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-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Messenger, by William Morrison</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Messenger</p>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: William Morrison</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 25, 2021 [eBook #66381]</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div>
-
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MESSENGER ***</div>
-
-<div class="titlepage">
-
-<h1>MESSENGER</h1>
-
-<h2>By William Morrison</h2>
-
-<p>He had to find a single planet somewhere<br />
-in the vast Universe. The trouble was, if he<br />
-found it—would he remember what he must do?</p>
-
-<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br />
-Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br />
-July 1954<br />
-Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br />
-the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p>He knew that there had been trouble, and he had been told what he had
-to do. The trouble was he had forgotten. He didn't remember where it
-was.</p>
-
-<p>He had been speeding past an off-color white dwarf when it happened.
-If he had taken the trouble to look around, he would have seen that
-the white star was going to explode. He knew a potential nova when he
-took a good look at one. But after all these centuries he had grown
-careless, and when the blast had come—the small star suddenly blazing
-into a billion-fold brilliance—the penetrating radiation had hit him
-with full intensity. There had been no ship to protect him, no clothing
-that might serve as a shield. His kind had done away with such things
-eons before, as they had learned to move through space by using some
-of the radiant energy that filled it.</p>
-
-<p>He had blacked out completely.</p>
-
-<p>When he came to again, he was far past the nova, in the dazzling
-brightness of a rarefied cloud of radiant hydrogen atoms. The nova
-itself had lost so much of its momentary brilliance that it was now
-indistinguishable from the myriads of other stars. He himself was
-speeding on with feverish haste toward a nebular cluster a thousand
-light years away.</p>
-
-<p>He slowed down. He had the feeling that the distant cluster was not his
-proper destination. But what was? What star, what planet was the spot
-in space he had to find? And what was he supposed to do once he got
-there?</p>
-
-<p>And who had given him the instructions? Where, in the vast immensity
-of the universe was the place called "home", the place where he could
-return for the information he had forgotten?</p>
-
-<p>He didn't recall. He knew only, with that same distressing vagueness,
-that somewhere there was something he had been ordered to do. And that
-once given, the order had to be carried out.</p>
-
-<p>He traveled aimlessly, by feeling alone. Time meant nothing to him as
-an individual, for his kind had long mastered the problems of age. But
-time meant much to those he had been sent to—to do what? Was it to
-help? They must be waiting for him now. They must be wondering why he
-didn't come.</p>
-
-<p>He would have to hurry. Hurry to do something he didn't yet suspect,
-but would sooner or later remember.</p>
-
-<p>After a few centuries, he began, in his anxiety, to talk to himself,
-as is the way of individuals too long alone. "That star cluster there
-could be it," he said to himself hopefully, and veered toward the right.</p>
-
-<p>"Doesn't look familiar, though," he muttered. "Maybe if I would get
-closer—"</p>
-
-<p>He came close enough to see the thousands of stars as individuals, to
-pick out the satellites circling the bright discs of light, to study
-the pale planets themselves and their tiny subsatellites. As he turned
-his attention from one to another, disappointment slowly filled him.
-No, this was not the place. There was nothing in the configuration of
-the stars, nothing in the size or position of the planets that sounded
-a familiar chord in his consciousness. He would have to go further—or
-turn back.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>He left the place behind him. The next time the same thing happened he
-didn't have quite so much hope, and his disappointment was less keen.
-But it was disappointment none the less. Time was passing, and they
-must be waiting for him impatiently.</p>
-
-<p>After a while the hope and the disappointment both died away almost
-completely. The former shrank to a tiny spark that grew dimmer and
-dimmer as the centuries passed. He wondered if it would ever wink out
-entirely.</p>
-
-<p>It was characteristic of him that the anxiety this caused was only
-for those who were waiting, expecting him hourly, and wondering why
-he didn't come. He had no sense of fear for himself, no feeling of
-despairing loneliness that might be expected to arise from being so
-long isolated in space. It was only that he would have liked some one
-to talk to, besides himself.</p>
-
-<p>On a fair number of planets he found animal-like creatures in
-different stages of development, and on a few he discovered life that
-was intelligent. It was with these that he had a renewed feeling of
-anticipation, the spark of hope glowing momentarily before it faded
-again.</p>
-
-<p>"It's intelligent life I've got to find," he told himself. "But where?"</p>
-
-<p>His astronomical memory, insofar as it covered the post-nova
-period, was perfect, and he paid more attention to the details of
-star-and-planet configuration than he had ever done before. Gradually
-a star-map formed in his mind, a map that covered enormous distances
-of space. Those places he had investigated and eliminated from
-consideration were slowly crossed off. It was a large needle he had to
-find, and his own powers were considerable, but the haystack he had to
-search was infinite. There was no telling how many more centuries would
-pass before he found it.</p>
-
-<p>And then another thought struck him. They'd know back home that
-something had gone wrong. Would they send someone else to do the job in
-his place?</p>
-
-<p>He rather doubted it. He had a vague feeling that there weren't many
-with his own peculiar talents. What had to be done had to be done by
-him, or left undone altogether.</p>
-
-<p>More time passed. And one day, when the space charted on his brain-map
-had grown to vast dimensions, and the spark of hope had become so tiny
-that he was not quite sure any longer that it was there at all, he
-noted from a distance a galaxy that seemed familiar.</p>
-
-<p>"That's it!" he cried. "That's it!"</p>
-
-<p>The spark flared, and as he sped toward the galaxy it became a flame.
-It was a lens-shaped assemblage of stars, with two small spiral arms
-composed of a few million stars each, and it was seemingly not too
-different from millions of other galaxies he had passed in the course
-of all those centuries. But to him, seeking so desperately, this galaxy
-was unique. It was the right one. He coursed through it from spiral arm
-to spiral arm, and now there could be no doubt. The star he wanted was
-small and yellowish, far from the center of the lens. It had a rather
-elaborate planetary system, which he recognized at once.</p>
-
-<p>This was it. The third planet, the one with a single subsatellite, was
-the one he had been sent to find. To find, and perhaps to help. But how?</p>
-
-<p>The finding of the planet had solved one problem. So far it had given
-him not a hint toward the solution of the second—the reason why he had
-been sent here.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>There was life on this ball of mud and water, a great deal of life,
-both vegetable and animal. And some of the latter could, without too
-great a distortion of the truth, be called intelligent. It had raised
-cities, tunneled into mountains, changed the appearance of sections of
-the planet itself. It was to this intelligent life that he had been
-sent.</p>
-
-<p>A dim memory of the need for caution kept him from letting himself be
-seen. "I'd only frighten them," he thought. "I'll have to investigate
-thoroughly before I reveal myself. And maybe the investigation will
-remind me of what I have to do."</p>
-
-<p>The first thing was to come down to earth. Choosing the dark side of
-the planet, shaded from the central sun by its own bulk, he shrank his
-body and let himself drop in the gravitational field. From time to time
-he slowed his fall in order to keep from flaming through the atmosphere
-and attracting their attention. And at a thousand feet above the
-surface he came to a complete stop, hovering over a city, and making up
-his mind where to land.</p>
-
-<p>Something droned toward him through the air, colored lights winking
-on and off. He darted downward and to one side. Where the city lights
-faded out, he let himself fall all the way to the ground.</p>
-
-<p>He was off a dimly lit highway. Small metal vehicles ran along it,
-their lights momentarily tearing apart the darkness ahead of them. A
-glance through the metal at the creatures inside the vehicles gave him
-a queer thrill. Yes, these were the ones he had been sent to.</p>
-
-<p>Quickly reshaping his body and clothing himself so that he seemed to
-be one of them, he began to walk along the highway. Cars sped past him,
-picking him out in their headlights. None of them stopped, but he had
-time to probe their minds and listen to their language.</p>
-
-<p>What he found was not pleasant. Among all the feelings which controlled
-their thoughts, fear was easiest to detect. And along with the fear
-were hatred and envy and greed, anxiety and guilt. Oddly enough, there
-were also hope and affection for each other, but it was the worse
-feelings that predominated. There was no doubt that they needed help.</p>
-
-<p>That didn't make any clearer, however, what he had to do. He had an
-idea that it was not his mission to work out a detailed solution. He
-had to do some simple thing, something—</p>
-
-<p>The two men were lying in wait, either for him or for some other
-pedestrian they judged sufficiently unwary. He sensed them long before
-the first one stepped out toward him, a cigarette in one hand and what
-was supposed to be an ingratiating look on the brutal face.</p>
-
-<p>"Got a match, bud?"</p>
-
-<p>The other man suddenly plunged at him from the side, an arm wrapping
-itself around his neck. The assailant tried to bend him back, the
-forearm cutting across his windpipe. The arm of the first man swung, a
-rough fist smashing at his face.</p>
-
-<p>Then the two assailants screamed in pain and terror. Where they had
-touched him, fist and arm broke into flame. Both men turned from him in
-horror, and ran off wildly, as if to get away from themselves.</p>
-
-<p>He hadn't meant to hurt them, but they had contrived their own
-punishment. Perhaps—no, that wasn't it. He wasn't here to punish
-either.</p>
-
-<p>He walked along, and soon he found himself entering the city. A man in
-a blue uniform watched him suspiciously and ordered him gruffly to get
-moving.</p>
-
-<p>"I am moving," he said pleasantly.</p>
-
-<p>"Don't you get wise with me," said the bluecoat, and raised a
-threatening club.</p>
-
-<p>He paid no attention to the club and kept on, toward the heart of the
-city.</p>
-
-<p>What he saw only confirmed the impression he had obtained from the
-minds of the men and women in the cars. Too many thoughts were mean and
-ignoble, arising only from selfish and vicious desires. Many of those
-who saw him seemed to sense his strangeness, and moved toward him with
-a single impulse—to take advantage of his ignorance. Men spoke to him
-out of the sides of their mouths, offering him bargains. Women offered
-themselves.</p>
-
-<p>"<i>Look, Mac, this stuff is hot, see? Just came off a truck</i>—"</p>
-
-<p>"<i>Wanta look at some nice pictures, Mister?</i>"</p>
-
-<p>"<i>I can give you a good address, Bud.</i>"</p>
-
-<p>"<i>Out for a good time, Jack?</i>"</p>
-
-<p>The planet was sick. Had he been sent to cure it?</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>He came to an area of broad lighted streets. Lights glittered
-everywhere, attracting the attention of those around him by going on
-and off. Great posters advertised the attractions inside places of
-amusement.</p>
-
-<p>He entered one of them, an astonished ticket-collector calling after
-him, "Hey, where's your ticket, Bud?" But there was something about him
-that prevented the man from pursuing.</p>
-
-<p>He lost himself in the darkness and watched the screen. Here, in
-brief and vivid form, was pictured the life of the planet. Women in
-bathing suits plunged into a pool and formed a pattern which imitated
-sensuously the petals of an unfolding rose. A small animal leaped
-through hoops and climbed a ladder. Groups of men drove against each
-other for possession of an object which they kicked occasionally
-into the air. An elderly man looked grim and made a speech into a
-microphone. And then a film showed the main business of the planet,
-which seemed to be the killing of its supposedly intelligent
-inhabitants. Bombs exploded, planes crashed, desperate lines of men ran
-forward to meet their deaths.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p>Something quickened in his mind. He almost remembered now. This was
-what he had come here about.</p>
-
-<p>His will moved, and the theatre vanished behind him. Now he was on the
-battlefield itself.</p>
-
-<p>The reality was worse than the image, far worse. Here were not only the
-roars of the great guns, but the curses and screams of the wounded, the
-gasps of the dying. Here were not only horrible sights and sounds, but
-the odors of death—the sharp nitrogenous fragrance of explosives, the
-heavy sulfurous smoke of burning oil, the sickening smell of sweating
-or decaying flesh.</p>
-
-<p>A cloud came into being from the explosion of a mortar shell, and two
-men dropped to the ground. In answer to the mortar, the flaring barrel
-of a tank gun spoke hoarsely, and half the crew of the mortar fell in
-turn. But there seemed no end to this deadly dialogue. The next moment
-there came the burst of a bomb from a low-flying plane, and the tank
-half turned over on its side, a heap of smoking steel.</p>
-
-<p>He knew at last why he had been sent here. He knew now what he had to
-do.</p>
-
-<p>He ripped the flaring-mouthed gun from the tank. His hands twisted the
-thick metal into a shape it had never known before, bent it into a
-strange curve, fashioned it so that it would emit overtones to chill
-the souls of those who heard it. His brain charged the instrument with
-the energy of his own mind, energy that would send its voice to the far
-corners of this diseased planet, and leave not a single individual deaf
-to its dreaded tones.</p>
-
-<p>Putting the improvised horn to his lips, Gabriel blew the call for
-which the planet had so long been waiting.</p>
-
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Messenger, by William Morrison. + </title> + <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; +} + +div.titlepage p { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; + margin-top: 3em; +} + + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 66381 ***</div> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>MESSENGER</h1> + +<h2>By William Morrison</h2> + +<p>He had to find a single planet somewhere<br /> +in the vast Universe. The trouble was, if he<br /> +found it—would he remember what he must do?</p> + +<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> +Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> +July 1954<br /> +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p>He knew that there had been trouble, and he had been told what he had +to do. The trouble was he had forgotten. He didn't remember where it +was.</p> + +<p>He had been speeding past an off-color white dwarf when it happened. +If he had taken the trouble to look around, he would have seen that +the white star was going to explode. He knew a potential nova when he +took a good look at one. But after all these centuries he had grown +careless, and when the blast had come—the small star suddenly blazing +into a billion-fold brilliance—the penetrating radiation had hit him +with full intensity. There had been no ship to protect him, no clothing +that might serve as a shield. His kind had done away with such things +eons before, as they had learned to move through space by using some +of the radiant energy that filled it.</p> + +<p>He had blacked out completely.</p> + +<p>When he came to again, he was far past the nova, in the dazzling +brightness of a rarefied cloud of radiant hydrogen atoms. The nova +itself had lost so much of its momentary brilliance that it was now +indistinguishable from the myriads of other stars. He himself was +speeding on with feverish haste toward a nebular cluster a thousand +light years away.</p> + +<p>He slowed down. He had the feeling that the distant cluster was not his +proper destination. But what was? What star, what planet was the spot +in space he had to find? And what was he supposed to do once he got +there?</p> + +<p>And who had given him the instructions? Where, in the vast immensity +of the universe was the place called "home", the place where he could +return for the information he had forgotten?</p> + +<p>He didn't recall. He knew only, with that same distressing vagueness, +that somewhere there was something he had been ordered to do. And that +once given, the order had to be carried out.</p> + +<p>He traveled aimlessly, by feeling alone. Time meant nothing to him as +an individual, for his kind had long mastered the problems of age. But +time meant much to those he had been sent to—to do what? Was it to +help? They must be waiting for him now. They must be wondering why he +didn't come.</p> + +<p>He would have to hurry. Hurry to do something he didn't yet suspect, +but would sooner or later remember.</p> + +<p>After a few centuries, he began, in his anxiety, to talk to himself, +as is the way of individuals too long alone. "That star cluster there +could be it," he said to himself hopefully, and veered toward the right.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't look familiar, though," he muttered. "Maybe if I would get +closer—"</p> + +<p>He came close enough to see the thousands of stars as individuals, to +pick out the satellites circling the bright discs of light, to study +the pale planets themselves and their tiny subsatellites. As he turned +his attention from one to another, disappointment slowly filled him. +No, this was not the place. There was nothing in the configuration of +the stars, nothing in the size or position of the planets that sounded +a familiar chord in his consciousness. He would have to go further—or +turn back.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>He left the place behind him. The next time the same thing happened he +didn't have quite so much hope, and his disappointment was less keen. +But it was disappointment none the less. Time was passing, and they +must be waiting for him impatiently.</p> + +<p>After a while the hope and the disappointment both died away almost +completely. The former shrank to a tiny spark that grew dimmer and +dimmer as the centuries passed. He wondered if it would ever wink out +entirely.</p> + +<p>It was characteristic of him that the anxiety this caused was only +for those who were waiting, expecting him hourly, and wondering why +he didn't come. He had no sense of fear for himself, no feeling of +despairing loneliness that might be expected to arise from being so +long isolated in space. It was only that he would have liked some one +to talk to, besides himself.</p> + +<p>On a fair number of planets he found animal-like creatures in +different stages of development, and on a few he discovered life that +was intelligent. It was with these that he had a renewed feeling of +anticipation, the spark of hope glowing momentarily before it faded +again.</p> + +<p>"It's intelligent life I've got to find," he told himself. "But where?"</p> + +<p>His astronomical memory, insofar as it covered the post-nova +period, was perfect, and he paid more attention to the details of +star-and-planet configuration than he had ever done before. Gradually +a star-map formed in his mind, a map that covered enormous distances +of space. Those places he had investigated and eliminated from +consideration were slowly crossed off. It was a large needle he had to +find, and his own powers were considerable, but the haystack he had to +search was infinite. There was no telling how many more centuries would +pass before he found it.</p> + +<p>And then another thought struck him. They'd know back home that +something had gone wrong. Would they send someone else to do the job in +his place?</p> + +<p>He rather doubted it. He had a vague feeling that there weren't many +with his own peculiar talents. What had to be done had to be done by +him, or left undone altogether.</p> + +<p>More time passed. And one day, when the space charted on his brain-map +had grown to vast dimensions, and the spark of hope had become so tiny +that he was not quite sure any longer that it was there at all, he +noted from a distance a galaxy that seemed familiar.</p> + +<p>"That's it!" he cried. "That's it!"</p> + +<p>The spark flared, and as he sped toward the galaxy it became a flame. +It was a lens-shaped assemblage of stars, with two small spiral arms +composed of a few million stars each, and it was seemingly not too +different from millions of other galaxies he had passed in the course +of all those centuries. But to him, seeking so desperately, this galaxy +was unique. It was the right one. He coursed through it from spiral arm +to spiral arm, and now there could be no doubt. The star he wanted was +small and yellowish, far from the center of the lens. It had a rather +elaborate planetary system, which he recognized at once.</p> + +<p>This was it. The third planet, the one with a single subsatellite, was +the one he had been sent to find. To find, and perhaps to help. But how?</p> + +<p>The finding of the planet had solved one problem. So far it had given +him not a hint toward the solution of the second—the reason why he had +been sent here.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>There was life on this ball of mud and water, a great deal of life, +both vegetable and animal. And some of the latter could, without too +great a distortion of the truth, be called intelligent. It had raised +cities, tunneled into mountains, changed the appearance of sections of +the planet itself. It was to this intelligent life that he had been +sent.</p> + +<p>A dim memory of the need for caution kept him from letting himself be +seen. "I'd only frighten them," he thought. "I'll have to investigate +thoroughly before I reveal myself. And maybe the investigation will +remind me of what I have to do."</p> + +<p>The first thing was to come down to earth. Choosing the dark side of +the planet, shaded from the central sun by its own bulk, he shrank his +body and let himself drop in the gravitational field. From time to time +he slowed his fall in order to keep from flaming through the atmosphere +and attracting their attention. And at a thousand feet above the +surface he came to a complete stop, hovering over a city, and making up +his mind where to land.</p> + +<p>Something droned toward him through the air, colored lights winking +on and off. He darted downward and to one side. Where the city lights +faded out, he let himself fall all the way to the ground.</p> + +<p>He was off a dimly lit highway. Small metal vehicles ran along it, +their lights momentarily tearing apart the darkness ahead of them. A +glance through the metal at the creatures inside the vehicles gave him +a queer thrill. Yes, these were the ones he had been sent to.</p> + +<p>Quickly reshaping his body and clothing himself so that he seemed to +be one of them, he began to walk along the highway. Cars sped past him, +picking him out in their headlights. None of them stopped, but he had +time to probe their minds and listen to their language.</p> + +<p>What he found was not pleasant. Among all the feelings which controlled +their thoughts, fear was easiest to detect. And along with the fear +were hatred and envy and greed, anxiety and guilt. Oddly enough, there +were also hope and affection for each other, but it was the worse +feelings that predominated. There was no doubt that they needed help.</p> + +<p>That didn't make any clearer, however, what he had to do. He had an +idea that it was not his mission to work out a detailed solution. He +had to do some simple thing, something—</p> + +<p>The two men were lying in wait, either for him or for some other +pedestrian they judged sufficiently unwary. He sensed them long before +the first one stepped out toward him, a cigarette in one hand and what +was supposed to be an ingratiating look on the brutal face.</p> + +<p>"Got a match, bud?"</p> + +<p>The other man suddenly plunged at him from the side, an arm wrapping +itself around his neck. The assailant tried to bend him back, the +forearm cutting across his windpipe. The arm of the first man swung, a +rough fist smashing at his face.</p> + +<p>Then the two assailants screamed in pain and terror. Where they had +touched him, fist and arm broke into flame. Both men turned from him in +horror, and ran off wildly, as if to get away from themselves.</p> + +<p>He hadn't meant to hurt them, but they had contrived their own +punishment. Perhaps—no, that wasn't it. He wasn't here to punish +either.</p> + +<p>He walked along, and soon he found himself entering the city. A man in +a blue uniform watched him suspiciously and ordered him gruffly to get +moving.</p> + +<p>"I am moving," he said pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"Don't you get wise with me," said the bluecoat, and raised a +threatening club.</p> + +<p>He paid no attention to the club and kept on, toward the heart of the +city.</p> + +<p>What he saw only confirmed the impression he had obtained from the +minds of the men and women in the cars. Too many thoughts were mean and +ignoble, arising only from selfish and vicious desires. Many of those +who saw him seemed to sense his strangeness, and moved toward him with +a single impulse—to take advantage of his ignorance. Men spoke to him +out of the sides of their mouths, offering him bargains. Women offered +themselves.</p> + +<p>"<i>Look, Mac, this stuff is hot, see? Just came off a truck</i>—"</p> + +<p>"<i>Wanta look at some nice pictures, Mister?</i>"</p> + +<p>"<i>I can give you a good address, Bud.</i>"</p> + +<p>"<i>Out for a good time, Jack?</i>"</p> + +<p>The planet was sick. Had he been sent to cure it?</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>He came to an area of broad lighted streets. Lights glittered +everywhere, attracting the attention of those around him by going on +and off. Great posters advertised the attractions inside places of +amusement.</p> + +<p>He entered one of them, an astonished ticket-collector calling after +him, "Hey, where's your ticket, Bud?" But there was something about him +that prevented the man from pursuing.</p> + +<p>He lost himself in the darkness and watched the screen. Here, in +brief and vivid form, was pictured the life of the planet. Women in +bathing suits plunged into a pool and formed a pattern which imitated +sensuously the petals of an unfolding rose. A small animal leaped +through hoops and climbed a ladder. Groups of men drove against each +other for possession of an object which they kicked occasionally +into the air. An elderly man looked grim and made a speech into a +microphone. And then a film showed the main business of the planet, +which seemed to be the killing of its supposedly intelligent +inhabitants. Bombs exploded, planes crashed, desperate lines of men ran +forward to meet their deaths.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p>Something quickened in his mind. He almost remembered now. This was +what he had come here about.</p> + +<p>His will moved, and the theatre vanished behind him. Now he was on the +battlefield itself.</p> + +<p>The reality was worse than the image, far worse. Here were not only the +roars of the great guns, but the curses and screams of the wounded, the +gasps of the dying. Here were not only horrible sights and sounds, but +the odors of death—the sharp nitrogenous fragrance of explosives, the +heavy sulfurous smoke of burning oil, the sickening smell of sweating +or decaying flesh.</p> + +<p>A cloud came into being from the explosion of a mortar shell, and two +men dropped to the ground. In answer to the mortar, the flaring barrel +of a tank gun spoke hoarsely, and half the crew of the mortar fell in +turn. But there seemed no end to this deadly dialogue. The next moment +there came the burst of a bomb from a low-flying plane, and the tank +half turned over on its side, a heap of smoking steel.</p> + +<p>He knew at last why he had been sent here. He knew now what he had to +do.</p> + +<p>He ripped the flaring-mouthed gun from the tank. His hands twisted the +thick metal into a shape it had never known before, bent it into a +strange curve, fashioned it so that it would emit overtones to chill +the souls of those who heard it. His brain charged the instrument with +the energy of his own mind, energy that would send its voice to the far +corners of this diseased planet, and leave not a single individual deaf +to its dreaded tones.</p> + +<p>Putting the improvised horn to his lips, Gabriel blew the call for +which the planet had so long been waiting.</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 66381 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |