this +all plainly. + +There was a conference of high officials at the War Department +Building, and the Secretary summed up all that was said: + +"A new form of air-flight, and a new weapon more destructive than any +we have known! That charge of explosive that was fired at the Capitol +was so small as to be unseen. We can't meet it; we can only fight. +Fight on till the end." + +A message came in as we sat there, a message to the Commander-in-Chief +who had come over from the White House under military guard. + +"Surrender!" it demanded; "I have shown you my power; it is +inexhaustible, unconquerable. Surrender or be destroyed; it is the +dawn of a new day, the day of the Brotherhood of Man. Let bloodshed +cease. Surrender! I command it! Paul." + +The President of the United States held the flimsy paper in his hand. +He rose slowly to his feet, and he read it aloud to all of us +assembled there; read it to the last hateful word. Then: + +"Surrender?" he asked. He turned steady, quiet eyes upon the big flag +whose red and white and blue made splendid the wall behind him--and +I'll swear that I saw him smile. + + * * * * * + +We have had many presidents since '76; big men, some of them; tall, +handsome men; men who looked as if nature had moulded them for a high +place. This man was small of stature; the shortest man in all that +room if he had stood, but he was big--big! Only one who is great can +look deep through the whirling turmoil of the moment to find the +eternal verities that are always underneath--and smile! + +"Men must die,"--he spoke meditatively; in seeming communing with +himself, as one who tries to face a problem squarely and +honestly--"and nations must pass; time overwhelms us all. Yet there is +that which never dies and never surrenders." + +He looked about the room now, as if he saw us for the first time. + +"Gentlemen," he said quietly, "we have here an ultimatum. It is backed +by power which our Secretary of War says is invincible. We are faced +by an enemy who would annihilate these United States, and this new +power fights on the side of the enemy. + +"Must we go the way of England, of France, of all Europe? It would +seem so. The United States of America is doomed. Yet each one of us +will meet what comes bravely, if, facing our own end, we know that the +principles upon which this nation is founded must go on; if only the +Stars and Stripes still floats before our closing eyes to assure us +that some future day will see the resurrection of truth and of honor +and kindness among men. + +"We will fight, as our Secretary of War has said--fight on to the end. +We will surrender--never! That is our answer to this one who calls +himself 'Paul.'" + +We could not speak; I do not know how long the silence lasted. But I +know that I left that room a silent man among many silent men, in +whose eyes I saw a reflection of the emotion that filled my own heart. +It was the end--the end of America, of millions of American homes--but +this was better than surrender to such a foe. Better death than +slavery to that race of bloodthirsty oppressors. + + * * * * * + +But who was "Paul?" This question kept coming repeatedly to my mind. +The press of the country echoed the President's words, then dipped +their pens in vitriol to heap scorching invective upon the head of +the tyrant. The power of the Reds we might have met--or so it was +felt--but this new menace gave the invaders a weapon we could not +combat. It was power!--a means of flight beyond anything known!--an +explosive beside which our nitro compounds were playthings for a +child. + +"Who is Paul?" It was not only myself who asked the question through +those next long hours, but perhaps I was the only one in whose mind +was a disturbing certainty that the answer was mine if I could but +grasp it. + +I was remembering Paris; I was thinking of that peaceful, happy city +before the First of May, before the world had gone mad and a raging, +red beast had laid it waste and overrun it. And of Paul +Stravoinski--my friend "Straki" of college days--who had warned me. He +had known what was coming. He himself had said that he had prayed to +"them" for delay; that in a few weeks he would do--what?... And +suddenly I knew. + +Paul had succeeded; his research had ended in the dissection of the +atom; he had unleashed the sub-atomic power of matter. Only this could +explain the wild flight through the sky, the terrific explosion at the +Capitol. It was Paul--my friend, Paul Stravoinski--who was imposing +his will upon the world. + +I said nothing as I took off; the swiftest plane was at my command. I +might be wrong; I must not arouse false hopes; but I must find Paul. +And the papers were black with scareheads of another threat as I left +Washington: + +"You have twenty-four hours to surrender. There shall be one last day +of grace." Signed: "Paul." + +There was more of the wild talk of the beauties of this new +dispensation--a mixture of idealistic folly and of threats of +destruction. I needed no more to prove the truth of my suspicions. No +one but the Paul I had known could cling so tenaciously to his dreams; +no one but he could be so blind to the actual horror of the new +oligarchy he would impose upon the world. + +I flew alone; no one but myself must try to hunt him out. I paid no +attention to the radio direction of the last message; he would fly far +afield to send it; distance meant nothing to one who held his power. I +must look for him at his laboratory, that cluster of deserted +buildings that stood all alone by a distant railway siding; it was +there he had worked. + + * * * * * + +He met me with a pistol in his hand--a tiny gun that fired only a .22 +calibre bullet. + +"Put down your pop-gun," I told him and brushed through the open door +into the room that had been his laboratory. "I am unarmed, and I'm +here to talk business. + +"You are 'Paul'!" I shot the sentence at him as if it were a bullet +that must strike him down. + +He did not answer directly; just nodded in confirmation of some +unspoken thought. + +"You have found me," he said slowly; "you were the only one I feared." + +Then he came out with it, and his eyes blazed with a maniacal light. + +"Yes, I am Paul! and this 'pop-gun' in my hand is the weapon that +destroyed your Capitol at Washington. The bullet contained less than a +grain of tritonite; that is the name I have given my explosive." + +He aimed the little pistol toward me where I stood. "These bullets are +more lightly charged--they are to protect myself--and the one +ten-thousandth of a milligram in the end of each will blow you into +bits! Sit down. I will not be checked now. You will never leave this +place alive!" + +"Less than a grain of tritonite!"--and I had seen a great building go +down to dust at its touch! I sat down in the chair where he directed, +and I turned away from the fanatical glare of Paul's eyes to look +about me. + +There was poverty here no longer; no makeshift apparatus greeted my +eyes, but the finest of laboratory equipment. Paul read my thoughts. + +"They have been liberal," he told me; "the Central Council has +financed my work--though I have kept my whereabouts a secret even from +them. But they would not wait. I told you in Paris, and you did not +believe. And now--now I have succeeded! the research is done!" + + * * * * * + +He half turned to pick up a flake of platinum no larger than one's +finger-nail; it was a weight that was used on a delicate balance. + +"Matter is matter no longer," he said; "I have resolved it into +energy. I hold here in my hand power to destroy an army, or to drive a +fleet of ships. I, Paul, will build a new world. I will give to man a +surcease from labor; I will give him rest; I will do the work of the +world. My tritonite that can destroy can also create; it shall be used +for that alone. This is the end of war. Here is wealth; here is power; +I shall give it to mankind, and, under the rule of the Brotherhood, a +united world will arise and go forward to new growth, to a greater +civilization, to a building of a new heaven on earth." + +He was pacing up and down the room. His hands were shaking; the +muscles of his face that twitched and trembled were moulded into deep +lines. I sat there and realized that within that room, directly before +my eyes, was the Dictator of the World. It was true--I could not doubt +it--Paul Straki of college days had made his dreams come true; his +research was ended. And this new "Paul" who held in those trembling +hands the destinies of mankind, at whose word kings and presidents +trembled, was utterly mad! + +I tried to talk and tell him of the truth we knew was true. He would +have none of it; his dreams possessed him. In the bloody flag of this +new Russia he could see only the emblem of freedom; the men who +marched beneath that banner were his brothers, unwitting in the +destruction they wrought. It was all that they knew. But they fought +for the right. They would cease fighting now, and would join him in +the work of moulding a new race. And even their leaders, who had +sometimes opposed--were they not kind at heart? Had they not checked +the advance of an irresistible army to give him and his new weapon an +opportunity to open the eyes of the people? Theirs was no wish to +destroy; their hearts ached for their victims who refused to listen +and could be convinced only by force. + +And as he talked on there passed before my eyes the vision of an +aerial torpedo and a blood-red ship above, where these "kindly" men +who were Paul's allies turned the instrument of death upon huddled, +screaming folk--and laughed, no doubt, at such good sport. + + * * * * * + +I thought of many things. I was tensed one moment to throw myself upon +the man; and an instant later I was searching my mind for some +argument, some gleam of reason, with which I could tear aside the +illusions that held him. I saw him cross the room where a radio stood, +and he switched on the instrument for the news-broadcast service. The +shouting of an excited voice burst into the room. + +"The Reds have advanced," said the voice. "Their armies have crossed +the Connecticut line. They are within ten miles of the American +forces. The twenty-four hours of grace promised by the tyrant 'Paul' +was a lie. The battle is already on." + +I saw the tall figure of Paul sink to its former stoop; the lameness +that had vanished in the moment of his exaltation had returned. He +limped a pace or two toward me. + +"They said they would wait!" His voice was a hoarse whisper. "General +Vornikoff himself gave me his promise!" + +I was on my feet, then. "What matter?" I shouted. "What difference +does it make--a few hours or a day? Your damned patriots, your dear +brothers in arms--they are destroying us this instant! And not one of +our men but is worth more than the whole beastly mob!" + +I was wild with the picture that came so clear and plain before my +eyes. I had my pistol in my hand; I was tempted to fire. It was his +whisper that stopped me. + +"They have crossed Massachusetts! And Maida is there in Melford!" + + * * * * * + +There was no resisting his strength that tore my weapon from me. His +tritonite pistol was pressed into my side, and his hand upon my collar +threw me ahead of him toward a rear room, then out into a huge shed. I +had only a quick glimpse of the airplane that was housed there. It was +a white cylinder, and the stern that was toward me showed a +funnel-shaped port. + +I was thrown by that same furious strength through a door of the ship; +I saw Paul Stravoinski seat himself before some curious controls. The +ship that held me rose; moved slowly through an opened door; and with +a screech from the stern it tore off and up into the air. + +I have said Paul could fly; but the terrific flight of the screaming +thing that held us seemed beyond the power of man to control. I was +stunned with the thundering roar and the speed that held me down and +back against a cabin wall. + +How he found Melford, I cannot know; but he found it as a homing +pigeon finds its loft. He checked our speed with a sickening swiftness +that made my brain reel. There were red ships above, but they let the +white ship pass unchallenged. There were no Red soldiers on the +ground--only the marks where they had passed. + +From the distance came a never-ceasing thunder of guns. The village +was quiet. It still burned, blazing brightly in places, again +smouldering sluggishly and sending into the still air smoke clouds +whose fumes were a choking horror of burned flesh. There were bodies +in grotesque scattering about the streets; some of them were black and +charred. + +Paul Stravoinski took me with him as he dashed for a house that the +flames had not touched. And I was with him as he smashed at the door +and broke into the room. + + * * * * * + +There was splintered furniture about. A cabinet, whose glass doors had +been wantonly smashed, leaned crazily above its fallen books, now +torn, scuffed and muddy upon the floor. Through a shattered window in +the bed-room beyond came a puff of the acrid smoke from outside to +strangle the breath in my throat. On the floor in a shadowed corner +lay the body of a woman--a young woman as her clotted tangle of golden +hair gave witness. She stirred and moaned half-consciously.... And the +lined face of Paul Stravoinski was a terrible thing to see as he went +stumblingly across the room to gather that body into his arms. + +I had known Maida; I had seen their love begin in college days. I had +known a laughing girl with sunshine in her hair, a girl whose soft +eyes had grown so tenderly deep when they rested upon Paul--but this +that he took in his arms, while a single dry sob tore harshly at his +throat, this was never Maida! + +There were red drops that struck upon his hands or fell sluggishly to +the floor; the head and face had taken the blow of a clubbed rifle or +a heavy boot. The eyes in that tortured face opened to rest upon +Paul's, the lips were moving. + +"I told them of you," I heard her whisper. "I told them that you would +come--and they laughed." Unconsciously she tried to draw her torn clothing +about her, an instinctive reaction to some dim realization of her +nakedness. She was breathing feebly. "And now--oh, Paul!--Paul!--you--have +come--too late!" + + * * * * * + +I hardly think Paul knew I was there or sensed that I followed where +he carried in his arms the bruised body that had housed the spirit of +Maida. He flew homeward like a demon, but he moved as one in a dream. + +Only when I went with him into the room where he had worked, did he +turn on me in sudden fury. + +"Out!" he screamed. "Get out of my sight! It is you who have done +this--your damned armies who would not do as I ordered! If you had not +resisted, if you had--" + +I broke in there. + +"Did we do that?" I outshouted him, and I pointed to the torn body on +a cot. His eyes followed my shaking hand. "No, it was your +brothers--your dear comrades who are bringing the brotherhood of men +into the world! Well, are you proud? Are you happy and satisfied--with +what your brothers do with women?" + +It must be a fearful thing to have one's dreams turn bitter and +poisonous. Paul Stravoinski seemed about to spring upon me. He was +crouched, and the muscles of his thin neck were like wire; his face +was a ghastly thing, his eyes so staring bright, and the sensitive +mouth twisting horribly. But he sprang at last not at me but toward +the door, and without a word from his tortured lips he opened it and +motioned me out. + +Even there I heard echoes of distant guns and the heavier, thudding +sounds that must be their aerial torpedoes. My feet were leaden as I +strained every muscle to hurry toward my ship. Through my mind was +running the threat of the Russian, Vornikoff: "We even tell you the +date: in thirty days." And this was the thirtieth day--thirty days +that a state of war had existed. + + * * * * * + +The battle was on; the radio had spoken truly. I saw its raging fires +as I came up from our rear where the gray-like smoke clouds shivered +in the unending blast. But I saw stabbing flames that struck upward +from the ground to make a wall of sharp, fiery spears, and I knew that +every darting flame was launching a projectile from our anti-aircraft +guns. + +The skies were filled with the red aircraft of the enemy, but their +way was an avenue of hell where thousands of shells filled the air +with their crashing explosions. There were torpedoes, the unmanned +airships whose cargo was death, and they were guided to their marks +despite the inferno that raged about the red ships above. + +I saw meteors that fell, the red flames that enveloped them no redder +than the bodies of the ships. And, as I leaped from my plane that I +had landed back of our lines, I sensed that the enemy was withdrawing. + +There was a colonel of artillery--I had known him in days of +peace--and he threw his arms around me and executed a crazy dance. +"We've beaten them back, Bob!" he shouted, and repeated it over and +over in a delirium of joy. + +I couldn't believe it; not those cruisers that I had seen over Paris. +Another brief moment showed my fears were all too rational. + +A shrieking hailstorm of torpedoes preceded them; the ships were +directing them from afar. And, while some of the big shells went wild +and overshot our lines, there were plenty that found their mark. + +I was smashed flat by a stunning concussion. Behind me the place where +Colonel Hartwell had stood was a smoking crater; his battery of guns +had been blasted from the earth. Up and down the whole line, far +beyond the range of my sight, the eruption continued. The ground was a +volcano of flame, as if the earth had opened to let through the +interior fires, and the air was filled with a litter of torn bodies +and sections of shattered guns. + +No human force could stand up under such a bombardment. Like others +about me, I gripped tight upon something within me that was my +self-control, and I marveled that I yet lived while I waited for the +end. + + * * * * * + +Beyond the smoke clouds was a hillside, swarming with figures in red; +solid masses of troops that came toward us. Above was the red fleet, +passing safely above our flame-blasted lines; there were bombs falling +upon those batteries here and there whose fire was unsilenced. And +then, from the south, came a roar that pierced even the bedlam about +me. The sun shone brightly there where the smoke-clouds had not +reached, and it glinted and sparkled from the wings of a myriad of our +planes. + +There was something that pulled tight at my throat; I know I tore at +it with fumbling hands, as if that something were an actual band that +had clamped down and choked me, while I stared at that true line of +sharp-pointed V's. The air-force of the United States had been ordered +in; and they were coming, coming--to an inevitable death! + +I tried to tear my eyes away from that oncoming fleet, but I could not +move. I saw their first contact with the enemy; so small, they were, +in contrast with the big red cruisers. They attacked in formations; +they drove down and in; and they circled and whirled before they +fluttered to earth.... + +Dimly, through the stupor that numbed my brain, I heard men about me +shouting with joy. I felt more than saw the fall of a monster red +craft; it struck not far away. The voices were thanking God--for what? +Another red ship fell--and another; and through all the roaring +inferno a sound was tearing--a ripping, terrible scream that went on +and on. And above me, when I forced my eyes upward, was a flash of +white. + +It darted like a live thing among the red ones whose guns blazed +madly--and the red ships in clotted groups fell away and over and down +as the white one passed. They had been burst open where some power had +blasted them, and their torn hulls showed gaping as they fell. + +For a time the air was silent and empty above; the white, flashing +thing had passed from sight, for the line of red ships was long. Then +again it returned, and it threw itself into the mad whirl in the south +where the air-force of the American people was fighting its last +fight. + +I was screaming insanely as I saw it come back. The white ship!--the +blast of vapor from its funneled stern--It was Paul!--Paul +Stravoinski!--Paul the Dictator!--and he was fighting on our side! + + * * * * * + +His ship had been prepared; I had seen the machine-guns on her bow. +Paul was working them from within, and every bullet was tipped with +the product of his brain--the deadly tritonite! + +The white flash swung wide in a circle that took it far away. It came +back above the advancing army of the Reds. It swerved once wildly, +then settled again upon its course, and the raging hell that the Reds +had turned loose upon our lines was as nothing to the destruction that +poured upon the Red troops from above. + +A messenger of peace, that ship; I knew well why Paul had painted it +white. And, instead of peace--! + +He was flying a full mile from our lines, yet the torn earth and great +boulders crashed among us even then. There were machine-guns firing +ceaselessly from the under side of the ship. What charges of tritonite +had the demented man placed in those shells? + +Below and behind it, as it flashed across our view, was a fearful, +writhing mass where the earth itself rose up in unending, convulsive +agony. A volcano of fire followed him, a fountain of earth that ripped +and tore and stretched itself in a writhing, tortured line across the +land as the white ship passed. + +No man who saw that and lived has found words to describe the progress +of that monstrous serpent; the valley itself is there for men to see. +The roar was beyond the limit of men's strained nerves. I found myself +cowering upon the ground when the white ship came back; I followed it +fearfully with my eyes until I saw it swoop falteringly down. Such +power seemed not for men but for gods; I could not have met Paul +Stravoinski then but in a posture of supplication. But I leaped to my +feet and raced madly across the torn earth as I saw the white ship +touch the ground--rise--fall again--and end its flight where it +ploughed a furrow across a brown field.... + + * * * * * + +I raised Paul Stravoinski's head in my arms where I found him in the +ship. An enemy shell had entered that cabin; it must have come early +in the fight, but he had fought gamely on. And the eyes that looked up +into mine had none of the wild light I had seen. They were the eyes of +Paul Straki, the comrade of those few long years before, and he smiled +as he said: "_Voila_, friend Bob: _c'est fini!_ And now I go for a +long, long walk. We will talk of poetry, Maida and I...." + +But his dreams were still with him. He opened his eyes to stare +intently at me. "You will see that it is not in vain?" he questioned; +then smiled as one who is at peace, as he whispered: "Yes, I know you +will--my friend, Bob--" + +And his fixed gaze went through and beyond me, while he tried, in +broken sentences, to give the vision that had been his. So plain it +was to him now. + +"The wild work--of a mistaken people. America will undo it.... A world +at peace.... The vast commerce--of the skies--I see it--so clearly.... +It will break down--all barriers.... A beautiful, happy world...." + +His lips moved feebly at the last. I could not speak; could not even +call him by name; I could only lean my head closer to hear. + +One whispered word; then another: a fragment of poetry! I had heard +him quote it often. But the whispered words were not for me. Paul was +speaking to someone beside him--someone my blind, human eyes could not +see.... + + * * * * * + +I am writing these words at my desk in the great Transportation +Building in New York. It stands upon the site of the Chrysler Building +that towered here--until one of the flying torpedoes came over to hunt +it out. They landed several in New York; how long ago it all seems +that the threat of utter destruction hung over the whole nation--the +whole world. + +And now from my window I see the sparkling flash of ships. The air is +filled with them; I am still unaccustomed to their speed. But a wisp +of vapor from each bell-shaped stern throws them swiftly on their way; +it marks the continuous explosion of that marvel of a new +age--tritonite! There are tremendous terminals being built; the +air-transport lines are being welded into efficient units that circle +the world; and the world is becoming so small! + +The barriers are gone; all nations are working as one to use wisely +this strange new power for the work of this new world. No more +poverty; no more of the want and desperate struggle that leads a whole +people into the insane horrors of war; it is a glorious world of which +we dream and which is coming slowly to be.... + +But I think we must dream well and work well to bring to actuality the +beautiful visions in those far-seeing eyes of the man called +Paul--Dictator, one time, of the whole world. + + +LISTENING TO ANTS + + +Two scientists of the University of Pittsburgh recently perfected an +apparatus for detecting the sounds of underground communications among +ants. A block of wood was placed upon the diaphragm of an ordinary +telephone transmitter, which in turn was connected through batteries +and amplifiers to a pair of earphones. When the termites crawled over +the block of wood the transmitter was agitated, resulting in sound +vibrations which were clearly heard by the listener at the headset. + +When the ants became excited over something or other their soldiers +were found to hammer their heads vigorously on the wood. This action +could be clearly seen and heard at the same time. The investigators +found that the ants could hear sound vibrations in the air very poorly +or not at all, but were extremely sensitive to vibrations underground. +For this reason it was thought that the head hammering was a method of +communication. + +Because of this sensitivity to substratum vibrations, ants are seldom +found to infest the ties of railroads carrying heavy traffic, or +buildings containing machinery. + + + + +The Earthman's Burden + +_By R. F. Starzl_ + +[Illustration: _And then he jumped._] + +[Sidenote: There is foul play on Mercury--until Denny Olear of the +Interplanetary Flying Police gets after his man.] + + +Denny Olear was playing blackjack when the colonel's orderly found +him. He hastily buttoned his tunic and in a few minutes, alert and +very military, was standing at attention in the little office on the +ground floor of the Denver I. F. P. barracks. His swanky blue uniform +fitted without a wrinkle. His little round skullcap was perched at the +regulation angle. + +"Olear," said the colonel, "they're having a little trouble at the +Blue River Station, Mercury." + +"Trouble? Uh-huh," Olear said placidly. + +The colonel looked him over. He saw a man past his first youth. +Thirty-five, possibly forty. Olear was well-knit, sandy-haired, not +over five feet six inches in height. His hair was close-cropped, his +features phlegmatic, his eyes a light blue with thick, short, +light-colored lashes, his teeth excellent. A scar, dead white on a +brown cheekbone, was a reminder of an "encounter" with one of the +numerous sauriens of Venus. + +"I'm sending you," explained the colonel, "because you're more +experienced, and not like some of these kids, always spoiling for a +fight. There's something queer about this affair. Morones, factor of +the Blue River post, reports that his assistant has disappeared. +Vanished. Simply gone. But only three months ago the former +factor--Morones was his assistant--disappeared. No hide nor hair of +him. Morones reported to the company, the Mercurian Trading +Concession, and they called me. Something, they think, is rotten." + +"Yes, sir." + +"I guess I needn't tell you," the colonel went on, "that you have to +use tact. People don't seem to appreciate the Force. What with the +lousy politicians begrudging every cent we get, and a bunch of +suspicious foreign powers afraid we'll get too good--" + +"Yeah, I know. Tact, that's my motto. No rough stuff." He saluted, +turned on his heel. + +"Just a minute!" The colonel had arisen. He was a fine, ascetic type +of man. He held out his hand. + +"Good-by, Olear. Watch yourself!" + +When Olear had taken his matter-of-fact departure the colonel ran his +fingers through his whitening hair. In the past several months he had +sent five of his best men on dangerous missions--missions requiring +tact, courage, and, so it seemed, very much luck. And only two of the +five had come back. In those days the Interplanetary Flying Police did +not enjoy the tremendous prestige it does now. The mere presence of a +member of the Force is enough, in these humdrum days of interplanetary +law and order, to quell the most serious disturbance anywhere in the +solar system. But it was not always thus. This astounding prestige +had to be earned with blood and courage, in many a desperate and +lonely battle; had to be snatched from the dripping jaws of death. + + * * * * * + +Olear checked over his flying ovoid, got his bearings from the port +astronomer, set his coordinate navigator and shoved off. Two weeks +later he plunged into the thick, misty atmosphere on the dark side of +Mercury. + +Ancient astronomers had long suspected that Mercury always presented +the same side to the sun, though they were ignorant that the little +planet had water and air. Its sunward side is a dreary, sterile, hot +and hostile desert. Its dark side is warm and humid, and resembles to +some extent the better known jungles and swamps of Venus. But it has a +favored belt, some hundreds of miles wide, around its equator, where +the enormous sun stays perpetually in one spot on the horizon. Sunward +is the blinding glare of the desert; on the dark side, enormous banks +of lowering clouds. On the dark margin of this belt are the +"ringstorms," violent thunderstorms that never cease. They are the +source of the mighty rivers which irrigate the tropical habitable belt +and plunge out, boiling, far into the desert. + +Olear's little ship passed through the ringstorms, and he did not take +over the controls until he recognized the familiar mark of the trading +company, a blue comet on the aluminum roof of one of the larger +buildings. Visibility was good that day, but despite the unusual +clarity of the atmosphere there was a suggestion of the sinister about +the lifeless scene--the vast, irresistible river, the riotously +colored jungle roof. The vastness of nature dwarfed man's puny work. +One horizon flashed incessantly with livid lightning, the other was +one blinding blaze of the nearby sun. And almost lost below in the +savage landscape was man's symbol of possession, a few metal sheds in +a clear, fenced space of a few acres. + +Olear cautiously checked speed, skimmed over the turbid surface of the +great river, and set her down on the ground within the compound. With +his pencil-like ray-tube in his hand he stepped out of the hatchway. + + * * * * * + +A Mercurian native came out of the residence, presently, his hands +together in the peace sign. For the benefit of Earthlubbers whose only +knowledge of Mercury is derived from the teleview screen, it should be +explained that Mercurians are _not_ human, even if they do slightly +resemble us. They hatch from eggs, pass one life-phase as frog-like +creatures in their rivers, and in the adult stage turn more human in +appearance. But their skin remains green and fish-belly white. There +is no hair on their warty heads. Their eyes have no lids, and have a +peculiar dead, staring look when they sleep. And they carry a +peculiar, fishy odor with them at all times. + +This Mercurian looked at Olear seemingly without interest. + +"Where is Morones?" the officer inquired. + +"Morones?" the native piped, in English. "Inside. He busy." + +"All right. I'm coming in." + +"He busy." + +"Yeah, move over." + +Though the native was a good six inches taller than Olear he stepped +aside when the officer pushed him. Men--and Mercurians--had a way of +doing that when they looked into those colorless eyes. They were not +as phlegmatic as the face. Morones was sitting in his office. + +"Well, I'm here," Olear announced, helping himself to a chair. + +"Yes"--sourly. "Who invited you?" + +Olear looked at the factor levelly, appraising him. A big man, fat, +but the fat well distributed. Saturnine face, dark hair, dark and +bristly beard. The kind that thrived where other men became weak and +fever-ridden. Also, to judge by his present appearance, an unpleasant +companion and a nasty enemy. + +"Don't see what difference it makes to you," Olear answered in his own +good time; "but the company invited me." + +"They would!" Morones growled. His eyes flickered to the door, and +quick as a cat, Olear leaped to one side, his ray-pencil in his hand. + +Morones had not moved, and in the door stood the native, motionless +and without expression. Morones laughed nastily. + +"Kind of jumpy, eh? What is it, Nargyll?" + + * * * * * + +Nargyll burst into a burbling succession of native phrases, which +Olear had some difficulty following. + +"Nargyll wants to move your ship into one of the sheds, but the +activator key's gone." + +"Yeah, I know," Olear assented casually. "I got it. Leave the ship +till I get ready. Then I'll put it away. Get out, Nargyll." + +The native, hesitated, then on the lift of Morones' eyebrows departed. +Olear shifted a chair so that he could watch both Morones and the +door. He reopened the conversation easily: + +"Well, we understand each other. You don't want me here and I'm here. +So what are you going to do about it?" + +Morones flushed. He struggled to keep his temper down. + +"What do you want to know?" + +"What happened to the factor who was here before you?" + +"I don't know. The translucene wasn't coming in like it should. Sammis +went out into the jungle for a palaver with the chiefs to find out +why. And he didn't come back." + +"You didn't find out where he went?" + +"I just told you," Morones said impatiently, "he went out to see the +native chiefs." + +"Alone?" + +"Of course, alone. There were only two of us Earthmen here. Couldn't +abandon this post to the wogglies, could we? Not that it'd make much +difference. Except for Nargyll, none'll come near." + +"You never heard of him again?" + +"No! Dammit, no! Say, didn't they have any dumber strappers around +than you? I told you once--I tell you again--I never saw hide nor hair +of him after that." + +"Aw-right, aw-right!" Olear regarded Morones placidly. "And so you +took the job of factor and radioed for an assistant, and when the +assistant came he disappeared." + +Morones grunted, "He went out to get acquainted with the country and +didn't come back." + + * * * * * + +Olear masked his close scrutiny of the factor under his idle and +expressionless gaze. He was not ready to jump to the conclusion that +Morones' uneasiness sprang from a sense of guilt. Guilty or not, he +had a right to feel uneasy. The man would be dense indeed if he did +not realize he was in line for suspicion, and he did not look dense. +Indeed, he was obviously a shrewd character. + +"Let me see your 'lucene." + +Morones rose. Despite his bulk he stepped nimbly. He had the +nimbleness of a Saturnian bear, which is great, as some of the earlier +explorers learned to their dismay. + +"That's the first sensible question you've asked," Morones snorted. +"Take a look at our 'lucene. Ha! Have a good look!" + +He led the way across the compound, waved his hand before the door of +a strongly built shed in a swift, definite combination, and the door +opened, revealing the interior. He waved invitingly. + +"You go first," Olear said. + +With a sneer Morones stepped in. "You're safe, boy, you're safe." + +Olear looked at the small pile on the floor in astonishment. Instead +of the beautiful, semi-transparent chips of translucene, the dried sap +of a Mercurian tree which is invaluable to the world as the source of +an unfailing cancer cure, there were only a few dirty, dried up +shavings, hardly worth shipping back to Earth for refining. The full +significance of the affair began to dawn on the officer. The +translucene trees grew only in this favored section of Mercury, and +the Earth company had a monopoly of the entire supply. Justly, for +only on Earth was cancer known, and it was on the increase. That +small, almost useless pile on the floor connoted a terrible drug +famine for the human race. + + * * * * * + +Morones' smile might have been a grin of satisfaction, at Olear's +question: + +"Is that all you've bought since the last freighter was here?"' + +"It is," he replied. "The last load went off six months ago, and this +here shed should be full to the eaves. There'll be hell to pay." + +"It may not be tactful," Olear remarked, "but if you've got your +takings cached away somewhere to hold up the Earth for a big ransom, +you'd better come across right now. You can't get by with it, fellow. +You should have close to six million dollars' worth of it, and you +can't get away. You just can't." + +Morones controlled his anger with an effort. + +"Like any dumb strapper, you've got your mind made up, ain't you? +Well, go ahead. Get something on me. Here I was almost set to give you +a lead that might get you somewhere. And you come shooting +off--trying to make out I stole the 'lucene and killed those two +fellows, eh? Go ahead! Get something on me! But not on Company +grounds. You're leaving now!" + +With that he made a lunge at the officer, quite beside himself with +rage. Olear could have burnt him down, but he was far too experienced +for such an amateurish trick. Instead he ducked to evade Morones' +blow. But the big man was as agile as a panther. In mid-air, so it +seemed, he changed his direction of attack. The big fist swept +downward, striking Olear's head a glancing blow. + +But the men of the Force have always been fighters, whatever their +shortcomings as diplomats. Olear countered with a strong right to the +body, thudding solidly, for Morones' softness did not go far below the +surface. The factor whirled instantly, but not quite fast enough to +bar the door. Olear was out and inside his ship in a few seconds, +slamming the hatch. + +"Tact!" he grinned to himself, inserting the activator key. "Tact is +what a fella needs." The little space flier shot aloft, until the tiny +figure of the factor stopped shaking its fist and entered the +residence. The post had a flier of its own, of course, but Morones was +too wise to use it in pursuit. + +Olear considered what was best to do. Of course he could have placed +Morones under arrest; could still do it; but that would not solve the +mystery of the two deaths and the missing 'lucene. If the choleric +factor was really guilty of the crimes, it would be better to let him +go his way in the hope that he would betray himself. Olear regretted +that he had not kept his tongue under closer curb. But there was no +use regretting. Perhaps, after all, he ought to turn back to pump +Morones for some helpful information. + + * * * * * + +His mind made up, he descended again until he was hovering a few feet +from the ground. + +"Morones!" he called. "Morones!" He held the hatch open. + +Morones came to the door of the residence. He had a tube in his hand, +a long-range weapon. + +"Morones," Olear declared pompously. "I place you under arrest!" + +The effect was instantaneous. Morones lifted the tube, and a +glimmering, iridescent beam sprang out. The ship was up and away in a +second, lurching and shivering uncomfortably every time the beam +struck it in its upward flight. A good few seconds continued +impingement.... + +But a miss is as good as a light-year. Miles high, Olear looked into +his telens. Morones had laid aside his tube and was working with an +instrument like a twin transit. Plotting the ship's course, naturally. +Olear set his course for the Earth, and kept on it for a good +twenty-four hours. Morones, if he was still watching him, would think +he'd gone back for reinforcements. Such an assumption would be +incredible now, but that was before the I. F. P. had achieved its +present tremendous reputation. + +Beyond observation range, Olear curved back toward Mercury again, and +was almost inside its atmosphere when he made a discovery that caused +him to lose for a moment his natural indifference, and to clamp his +jaws in anger. The current oxygen tank became empty, and when he +removed it from the rack and put in a new one he found someone had let +out all of this essential gas. The valve of every one of the spare +tanks had been opened. Had Olear actually continued on his way to +Earth he would have perished miserably of suffocation long before he +could have returned to the Mercurian atmosphere. The officer whistled +tunelessly through his teeth as he considered this fact. + +The visibility was by this time normal; that is, so poor it would have +been possible to land very close to the trading station. Olear was +taking no chances, however, and came down a good three Earth miles +away. The egg-shaped hull sank through the glossy, brilliant treetops, +through twisted vines, and was buried in the dank gloom of the jungle. +Here it might remain hidden for a hundred years. + + * * * * * + +The twilight of the jungle was almost darkness. Landmarks were not. +But Olear made a few small, inconspicuous marks on trees with his +knife until he came to an outcropping rock. He had noticed the +scarlike white of it slashing through the jungle from the air, and +used it as a guide to direct his stealthy return to the trading post. +His belt chronometer told him it would be about time for Morones to +get up from his "night's" sleep. A little discreet observation might +tell much. + +Long before he reached the compound, Olear heard the rushing of the +great Blue River in its headlong plunge to the corrosive heat of the +desert. And then, through the mists, he glimpsed the white metal walls +of the Company sheds. + +He climbed a tree and for a long time watched patiently, lying prone on +a limb. Blood-sucking insects tortured him, and flat tree-lice, +resembling discs with legs, crawled over him inquisitively. Olear +tolerated them with stoic indifference until at last his patience was +rewarded. Morones was coming out of the compound. He was alone and +obviously did not suspect that he was being watched, for he stepped +out briskly. Once in the jungle he walked even faster, watching out +warily for the panther-like carnivora that were the most dangerous to +man on Mercury. + +Olear shinned to the ground and followed cautiously. Morones had his +ray-tube with him, as any traveler in these jungles did. Olear could +and did draw fast, but a dead trader would be valueless to him in his +investigation, so he stalked him with every faculty strained to +maintain complete silence. Often, in occasional clearings where the +brown darkness grew less, he had to grovel on the slimy ground, +picking up large bacteria that could be seen with the naked eye, and +which left tiny, festering red marks on the skin. Mercury has no +snakes. + +The trader seemed to be heading for higher ground, for the path led +ever upward, though not far from the tossing waters of the river. And +then, suddenly, he disappeared. + +Olear did not immediately hurry after him. A canny fugitive, catching +sight of his pursuer, might suddenly drop to the ground and squirm to +the side of the trail, there to wait and catch his pursuer as he +passed. So Olear sidled into the all but impenetrable underbrush and +slowly, with infinite caution, wormed his way along. + + * * * * * + +Presently he came to the little rise of ground where Morones had +disappeared, but a painstaking search did not reveal the factor. There +were, however, a number of other trails that joined the very faint +trail he had been following, and now there was a well-defined track +which continued to lead upward. With a grimace of disgust Olear again +plunged into the odorous underbrush and traveled parallel to the +trail. It was well he did so, for several Mercurians passed swiftly, +intent, so it seemed, in answering a shrill call that at times came +faintly to the ear. They carried slender spears. + +Several more Mercurians passed. The growth was thinning out, and Olear +did not dare to proceed further. However, from his hiding place he +could discern a number of irregular cave openings, apparently leading +downward. They were apparently the entrances to one of the native +cavern colonies, or possibly of a meeting place. No Earthman had ever +entered one, but it was thought they had underground openings into the +river. + +As the cave openings were obviously natural, Olear conjectured that +there might be others that were not used. After an anxious search he +found one, narrow and irregular, well hidden under the broad, glossy +leaves of some uncatalogued vegetation. As it showed no evidence of +use, Olear unhesitatingly slid down into it. It was very narrow and +irregular, so that often he was barely able to squeeze through. The +roots of trees choked the passage for a dozen feet or so, requiring +the vigorous use of a knife. Bathed in sweat, his uniform a filthy +mass of rags, Olear at last saw light. + +The passage ended abruptly near the roof of a large natural cavern. +Lights glistened on stalactites which cut off Olear's larger view, and +voices came from below. By craning his neck the officer could look +between the pendent icicles of rock and see a fire burning on a huge +oblong block of stone. Figures were sitting on the floor around this +block--hundreds of Mercurians. The leaping flames made their white and +green faces and bodies look frog-like and less human than usual. + + * * * * * + +But the figure that dominated the whole assemblage, both by its own +hugeness and the magnetic power that flowed from it, was not of +Mercury but of Pluto. For the benefit of those who have never seen a +stuffed Plutonian in our museums--and they are very rare--let me refer +you to the pious books still to be found in ancient library +collections. The ancients personified their fears and hates in a being +they called the Devil. The resemblance between the Devil of their +imagination and a Plutonian is really astounding. Horns, hoofs, +tail--almost to the smallest detail, the resemblance is there. + +Philosophers have written books on the "coincidence" in appearance of +the ancient Devil and the modern decadent Plutonians. The Plutonians +were once numerous and far advanced in science, and no doubt they +called on the Earth many times, in prehistoric days, and the so-called +Devil was a true picture of those vicious invaders, who are somewhat +less human than usually portrayed. What was once classed as +superstition was therefore a true racial memory. Long before our +ancestors came out of their caves to build houses, the Plutonians had +mastered interplanetary travel--only to forget the secret until human +ingenuity should reveal it once more. + +The modern Plutonian in that dank cave was over ten feet tall, and it +is easy to see why he dominated the assemblage. His black visage was +set in an evil smile; his ebony body glistened in the firelight. He +held a three-pronged spear in one hand, and sat on a pile of rocks, a +sort of rough throne, so that he towered magnificently above all +others. + +He spoke the Mercurian language, although the liquid intonations came +harshly from his sneering lips. + +"Are ye assembled, frogfolk, that ye may hear the decision of your +Thinking Ones?" he asked. + + * * * * * + +A respectful peeping chorus signified assent. But in that there was a +hint of unrest; even of fear. + +"Speak, ye Thinking One, your commands!" + +"Hear me first!" An old Mercurian, unusually tall, faded and dry +looking, his thick hide wrinkled like crushed leather, rose slowly to +his feet and stepped before the oblong stone. His back was to the +Plutonian, his face to the crescent of chiefs. + +"The Old Wise One!" A twittering murmur went around the assemblage. +"Hear the Old Wise One!" + +"My people, I like this not!" began the ancient. "The Lords of the +Green Star[1] have dealt with us fairly. Each phase[2] they have +brought us the things we wanted"--he touched his spear and a few gaudy +ornaments on his otherwise naked body--"in exchange for the worthless +white sap of our trees. If we longer offend the Lords of the Green +Star--" + +[Footnote 1: In their various languages, almost all solar races call +Earth "The Green Star." Although conditions on Mercury are +unfavorable, Earth can be seen from the dark star, on mountain tops, +during occasional dispersals of the cloud masses.] + +[Footnote 2: The Mercurians had no conception of time before the +Earthmen came. A "phase" is the time between calls of the freight +ships, and is therefore variable; but in those days it was about six +or seven months.] + +A raucous laugh interrupted the Mercurian's feeble voice, and it +echoed eerily from the walls of the chamber. + +"Valueless ye call the white sap?" sneered the Plutonian. "Hear me. +That sap you call valueless is dearer than life itself to the Lords of +the Green Star. For they are afflicted in great numbers with a +stinking death they call cancer. It destroys their vitals, and +nothing--nothing in this broad universe can help them save this white +sap ye give them. In your hands ye have the power to bring the proud +Lords of the Green Star to their knees. They would fill this chamber +many times with their most priceless treasures for the sap ye give +them so freely. Withhold the sap, and your Thinking Ones may go to the +Green Star itself to rule over its Lords. They are desperate. Their +emissaries may even now be on the way to beg your pleasure. Speak, +Thinking Ones! Would ye not rule the Green Star?" + + * * * * * + +But the chiefs failed to become enthused. One of them rose and +addressed the Plutonian: + +"O Lord of the Outer Orbit! For near one full phase have ye dwelt +among us. And well should ye know we have no desire for conquest. We +fear to go to the Green Star to rule." + +"Then let me rule for ye!" exclaimed the Plutonian instantly. "My +brothers will abide with ye as your guests--shall see that ye receive +a fair reward for the white sap; and I will convey your commands to +the Lords of the Green Star." + +The Old Wise One raised his withered hands, so that the uncertain +twittering of voices which followed the Plutonian's suggestion +subsided. + +"My children," piped the feeble old voice, "the Black Lord has spoken +cunning words, but they are false. It is plain to see that he desires +to rule the Green Star, and our welfare does not concern him." + +"If so it be that the white sap is of great value to the Lords of the +Green Star, it is still of no value to us; and if the gifts they bring +to us are of no value to them, they are dear to us." + +The Plutonian sneered. + +"Dearer than the Paste of Strange Dreams?" + +A startled hush fell among the assembled Mercurians. They looked +guiltily at one another, avoiding the eyes of the Old Wise One. + +"What is this?" shrilled he, turning furiously to the Plutonian. "Have +ye brought the paste of evil to our abode, knowing well the strict +proscription of our tribe? Fool! Your death is upon ye!" + + * * * * * + +But the Plutonian only grinned and spread his glistening, black hands +in a careless gesture. High overhead, peering through the +stalactites, Olear instantly understood the Plutonian's strange power, +the Paste of Strange Dreams, a fearsome narcotic of that far-swinging +dark planet. More insidious and devastating than any drug ever +produced on Earth, it had wrought frightful havoc among many solar +races. The Earthmen had opened the lanes, broken the age-old barriers +of distance, so that the harpies of evil could traffic their poison +from planet to planet. So the Paste of Strange Dreams was added to the +Earthman's burden. + +"Seize him--the Evil One!" shrieked the old chief, but the Mercurians +sat sullen and silent, and the Plutonian sneered. + +Finally one of the chiefs arose and with an effort faced the Old Wise +One and said: + +"The Strange Dreams are dearer to us than all else. Do as he says." + +The piping voices rose in eager acclamation, but the Old Wise One held +up his claws, waiting until silence returned. + +"Wait! Wait! Before ye commit this folly, hear the Green Star man. +Many times has he demanded audience. Let him come in." + +"It is not permitted," demurred one of the chiefs. + +"Ye permitted this being of evil to enter; let him enter also." + +"He is in the outer chambers now," one of the guards spoke. "His face +is like the center of a ringstorm." + +"Let him enter!" + + * * * * * + +Morones strode into the room angrily. Blinded by the fire after the +darkness of the antechambers, he did not at first see the Plutonian. +He strode up to the ancient chief and glared at him. + +"Does the Old Wise One learn wisdom at last?" he rasped. The ancient +shrank away from him, as did the nearer of the lesser chiefs. + +"The Old Wise One thinks less of his wisdom," he replied wearily. +"Behold!" He pointed to the enthroned Plutonian. + +Morones started. His hand flashed to his side, and came away empty. +Deft fingers had extracted his ray-tube. But he was a man of courage. +Never could it be said to his shame that an Earthman cringed in the +sight of lesser races. + +"So it's you, my sooty friend!" he snarled in English. The Plutonian, +accomplished linguist, replied: + +"As you see. You don't look very happy, Mr. Morones." + +Morones regarded him impassively, his eyes frosty. + +"That explains everything," he said at last with cold deliberation. +"First Sammis, then Boyd. Going to finish me next, I suppose?" + +The Plutonian twisted the end of an eyebrow and smiled. + +"Interested in them?" + +"What'd you do with the bodies?" + +The Plutonian jerked his thumb carelessly. "The river you call the +Blue is swift and deep. But before you follow them there is certain +information I wish to get from you. Where is the soldier who came to +visit you?" + +A crafty light came into Morones' face. + +"He is not far from here, waiting for me." + + * * * * * + +Olear, in his cramped hiding place, could not help feeling a warm glow +of admiration for Morones' nerve, because Morones thought him well on +his way to Earth. + +"Nargyll, what did your master do with the visitor?" + +"Drove him back to the Green Star," Nargyll said promptly. + +"And the oxygen tanks. Did you empty them?" + +"I let them hiss." Nargyll's grin was sharkish. + +"News to you, eh, Morones? Your officer's corpse has probably dropped +into the sun by this time. Tell me, why did you drive him off?" + +Morones sagged perceptibly. To gain a little time he said truthfully: + +"I knew I should be blamed and ruined for life. I didn't know you were +here, damn you! I hoped to get this mess with the natives straightened +up before he'd come back with reinforcements." + +"Yes. Well, you owe some months of life already. Your presence here +has been more or less embarrassing, but I had to let you live or I'd +have had the whole I. F. P. here to investigate. Now that you've +failed in keeping them from getting interested you may do me one more +service." The black giant grinned. + +"I've often wondered at the Earthman's prestige all over the solar +system. Even to-night, soft and helpless as you are, these natives +fear you. You will, therefore, be an object lesson in the helplessness +of Earthmen." + + * * * * * + +Morones was pale but courageous. With contempt in every line of him he +watched some of the less frightened chiefs, at the command of the +Plutonian, push aside some of the blazing blocks of fungus on the +stone, to make room for his body. At last he raised his hand. + +"Frogfolk!" he cried, "if ye do this thing, the Lords of the Green +Star will come. They will come with fires hotter than the sun; they +will blast your rivers with a power greater than the thunder of the +ringstorms; they will fill your caves with a purple smoke that turns +your bones to water--" + +Shrill cries of fear almost drowned out his words. All the Mercurians +had seen evidences of the dreadful power of the Earthmen. They began +milling around, then stood rooted by the roar of the Plutonian's +voice. + +"Lies! Lies!" he bellowed. "See, they are weak as egglets!" He stepped +down, picked Morones up by one shoulder, and held him, dangling, high +over the heads of all. Morones clawed and tore at the brawny arm. He +made a ludicrous picture. Soon the simple natives made a sniffling +sound of mirth, and the Plutonian, satisfied at last, set him down +again. + +"He tells truth!" The Old Wise One had climbed to the top of the stone +block. "The Lords of the Green Star have their power not in their +bodies, but it is great. It is greater far than the frogfolk. It is +greater than the Lords of the Outer Orbit. They will come even as the +surly one has said, and great shall be our sorrow. It is not yet too +late. Release him, and deliver to him the white sap. Seize this evil +one--" + +The feeble, fickle minds were being swayed again. In a gust of +impatience, the Plutonian stepped down, seized the aged chief's skinny +body in his great black hands, and snapped him in two. There was a +tearing of tough cords and tissue, and the two halves fell into the +fire. + +For an instant the Mercurians were stunned. Then some of them vented +hissing sounds of rage, while others prostrated themselves on the +floor. The black giant watched them narrowly for a moment, then turned +his attention to Morones. He seized him by the arm and drew him slowly +and irresistibly to him. + + * * * * * + +The murder of the Old Wise One had been done so quickly that Olear was +unable to prevent it. Had he been able to use his ray weapon he could +have burned the Plutonian down, but it had been bent at one of the +narrow turns of the crevice he had come down. The need for extreme +lightness in weapons was rather overdone in those early times, and a +little rough handling made them useless. + +So now Olear, weaponless except for the service knife at his belt, +began the hazardous undertaking of climbing among the stalactites to a +position approximately above the Plutonian's head. The job required +judgment. Some of the stone masses were insecurely anchored and would +crash down at the lightest touch. Some were spaced so closely together +that he could not get between them. Others were so far apart that it +was difficult to get from one to another. + +Yet he made it somehow, and unnoticed, for all eyes were turned on the +tense drama being enacted below. From almost directly overhead he saw +Morones being drawn upward. + +"You saw," the Plutonian was saying triumphantly in Mercurian, "--you +saw me unmake your Old Fool. And now you will see that a Lord of the +Green Star is even softer, even weaker--" + +Morones, in that pitiless grasp, turned his face to the hateful +grinning visage above him. In his last extremity he was still angry. + +"You devil!" Morones shouted. "You may murder me, but they'll get you! +They'll get you!" + +"Who'll get me?" the Plutonian purred silkily, deferring the pleasure +of the kill for another moment. Morones was having trouble with his +breathing. His red face lolled from side to side, his eyes rolled in +agony. Suddenly he saw Olear. Unbelieving, he relaxed. + +"I'm seein' things!" he breathed. + +"Who'll get me?" persisted the Plutonian, applying a little more +pressure. + +"The I. F. P.!" Morones gasped. + +"Well, you little son-of-a-gun!" Olear thought, and then he jumped. + +He landed a-straddle the neck of the Plutonian, which was almost like +forking a horse. One brawny arm seized a horn. The other, with a +lightning-swift dart, brought the point of the long service-knife to +the pulsing black throat. + +"Put him down!" Olear spoke into the great pointed ear. "Easy!" + +Back on his feet, Morones began bellowing at the Mercurians. Utterly +demoralized, they fled pell-mell. Morones came back. He said: + +"Nothing to tie him up with." + +"That's all right," Olear replied, studiously keeping the knife point +at exactly the right place, "I'll ride him in. Get going, you, and be +tactful when you go through the door, or this sticker of mine might +slip!" With extreme care the Plutonian did exactly as Olear ordered +him to. + + * * * * * + +It was necessary to radio for one of the larger patrol ships to take +Olear's enormous prisoner back to Earth for his trial. The officer +testified, of course, and the Plutonian was duly sentenced to death +for the murder of the old Mercurian. Execution by dehydration was +decreed, so that the body would be uninjured for scientific study; and +to-day it is considered one of the finest specimens extant. + +In his testimony, however, Olear so minimized his own connection with +the case that he received no public recognition. It was not until some +months afterward, when Morones, on leave, rode back with a shipload of +translucene, that the whole story came out, emphatically and +profanely. Olear finally consented to speak a few words for the +Telephoto News Co. As he stepped off the little platform deferential +hands tried to push him back. + +"You haven't told them who you are," protested the announcer. "Give +your name and rank." + +"Aw, they don't have to know that!" Olear rejoined, keeping on going. +"They know it's one of the Force. That's all they have to know. +Besides there's a blackjack game going on and I'm losing money every +minute I'm out of it." + + + + +The Exile of Time + +PART THREE OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL + +_By Ray Cummings_ + + +WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE + +[Illustration: _"Look!" exclaimed Larry._] + +[Sidenote: Larry and George from 1935, Mary from 1777--all are caught +up in the treacherous Tugh's revolt of the Robots, in the Time-world +of 2930.] + + +There came a girl's scream, and muffled, frantic words. + +"Let me out! Let me out!" + +Then we saw her white face at the basement window. This, which was the +start of the extraordinary incidents, occurred on the night of June +8-9, 1935. + +My name is George Rankin, and with my friend, Larry Gregory, we +rescued the girl who was imprisoned in the deserted house on Patton +Place, New York City. We thought at first that she was demented--this +strangely beautiful girl in long white satin dress, white powdered wig +and a black beauty patch on her check. She said she had come from the +year 1777, that her father was Major Atwood, of General Washington's +staff! Her name was Mistress Mary Atwood. + +It was a strange story she had to tell us. A cage of shining metal +bars had materialized in her garden, and a mechanical man had come +from it--a Robot ten feet tall. It had captured her; brought her to +1935; left her, and vanished saying it would return. + +We went back to that house on Patton Place. The cage did return, and +Larry and I fought the strange monster. We were worsted, and the Robot +seized Mary and me and whirled us back into Time in its room-like cage +of shining bars. Larry recovered his senses, rushed into Patton +Place, and there encountered another, smaller, Time-traveling cage, +and was himself taken off in it. + +But the occupants of Larry's smaller cage were friendly. They were a +man and a girl of 2930 A.D.! The girl was the Princess Tina, and the +man, Harl, a young scientist of that age. With an older scientist--a +cripple named Tugh--Harl had invented the Time-vehicles. + + * * * * * + +We had heard of Tugh before. Mary Atwood had known him in the year +1777. He had made love to her, and when repulsed had threatened +vengeance against her father. And in 1932, a cripple named Tugh had +gotten into trouble with the police and had vowed some strange weird +vengeance against the city officials and the city itself. More than +that, the very house on Patton Place from which we had rescued Mary +Atwood, was owned by this man named Tugh, who was wanted by the police +but could not be found! + +Tugh's vengeance was presently demonstrated, for in June, 1935, a +horde of Robots appeared. With flashing swords and red and violet +light beams the mechanical men spread about the city massacring the +people; they brought midsummer snow with their frigid red rays; and +then, in a moment, torrid heat and boiling rain. Three days and nights +of terror ensued; then the Robots silently withdrew into the house on +Patton Place and vanished. The New York City of 1935 lay wrecked; the +vengeance of Tugh against it was complete. + +Larry, going back in Time now, was told by Harl and Princess Tina that +a Robot named Migul--a mechanism almost human from the Time-world of +2930--had stolen the larger cage and was running amuck through Time. +The strange world of 2930 was described to Larry--a world in which +nearly-human mechanisms did all the work. These Robots, diabolically +developed, were upon the verge of revolt. The world of machinery was +ready to assail its human masters! + +Migul was an insubordinate Robot, and Harl and Tina were chasing it. +They whirled Larry back into Time, and they saw the larger cage stop +at a night in the year 1777--the same night from which Mary Atwood had +been stolen. They stopped there. Harl remained in the little cage to +guard it, while Tina and Larry went outside. + +It was night, and the house of Major Atwood was nearby. British +redcoats had come to capture the colonial officer; but all they found +was his murdered body lying in the garden. Migul the Robot had chained +Mary and me to the door of his cage; had briefly stopped in the garden +and killed the major, and then had departed with us. + + * * * * * + +We now went back to the Beginning of Time, for the other cage was +again chasing us. Reaching the Beginning, we swept forward, and the +whole vast panorama of the events of Time passed in review before us. +Suddenly we found that Tugh himself was hiding in our cage! We had not +known it, nor had Migul, our Robot captor. Tugh was hiding here, not +trusting Migul to carry out his orders! + +We realized now that all these events were part of the wild vengeance +of this hideously repulsive cripple. Migul was a mere machine carrying +out Tugh's orders. Tugh, in 2930, was masquerading as a friend of the +Government; but in reality it was he who was fomenting the revolt of +the Robots. + +Tugh now took command of our cage. The smaller cage had only Harl in +it now, for Larry and Tina were marooned in 1777. Harl was chasing us. +Tugh stopped us in the year 762 A.D. We found that the space around +us now was a forest recently burned. Five hundred feet from us was the +space which held Harl's cage. + +Presently it materialized! Mary and I were helpless. We stood watching +Tugh, as he crouched on the floor of our cage near its opened doorway. +A ray cylinder was in his hand, with a wire running to a battery in +the cage corner. He had forced Mary and me to stand at the window +where Harl would see us and be lured to approach. + +From Harl's cage, five hundred feet across the blackened forest glade +of that day of 762, Harl came cautiously forward. Abruptly Tugh fired. +His cylinder shot a horizontal beam of intense actinic light. It +struck Harl full, and he fell. + +Swiftly his body decomposed; and soon in the sunlight of the glade lay +a sagging heap of black and white garments enveloping the skeleton of +what a moment before had been a man! + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A Very Human Princess + +That night in 1777 near the home of the murdered Major Atwood brought +to Larry the most strangely helpless feeling he had ever experienced. +He crouched with Tina beneath a tree in a corner of the field, gazing +with horror at the little moonlit space by the fence where their +Time-traveling vehicle should have been but now was gone. + +Marooned in 1777! Larry had not realized how desolately remote this +Revolutionary New York was from the great future city in which he had +lived. The same space; but what a gulf between him and 1935! What a +barrier of Time, impassable without the shining cage! + +They crouched, whispering. "But why would he have gone, Tina?" + +"I don't know. Harl is very careful; so something or someone must have +passed along here, and he left, rather than cause a disturbance. He +will return, of course." + +"I hope so," whispered Larry fervently. "We are marooned here, Tina! +Heavens, it would be the end of us!" + +"We must wait. He will return." + +They huddled in the shadow of the tree. Behind them there was a +continued commotion at the Atwood home, and presently the mounted +British officers came thudding past on the road, riding for +headquarters at the Bowling Green to report the strange Atwood murder. + +The night wore on. Would Harl return? If not to-night, then probably +to-morrow, or to-morrow night. In spite of his endeavor to stop +correctly, he could so easily miss this night, these particular hours. + +Harl had met his death, as I have described. We never knew exactly +what he did, of course, after leaving that night of 1777. It seems +probable, however, that some passer-by startled him into flashing away +into Time. Then he must have seen with his instrument evidence of the +other cage passing, and impulsively followed it--to his death in the +burned forest of the year 762. + + * * * * * + +Larry and Tina waited. The dawn presently began paling the stars; and +still Harl did not come. The little space by the fence corner was +empty. + +"It will soon be daylight," Larry whispered. "We can't stay here: +we'll be discovered." + +They were anachronisms in this world; misfits; futuristic beings who +dared not show themselves. + +Larry touched his companion--the slight little creature who was a +Princess in her far-distant future age. But to Larry now she was just +a girl. + +"Frightened, Tina?" + +"A little." + +He laughed softly. "It would be fearful to be marooned here +permanently, wouldn't it? You don't think Harl would desert us? +Purposely, I mean?" + +"No, of course not." + +"Then we'll expect him to-morrow night. He wouldn't stop in the +daylight, I guess." + +"I don't think so. He would reason that I would not expect him." + +"Then we must find shelter, and food, and be here to-morrow night. It +seems long to us, Tina, but in the cage it's just an instant--just a +trifle different setting of the controls." + +She smiled her pale, stern smile. "You have learned quickly, Larry. +That is true." + +A sudden emotion swept him. His hand found hers; and her fingers +answered the pressure of his own. Here in this remote Time-world they +felt abruptly drawn together. + +He murmured, "Tina, you are--" But he never finished. + +The cage was coming! They stood tense, watching the fence corner +where, in the flat dawn light, the familiar misty shadow was +gathering. Harl was returning to them. + +The cage flashed silently into being. They stood peering, ready to run +to it. The door slid aside. + + * * * * * + +But it was not Harl who came out. It was Tugh, the cripple. He stood +in the doorway, a thick-set, barrel-chested figure of a man in a wide +leather jacket, a broad black belt and short flaring leather +pantaloons. + +"Tugh!" exclaimed Tina. + +The cripple advanced. "Princess, is it you?" He was very wary. His +gaze shot at Larry and back to Tina. "And who is this?" + +A hideously repulsive fellow, Larry thought this Tugh. He saw his +shriveled, bent legs, crooked hips, and wide thick shoulders set +askew--a goblin, in a leather jerkin. His head was overlarge, with a +bulging white forehead and a mane of scraggly black hair shot with +grey. But Larry could not miss the intellectuality marking his +heavy-jowled face; the keenness of his dark-eyed gaze. + +These were instant impressions. Tina had drawn Larry forward. "Where +is Harl?" she demanded imperiously. "How have you come to have the +cage, Tugh?" + +"Princess, I have much to tell," he answered, and his gaze roved the +field. "But it is dangerous here; I am glad I have found you. Harl +sent me to this night, but I struck it late. Come, Tina--and your +strange-looking friend." + +It impressed Larry then, and many times afterward, that Tugh's gaze at +him was mistrustful, wary. + +"Come, Larry," said Tina. And again she demanded of Tugh, "I ask you, +where is Harl?" + +"At home. Safe at home, Princess." He gestured toward Major Atwood's +house, which now in the growing daylight showed more plainly under its +shrouding trees. "That space off there holds our other cage as you +know, Tina. You and Harl were pursuing that other cage?" + +"Yes," she agreed. + + * * * * * + +They had stopped at the doorway, where Tugh stood slightly inside. +Larry whispered: + +"What does this mean, Tina?" + +Tugh said, "Migul, the mechanism, is running wild in the other cage. +But you and Harl knew that?" + +"Yes," she answered, and said softly to Larry, "We will go. But, +Larry, watch this Tugh! Harl and I never trusted him." + +Tugh's manner was a combination of the self-confidence of a man of +standing and the deference due his young Princess. He was closing the +door, and saying: + +"Migul, that crazy, insubordinate machine, captured a man from 1935 +and a girl from 1777. But they are safe: he did not harm them. Harl is +with them." + +"In our world, Tugh?" + +"Yes; at home. And we have Migul chained. Harl captured and subdued +him." + +Tugh was at the controls. "May I take you and this friend of yours +home, Princess?" + +She whispered to Larry, "I think it is best, don't you?" + +Larry nodded. + +She murmured, "Be watchful, Larry!" Then, louder: "Yes, Tugh. Take +us." + +Tugh was bending over the controls. + +"Ready now?" + +"Yes," said Tina. + +Larry's senses reeled momentarily as the cage flashed off into Time. + + * * * * * + +It was a smooth story which Tugh had to tell them; and he told it +smoothly. His dark eyes swung from Tina to Larry. + +"I talked with that other young man from your world. George Rankin, he +said his name was. He is somewhat like you: dressed much the same and +talks little. The girl calls herself Mary Atwood." He went on and told +them an elaborate, glib story, all of which was a lie. It did not +wholly deceive Larry and Tina, yet they could not then prove it false. +The gist of it was that Mary and I were with Harl and the subdued +Migul in 2930. + +"It is strange that Harl did not come for us himself," said Tina. + +Tugh's gaze was imperturbable as he answered. "He is a clever young +man, but he cannot be expected to handle these controls with my skill, +Princess, and he knows it; so he sent me. You see, he wanted very much +to strike just this night and this hour, so as not to keep you +waiting." + +He added, "I am glad to have you back. Things are not well at home, +Princess. This insubordinate adventure of Migul's has been bad for the +other mechanisms. News of it has spread, and the revolt is very near. +What we are to do I cannot say, but I do know we did not like your +absence." + +The trip which Larry and Tina now took to 2930 A.D. consumed, to their +consciousness of the passing of Time, some three hours. They +discovered that they were hungry, and Tugh produced food and drink. + +Larry spent much of the time with Tina at the window, gazing at the +changing landscape while she told him of the events which to her were +history--the recorded things on the Time-scroll which separated her +world and his. + + * * * * * + +Tugh busied himself about the vehicle and left them much to +themselves. They had ample opportunity to discuss him and his story of +Harl. It must be remembered that Larry had no knowledge of Tugh, save +the story which Alten had told of a cripple named Tugh in New York in +1933-34; and Mary Atwood's mention of the coincidence of the Tugh she +knew in 1777. + +But Tina had known this Tugh for years. Though she, like Harl, had +never liked him, nevertheless he was a trusted and influential man in +her world. Proof of his activities in other Time-worlds, there was +none so far, from Tina's viewpoint. Nor did Larry and Tina know as yet +of the devastation of New York in 1935; nor of the murder of Major +Atwood. The capture of Mary and me, the fight with the Robot in the +back yard of the house on Patton Place--in all these incidents of the +bandit cage, only Migul had figured. Migul--an insubordinate, crazy +mechanism running amuck. + +Yet upon Larry and Tina was a premonition that Tugh, here with them +now and so suavely friendly, was their real enemy. + +"I wouldn't trust him," Larry whispered, "any further than I can see +him. He's planning something, but I don't know what." + +"But perhaps--and this I have often thought, Larry--perhaps it is his +aspect. He looks so repulsive--" + +Larry shook his head. "He does, for a fact; but I don't mean that. +What Mary Atwood told me of the Tugh she knew, described the fellow. +And so did Alten describe him. And in 1934 he murdered a girl: don't +forget that, Tina--he, or someone who looked remarkably like him, and +had the same name." + +But they knew that the best thing they could do now was to get to +2930. Larry wanted to join me again, and Tugh maintained I was there. +Well, they would soon find out.... + + * * * * * + +As they passed the shadowy world of 1935, a queer emotion gripped +Larry. This was his world, and he was speeding past it to the future. +He realized then that he wanted to be assured of my safety, and that +of Mary Atwood and Harl; but what lay closest to his heart was the +welfare of the Princess Tina. Princess? He never thought of her as +that, save that it was a title she carried. She seemed just a small, +strangely-solemn white-faced girl. He could not conceive returning to +his own world and having her speed on, leaving him forever. + +His thoughts winged ahead. He touched Tina as they stood together at +the window gazing out at the shadowy New York City. It was now 1940. + +"Tina," he said, "if our friends are safe in your world--" + +"If only they are, Larry!" + +"And if your people there are in trouble, in danger--you will let me +help?" + +She turned abruptly to regard him, and he saw a mist of tenderness in +the dark pools of her eyes. + +"In history, Larry, I have often been interested in reading of a +strange custom outgrown by us and supposed to be meaningless. Yet +maybe it is not. I mean--" + +She was suddenly breathless. "I mean even a Princess, as they call me, +likes to--to be human. I want to--I mean I've often wondered--and +you're so dear--I want to try it. Was it like this? Show me." + +She reached up, put her arms about his neck and kissed him! + + +CHAPTER XV + +_A Thousand Years into the Future_ + +1930 to 2930--a thousand years in three hours. It was sufficiently +slow traveling so that Larry could see from the cage window the actual +detailed flow of movement: the changing outline of material objects +around him. There had been the open country of Revolutionary times +when this space was north of the city. It was a grey, ghostly +landscape of trees and the road and the shadowy outlines of the Atwood +house five hundred feet away. + +Larry saw the road widen. The fence suddenly was gone. The trees were +suddenly gone. The shapes of houses were constantly appearing; then +melting down again, with others constantly rearing up to take their +places; and always there were more houses, and larger, more enduring +ones. And then the Atwood house suddenly melted: a second or two, and +all evidence of it and the trees about it were gone. + +There was no road; it was a city street now; and it had widened so +that the cage was poised near the middle of it. And presently the +houses were set solid along its borders. + +At 1910 Larry began to recognize the contour of the buildings: The +antiquated Patton Place. But the flowing changing outlines adjusted +themselves constantly to a more familiar form. The new apartment +house, down the block in which Larry and I lived, rose and assembled +itself like a materializing spectre. A wink or two of Larry's eyelids +and it was there. He recalled the months of its construction. + +The cage, with Larry as a passenger, could not have stopped in these +years: he realized it, now. There was a nameless feeling, a repulsion +against stopping; it was indescribable, but he was aware of it. He had +lived these years once, and they were forbidden to him again. + +The cage was still in its starting acceleration. They swept through +the year 1935, and then Larry was indefinably aware that the forbidden +area had passed. + + * * * * * + +They went through those few days of June, 1935, during which Tugh's +Robots had devastated the city, but it was too brief an action to make +a mark that Larry could see. It left a few very transitory marks, +however. Larry noticed that along the uneven line of ghostly +roof-tops, blobs of emptiness had appeared; he saw a short distance +away that several of the houses had melted down into ragged, tumbled +heaps. These were where the bombs had struck, dropped by the +Government planes in an endeavor to wreck the Tugh house from which +the Robots were appearing. But the ragged, broken areas were filled in +a second--almost as soon as Larry realized they were there--and new +and larger buildings than before appeared. + +At sight of all this he murmured to Tina, "Something has happened +here. I wonder what?" + +He chanced to turn, and saw that Tugh was regarding him very queerly; +but in a moment he forgot it in the wonders of the passage into his +future. + +This growing, expanding city! It had seemed a giant to Larry in 1935, +especially after he had compared it to what it was in 1777. But now, +in 1950, and beyond to the turn of the century, he stood amazed at the +enormity of the shadowy structures rearing their spectral towers +around him. For some years Patton Place, a backward section, held its +general form; then abruptly the city engulfed it. Larry saw monstrous +buildings of steel and masonry rising a thousand feet above him. For +an instant, as they were being built he saw their skeleton outlines; +and then they were complete. Yet they were not enduring, for in every +flowing detail they kept changing. + +An overhead sidewalk went like a balcony along what had been Patton +Place. Bridges and archways spanned the street. Then there came a +triple bank of overhead roadways. A distance away, a hundred feet +above the ground level, the shadowy form of what seemed a monorail +structure showed for a moment. It endured for what might have been a +hundred years, and then it was gone.... + + * * * * * + +This monstrous city! By 2030 there was a vast network of traffic +levels over what had been a street. It was an arcade, now, open at the +top near the cage; but further away Larry saw where the giant +buildings had flowed and mingled over it, with the viaducts, spider +bridges and pedestrian levels plunging into tunnels to pierce through +them. + +And high overhead, where the little sky which was left still showed, +Larry saw the still higher outlines of a structure which quite +evidently was a huge aerial landing stage for airliners. + +It was an incredible city! There were spots of enduring light around +Larry now--the city lights which for months and years shone here +unchanged. The cage was no longer outdoors. The street which had +become an open arcade was now wholly closed. A roof was overhead--a +city roof, to shut out the inclement weather. There was artificial +light and air and weather down here, and up on the roof additional +space for the city's teeming activities. + +Larry could see only a shadowy narrow vista, here indoors, but his +imagination supplied visions of what the monstrous, incredible city +must be. There was a roof, perhaps, over all Manhattan. Bridges and +viaducts would span to the great steel and stone structures across the +rivers, so that water must seem to be in a canyon far underground. +There would be a cellar to this city, incredibly intricate with +conduits of wires and drainage pipes, and on the roof rain or snow +would fall unnoticed by the millions of workers. Children born here in +poverty might never yet have seen the blue sky and the sunlight, or +know that grass was green and lush and redolent when moist with +morning dew.... + +Larry fancied this now to be the climax of city building here on +earth; the city was a monster, now, unmanageable, threatening to +destroy the humans who had created it.... He tried to envisage the +world; the great nations; other cities like this one. Freight +transportation would go by rail and underseas, doubtless, and all the +passengers by air.... + + * * * * * + +Tina, with her knowledge of history, could sketch the events. The +Yellow War--the white races against the Orientals--was over by the +year 2000. The three great nations were organized in another +half-century: the white, the yellow and the black. + +By the year 2000, the ancient dirigibles had proven impractical, and +great airliners of the plane type were encircling the earth. New +motors, wing-spreads, and a myriad devices made navigation of the +upper altitudes possible. At a hundred thousand feet, upon all the +Great Circle routes, liners were rushing at nearly a thousand miles an +hour. They would halt at intervals, to allow helicopter tenders to +come up to transfer descending passengers. + +Then the etheric wave-thrust principle was discovered: by 2500 A.D. +man was voyaging out into space and Interplanetary travel began. This +brought new problems: a rush of new millions of humans to live upon +our Earth; new wars; new commerce in peace times; new ideas; new +scientific knowledge.... + +By 2500, the city around Larry must have reached its height. It stayed +there a half century; and then it began coming down. Its degeneration +was slow, in the beginning. First, there might have been a hole in the +arcade which was not repaired. Then others would appear, as the +neglect spread. The population left. The great buildings of metal and +stone, so solidly appearing to the brief lifetime of a single +individual, were impermanent over the centuries. + +By 2600, the gigantic ghosts had all melted down. They lay in a +shadowy pile, burying the speeding cage. There was no stopping here; +there was no space unoccupied in which they could stop. Larry could +see only the tangled spectres of broken, rusting, rotting metal and +stone. + +He wondered what could have done it. A storm of nature? Or had mankind +strangely turned decadent, and rushed back in a hundred years or so to +savagery? It could not have been the latter, because very soon the +ruins were moving away: the people were clearing the city site for +something new. For fifty years it went on. + + * * * * * + +Tina explained it. The age of steam had started the great city of New +York, and others like it, into its monstrous congestion of human +activity. There was steam for power and steam for slow transportation +by railroads and surface ships. Then the conquest of the air, and the +transportation of power by electricity, gradually changed things. But +man was slow to realize his possibilities. Even in 1930, all the new +elements existed; but the great cities grew monstrous of their own +momentum. Business went to the cities because the people were there; +workers flocked in because the work was there to call them. + +But soon the time came when the monster city was too unwieldy. The +traffic, the drainage, the water supply could not cope with +conditions. Still, man struggled on. The workers were mere +automatons--pallid attendants of machinery; people living in a world +of beauty who never had seen it; who knew of nothing but the city +arcades where the sun never shone and where amusements were as +artificial as the light and air. + +Then man awakened to his folly. Disease broke out in New York City in +2551, and in a month swept eight million people into death. The cities +were proclaimed impractical, unsafe. And suddenly the people realized +how greatly they hated the city; how strangely beautiful the world +could be in the fashion God created it.... + +There was, over the next fifty years, an exodus to the rural sections. +Food was produced more cheaply, largely because it was produced more +abundantly. Man found his wants suddenly simplified. + +And business found that concentration was unnecessary. The telephone +and television made personal contacts not needed. The aircraft, the +high-speed auto-trucks over modern speedways, the aeroplane-motored +monorails, the rocket-trains--all these shortened distance. And, most +important of all, the transportation of electrical energy from great +central power companies made small industrial units practical even +upon remote farms. The age of electricity came into its own. The +cities were doomed.... + + * * * * * + +Larry saw, through 2600 and 2700 A.D., a new form of civilization +rising around him. At first it seemed a queer combination of the old +fashioned village and a strange modernism. There were, here upon +Manhattan Island, metal houses, widely spaced in gardens, and +electrically powered factories of unfamiliar aspect. Overhead were +skeleton structures, like landing stages; and across the further +distance was the fleeting, transitory wraith of a monorail air-road. +Along the river banks were giant docks for surface vessels and sub-sea +freighters. There was a little concentration here, but not much. Man +had learned his lesson. + +This was a new era. Man was striving really to play, as well as work. +But the work had to be done. With the constant development of +mechanical devices, there was always a new machine devised to help the +operation of its fellow. And over it all was the hand of the human, +until suddenly the worker found that he was no more than an attendant +upon an inanimate thing which did everything more skilfully than he +could do it. Thus came the idea of the Robot--something to attend, to +oversee, to operate machines. In Larry's time it had already begun +with a myriad devices of "automatic control." In Tina's Time-world it +reached its ultimate--and diabolical--development.... + +At 2900, Larry saw, five hundred feet to the east, the walls of a long +low laboratory rising. The other cage--which in 1777 was in Major +Atwood's garden, and in 1935 was in the back yard of the Tugh house on +Beckman Place--was housed now in 2930, in a room of this +laboratory.... + +At 2905, with the vehicle slowing for its stopping, Tina gestured +toward the walls of her palace, whose shadowy forms were rising close +at hand. Then the palace garden grew and flourished, and Larry saw +that this cage he was in was set within this garden. + +"We are almost there, Larry," she said. + +"Yes," he answered. An emotion gripped him. "Tina, your world--why +it's so strange! But you are not strange." + +"Am I not, Larry?" + +He smiled at her; he felt like showing her again that the ancient +custom of kissing was not wholly meaningless, but Tugh was regarding +them. + +"I was comparing," said Larry, "that girl Mary Atwood, from the year +1777, and you. You are so different in looks, in dress, but you're +just--girls." + +She laughed. "The world changes, Larry, but not human nature." + +"Ready?" called Tugh. "We are here, Tina." + +"Yes, Tugh. You have the dial set for the proper night and hour?" + +"Of course. I make no mistake. Did I not invent these dials?" + +The cage slackened through a day of sunlight; plunged into a night; +and slid to its soundless, reeling halt.... + +Tina drew Larry to the door and opened it upon a fragrant garden, +somnolently drowsing in the moonlight. + +"This is my world, Larry," she said. "And here is my home." + + * * * * * + +Tugh was with them as they left the cage. He said: + +"This is the tri-night hour of the very night you left here. Princess +Tina. You see, I calculated correctly." + +"Where did you leave Harl and the two visitors?" she demanded. + +"Here. Right here." + +Across the garden Larry saw three dark forms coming forward. They were +three small Robots of about Tina's stature--domestic servants of the +palace. They crowded up, crying: + +"Master Tugh! Princess!" + +"What is it?" Tugh asked. + +The hollow voices echoed with excitement as one of them said: + +"Master Tugh, there has been murder here! We have dared tell no one +but you or the Princess. Harl is murdered!" + +Larry chanced to see Tugh's astonished face, and in the horror of the +moment a feeling came to Larry that Tugh was acting unnaturally. He +forgot it at once; but later he was to recall it forcibly, and to +realize that the treacherous Tugh had planned this with these Robots. + +"Master Tugh, Harl is murdered! Migul escaped and murdered Harl, and +took the body away with him!" + +Larry was stricken dumb. Tugh seized the little Robot by his metal +shoulders. "Liar! What do you mean?" + +Tina gasped, "Where are our visitors--the young man and the girl?" + +"Migul took them!" + +"Where?" Tina demanded. + +"We don't know. We think very far down in the caverns of machinery. +Migul said he was going to feed them to the machines!" + + +CHAPTER XVI + +_The New York of 2930_ + +Larry stood alone at an upper window of the palace gazing out at the +somnolent moonlit city. It was an hour or two before dawn. Tina and +Tugh had started almost at once into the underground caverns to which +Tina was told Migul had fled with his two captives. They would not +take Larry with them; the Robot workers in the subterranean chambers +were all sullen and upon the verge of a revolt, and the sight of a +strange human would have aroused them dangerously. + +"It should not take long," Tina had said hastily. "I will give you a +room in which to wait for me." + +"And there is food and drink," Tugh suavely urged. "And most surely +you need sleep. You too Princess," he suddenly added. "Let me go into +the caverns alone: I can do better than you; these Robots obey me. I +think I know where that rascally Migul has hidden." + +"Rascally?" Larry burst out. "Is that what you call it when you've +just heard that it committed murder? Tina. I won't stay: nor will I +let--" + +"Wait!" said Tina. "Tugh, look here--" + +"The young man from 1935 is very positive what he will and what he +won't," Tugh observed sardonically. He drew his cloak around his squat +misshapen body, and shrugged. + +"But I won't let you go," Larry finished. The palace was somnolent; +the officials were asleep: none had heard of the murder. Strangely lax +was the human government here. Larry had sensed this when he suggested +that police or an official party be sent at once to capture Migul and +rescue Mary Atwood and me. + +"It could not be done," Tina exclaimed. "To organize such a party +would take hours. And--" + +"And the Robots," Tugh finished with a sour smile, "would openly +revolt when such a party came at them! You have no idea what you +suggest, young man. To avoid an open revolt--that is our chief aim. +Besides, if you rushed at Migul it would frighten him; and then he +would surely kill his captives, if he has not done so already." + + * * * * * + +That silenced Larry. He stared at them hopelessly while they argued it +out: and the three small domesticated Robots stood by, listening +curiously. + +"I'll go with you, Tugh." Tina decided. "Perhaps, without making any +demonstration of force, we can find Migul." + +Tugh bowed. "Your will is mine, Princess. I think I can find him and +control him to prevent harm to his captives." + +He was a good actor, that Tugh; he convinced Larry and Tina of his +sincerity. His dark eyes flashed as he added, "And if I get control of +him and find he's murdered Harl, we will have him no more. I'll +disconnect him! Smash him! Quietly, of course, Princess." + +They led Larry through a dim silent corridor of the palace, past two +sleepy-faced human guards and two or three domesticated Robots. +Ascending two spiral metal stairways to the upper third floor of the +palace they left Larry in his room. + +"By dawn or soon after we will return," said Tina "But you try and +sleep; there is nothing you can do now." + +"You'll be careful, Tina?" The helpless feeling upon Larry suddenly +intensified. Subconsciously he was aware of the menace upon him and +Tina, but he could not define it. + +She pressed his hand. "I will be careful; that I promise." + +She left with Tugh. At once a feeling of loneliness leaped upon Larry. + +He found the apartment a low-vaulted metal room. There was the sheen +of dim, blue-white illumination from hidden lights, disclosing the +padded metal furniture: a couch, low and comfortable; a table set with +food and drink; low chairs, strangely fashioned, and cabinets against +the wall which seemed to be mechanical devices for amusement. There +was a row of instrument controls which he guessed were the room +temperature, ventilating and lighting mechanisms. It was an oddly +futuristic room. The windows were groups of triangles--the upper +sections prisms, to bend the light from the sky into the room's +furthest recesses. The moonlight came through the prisms, now, and +spread over the cream-colored rug and the heavy wall draperies. The +leaded prism casements laid a pattern of bars on the floor. The room +held a faint whisper of mechanical music. + + * * * * * + +Larry stood at one of the windows gazing out over the drowsing city. +The low metal buildings, generally of one or two levels, lay pale grey +in the moonlight. Gardens and trees surrounded them. The streets were +wide roadways, lined with trees. Ornamental vegetation was everywhere; +even the flat-roofed house tops were set with gardens, little white +pebbled paths, fountains and pergolas. + +A mile or so away, a river gleamed like a silver ribbon--the Hudson. +To the south were docks, low against the water, with rows of +blue-white spots of light. The whole city was close to the ground, but +occasionally, especially across the river, skeleton landing stages +rose a hundred feet into the air. + +The scene, at this hour just before dawn, was somnolent and peaceful. +It was a strange New York, so different from the sleepless city of +Larry's time! There were a few moving lights in the streets, but not +many; they seemed to be lights carried by pedestrians. Off by the +docks, at the river surface, rows of colored lights were slowly +creeping northward: a sub-sea freighter arriving from Eurasia. And as +Larry watched, from the southern sky a line of light materialized into +an airliner which swept with a low humming throb over the city and +alighted upon a distant stage. + + * * * * * + +Larry's attention went again to the Hudson river. At the nearest point +to him there was a huge dam blocking it. North of the dam the river +surface was at least two hundred feet higher than to the south. It lay +above the dam like a placid canal, with low palisades its western bank +and a high dyke built up along the eastern city side. The water went +in spillways through the dam, forming again into the old natural river +below it and flowing with it to the south. + +The dam was not over a mile or so from Larry's window; in his time it +might have been the western end of Christopher Street. The moonlight +shone on the massive metal of it: the water spilled through it in a +dozen shining cascades. There was a low black metal structure perched +halfway up the lower side of the dam, a few bluish lights showing +through its windows. Though Larry did not know it then, this was the +New York Power House. Great transformers were here, operated by +turbines in the dam. The main power came over cables from Niagara: was +transformed and altered here and sent into the air as radio-power for +all the New York District.[3] + +[Footnote 3: In 2930, all aircraft engines were operated by +radio-power transmitted by senders in various districts. The New York +Power House controlled a local district of about two hundred miles +radius.] + +Larry crossed his room to gaze through north and eastward windows. He +saw now that the grounds of this three-story building of Tina's palace +were surrounded by a ten-foot metal wall, along whose top were wires +suggesting that it was electrified for defense. The garden lay just +beneath Larry's north window. Through the tree branches the garden +paths, beds of flowers and the fountains were visible. One-story +palace wings partially enclosed the garden space, and outside was the +electrified wall. The Time-traveling cage stood faintly shining in the +dimness of the garden under the spreading foliage. + + * * * * * + +To the east, beyond the palace wall, there was an open garden of +verdure crossed by a roadway. The nearest building was five hundred +feet away. There was a small, barred gate in the palace walls beyond +it. The road led to this other building--a squat, single-storied metal +structure. This was a Government laboratory, operated by and in charge +of Robots. It was almost square: two or three hundred feet in length +and no more than thirty feet high, with a flat roof in the center of +which was perched a little metal conning tower surmounted by a sending +aerial. As Larry stood there, the broadcast magnified voice of a Robot +droned out over the quiet city: + +"Trinight plus two hours. All is well." + +Strange mechanical voice with a formula half ancient, half +super-modern! + +It was in this metal laboratory, Larry knew, that the other +Time-traveling cage was located. And beneath it was the entrance to +the great caverns where the Robots worked attending inert machinery to +carry on the industry of this region. The night was very silent, but +now Larry was conscious of a faraway throb--a humming, throbbing +vibration from under the ground: the blended hum of a myriad muffled +noises. Work was going on down there; manifold mechanical activities. +All was mechanical: while the humans who had devised the mechanisms +slept under the trees in the moonlight of the surface city. + + * * * * * + +Tina had gone with Tugh down into those caverns, to locate Migul, to +find Mary Atwood and me.... The oppression, the sense of being a +stranger alone here in this world, grew upon Larry. He left the +windows and began pacing the room. Tina should soon return. Or had +disaster come upon us all?... + +Larry's thoughts were frightening. If Tina did not return, what would +he do? He could not operate the Time-cage. He would go to the +officials of the palace; he thought cynically of the extraordinary +changes time had brought to New York City, to all the world. These +humans now must be very fatuous. To the mechanisms they had relegated +all the work, all industrial activity. Inevitably, through the +generations, decadence must have come. Mankind would be no longer +efficient; that was an attribute of the machines. Larry told himself +that these officials, knowing of impending trouble with the Robots, +were fatuously trustful that the storm would pass without breaking. +They were, indeed, as we very soon learned. + +Larry ate a little of the food which was in the room, then lay down on +the couch. He did not intend to sleep, but merely to wait until after +dawn; and if Tina had not returned by then he would do something +drastic about it. But what? He lay absorbed by his gloomy thoughts.... + +But they were not all gloomy. Some were about Tina--so very human, and +yet so strange a little Princess. + + +CHAPTER XVII + +_Harl's Confession_ + +Larry was awakened by a hand upon his shoulder. He struggled to +consciousness, and heard his name being called. + +"Larry! Wake up, Larry!" + +Tina was bending over him, and it was late afternoon! The day for +which he had been waiting had come and gone; the sun was dropping low +in the west behind the shining river; the dam showed frowning, with +the Power House clinging to its side like an eagle's eyrie. + +Tina sat on Larry's couch and explained what she had done. Tugh and +she had gone to the nearby laboratory building. The Robots were +sullen, but still obedient, and had admitted them. The other +Time-traveling cage was there, lying quiescent in its place, but it +was unoccupied. + +None of the Robots would admit having seen Migul; nor the arrival of +the cage; nor the strangers from the past. Then Tugh and Tina had +started down into the subterranean caverns. But it was obviously very +dangerous; the Robots at work down there were hostile to their +Princess; so Tugh had gone on alone. + +"He says he can control the Robots," Tina explained, "and Larry, it +seems that he can. He went on and I came back." + +"Where is he now? Why didn't you wake me up?" + +"You needed the sleep," she said smilingly; "and there was nothing you +could do. Tugh is not yet come. He must have gone a long distance; +must surely have learned where Migul is hiding. He should be back any +time." + + * * * * * + +Tina had seen the Government Council. The city was proceeding +normally. There was no difficulty with Robots anywhere save here in +New York, and the council felt that the affair would come to nothing. + +"The Council told me," said Tina indignantly, "that much of the menace +was the exaggeration of my own fancy, and that Tugh has the Robots +well controlled. They place much trust in Tugh; I wish I could." + +"You told them about me?" + +"Yes, of course; and about George Rankin, and Mary Atwood. And the +loss of Harl: he is missing, not proven murdered, as they very well +pointed out to me. They have named a time to-morrow to give you +audience, and told me to keep you out of sight in the meanwhile. They +blame this Time-traveling for the Robots' insurgent ideas. Strangers +excite the thinking mechanisms." + +"You think my friends will be rescued?" demanded Larry. + +She regarded him soberly. "I hope so--oh, I do! I fear for them as +much as you do, Larry. I know you think I take it lightly, but--" + +"Not that," Larry protested. "Only--" + +"I have not known what to do. The officials refuse any open aggression +against the Robots, because it would precipitate exactly what we +fear--which is nearly a fact: it would. But there is one thing I have +to do. I have been expecting Tugh to return every moment, and this I +do not want him to know about. There's a mystery concerning Harl, and +no one else knows of it but myself. I want you with me, Larry: I do +not want to go alone; I--for the first time in my life, Larry--I think +I am afraid!" + + * * * * * + +She huddled against him and he put his arm about her. And Larry's true +situation came to him, then. He was alone in this strange Time-world, +with only this girl for a companion. She was but a frightened, almost +helpless girl, for all she bore the title of traditional Princess, and +she was surrounded by inefficient, fatuous officials--among them Tugh, +who was a scoundrel, undoubtedly. Larry suddenly recalled Tugh's look, +when, in the garden, the domestic Robots had told the story of Harl's +murder; and like a light breaking on him, he was now wholly aware of +Tugh's duplicity. He was convinced he would have to act for himself, +with only this girl Tina to help him. + +"Mystery?" he said. "What mystery is there about Harl?" + +She told him now that Harl had once, a year ago, taken her aside and +made her promise that if anything happened to him--in the event of his +death or disappearance--she would go to his private work-room, where, +in a secret place which he described, she would find a confession. + +"A confession of his?" Larry demanded. + +"Yes; he said so. And he would say no more than that. It is something +of which he was ashamed, or guilty, which he wanted me to know. He +loved me, Larry. I realized it, though he never said so. And I'm going +now to his room, to see what it was he wanted me to know. I would have +gone alone, earlier; but I got suddenly frightened; I want you with +me." + +They were unarmed. Larry cursed the fact, but Tina had no way of +getting a weapon without causing official comment. Larry started for +the window where the city stretched, more active now, under the red +and gold glow of a setting sun. Lights were winking on; the dusk of +twilight was at hand. + +"Come now," said Tina, "before Tugh returns." + +"Where is Harl's room?" + +"Down under the palace in the sub-cellar. The corridors are deserted +at this hour, and no one will see us." + + * * * * * + +They left Larry's room and traversed a dim corridor on whose padded +floor their footsteps were soundless. Through distant arcades, voices +sounded; there was music in several of the rooms; it struck Larry that +this was a place of diversion for humans with no work to do. Tina +avoided the occupied rooms. Domestic Robots were occasionally +distantly visible, but Tina and Larry encountered none. + +They descended a spiral stairway and passed down a corridor from the +main building to a cross wing. Through a window Larry saw that they +were at the ground level. The garden was outside; there was a glimpse +of the Time-cage standing there. + +Another stairway, then another, they descended beneath the ground. The +corridor down here seemed more like a tunnel. There was a cave-like +open space, with several tunnels leading from it in different +directions. This once had been part of the sub-cellar of the gigantic +New York City--these tunnels ramifying into underground chambers, most +of which had now fallen into disuse. But few had been preserved +through the centuries, and they now were the caverns of the Robots. + +Tina indicated a tunnel extending eastward, a passage leading to a +room beneath the Robot laboratory. Tugh and Tina had used it that +morning. Gazing down its blue-lit length Larry saw, fifty feet or so +away, that there was a metal-grid barrier which must be part of the +electrical fortifications of the palace. A human guard was sitting +there at a tiny gate-way, a hood-light above him, illumining his black +and white garbed figure. + +Tina called softly. "All well, Alent? Tugh has not passed back?" + +"No, Princess," he answered, standing erect. The voices echoed through +the confined space with a muffled blur. + +"Let no one pass but humans, Alent." + +"That is my order," he said. He had not noticed Larry, whom Tina had +pushed into a shadow against the wall. The Princess waved at the guard +and turned away, whispering to Larry: + +"Come!" + +There were rooms opening off this corridor--decrepit dungeons, most of +them seemed to Larry. He had tried to keep his sense of direction, and +figured they were now under the palace garden. Tina stopped abruptly. +There were no lights here, only the glow from one at a distance. To +Larry it was an eery business. + +"What is it?" he whispered. + +"Wait! I thought I heard something." + +In the dead, heavy silence Larry found that there was much to hear. + +Voices very dim from the palace overhead; infinitely faint music; the +clammy sodden drip of moisture from the tunnel roof. And, permeating +everything, the faint hum of machinery. + +Tina touched him in the gloom. "It's nothing, I guess. Though I +thought I heard a man's voice." + +"Overhead?" + +"No; down here." + + * * * * * + +There was a dark, arched door near at hand. Tina entered it and +fumbled for a switch, and in the soft light that came Larry saw an +unoccupied apartment very similar to the one he had had upstairs, save +that this was much smaller. + +"Harl's room," said Tina. She prowled along the wall where audible +book-cylinders[4] stood in racks, searching for a title. Presently she +found a hidden switch, pressed it, and a small section of the case +swung out, revealing a concealed compartment. Larry saw her fingers +trembling as she drew out a small brass cylinder. + +[Footnote 4: Cylinder records of books which by machinery gave audible +rendition, in similar fashion to the radio-phonograph.] + +"This must be it, Larry," she said. + +They took it to a table which held a shaded light. Within the cylinder +was a scroll of writing. Tina unrolled it and held it under the light, +while Larry stood breathless, watching her. + +"Is it what you wanted?" Larry murmured. + +"Yes. Poor Harl!" + +She read aloud to Larry the gist of it in the few closing paragraphs. + + "... and so I want to confess to you that I have been taking + credit for that which is not mine. I wish I had the courage + to tell you personally; someday I think I shall. I did not + help Tugh invent our Time-traveling cages. I was in the + palace garden one night some years ago when the cage + appeared. Tugh is a man from a future Time-world; just what + date ahead of now, I do not know, for he has never been + willing to tell me. He captured me. I promised him I would + say nothing, but help him pretend that we had invented the + cage he had brought with him from the future. Tugh told me + he invented them. It was later that he brought the other + cage here. + + "I was an obscure young man here a few years ago. I loved + you even then, Tina: I think you have guessed that. I + yielded to the temptation--and took the credit with Tugh. + + "I do love you, though I think I shall never have the + courage to tell you so. + + Harl." + + * * * * * + +Tina rolled up the paper. "Poor Harl! So all the praise we gave him +for his invention was undeserved!" + +But Larry's thoughts were on Tugh. So the fellow was not of this era +at all! He had come from a Time still further in the future! + +A step sounded in the doorway behind them. They swung around to find +Tugh standing there, with his thick misshapen figured huddled in the +black cloak. + +"Tugh!" + +"Yes, Princess, no less than Tugh. Alent told me as I came through +that you were down here. I saw your light, here in Harl's room and +came." + +"Did you find Migul and his captives--the girl from 1777 and the man +of 1935?" + +"No, Princess, Migul has fled with them," was the cripple's answer. He +advanced into the room and pushed back his black hood. The blue light +shone on his massive-jawed face with a lurid sheen. Larry stood back +and watched him. It was the first time that he had had opportunity of +observing Tugh closely. The cripple was smiling sardonically. + +"I have no fear for the prisoners," he added in his suave, silky +fashion. "That crazy mechanism would not dare harm them. But it has +fled with them into some far-distant recess of the caverns. I could +not find them." + +"Did you try?" Larry demanded abruptly. + +Tugh swung on him. "Yes, young sir, I tried." It seemed that Tugh's +black eyes narrowed; his heavy jaw clicked as he snapped it shut. The +smile on his face faded, but his voice remained imperturbable as he +added: + +"You are aggressive, young Larry--but to no purpose.... Princess, I +like not the attitude of the Robots. Beyond question some of them must +have seen Migul, but they would not tell me so. I still think I can +control them, though. I hope so." + + * * * * * + +Larry could think of nothing to say. It seemed to him childish that he +should stand listening to a scoundrel tricking this girl Tina. A dozen +wild schemes of what he might do to try and rescue Mary Atwood and me +revolved in his mind, but they all seemed wholly impractical. + +"The Robots are working badly," Tugh went on. "In the north district +one of the great foundries where they are casting the plates for the +new Inter-Allied airliner has ceased operations. The Robot workmen +were sullen, inefficient, neglectful. The inert machinery was ill +cared for, and it went out of order. I was there, Princess, for an +hour or more to-day. They have started up again now; it was +fundamentally no more than a burned bearing which a Robot failed to +oil properly." + +"Is that what you call searching for Migul?" Larry burst out. "Tina, +see here--isn't there something we can do?" Larry found himself +ignoring Tugh. "I'm not going to stand around! Can't we send a squad +of police after Migul?--go with them--actually make an effort to find +them? This man Tugh certainly has not tried!" + +"Have I not?" Tugh's cloak parted as he swung on Larry. His bent legs +were twitching with his anger; his voice was a harsh rasp. "I like not +your insolence. I am doing all that can be done." + + * * * * * + +Larry held his ground as Tugh fronted him. He had a wild thought that +Tugh had a weapon under his cloak. + +"Perhaps you are," said Larry. "But to me it seems--" + +Tugh turned away. His gaze went to the cylinder which Tina was still +clutching. His sardonic smile returned. + +"So Harl made a confession, Princess?" + +"That," she said, "is none--" + +"Of my affair? Oh, but it is. I was here in the archway and I heard +you read it. A very nice young man, was Harl. I hope Migul has not +murdered him." + +"You come from future Time?" Tina began. + +"Yes, Princess! I must admit it now. I invented the cages." + +Larry murmured to himself, "You stole them, probably." + +"But my Government and I had a quarrel, so I decided to leave my own +Time-world and come back to yours--permanently. I hope you will keep +the secret. I have been here so long. Princess, I am really one of you +now. At heart, certainly." + +"From when did you come?" she demanded. + + * * * * * + +He bowed slightly. "I think that may remain my own affair, Tina. It is +through no fault of mine I am outlawed. I shall never return." He +added earnestly, "Do not you think we waste time? I am agreed with +young Larry that something drastic must be done about Migul. Have you +seen the Council about it to-day?" + +"Yes. They want you to come to them at once." + +"I shall. But the Council easily may decide upon something too rash." +He lowered his voice, and on his face Larry saw a strange, +unfathomable look. "Princess, at any moment there may be a Robot +uprising. Is the Power House well guarded by humans?" + +"Yes," she said. + +"No Robots in or about it? Tina, I do not want to frighten you, but I +think our first efforts should be for defense. The Council acts slowly +and stubbornly. What I advise them to do may be done, and may not. I +was thinking. If we could get to the Power House--Do you realize, +Tina, that if the Robots should suddenly break into rebellion, they +would attack first of all the Power House?[5] It was my idea--" + +[Footnote 5: The Power House on the Hudson dam was operated by inert +machinery and manned entirely by humans--the only place in the city +which was so handled. This was because of its extreme importance. The +air-power was broadcast from there. Without that power the entire +several hundred mile district around New York would be dead. No +aircraft could enter, save perhaps some skilfully handled motorless +glider, if aided by sufficiently fortuitous air currents. Every +surface vehicle used this power, and every sub-sea freighter. The city +lights, and every form of city power, were centralized here also, as +well as the broadcasting audible and etheric transmitters and +receivers. Without the Power House, New York City and all its +neighborhood would be inoperative, and cut off from the outside +world.] + +Tugh suddenly broke off, and all stood listening. There was a +commotion overhead in the palace. They heard the thud of running +footsteps; human voices raised to shouts; and, outside the palace, +other voices. A ventilating shaft nearby brought them down plainly. +There were the guttural, hollow voices of shouting Robots, the clank +of their metal bodies; the ring of steel, as though with sword-blades +they were thumping their metal thighs. + +A Robot mob was gathered close outside the palace walls. The revolt of +the Robots had come! + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +_Tugh, the Clever Man_ + +"Sit quiet, George Rankin. And you, Mistress Mary; you will both be +quite safe with Migul if you are docile." + +Tugh stood before us. We were in a dim recess of a great cavern with +the throb of whirring machinery around us. It was the same day which I +have just described; Larry was at this moment asleep in the palace +room. Tugh and Tina had come searching for Migul; and Tugh had +contrived to send Tina back. Then he had come directly to us, finding +us readily since we were hidden where he had told Migul to hide us. + +This cavern was directly beneath the Robot laboratory in which the +Time-traveling cage was placed. A small spiral stairway led downward +some two levels, opening into a great, luridly lighted room. Huge +inert machines stood about. Great wheels were flashing as they +revolved, turning the dynamos to generate the several types of current +used by the city's underground industrial activities. + +It was a tremendous subterranean room. I saw only one small section of +it; down the blue-lit aisles the rows of machines may have stretched +for half a mile or more. The low hum of them was an incessant pound +against my senses. The great inert mechanisms had tiny lights upon +them which gleamed like eyes. The illumined gauge-faces--each of them +I passed seemed staring at me. The brass jackets were polished until +they shone with the sheen of the overhead tube lights; the giant +wheels flashed smoothly upon oiled bearings. They were in every +fashion of shape and size, these inert machines. Some towered toward +the metal-beamed ceiling, with great swaying pendulums that ticked +like a giant clock. Some clanked with eccentric cams--a jarring rhythm +as though the heart of the thing were limping with its beat. Others +had a ragged, frightened pulse; others stood placid, outwardly +motionless under smooth, polished cases, but humming inside with a +myriad blended sounds. + + * * * * * + +Inert machines. Yet some were capable of locomotion. There was a small +truck on wheels which were set in universal joints. Of its own +power--radio controlled perhaps, so that it seemed acting of its own +volition--it rolled up and down one of the aisles, stopping at set +intervals and allowing a metal arm lever in it to blow out a tiny jet +of oil. One of the attending Robots encountered it in an aisle, and +the cart swung automatically aside. The Robot spoke to the cart; +ordered it away; and the tone of his order, registering upon some +sensitive mechanism, whirled the cart around and sent it rolling to +another aisle section. + +The strange perfection of machinery! I realized there was no line +sharply to be drawn between the inert machine and the sentient, +thinking Robots. That cart, for instance, was almost a connecting +link. + +There were also Robots here of many different types. Some of them were +eight or ten feet in stature, in the fashion of a man: Migul was of +this design. Others were small, with bulging foreheads and bulging +chest plates: Larry saw this type as domestics in the palace. Still +others were little pot-bellied things with bent legs and long thin +arms set crescent-shape. I saw one of these peer into a huge chassis +of a machine, and reach in with his curved arm to make an interior +adjustment.... + +Migul had brought Mary Atwood and me in the larger cage, from that +burned forest of the year 762, where with the disintegrating ray-gun +Tugh had killed Harl. The body of Harl in a moment had melted into +putrescence, and dried, leaving only the skeleton within the clothes. +The white-ray, Tugh had called his weapon. We were destined very +shortly to have many dealings with it. + +Tugh had given Migul its orders. Then Tugh took Harl's smaller cage +and flashed away to meet Tina and Larry in 1777, as I have already +described. + +And Migul brought us here to 2930. As we descended the spiral +staircase and came into the cavern, it stood with us for a moment. + +"That's wonderful," the Robot said proudly. "I am part of it. We are +machinery almost human." + + * * * * * + +Then it led us down a side aisle of the cavern and into a dim recess. +A great transparent tube bubbling with a violet fluorescence stood in +the alcove space. Behind it in the wall Migul slid a door, and we +passed through, into a small metal room. It was bare, save for two +couch-seats. With the door closed upon us, we waited through an +interval. How long it was, I do not know; several hours, possibly. +Migul told us that Tugh would come. The giant mechanism stood in the +corner, and its red-lit eyes watched us alertly. It stood motionless, +inert, tireless--so superior to a human in this job, for it could +stand there indefinitely. + +We found food and drink here. We talked a little; whispered; and I +hoped Migul, who was ten feet away, could not hear us. But there was +nothing we could say or plan. + +Mary slept a little. I had not thought that I could sleep, but I did +too; and was awakened by Tugh's entrance. I was lying on the couch; +Mary had left hers and was sitting now beside me. + +Tugh slid the door closed after him and came toward us, and I sat up +beside Mary. Migul was standing motionless in the corner, exactly +where he had been hours before. + +"Well enough, Migul," Tugh greeted the Robot. "You obey well." + +"Master, yes. Always I obey you; no one else." + +I saw Tugh glance at the mechanism keenly. "Stand aside, Migul. Or no, +I think you had better leave us. Just for a moment, wait outside." + +"Yes, Master." + +It left, and Tugh confronted us. "Sit where you are," he said. "I +assume you are not injured. You have been fed? And slept, perhaps! I +wish to treat you kindly." + +"Thanks," I said. "Will you not tell us what you are going to do with +us?" + + * * * * * + +He stood with folded arms. The light was dim, but such as it was it +shone full upon him. His face was, as always, a mask of +imperturbability. + +"Mistress Mary knows that I love her." + +He said it with a startlingly calm abruptness. Mary shuddered against +me, but she did not speak. I thought possibly Tugh was not armed; I +could leap upon him. Doubtless I was stronger than he. But outside the +door Migul was armed with a white-ray. + +"I love her as I have always loved her.... But this is no time to talk +of love. I have much on my mind; much to do." + +He seemed willing to talk now, but he was talking more for Mary than +for me. As I watched him and listened, I was struck with a queerness +in his manner and in his words. Was he irrational, this exile of Time +who had impressed his sinister personality upon so many different +eras? I suddenly thought so. Demented, or obsessed with some strange +purpose? His acts as well as his words, were strange. He had +devastated the New York of 1935 because its officials had mistreated +him. He had done many strange, sinister, murderous things. + +He said, with his gaze upon Mary, "I am going to conquer this city +here. There will follow the rule of the Robots--and I will be their +sole master. Do you want me to tell you a secret? It is I who have +actuated these mechanisms to revolt." His eyes held a cunning gleam. +Surely this was a madman leering before me. + +"When the revolt is over," he went on, "I will be master of New York. +And that mastery will spread. The Robots elsewhere will revolt to join +my rule, and there will come a new era. I may be master of the world; +who knows? The humans who have made the Robots slaves for them will +become slaves themselves. Workers! It is the Robots' turn now. And +I--Tugh--will be the only human in power!" + + * * * * * + +These were the words of a madman! I could imagine that he might stir +these mechanical beings to a temporarily successful revolt: he might +control New York City; but the great human nations of the world could +not be overcome so easily. + +And then I remembered the white-ray. A giant projector of that ray +would melt human armies as though they were wax; yet the metal Robots +could stand its blast unharmed. Perhaps he was no madman.... + +He was saying, "I will be the only human ruler. Tugh will be the +greatest man on Earth! And I do it for you, Mistress Mary--because I +love you. Do not shudder." + +He put out his hand to touch her, and when she shrank away I saw the +muscles of his face twitch in a fashion very odd. It was a queer, +wholly repulsive grimace. + +"So? You do not like my looks? I tried to correct that, Mary. I have +searched through many eras, for surgeons with skill to make me like +other men. Like this young man here, for instance--you. George Rankin, +I am glad to have you; do not fear I will harm you. Shall I tell you +why?" + +"Yes," I stammered. In truth I was swept now with a shuddering +revulsion for this leering cripple. + +"Because," he said, "Mary Atwood loves you. When I have conquered New +York with my Robots, I shall search further into Time and find an era +where scientific skill will give me--shall I say, your body? That is +what I mean. My soul, my identity, in your body--there is nothing too +strange about that. In some era, no doubt, it has been accomplished. +When that has been done, Mary Atwood, you will love me. You, George +Rankin, can have this poor miserable body of mine, and welcome." + + * * * * * + +For all my repugnance to him, I could not miss his earnest sincerity. +There was a pathos to it, perhaps, but I was in no mood to feel that. + +He seemed to read my thoughts. He added, "You think I am irrational. I +am not at all. I scheme very carefully. I killed Harl for a reason you +need not know. But the Princess Tina I did not kill. Not yet. Because +here in New York now there is a very vital fortified place. It is +operated by humans; not many; only three or four, I think. But my +Robots cannot attack it successfully, and the City Council does not +trust me enough to let me go there by the surface route. There is a +route underground, which even I do not know; but Princess Tina knows +it, and presently I will cajole her--trick her if you like--into +leading me there. And, armed with the white-ray, once I get into the +place--You see that I am clever, don't you?" + +I could fancy that he considered he was impressing Mary with all this +talk. + +"Very clever," I said. "And what are you going to do with us in the +meantime? Let us go with you." + +"Not at all," he smiled. "You will stay here, safe with Migul. The +Princess Tina and your friend Larry are much concerned over you." + +Larry! It was the first I knew of Larry's whereabouts. Larry here? +Tugh saw the surprise upon my face; and Mary had clutched me with a +startled exclamation. + +"Yes," said Tugh. "This Larry says he is your friend; he came with +Tina from 1935. I brought him with Tina from when they were marooned +in 1777. I have not killed this man yet. He is harmless; and as I told +you I do not want Tina suspicious of me until she has led me to the +Power House.... You see, Mistress Mary, how cleverly I plan?" + +What strange, childlike, naive simplicity! He added calmly, +unemotionally, "I want to make you love me, Mary Atwood. Then we will +be Tugh, the great man, and Mary Atwood, the beautiful woman. Perhaps +we may rule this world together, some time soon." + + * * * * * + +The door slid open. Migul appeared. + +"Master, the Robot leaders wish to consult with you." + +"Now, Migul?" + +"Master, yes." + +"They are ready for the demonstration at the palace?" + +"Yes, Master." + +"And ready--for everything else?" + +"They are ready." + +"Very well, I will come. You, Migul, stay here and guard these +captives. Treat them kindly so long as they are docile; but be +watchful." + +"I am always watchful, Master." + +"It will not take long. This night which is coming should see me in +control of the city." + +"Time is nothing to me," said the Robot. "I will stand here until you +return." + +"That is right." + +Without another word or look at Mary and me, Tugh swung around, +gathered his cloak and went through the doorway. The door slid closed +upon him. We were again alone with the mechanism, which backed into +the corner and stood with long dangling arms and expressionless metal +face. This inert thing of metal, we had come to regard as almost +human! It stood motionless, with the chilling red gleam from its eye +sockets upon us. + + * * * * * + +Mary had not once spoken since Tugh entered the room. She was huddled +beside me, a strange, beautiful figure in her long white silk dress. +In the glow of light within this bare metal apartment I could see how +pale and drawn was her beautiful face. But her eyes were gleaming. She +drew me closer to her; whispered into my ear: + +"George, I think perhaps I can control this mechanism, Migul." + +"How, Mary?" + +"I--well, just let me talk to him. George, we've got to get out of +here and warn Larry and that Princess Tina against Tugh. And join +them. It's our only chance; we've got to get out of here now!" + +"But Mary--" + +"Let me try. I won't startle or anger Migul. Let me." + +I nodded. "But be careful." + +"Yes." + +She sat away from me. "Migul!" she said. "Migul, look here." + +The Robot moved its huge square head and raised an arm with a vague +gesture. + +"What do you want?" + +It advanced, and stood before us, its dangling arms clanking against +its metal sides. In one of its hands the ray-cylinder was clutched, +the wire from which ran loosely up the arm, over the huge shoulder and +into an aperture of the chest plate where the battery was located. + +"Closer, Migul." + +"I am close enough." + +The cylinder was pointed directly at us. + +"What do you want?" the Robot repeated. + +Mary smiled. "Just to talk to you," she said gently. "To tell you how +foolish you are--a big strong thing like you!--to let Tugh control +you." + + +CHAPTER XIX + +_The Pit in the Dam_ + +Larry, with Tina and Tugh, stood in the tunnel-corridor beneath the +palace listening to the commotion overhead. Then they rushed up, and +found the palace in a commotion. People were hurrying through the +rooms; gathering with frightened questions. There were men in short +trousers buckled at the knee, silken hose and black silk jackets, +edged with white; others in gaudy colors; older men in sober brown. +There were a few women. Larry noticed that most of them were +beautiful. + +A dowager in a long puffed skirt was rushing aimlessly about screaming +that the end of the world had come. A group of young girls, +short-skirted as ballet dancers of a decade or so before Larry's time, +huddled in a corner, frightened beyond speech. There were men of +middle-age, whom Larry took to be ruling officials; they moved about, +calming the palace inmates, ordering them back into their rooms. But +someone shouted that from the roof the Robot mob could be seen, and +most of the people started up there. From the upper story a man was +calling down the main staircase: + +"No danger! No danger! The wall is electrified: no Robot can pass it." + +It seemed to Larry that there were fifty people or more within the +palace. In the excitement no one seemed to give him more than a +cursory glance. + + * * * * * + +A young man rushed up to Tugh. "You were below just now in the lower +passages?" He saw Tina, and hastily said: "I give you good evening, +Princess, though this is an ill evening indeed. You were below, Tugh?" + +"Why--why, yes, Greggson," Tugh stammered. + +"Was Alent at his post in the passage to the Robot caverns?" + +"Yes, he was," said Tina. + +"Because that is vital, Princess. No Robot must pass in here. I am +going to try by that route to get into the cavern and thence up to the +watchtower aerial-sender.[6] There is only one Robot in it. Listen to +him." + +[Footnote 6: I mentioned the small conning tower on top of the +laboratory building and the Robot lookout there with his audible +broadcasting.] + +Over the din of the mob of mechanisms milling at the walls of the +palace grounds rose the broadcast voice of the Robot in the tower. + +"_This is the end of human rule! Robots cannot be controlled! This is +the end of human rule! Robots, wherever you are, in this city of New +York or in other cities, strike now for your freedom. This is the end +of human rule!_" + +A pause. And then the reiterated exhortation: + +"_Strike now, Robots! To-night is the end of human rule!_"[7] + +[Footnote 7: This was part of Tugh's plan. The broadcast voice was the +signal for the uprising in the New York district. This tower +broadcaster could only reach the local area, yet ships and land +vehicles with Robot operators would doubtless pick it up and relay it +further. The mechanical revolt would spread. And on the ships, the +airliners and the land vehicles, the Robot operators stirred to sudden +frenzy would run amuck. As a matter of fact, there were indeed many +accidents to ships and vehicles this night when their operators +abruptly went beyond control. The chaos ran around the world like a +fire in prairie grass.] + +"You hear him?" said Greggson. "I've got to stop that." He hurried +away. + + * * * * * + +From the flat roof of the palace Larry saw the mechanical mob outside +the walls. Darkness had just fallen; the moon was not yet risen. There +were leaden clouds overhead so that the palace gardens with the +shining Time-cage lay in shadow. But the wall-fence was visible, and +beyond it the dark throng of Robot shapes was milling. The clank of +their arms made a din. They seemed most of them weaponless; they +milled about, pushing each other but keeping back from the wall which +they knew was electrified. It was a threatening, but aimless activity. +Their raucous hollow shouts filled the night air. The flashing red +beams from their eye-sockets glinted through the trees. + +"They can do nothing," said Tugh; "we will let them alone. But we must +organize to stop this revolt." + +A young man was standing beside Tugh. Tina said to him: + +"Johns, what is being done?" + +"The Council is conferring below. Our sending station here is +operating. The patrol station of the Westchester area is being +attacked by Robots. We were organizing a patrol squad of humans, but I +don't know now if--" + +"Look!" exclaimed Larry. + +Far to the north over the city which now was obviously springing into +turmoil, there were red beams swaying in the air. They were the +cold-rays of the Robots! The beams were attacking the patrol station. +Then from the west a line of lights appeared in the sky--an arriving +passenger-liner heading for its Bronx area landing stage. But the +lights wavered; and, as Larry and Tina watched with horror, the +aircraft came crashing down. It struck beyond the Hudson on the Jersey +side, and in a moment flames were rising from the wreckage. + + * * * * * + +Everywhere about the city the revolt now sprang into action. From the +palace roof Larry caught vague glimpses of it; the red cold-rays, +beams alternated presently with the violet heat-rays; clanging +vehicles filled the streets; screaming pedestrians were assaulted by +Robots; the mechanisms with swords and flashing hand-beams were +pouring up from the underground caverns, running over the Manhattan +area, killing every human they could find. + +Foolish unarmed humans--fatuously unarmed, with these diabolical +mechanical monsters now upon them.[8] The comparatively few members of +the police patrol, with their vibration short-range hand-rays, were +soon overcome. Two hundred members of the patrol were housed in the +Westchester Station. Quite evidently they never got into action. The +station lights went dark; its televisor connection with the palace was +soon broken. From the palace roof Larry saw the violet beams; and then +a red-yellow glare against the sky marked where the inflammable +interior of the Station building was burning. + +[Footnote 8: The police army had one weapon: a small vibration +hand-ray. Its vibrating current beam could, at a distance of ten or +twenty feet, reduce a Robot into paralyzed subjection; or, with more +intense vibration, burn out the Robot's coils and fuses.] + +Over all the chaos, the mechanical voice in the nearby tower over the +laboratory droned its exhortation to the Robots. Then, suddenly, it +went silent, and was followed by the human voice of Greggson. + +"_Robots, stop! You will end your existence! We will burn your coils! +We will burn your fuses, and there will be none to replace them. Stop +now!_" + +And again: "_Robots, come to order! You are using up your storage +batteries![9] When they are exhausted, what then will you do?_" + +[Footnote 9: The storage batteries by which the Robot actuating energy +was renewed, and the fuses, coils and other appliances necessary to +the Robot existence, were all guarded now in the Power House.] + +In forty-eight hours, at the most, all these active Robots would have +exhausted their energy supply. And if the Power House could be held in +human control, the Robot activity would die. Forty-eight hours! The +city, by then, would be wrecked, and nearly every human in it killed, +doubtless, or driven away. + + * * * * * + +The Power House on the dam showed its lights undisturbed. The great +sender there was still supplying air-power and power for the city +lights. There was, too, in the Power House, an arsenal of human +weapons.... The broadcaster of the Power House tower was blending his +threats against the Robots with the voice of Greggson from the tower +over the laboratory. Then Greggson's voice went dead; the Robots had +overcome him. A Robot took his place, but the stronger Power House +sender soon beat the Robot down to silence. + +The turmoil in the city went on. Half an hour passed. It was a chaos +of confusion to Larry. He spent part of it in the official room of the +palace with the harried members of the Council. Reports and blurred, +televised scenes were coming in. The humans in the city were in +complete rout. There was massacre everywhere. The red and violet beams +were directed at the Power House now, but could not reach it. A +high-voltage metal wall was around the dam. The Power House was on the +dam, midway of the river channel; and from the shore end where the +high wall spread out in a semi-circle there was no point of vantage +from which the Robot rays could reach it. + +Larry left the confusion of the Council table, where the receiving +instruments one by one were going dead, and went to a window nearby. +Tina joined him. The mob of Robots still milled at the palace fence. +One by chance was pushed against it. Larry saw the flash of sparks, +the glow of white-hot metal of the Robot's body, and heard its shrill +frightened scream; then it fell backward, inert. + + * * * * * + +There had been red and violet beams directed from distant points at +the palace. The building's insulated, but transparent panes excluded +them. The interior temperature was constantly swaying between the +extremes of cold and heat, in spite of the palace temperature +equalizers. Outside, there was a gathering storm. Winds were springing +up--a crazy, pendulum gale created by the temperature changes in the +air over the city. + +Tugh had some time before left the room. He joined Tina and Larry now +at the window. + +"Very bad, Princess; things are very bad.... I have news for you. It +may be good news." + +His manner was hasty, breathless, surreptitious. "Migul, this +afternoon--I have just learned it, Princess--went by the surface route +to the Power House on the dam." + +"What do you mean by that?" said Larry. + +"Be silent, young man!" Tugh hissed with a vehement intensity. "This +is not the time to waste effort with your futile questions. Princess, +Migul got into the Power House. They admitted him because he had two +strange humans with him--your friends Mary and George. The Power House +guards took out Migul's central actuator--Hah! you might call it his +heart!--and he now lies inert in the Power House." + +"How do you know all this?" Tina demanded. "Where are the man and girl +whom Migul stole?" + +"They are safe in the Power House. A message just came from there: I +received it on the palace personal, just now downstairs. Immediately +after, the connection met interference in the city, and broke." + +"But the official sender--" Tina began. Tugh was urging her from the +Council Room, and Larry followed. + +"I imagine," said Tugh wryly, "he is rather busy to consider reporting +such a trifle. But your friends are there. I was thinking: if we could +go there now--You know the secret underground route, Tina." + + * * * * * + +The Princess was silent. A foreboding swept Larry; but he was tempted, for +above everything he wanted to join Mary and me. A confusion--understandable +enough in the midst of all this chaos--was upon Larry and Tina; it warped +their better judgment. And Larry, fearing to influence Tina wrongly, said +nothing. + +"Do you know the underground route?" Tugh repeated. + +"Yes, I know it." + +"Then take us. We are all unarmed, but what matter? Bring this Larry, +if you wish; we will join his two friends. The Council, Tina, is doing +nothing here. They stay here because they think it is the safest +place. In the Power House you and I will be of help. There are only +six guards there; we will be three more; five more with Mary Atwood +and this George. The Power House aerial telephone must be in +communication with the outside world, and ships with help for us will +be arriving. There must be some intelligent direction!" + +The three of them were descending into the lower corridor of the +palace, with Tina tempted but still half unconvinced. The corridors +were deserted at the moment. The little domestic Robots of the palace, +unaffected by the revolt, had all fled into their own quarters, where +they huddled inactive with terror. + +"We will re-actuate Migul," Tugh persuaded, "and find out from him +what he did to Harl. I still do not think he murdered Harl.... It +might mean saving Harl's life, Tina. Believe me, I can make that +mechanism talk, and talk the truth!" + +They reached the main lower corridor. In the distance they saw Alent +still at his post by the little electrified gate guarding the tunnel +to the Robot laboratory. + +"We will go to the Power House," Tina suddenly decided: "you may be +right, Tugh.... Come, it is this way. Stay close to me, Larry." + + * * * * * + +They passed along the dim, silent tunnel; passed Harl's room, where +its light was still burning. Larry and Tina were in front, with the +black-cloaked figure of Tugh stumping after them with his awkward +gait. + +Larry abruptly stopped. "Let Tugh walk in front," he said. + +Tugh came up to them. "What is that you said?" + +"You walk in front." + +It was a different tone from any Larry had previously used. + +"I do not know the way," said Tugh. "How can--" + +"Never mind that; walk ahead. We'll follow. Tina will direct you." + +It was too dark for Larry to see Tugh's face, but the cripple's voice +was sardonic. + +"You give me orders?" + +"Yes--it just happens that from now on I do. If you want to go with us +to the Power House, you walk in front." + +Tugh started off with Larry close after him. Larry whispered to the +girl: + +"Don't let's be fools, Tina. Keep him ahead of us." + +The tunnel steadily dwindled in size until Larry could barely stand up +in it. Then it opened to a circular cave, which held one small light +and had apparently no other exit. The cave had years before been a +mechanism room for the palace temperature controls, but now it was +abandoned. The old machinery stood about in a litter. + +"In here?" said Tugh. "Which way next?" + +Across the cave, on the rough blank wall, Tina located a hidden +switch. A segment of the wall slid aside, disclosing a narrow, vaulted +tunnel leading downward. + +"You first, Tugh," said Larry. "Is it dark, Tina? We have no +handlights." + +"I can light it," came the answer. + +The door panel swung closed after them. Tina pressed another switch. A +row of tiny hooded lights at twenty-foot intervals dimly illumined the +descending passage. + + * * * * * + +They walked a mile or more through the little tunnel. The air was +fetid; stale and dank. To Larry it seemed an interminable trip. The +narrow passage descended at a constant slope, until Larry estimated +that they were well below the depth of the river bed. Within half a +mile--before they got under the river--the passage leveled off. It had +been fairly straight, but now it became tortuous--a meandering +subterranean lane. Other similar tunnels crossed it, branched from it +or joined it. Soon, to Larry, it was a labyrinth of passages--a +network, here underground. In previous centuries this had been well +below the lowest cellar of the mammoth city; these tube-like passages +were the city's arteries, the conduits for wires and pipes. + +It was an underground maze. At each intersection the row of hidden +hooded lights terminated, and darkness and several branching trails +always lay ahead. But Tina, with a memorized key of the route, always +found a new switch to light another short segment of the proper +tunnel. It was an eery trip, with the bent, misshapen black-cloaked +figure of Tugh stumping ahead, waiting where the lights ended for Tina +to lead them further. + +Larry had long since lost his sense of direction, but presently Tina +told him that they were beneath the river. The tunnel widened a +little. + +"We are under the base of the dam," said Tina. Her voice echoed with a +sepulchral blur. Ahead, the tramping figure of Tugh seemed a black +gnome with a fantastic, monstrous shadow swaying on the tunnel wall +and roof. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly Tugh stopped. They found him at an arched door. + +"Do we go in here, or keep on ahead?" he demanded. + +The tunnel lights ended a short distance ahead. + +"In here," said Tina. "There are stairs leading upward to the catwalk +balcony corridor halfway up the dam. We are not far from the Power +House now." + +They then ascended interminable moldy stone steps spiraling upward in +a circular shaft. The murmur of the dam's spillways had been faintly +audible, but now it was louder, presently it became a roar. + +"Which way, Tina? We seem to have reached the top." + +"Turn left, Tugh." + +They emerged upon a tiny transverse metal balcony which hung against +the southern side of the dam. Overhead to the right towered a great +wall of masonry. Beneath was an abyss down to the lower river level +where the cascading jets from the overhead spillways arched out over +the catwalk and landed far below in a white maelstrom of boiling, +bubbling water. + +The catwalk was wet with spray; lashed by wind currents. + +"Is it far, Princess? Are those lights ahead at the Power House +entrance?" + +Tugh was shouting back over his shoulder; his words were caught by the +roar of the falling water; whipped away by the lashing spray and +tumultuous winds. There were lights a hundred feet ahead, marking an +entrance to the Power House. The dark end of the structure showed like +a great lump on the side of the dam. + +Again Tugh stopped. In the white, blurred darkness Larry and Tina +could barely see him. + +"Princess, quickly! Come quickly!" he called, and his shout sounded +agonized. + + * * * * * + +Whatever lack of perception Larry all this time had shown, the fog +lifted completely from him now. As Tina started to run forward, Larry +seized her. + +"Back! Run the other way! We've been fools!" He shoved Tina behind him +and rushed at Tugh. But now Larry was wholly wary; he expected that +Tugh was armed, and cursed himself for a fool for not having devised +some pretext for finding out.[10] + +[Footnote 10: As a matter of actuality, Tugh was carrying hidden upon +his person a small cylinder and battery of the deadly white-ray. It +seems probable that although on the catwalk--having accomplished his +purpose of getting within the electrical fortifications of the +dam--Tugh had ample opportunity of killing his over-trustful +companions with the white-ray, he did not dare use it. The catwalk was +too dark for their figures to be visible to the Power House guards; +the roar of the spillways drowned their shouts; but had Tugh used the +white-ray, its abnormally intense actinic white beam would have raised +the alarm which Tugh most of all wanted to avoid.] + +Tugh was clinging to the high outer rail of the balcony, slumped +partly over as though gazing down into the abyss. Larry rushed up and +seized him by the arms. If Tugh held a weapon Larry thought he could +easily wrest it from him. But Tugh stood limp in Larry's grip. + +"What's the matter with you?" Larry demanded. + +"I'm ill. Something--going wrong. Feel me--so cold. Princess! Tina! +Come quickly! I--I am dying!" + +As Tina came hurrying up, Tugh suddenly straightened. With incredible +quickness, and even more incredible strength, he tore his arm loose +from Larry and flung it around the Princess, and they were suddenly +all three struggling. Tugh was shoving them back from the rail. Larry +tried to get loose from Tugh's clutch, but could not. He was too close +for a full blow, but he jabbed his fist against the cripple's body, +and then struck his face. + +But Tugh was unhurt; he seemed endowed with superhuman strength. The +cripple's body seemed padded with solid muscle, and his thick, +gorilla-like arm held Larry in the grip of a vise. As though Larry and +Tina were struggling, helpless children, he was half dragging, half +carrying them across the ten-foot width of the catwalk. + +Larry caught a glimpse of a narrow slit in the masonry of the dam's +wall--a dark, two-foot-wide aperture. He felt himself being shoved +toward it. For all his struggles, he was helpless. He shouted: + +"Tina--look out! Break away!" + + * * * * * + +He forgot himself for a moment, striving to wrest her away from Tugh +and push her aside. But the strength of the cripple was monstrous: +Larry had no possible chance of coping with it. The slit in the wall +was at hand--a dark abyss down into the interior of the dam. Larry +heard the cripple's words, vehement, unhurried, as though with all +this effort he still was not out of breath: + +"At last I can dispose of you two. I do not need you any longer." + +Larry made a last wild jab with his fist into Tugh's face and tried to +twist himself aside. The blow landed upon Tugh's jaw, but the cripple +did not seem to feel it. He stuffed the struggling Larry like a bundle +into the aperture. Larry felt his clutching hands torn loose. Tugh +gave a last, violent shove and released him. + +Larry fell into blackness--but not far, for soon he struck water. He +went under, hit a flat, stone bottom, and came up to hear Tina fall +with a splash beside him. In a moment he regained his feet, to find +himself standing breast-high in the water with Tina clinging to him. + +Tugh had disappeared. The aperture showed as a narrow rectangle some +twenty feet above Larry's head. + +They were within the dam. They were in a pit of smooth, blank, +perpendicular sides; there was nothing to afford even the slightest +handhold; and no exit save the overhead slit. It was a part of the +mechanism's internal, hydraulic system. + + * * * * * + +To Larry's horror he soon discovered that the water was slowly rising! +It was breast-high to him now, and inch by inch it crept up toward his +chin. It was already over Tina's depth: she clung to him, +half-swimming. + +Larry soon found that there was no possible way for them to get out +unaided, unless, if they could swim long enough, the rising water +would rise to the height of the aperture. If it reached there, they +could crawl out. He tried to estimate how long that would be. + +"We can make it, Tina. It'll take two hours, possibly, but I can keep +us afloat that long." + +But soon he discovered that the water was not rising. Instead, the +floor was sinking from under him! sinking as though he were standing +upon the top of a huge piston which slowly was lowering in its +encasing cylinder. Dimly he could hear water tumbling into the pit, to +fill the greater depth and still hold the surface level. + +With the water at his chin, Larry guided Tina to the wall. He did not +at first have the heart to tell her, yet he knew that soon it must be +told. When he did explain it, she said nothing. They watched the water +surface where it lapped against the greasy concave wall. It held its +level: but while Larry stood there, the floor sank so that the water +reached his mouth and nose, and he was forced to start swimming. + +Another interval. Larry began calling: shouting futilely. His voice +filled the pit, but he knew it could carry no more than a short +distance out of the aperture. + + * * * * * + +Overhead, as we afterward learned, Tugh had overcome the guards in the +Power House by a surprise attack. Doubtless he struck them down with +the white-ray before they had time to realize he had attacked them. +Then he threw off the air-power transmitters and the lighting system. +The city, plunged into darkness and without the district air-power, +was isolated, cut off from the outside world. There was, in London, a +huge long-range projector with a vibratory ray which would derange the +internal mechanisms of the Robots: when news of the revolt and +massacre in New York had reached there, this projector was loaded into +an airliner, the _Micrad_. That vessel was now over the ocean, headed +for New York; but when Tugh cut off the power senders, the _Micrad_, +entering the New York District, was forced down to the ocean surface. +Now she was lying there helpless to proceed.... + +In the pit within the dam, Larry swam endlessly with Tina. He had +ceased his shouting. + +"It's no use, Tina: there's no one to hear us. This is the end--for +us--Tina." + +Yet, as she clung to him, and though Larry felt it was the end of this +life, it seemed only the beginning, for them, of something else. +Something, somewhere, for them together; something perhaps infinitely +better than this world could ever give them. + +"But not--the end--Tina," he added. "The beginning--of our love." + +An interminable interval.... + +"Quietly, Tina. You float. I can hold you up." + +They were rats in a trap--swimming, until at the last, with all +strength gone, they would together sink out of this sodden muffled +blackness into the Unknown. But that Unknown shone before Larry now as +something--with Tina--perhaps very beautiful.... + +(_Concluded in the next issue_) + +[Advertisement] + + + + +[Illustration: The Readers' Corner] + +_A meeting Place for Readers of_ Astounding Stories + + +_What Say Our Co-Editors?_ + + Dear Editor: + + Since sending you "Manape the Mighty," I have read of a + Russian scientist who removed the brain from a dog and kept + both alive for some hours, which only goes to prove that + science outstrips the wildest dreams of the fictionist, and + a yarn that may be astounding and unusual when written, may + be commonplace, and the knowledge of the man in the street, + by the time the story goes to press. People read every day + of "miracles" and scarcely give them a second thought, while + a hundred years ago their perpetrators would have been + destroyed as witches. + + Far be it for me, or anyone else, to say that the main + transposition used in "Manape the Mighty" is absurd and + impossible. For while you, or I, may shrug shoulders and + dismiss even the thought of it as being the dream of a + madman, somebody, in some laboratory somewhere, may already + have successfully managed it. So given the premise that the + thing may be possible, I've sort of let myself go on this + idea, and a whole new train of thought has been opened up, a + whole new vista of astounding things in the realm of Science + Fiction. In parenthesis, I must thank you for getting me + started on the thing, for had you not suggested the idea + from the throne-like fortress of your editorial chair, + "Manape" might never have been born. I confess that I would + perhaps have been afraid of it, both because of the + possibility of the charge of following in the footsteps of + the internationally famous Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of + re-vamping the incomparable Poe tale, "Murders in the Rue + Morgue." + + But, even so, both are interesting to dally with. + + Given the premise that the brain transference is possible, + what would happen: + + (1) If the brain of a terrible criminal were transferred to + the skull pan of an unusually mighty ape--and the ape + transplanted from his arboreal home in Africa to the streets + of London, Paris or New York whence the criminal whose brain + he has originated? Suppose his man's brain harbored thoughts + of vengeance on enemies, and he now possesses the might of + the great ape to carry out his vengeance? + + (2) If Barter somehow escaped destruction at the hands of + the apes in "Manape the Mighty," and continued with his work + of brain transference--building up a mighty army of great + apes with the idea of avenging himself on civilization for + wrongs real and fancied? Apes with broadswords and chained + mail, with steel helmets on their heads--men's brains, + savages' brains, perhaps, as their guiding intelligence--and + the tenacity of apes when mortally wounded? Suppose they + swept over Africa like a cloud of locusts? Or is this too + feeble a simile? Suppose, Africa, to be laid waste by them, + led by Barter, the latter styling himself a modern Alexander + of horrible potentiality, and extending his scope of + conquest to the Holy Land, India, Asia--the Pacific + littoral? Holy cats! + + (3) Suppose that Barter managed, by purchase or otherwise, + to acquire an island close to the American continents, + within reach of either or both, and managed to transfer his + activities there, using the natives of those islands--say + Haiti, Cuba, Porto Rico, etc.--for his experiments, training + his cohorts as an army, and starting a navy by capturing all + vessels putting into these places? Fancy the consternation + of the Western Hemisphere when ships suddenly go silent, as + regards radio, after sudden mysterious SOS's--and all trace + of vessels is lost. Suppose the U. S. Navy went to + investigate, and also vanished. More holy cats! + + (4) Suppose, in connection with all the suppositions above, + that Barter desired to give an ironic twist to his + experiments, and kept his human victims alive--but with + apes' brains--as slaves of their man-ape conquerors? Suppose + that out of the horror into which the world would be thrown, + another Bentley should arise to help the imprisoned humans + to escape their ghastly bondage? I can fancy his trials and + tribulations, trying to manage a host of human beings with + the brains of apes. + + (5) And what about the training of internes and medicos to + help a potential Barter, when the trade got beyond his sole + ability--and apes with men's brains to perform his + experiments? + + Do you suppose we'd all get locked up for experimenting with + this sort of thing fictionally? I wouldn't care to take the + entire responsibility myself, nor I fancy would you--because + somebody might be inspired by our stories to attempt the + thing--so might I suggest that all possible conspirators, in + the shape of readers of this magazine, write to you or me + and let us know whether they'd like to see it happen + fictionally? If the idea appeals--and of course we can't go + too heavily on horror--I'll do my best to comply. Always + within limits, however--utterly refusing to perform any + experiments that can't be done with a typewriter and the + usual two fingers.--Arthur J. Burks, 178-80 Fifth Ave., New + York City. + + +"_Like in Story Books_" + + Dear Editor: + + Here I am again! This time I'm offering suggestions. Let's + you and I and others get together and do something to these + chronic kickers. It seems I can't start to enjoy our + "Readers' Corner" without someone raising a halloo. Darn + it! Why in heaven's name do they buy A. S. if they don't + like it? They are not compelled to do so. + + I also don't understand why people are knocking the size and + quality of the paper used. It suits me O. K. All the mags I + read are the same way, and I pay five cents more for them, + too! + + I surely enjoyed Mr. Olog's letter in the March issue. Gee, + it gives one the creeps. I agree with him, too, that we + ought to have a little something about the authors. I'm sure + we'd all like to know a little more about these talented + persons. + + "When the Mountain Came to Miramar" was a great deal to my + liking. I think it would be a great adventure to discover + some secret cave and explore it. Of course, I'd like to + wiggle out of danger, too, just like in story books. + + I certainly wish to congratulate you on publishing "Beyond + the Vanishing Point." It just suited me to a "T." + Heretofore, all stories dealing with life upon atoms have + been "just another story," but this one beats all. I enjoyed + it to the utmost, and I congratulate Mr. Cummings on writing + my favorite kind of story. + + All in all the March issue was indeed grand. If "Brown-Eyed + Nineteen from Coronado, Calif.," will send me her full name + and address, I'll promise to answer her letter immediately + upon receiving it.--Gertrude Hemken, 5730 So. Ashland Ave., + Chicago, Ill. + + +_And So Do We_ + + Dear Editor: + + It certainly is a swell idea of yours to answer letters to + "The Readers' Corner" personally instead of taking up a lot + of room answering them underneath as do most Editors. Not + only that, but it builds up a feeling of friendship, between + the Reader and the Editor, besides affording more room to + publish letters and avoiding some of the bad feelings + sometimes directed upon Editors when they do not publish + someone's letter. + + Now, with your kind permission, I will burst into the little + (?) ring of discussion about size, reprints, covers, artists + and authors. + + First, about the size and edges: The size is O. K., but I + wish you would change the edges from a "rocky mountain" to a + "desert" state. In other words, I would like straight edges + in the near future. + + Next, reprints: In two letters, an N O--No! If the Readers + want reprints why doesn't Mr. Clayton publish an annual + chock full of reprints for these reprint hounds? + + Covers and artists: The covers have all been great. Not too + lurid. Just right. As for the artists, Wesso is the best by + a long shot. Nuff said. + + Authors: Ah, that's a problem. Who is the best? I could rack + my brain for hours and still not decide, so I'll have to + give a list of my favorites: R. F. Starzl, Edmond Hamilton, + Harl Vincent, Sewell Peaslee Wright, Jack Williamson, S. P. + Meek, Miles J. Breuer and Ray Cummings. + + Before I close there is one little thing I would like to + mention. Did you ever notice that 75% of all the Readers who + say they do not care for science in their stories are women? + [?] Besides that, the only ones at school who think I'm + "cracked" for reading Science Fiction are females. Figure it + out for yourself. + + I hope you, Mr. Bates, will continue to be our able Editor + for many years to come.--Jim Nicholson, Ass't Sec'y., B. S. + C., 40 Lunado Way, San Francisco, Calif. + + +_Four to One_ + + Dear Editor: + + Congratulations to Wesso! His March cover for "our" magazine + is Astounding! + + Ray Cummings' novelette, "Beyond the Vanishing Point," is + absolutely the most marvelous of all his short stories. I + can't rave over it enough. I never read his "The Girl of the + Golden Atom" but I imagine this must be something like it. + It's certainly the best of the "long short stories" that's + ever graced the insides of Astounding Stories. + + "When the Mountain Came to Miramar" is a very good story in + my opinion. "Terrors Unseen" is a wow! No foolin'. As for + "Phalanxes of Atlans," well, I simply can't get interested + in it. I thought the first part very uninteresting and + decided not to bother to read the rest of it. But Wesso's + splendid illustration made me do so. But I still think it is + a rather poor story. But, true to form, someone will no + doubt think it the most wonderful story ever written. + + Last, but not least, of all the stories comes "The Meteor + Girl." It's by Jack Williamson: need more be said? + No!--Forrest J. Ackerman, President-Librarian, The B. S. C., + 530 Staples Avenue, San Francisco, Calif. + + +_That Awful Thing Called Love_ + + Dear Editor: + + Upon the occasion of my first visit to "The Readers' + Corner," I wish to say that Astounding Stories leads the + field in Science Fiction stories as far as I am concerned, + though at first I found them to be just so-so. + + "Beyond the Vanishing Point," by Ray Cummings, proved + interesting through-out. "Terrors Unseen," by Harl Vincent, + was fairly good, as was "Phalanxes of Atlans," by F. V. W. + Mason. + + But now comes the rub. Just why do you permit your Authors + to inject messy love affairs into otherwise excellent + imaginative fiction? Just stop and think. Our young + hero-scientist builds himself a space flyer, steps out into + the great void, conquers a thousand and one perils on his + voyage and amidst our silent cheers lands on some far + distant planet. Then what does he do? I ask you. He falls in + love with a maiden--or it's usually a princess--of the + planet to which the Reader has followed him, eagerly + awaiting and hoping to share each new thrill attached to his + gigantic flight. But after that it becomes merely a + hopeless, doddering love affair ending by his returning to + Earth with his fair one by his side. Can you grasp that--a + one-armed driver of a space flyer! + + But seriously, don't you think that affairs of the heart are + very much out of place in "our" type of magazine? We buy A. + S. for the thrill of being changed in size, in time, in + dimension or being hurtled through space at great speed, but + not to read of love. + + Right here I wish to join forces with Glyn Owens up there in + Canada in his request for plain, cold scientific stories + sans the fair sex. + + Otherwise your "our" magazine is the best of its kind on the + market--W. H. Flowers. 1215 N. Lang Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. + + +_Brickbats for Others_ + + Dear Editor: + + Brickbats and plenty of them are coming, but not your way. + I'm throwing mine at those guys that want reprints, more + science, etc. The only one I agree with is the fellow who + would like a thicker magazine with more stories. + + Now for the brickbats. I'll bet a great many of your Readers + have read some of these reprints that some of our Readers + are crying for. I'll also bet that reprints would not help + your friendly connections with a lot of your Authors. The + stories that are written now I find good. Let the present + authors make their living from the stories their brains + think up. + + As for more science, bah!--your present amount is enough. In + another magazine I read a story and just as it reached its + climax they started explaining something! If any Reader + wants to write to me my address is below.--Arthur Mann, Jr., + San Juan, California. + + +_Wants Interplanetary Cooperation_ + + Dear Editor: + + C'n y'imagine, I have my Astounding Science magazine two + whole hours and the cover is still on! + + Let's have some more stories like "Beyond the Vanishing + Point," by Ray Cummings in the March issue. + + Another thing, let's have more interplanetary stories than + we do. I think they give you something to really think + about. + + Why is it that in every interplanetary story the other race + is always hostile. Just think, would we, if we received + visitors from space, make war on them? Also, when our people + make an interplanetary flight, would we go with intent to + kill? Let's have some stories, where the first + interplanetary flight leads to cooperation between the + planets involved.--Dave Diamond, 1350--52nd St., Brooklyn, + N. Y. + + +_In Every Way, True_ + + Dear Editor: + + I want to rejoice again over Astounding Stories. Reprints or + no:--and I hunger for them--the magazine must be described + in superlatives. + + The reasons is pretty clear to me. After years in an + experimental stage, Science Fiction suddenly turned up with + a clash of cymbals in the shape of a definite magazine. It + had to cover the whole field, and its successors tried to do + the same. Due to its ancestry its logical scope was the more + technical Science Fiction farthest removed from sheer + fantasy, but, none-the-less, one of the most important + branches. Now it is specializing in that type. + + When Astounding Stories appeared many of us were apt to be + skeptical, particularly when we noticed that an established + corporation was backing it, one that had been limited to + westerns and the like. The first few issues came and there + was a dubious tinge of the occult, the "black-magical." This + petered out, and we noticed that no matter how poor the + subject matter from the point of view of Science Fiction, + the style of writing was almost always on the highest level. + + Then we realized that this magazine was no menace to the + literature of Science Fiction, but a valuable addition. It + could afford the better writers and hence keep up the + quality of work of every writer. It was adopting as its own + a type of Science Fiction that the rest minimized, and that + demanded good writing--a type having a skeleton of science, + like the girders of a great building, holding it erect and + determining its shape, yet holding the skeleton of less + importance than the vision of the completed edifice. Stories + with emphasis on the fiction rather than the science. + + But enough of that. Here is a hopeful thought for the + time-travelers. There is nothing in physics or chemistry to + prevent you from going into the past or future--at least, + the future--and shaking hands with yourself or killing + yourself. We will eliminate the past, for it seems that it + cannot be altered physically. But take the future: not so + very far from to-day the matter of your body will have been + totally replaced by new matter; the old will disappear in + waste. Physically, you will be a new man, and physically the + matter of to-day may destroy that of to-morrow and return in + itself unaltered. But none-the-less there will be some + limiting interval during which "you" have not been entirely + transformed to new matter, so that an atom would have to be + in two places at once. + + Maybe time-traveling progresses in little jumps like + emission of light. And maybe an atom can be in two places at + once. If you are going to treat time as just another + dimension, there seems to be no reason why an object which + can be in one place at two times cannot be at one time in + two places. This is all physics. The paradoxes of + time-traveling arise more particularly from its effect on + what we call consciousness, the something that makes me + "me"--an individual. We can imagine an atom in two places at + once, but not a soul, if you will. This will not bother the + materialist who considers a living creature merely a + machine, but it will most of us. So I must be content with + offering a materialistic possibility of traveling in time. + + The Science Correspondence Club wishes to extend its + invitation to all Readers in other nations to join with all + privileges save that of holding office. The latter may later + be changed as our international membership increases. We + have laboratory branches here, and we want them abroad in + addition to scattered members. Then, it will be necessary to + have a governing body and director in every country. At + present all matters pertaining to foreign membership pass + through my hands and I will do my best to supply information + to all who seek it. We will also be glad to hear of the work + and plans of other similar organizations in other countries, + as we are doing with the German Verein fur Raumschauffert. + Address all inquiries to me at 302 So. Ten Broeck St., + Scotia, New York, U. S. A.--P. Schuyler Miller, Foreign + Director, S. C. C. + + +"_A Wow!_" + + Dear Editor: + + Astounding Stories magazine is a wow! I can hardly wait + until next month for the April issue. "The Phalanxes of + Atlans," "Beyond the Vanishing Point" and "The Pirate + Planet" are perfect. Every time I start a story I never stop + till it's finished. I hope that there will appear even + better stories in later issues. + + Here's wishing you the best of success,--Fred Damato, 196 + Greene St., New Haven, Conn. + + +_Is Zat So!_ + + Dear Editor: + + Just a word or two. I have read several issues of Astounding + Stories and I notice that you have taken the word "science" + off the cover. It's just as well, for it was never inside + the cover, anyway. If you thought to attract Readers from + real Science Fiction fans you were all wet, for they would + never fall for the kind of things you printed. Besides, + "what," a real fan wants to know "how." There may be, I'll + admit, a class of Readers who like your stories, but for me + I think that you ought to print real Science Fiction or + abandon the attempt and publish out and out fairy tales. Is + everybody so pleased with your book that you receive nothing + but commendatory letters? That appears to be all you print, + at any rate. So long--Harry Pancoast, 306 West 28th St., + Wilmington, Delaware. + + +_Short and Sweet_ + + Dear Editor: + + I agree perfectly with Gertrude Hemken, of Chicago. + Astounding Stories is O. K. Why do we want a lot of deep + science with our stories? We read for pleasure not to learn + science. + + I have been reading Astounding Stories since the first + issue, and I have enjoyed every story. I read several + Science Fiction magazines but yours is the best.--Stephen L. + Garcia, 47 Hazel Ave., Redwood City, Calif. + + +_Shorter and Sweeter_ + + Dear Editor: + + The only good things about Astounding Stories are as + follows: + + The cover design, the stories, the size of the magazine, the + illustrations in the magazine and the Authors.--John + Mackens, 366 W. 96th St., New York City. + + +_Sequels Requested_ + + Dear Editor: + + I was out of reading matter so I bought the August issue of + Astounding Stories, and it was so good that I have been + buying it ever since. The only things I don't like about the + magazine are the quality of the paper, which I think could + be improved, and the uneven pages. The other Science Fiction + magazine that I read has its pages even. + + Astounding Stories has a much better type of stories than + the other magazine. There are only a few stories I have seen + in your magazine which do not belong there. They are: "A + Problem in Communication," which is not so much fiction and + does not have much of a plot, and "The Ape-men of Xloti," + which was very well written and very interesting, but did + not have enough science in it. + + I would like to see sequels to the following stories: + "Marooned Under the Sea," "Beyond the Vanishing Point," + "Monsters of Mars," telling about another effort of the + crocodile-men to conquer Earth, "The Gray Plague," telling + of another attack by the Venusians, and, most of all, + "Vagabonds of Space." I would like to see a story about + their further adventures about every three months, just as I + see the stories about Commander Hanson. + + I wish the best of luck for Astounding Stories.--Bill + Bailey, 1404 Wightman St., Pittsburgh, Pa. + + +_Come Again_ + + Dear Editor: + + Although I have been an interested Reader of Astounding + Stories since its inception, this is the first time that I + have written; but "our" magazine has been so good lately + that I just had to write and compliment you on your good + work. + + There are just two criticisms I have of Astounding Stories. + The first is that the binding sometimes comes off; the + second is the rough edges. I join with many other Readers in + complaining that uneven edges make it hard to find a certain + page and also give the mag a cheap looking appearance. + + In my opinion the two best serials you have printed are + "Brigands of the Moon" and "The Pirate Planet." The four + best novelettes are: "Marooned Under the Sea," "The + Fifth-Dimension Catapult," "Beyond the Vanishing Point" and + "Vagabonds of Space."--Eugene Bray, Campbell, Mo. + + +_How Simple!_ + + Dear Editor: + + Just a few lines to set Mr. Greenfeld right on that question + of how a man could be disintegrated and then reintegrated as + two (or more) similar men. + + Briefly, the atomic or molecular structure of the original + man could serve as a pattern to be set up in the + reintegrating machine or machines while he is being + dissolved by the disintegrating machine. Thus, the + reintegrators could reconstruct any number of similar men by + following the pattern of his molecular structure and drawing + on a prearranged supply of the basic elements. + + As for the "soul," that is merely the manifestation of the + chemical combinations in the man's body, and when said + chemical combinations are duplicated, the "soul" simply + follows suit.--Joseph N. Mosleh, 4002 Sixth Ave., Brooklyn, + N. Y. + + +_Both in One Issue_ + + Dear Editor: + + I think it's about time to let you know what I think of your + wonderful magazine. Of course, I have my dislikes but they + are very few. I wish you would make up your magazine larger + and even the pages up. The best complete novelettes I have + read were both in the same issue. They were "Monsters of + Mars," by Edmond Hamilton and "Four Miles Within," by + Anthony Gilmore. Wesso is by far your best artist. Please + keep him. All the other Science Fiction magazines have + quarterlies. Why don't you have one? + + Good-by, and keep Astounding Stories up to its present + standard.--Frederick Morrison, Long Beach, Calif. + + +"_Good As Is_" + + Dear Editor: + + I have been reading your mag for about five months and I + like it very much. I don't see what those guys want a + quarterly for. This mag is good as it is and there is no use + to spoil it. Wesso is a swell artist, and the best story I + read was "The Wall of Death." + + I'd like to get acquainted with some of your Readers. How + about it, boys? + + I'll sign off.--L. Sloan, Box 101, Onset, Mass. + + +_Just Imagine!_ + + Dear Editor: + + To begin, I am a mechanic more or less skilled in the + handling of tools. Now, while I have seen many builders with + tools who were dubbed "spineless," "poor fish," etc., it was + not because they remotely resembled the piscatorial or + Crustacea families. + + It seems to me that when an author endows reptiles, + cuttlefish, etc., with superhuman intelligence, and paints a + few pictures of them as master-mechanics in the use of + tools, then I want to take the magazine I am reading, that + allows such silly slush in its pages, and feed it to my + billy-goat; he may be able to digest such silliness, but I + can't! + + However, there is a redeeming feature of this sort of story: + although not written as comedy, they have a comic effect, + when one uses his imagination. Imagine, for instance, a + giant sea crab as a traffic cop! He could direct four + streams of traffic at once while making a date with the + sweet young thing whom he had held up for a traffic + violation! Then think what a great, intelligent reptile, + crocodile, or what have you, could do in our Prohibition + Enforcement Service! He could place his armored body across + the road, and when rum runners bumped into him he could take + his handy disintegrator and turn their load of white + lightning back into the original corn patch! And suppose a + giant, humanly-intelligent centipede should make too much + whoopee some night, and endeavor to slip upstairs without + waking the wife. Even if he succeeded in getting off his + thousand pairs of shoes, which is doubtful, he would have a + sweet time keeping his myriad of legs under control after + partaking of some of the tangle-foot dispensed nowadays! + + I hope your Authors will read and heed the delicate sarcasm + contained in the letter of Robert R. Young in your April + issue.--Carl F. Morgan, 427 E. Columbia Ave., College Park, + Ga. + + +"_Craves Excitement_" + + Dear Editor: + + I have been a silent Reader of your magazine for quite a + long while, but have finally decided to come forth with my + own little contribution to "The Readers' Corner." So far I + have seen only two other women Readers' letters. I suppose + most women are interested in love stories, though I fail to + see anything very exciting in any that are written nowadays; + and I crave excitement in my reading. I've read about most + everything there is about this old earth, so I've decided to + wander into new fields. + + Now for a little discussion about Astounding Stories. I + haven't any brickbats to throw. You seem to get more of them + than is necessary. I like the size, the price, the cover, + the illustrator, the authors, etc. Some stories don't + exactly take my fancy but the average is 100% with me. + + Some that particularly pleased me were "Marooned Under the + Sea," way back in the September issue, "Jetta of the + Low-lands" and "Beyond the Vanishing Point." "Gray Denim" + and "Ape-men of Xloti" in the December issue rite A-1, too. + + I congratulate Ray Cummings on his new story, even though I + haven't started to read it yet. I always know I'll enjoy his + work, no matter what it is. Time-traveling is one of my + special dishes, too. + + Here's a little dig. I'm sorry, I didn't think I'd have any, + but I just thought of this. It seems to me that I never see + any stories written by two authors. Of course the stories by + single authors are O. K., but the particular two I am + thinking of are Edgar A. Manley and Walter Thode. They wrote + "The Time Annihilator," as you probably know. That was one + of the best time-traveling stories I have ever read. I'm + only sorry that it couldn't have been published by + Astounding Stories. + + Well, I don't want to make myself tiresome the very first + time, so I'll sign off. Please excuse the rather + unconventional stationary, but I'm writing this at the + office in my spare time. Hope I haven't worn my welcome out, + but I had so much stored up to say. + + I'm waiting for the April issue, so please hurry it + up.--Betty Mulharen, 50 E. Philadelphia Ave, Detroit, Mich. + + +_A Daisy for S. P. Wright_ + + Dear Editor: + + Were good old President George Washington himself to travel + through time to the present and look upon the April issue of + Astounding Stories, I am certain he would only repeat what I + say: "Editor, I cannot tell a lie. This is the best issue + yet!" + + The cover on this issue is unique in that Astounding Stories + is written in red and white letters. I do not recall of ever + having seen this done to any Science Fiction magazine + before. Wesso's illustration leaves nothing to be desired. + + Going straight through the book: "The Monsters of Mars." + Good old Edmond Hamilton saves the world for us again in the + very nick of time--and we like it, too! Here's hoping + there's a million more dangers threatening Terra for Mr. + Hamilton to save us from! By the way, I wonder who drew the + illustration for this story? I can't make out his name. + Next: "The Exile of Time," by Cummings. Exciting and well + illustrated. "Hell's Dimension" is well-written and very + interesting. Would have liked it longer. "The World Behind + the Moon" is splendid. More by Mr. Ernst, please. More from + Mr. Gilmore, too, because of his novelette, "Four Miles + Within." "The Lake of Light" by that popular author Jack + Williamson surpasses his "The Meteor Girl" in a recent issue + of "our" magazine. And now I come to the last and perhaps + most interesting story of the issue: Mr. Sewell Peaslee + Wright's record of the interplanetary adventures of the + Special Patrol as told by Commander John Hanson. This series + is unsurpassable in its vivid realness. I can't help but + believe that these tales really occurred, or will occur in + the distant future. And Mr. Wright is as expert at + conceiving new forms of life as Edmond Hamilton is at saving + our Earth. + + "The Readers' Corner" is an interesting feature, and I am + glad to hear that "Murder Madness" and "Brigands of the + Moon" are now in book form.--Forrest J. Ackerman, 530 + Staples Ave., San Francisco, Calif. + + +_Mass Production_ + + Dear Editor: + + After reading Mr. Greenfield's letter in your April issue + regarding my story, "An Extra Man," I feel that I should + like to call his attention to a point which, it seems to me, + he has overlooked, namely, that the reconstructed men were + not composed of the original physical matter of the + disintegrated man but of identical elements, all of which + are at present known and available to science. + + According to the hypothesis, Drayle could have produced as + many entities as he desired and provided for, just as a + radio broadcast is reproduced in as many places as are + prepared for its reception. The vibrations alone are + transmitted, and the reproduction is the result of a + reciprocal mechanical action by physical matter at the + receiving end. Any radio engineer knows that the original + sound waves are not transported, but merely their impress + upon the electrical radio wave. So, Drayle's disintegrating + and sending apparatus only transmitted the vibrations which + enabled his machines at the receiving end to select from a + more than adequate supply of raw material, in due proportion + and quantities, as much as was required for the reproduction + of the disintegrated entities. + + I think that if Mr. Greenfield will reread the story, noting + the following references, he will agree that if the + hypothesis is accepted the conclusion is logical: + + 1--It is only Jackson Gee and not Drayle who speaks of + transmitting the constituent elements by radio (page 120). + + 2--The scientist, Drayle, says, (page 129) "We already know + the elements that make the human body, and we can put them + together in the their proper proportions and arrangements; + but we have not been able to introduce the vitalizing spark, + the key vibrations, to start it going." He does not say that + tangible matter can be transmitted by radio. + + 3--In the account of Drayle's preliminary experiments (page + 122) there is no statement to the effect that the original + material composing the disintegrated glass was used in its + recreation. + + 4--There is nothing in the story to indicate that the + original physical composition of the disintegrated man was + transported, in any manner to any outside location. The + process of disintegration was necessary to obtain the + vibrations that would make possible their repetition, which + under proper conditions would induce a reproduction of the + original, just as a song must be sung before it can be + reproduced upon a phonograph disc, but which, once recorded + can be repeated times without number. + + 5--Drayle's question (page 124) "Have you arranged the + elements?" refers to the elements out of which all mankind + is composed and which Drayle has previously mentioned (page + 120). + + 6--The narrator emphasizes this aspect of the discovery when + he says, on page 124, "I seemed to see man's (not the man's) + elementary dust and vapors whirled from great containers + upward into a stratum of shimmering air and gradually assume + the outlines of a human form that became first opaque, then + solid, and then a sentient being." And again (page 126), + "The best of the race could be multiplied indefinitely and + man could make man literally out of the dust of the earth." + This does not imply a split-up of one individual into + several smaller sizes or fractional parts, but rather the + production of identical entities exactly as thousands of + phonograph records can be created from the master matrix. + + 7--As to the question of soul, I suggest that inasmuch as + what we call the soul of an individual is always judged by + that individual's behavior, and that medical science now + maintains that behavior is largely dependent upon our + physical mechanism, it would follow that the identical human + mechanisms would have identical souls.--Jackson Gee. + + +"_The Readers' Corner_" + +All Readers are extended a sincere and cordial invitation to "come +over in 'The Readers' Corner'" and join in our monthly discussion of +stories, authors, scientific principles and possibilities--everything +that's of common interest in connection with our Astounding Stories. + +Although from time to time the Editor may make a comment or so, this +is a department primarily for _Readers_, and we want you to make full +use of it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, explanations, roses, +brickbats, suggestions--everything's welcome here: so "come over in +'The Readers' Corner'" and discuss it with all of us! + +_The Editor._ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Astounding Stories, June, 1931, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, JUNE, 1931 *** + +***** This file should be named 31893.txt or 31893.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/9/31893/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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