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ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

Contents for October, 1942, Vol. XXX, No. 2

John W. Campbell, Jr., Editor, Catherine Tarrant, Asst. Editor

Novelettes LUNAR LANDING Lester del Rey . . . 9 They set out to rescue the first ship ever to land on the Moon and found it wasn’t the first by a long shot. The Moon seemed, for a while, a pretty busy place

ANACHRON, INC Malcolm Jameson . 56 Selling the goods of an overproducing world to all the ages via time machine was a noble idea—but door-to-door salesmen in medieval France had certain difficulties

QRM—INTERPLANETARY ...... George O. Smith . . 109 Interference isn’t always electrical in nature, even when it’s man- made and interferes with interplanetary radio. Short Stories WARRIORS' AGE Peter Risk .... 32 A glimpse into another age—another culture and a deadly way of life. THE SECOND SOLUTION A. E. van Vogt ... 41 If a thing must be invented or discovered!, if the knowledge of the race is great enough to do the job—then someone, or perhaps some two, will stumble on it inevitably. One man learned the Ezwals

THE WABBLER Murray Leinster . . 85 Robots are mechanisms capable of carrying out assigned tasks. The Wabbler was one—assigned to the task of committing sui- cide in a particularly devastating way.

THE BEAST L. Ron Hubbard . . 100 There in the jungles of Venus the Beast had to be killed—not only because it murdered, but because it had stolen something he -> couldn’t live without—an intangible, absolutely necessary thing Articles , THE PARIS GUN Willy Ley ... . 50 The Paris Gun was not the Big Bertha—but it was big, a scien- tific achievement of the first order—and a military flop of the first

rank I

LATE-MODEL STARS R. S. Richardson . . 90 You see them every clear night; astronomers study them for a lifetime. And what makes them tick? To date, the guesses are numerous, varied, and not quite satisfying Readers’ Departments THE EDITOR'S PAGE 4 THE ANALYTICAL LABORATORY 40 An Analysis of Readers’ Opinions. IN TIMES TO COME 83 Department of Prophecy and Future Issues.

BRASS TACKS . . . 108 Concerning Purely Personal Preferences. Cover by A. von Munchhausen by M. Isip, R. Isip, Kolliker, Mondorf OUT THIRD Illustrations and Orban FRIDAY Monthly publication Isauod by 8treet 41 Smith Publication!, Incorporated, 79 Seventh Avenue, BACH MONTH New York City. Allen L. Grammcr, President; Henry W. Ralston, Vise President; Gerald H. Smith, Secretary and Treasurer. Copyright, 1942, In U. S. A. and Great Britain by NEXT ISSUE ON Street &. Smith Publications. Ine. Reentered as Second-class Matter, February 7, 1938, at the SALE OCT. 16 Post Office at New York, under Act of Conoress of March 3, 1879. Subscriptions to Countries In Pan American Union, $2.75 per year; elsewhere, $3.25 per year. We cannot accept responsibility artwork. Any material submitted must Include return $2.60 per YEAR for unsolicited manuscripts or postage. The editorial contents of this magazine have not been published before, are protected by copy- 25c per COPY right and cannot be reprinted without the publisher’s permission. All stories In this magazine are fiction. No actual persons are designated either by name or character. Any similarity Is coincidental. Printed In the U.8.A. STREET & SMITH PUBLICATIONS, INC. e 79 SEVENTH AVE., NEW YORK . T

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Copyright 1941, Newspaper Institute of America THE LAST STAND

The current verdict of actions all over the world The airplane is already approaching its critical seems to be that the battleship is doomed, an ex- point—the speed of sound. The propeller is rap- tinct species headed for the last resting place in idly losing efficiency as the tips travel near, and history books. The airplane has done the job, has beyond the speed with which smooth, orderly won time after time when the attack has been airflow is possible. A little more speed and the pressed home without hesitation. (It might be wings themselves will be involved in air speeds noticed, in passing, that the terrible Nazis had beyond the speed at which air can act as a normal not, in two years of war in narrow waters, suc- fluid. The plane as a whole doesn’t have to reach ceeded in sinking a single battleship by airplane sound speed for this to happen; the principle of action. The mighty Luftwaffe fliers could press the wing depends on the fact that the air moves home the attack without stint when it was against faster across the top of the wing than it does a defenseless town, but seemed to have been de- across the bottom. That difference in relative cidedly less determined in the face of the vicious speed generates the lift that sustains the plane. defense of a battle fleet.) Evidently faster flying machines will have to

The verdict may or may not be final ; at present be something other than airplanes. Jet propul- it is unquestionable. As of 1942, the battleship sion, whether true rocket or modified rocket, is cannot face air attack, if the attackers have the rapidly coming into the realm of necessities determination necessary. It is only fair to add rather than possibilities. Where the true rocket that, as of 1942, nothing can face air attack if the hurls out an exhaust jet composed entirely and attackers have the determination necessary—un- only of the gases generated by the rocket combus- less the thing is so large that sheer area makes its tion, the modified rocket or jet-propelled type uses destruction impracticable. Aircraft carriers, air- largely the surrounding air as a source of exhaust planes themselves, cruisers, destroyers, subma- mass. The true rocket uses its own, self-contained rines, tanks, field guns and antiaircraft batteries mass, violently ejected, to supply the driving kick. are all standard targets for planes—and all types The jet, or modified rocket, uses outside mass have been thoroughly chewed up by planes. which it picks up, accelerates, and throws out. The battleship resembled, to man’s military The latter system is useless—impossible—in weapons, the status of the elephant in animal life. space, but has very great advantages in an atmos- An elephant was too big, too powerfully armed phere. It permits a far more efficient use of fuel, and armored, for anything but another elephant since the fuel need supply only energy, and to attack effectively. Natives killed them by hid- doesn’t have to supply both energy and exhaust den pitfalls, as submarines killed battleships by mass. If the fuel is forced to supply both, the stealth. The airplane has acted somewhat as a limitation on the mass the ship can carry means high-power elephant rifle, making size alone of that the ejected mass must be used as efficiently as no great aid in defense—even, a positive menace possible. The kick, the drive, supplied by a by attracting attention. rocket is measured by the product of the mass But now there is nothing in the armory that ejected times the velocity of ejection. The faster can stand up and slug it out with its own kind, the exhaust, the less mass you need for a given unmindful of the buzzing little things about. amount of push. But the energy carried out in the There is no backbone to modern fleets—the air- exhaust increases as the square of the velocity; plane is as vulnerable as its victim; the carrier the higher the velocity of the exhaust, the less more fragile by far than the battleship it replaces efficient the use of energy. The same amount of as capital ship. energy, used to accelerate more mass to a lower Temporarily, the airplane wins. Given an au- speed, would give equal push—a big amount of tomatically operated gun—trained by electric eyes mass times a small velocity equaling a small mass working through an electric brain to make elec- times a very high velocity—but, if self-contained tric muscles operate—the battleship will be the mass alone is used, the available supply would be capital ship again, immune to the attack of air- rapidly exhausted. borne midges behind its fly-screen of electrically The jet system picks up local mass—air—and launched destruction. Whether that automatic exhausts tons of it at comparatively low veloci- gun will be perfected before this war ends, we ties. The same formulas apply, but the use of can’t know. energy is immensely more efficient. In air, a jet- But it makes no difference; the airplane is a propelled ship could have far greater cruising

fragile, ephemeral thing. This is, perhaps, the range than a rocket, and yet have just as great a Airplane War—the first in which the airplane held( speed. total domination in every field—and the last. Probably the next step in flying-machine design THE LAST STAND 7 will abandon the propeller-engine combination as involves immense dilution of the high-speed, su- we know it, and as the Wrights knew it. The step per-heated rocket-type exhaust with huge masses after that is abandonment of the wing; it can be of cold air to produce the final exhaust, practically replaced by vertically operating jets that have no all the available heat energy can be made to per- inherent speed limitations. form useful work. The wings will have to remain, perhaps, as The jet-propelled plane’s “engine” should, theo- stubby balancing and directive fins. At first they retically, show an efficiency even higher than that may remain as collapsible devices for use in start- of the turbine. The efficiency is limited by the ing the plane off the field; later the jet-lift will temperature drop between the heat source and have to replace them as higher and higher speeds the exhaust—the high-pressure super-heated steam are demanded. input and the low-temperature, low-pressure ex- haust in turbine. engine, But this war is the last stand of the winged air- the case of the In the jet plane, the flying machine that, like all early de- the starting temperature would be much higher; velopments of a mechanical nature, is a hard, com- steam cannot practically be heated to the tempera- plicated way of doing a simple thing. ture of a jet of blazing oil. The finishing tempera- ture should not be much above ISO 0 F. The airplane requires an internal-combustion with engine of high efficiency—a device of immense and Compare the exhaust of a gas engine, marvelous complexity that, in cold fact, is the ul- which comes out so hot the exhaust stacks glow timate triumph of a sort of Goldbergian gadgetry. red-hot! If you think of it a moment—this piston here goes The increased efficiency of the jet-type ship down, and pushes this crank like that, and the will have another and interesting effect; at lower crank is geared to this shaft so that when it gets cruising speeds—down around five hundred m. p. here, this cam pushes this rod that works that h.—the jet-type ship would be very nearly noise- rocker to push the valve open until the cam turns less, whispering along with not much more than around to— Pure Goldbergism. And that doesn’t a rustle of wind. Properly designed, with airflow even mention the magneto that generates current as smooth as ingenuity can devise, the air would to run the spark plugs, or the supercharger, or make little fuss about its passage. The jet itself, the— if efficient, is noiseless. A rocketship might well A jet-propelled plane could, quite literally, be take off with a roar; the type is inefficient in an designed to function with a home-style furnace oil atmosphere and the inefficiency appears as sound. usual type burner as the engine. The small-home But at one thousand m. p. h. ! Nothing man has oil burner, incidentally, is approximately a sev- ever known could approximate a description of enty-horsepower heat engine. Nobody ever really the unholy uproar such a ship would produce tried to see how light a high-capacity oil burner unless equipped with something beyond stream- they could make. I’d imagine a good five-thousand- lining as now known. Thunder is caused by the horsepower burner ought not to weigh much more air rushing into the partial vacuum created when than two hundred pounds, though. It has so much a bolt of lightning literally blasts a hole through

less tendency toward things going this way so the atmosphere. At one thousand m. p. h., an that this can go that way while the other thing imperfectly shaped ship would be drilling a hole

opens up here. through the air ; behind it would be a nearly total Also, the fundamental principle of the jet is vacuum where the displaced air was unable to fill immensely simpler than that of the airplane wing. in the space vacated by the advancing machine. It inherently lends itself to a streamlined shape. If you can conceive of a continuous one-hundred- And if some real research and study of jet design mile-long bolt of lightning five to eight feet in can’t beat the efficiency of internal-combustion diameter passing overhead from one horizon to engines, man’s ingenuity is gone. It was reported the other in about three minutes—some vague here a while back that the exhaust heat of gasoline notion of what a one-thousand-mile-an-hour ship engines was being used in special duct systems might sound like may be suggested. A machine to produce additional thrust by jet action. The like that would sort of demand a name—perhaps present type of engine has a cooling system—one “The Lightning” or “The Thunderbolt.” of the severest limitations in gas-engine design, Rough calculation suggests it would need some

and a magnificent confession of extravagant waste. three and a half million horsepower to drive it, if The gas engine is a heat engine, supposed to con- it did that, however. vert heat energy into mechanical energy. The But in any case, as of today, the battle plane has cooling system is used to throw away most of the the battleship licked. The battleship, modified and provides heat the fuel for the functioning of the improved, will probably come back. The airplane machine. —the flying machine depending on wings, engines, A jet-system “engine” uses the heat energy in propellers, the invention of the Wrights—is fight- the simplest, most direct way. Since the principle ing its last war. The Editor. t 1

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LUNAR LANDING

By Lester del Rey

• It was to rescue the first man-carrying ship to land on the moon that they'd made the voyage. But, though only one aboard

knew it — not at all the ship they thought they were to rescuel

Illustrated by Kolllker

I. out of the dream of falling endlessly, to a grow- ing consciousness. The falling sensation still per- Grey’s body was covered with a cold sweat that sisted, and he made an unconscious frantic ges- trickled down from his armpits and collected in ture toward something to stay his fall; then his little round drops over his body, and he stirred in hands met the loose webbing of the bag, and he his bag, crying out faintly. The sound of his grimaced. own voice must have wakened him, for he came Even without the feel of the webbing, the reac- 10 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

tion of his motions should have told him where I’ve never rested so well, whether I sleep or not. he was, as his body shot back against the oppo- Would you like some coffee?” site surface of the sack; this was space, where He nodded, pulling himself carefully along the gravity had been left far behind, except for the ropes that made handholds while she removed a faint fingers of it that now were creeping up from thermos bottle from a locker and replaced its cork the Moon, and pulling him slowly back to the top with another that had two straws inserted through

of the bag. For a few seconds he lay there, grin- it. Above her, Wolff went on snoring in a par- ning slightly at the thought of the stories he’d ticularly horrible gargling manner, and she read in which lack of gravity had set the heart glanced up distastefully at his sack but made no

to pounding wildly, or the stomach to retching. mention of it. Grey took the coffee gratefully, Space wasn’t like that, he knew now, and should drinking slowly through one straw; cups would have known before. It was simply like the first have been worse than useless out here, since few moments of free fall, before the parachute liquids refused to pour, but chose to coalesce into opened; sort of a peaceful feeling, once you real- rounded blobs, held in shape by surface tension. ized fully there was no danger to it. And the “Ralston’s already gone out to the engines,” effort needed, heart was freed from some of the she answered his glance at the empty sack. “And pumping, while the and adjusted to a calm, easy June’s still in the cockpit. The rest are all asleep; in stride. It been ab- stomach took it all hadn’t I put a sedative in their broth, so they wouldn’t sence of gravity, but the shifting of it that made be awakened during the landing. I’ll take a mild seasickness. one myself after you start reversing, so you Of course, his ears felt odd—there had been a needn’t worry about us here.” dizziness that increased slowly as the liquids in- side were freed from the dov^iward pull, but the Grey finished the coffee and handed the bottle hours in the acclimating chamber had done their back to her, smiling his thanks, then turned down it a matter work, and it soon passed. Mostly was the narrow little shaft that led to the control pit. of mental adjustment that overcame the old feel- A pull on the ropes sent him skimming down the recog- ing that somewhere had to be down, and shaft, guided by a hand on the walls, before he After nized that all six walls were the same. checked his momentum at the bottom and squeezed that, space an entirely pleasant sort of thing. was open the little door. Inside, he could see June With loose easiness of motion necessary here, Correy hunched over the observation window, he reached up and unfastened the zipper above staring down through the small telescope, making his sleeping sack, and him, then wriggled out of notes in a little book, but he slid in silently with- of the pulled himself down to the floor by means out disturbing her and settled himself into the for hand- ropes that were laced along the walls padded control seat, pulling out a cigarette. holds. The room was small and cramped, heavy She glanced up nervously as the first odor of with the smell of the human bodies that hung the smoke reached her, and for a brief moment now in other sacks along the sides, and loud with there was more than mere contempt in her eyes. the snores of Wolff and the hiss of the air-con- They were nice eyes, too, or could have been if ditioning machine. she’d wanted them to be; he’d seen warmth and “Is that you, Grey?” One of the bags opened, courage in them when the grueling take-off had and Alice Benson stuck her head out, smiling unsettled the others. But for him, there was only calmly at him. a look that reminded him pointedly of his eighty Somehow, looking at her, he could never feel pounds and four-feet-ten height. He grinned at the impatience he should; she was too old and her, raking over her own slender five feet and fragile to be making such a trip, especially since up to the hair with a hint of auburn in it, men- there seemed neither rhyme nor reason to her tally conceding her beauty while knowing that presence, and yet the utter normality of her con- she was aware of it, and chose to make the fullest duct under the conditions was strangely soothing. use of it to gain her ends. The fact that he was In the cramped, stinking little cabin of the Lunar outwardly immune to her charms added nothing Moth, she was still possessed of a mellowed gen- to her liking for him. tility of bearing that concealed the air of urgency Now she turned back with a shrug to the ob- he’d sometimes suspected. servation window, carefully not noticing the “Yes, ma’am.” Unconsciously, the few manners smoke that drifted toward her, though the cor- he’d learned leaped to the surface around her. ners of her nose twitched faintly. She’d been “Why aren’t you asleep?” used to a full pack a day, and the five rationed She shook her head slowly, the faintest of gri- out to them here had probably been smoked within maces showing in the corners of her mouth. “I as many hours. couldn’t, lad. I’ve been living too many years with something under me to adjust as well as you “Smoke, Carrots?” youngsters do. But, it has its compensations; “I don’t chisel, Pipsqueak!” But her eyes LUNAR LANDING II

turned involuntarily toward the white cylinder the great ship slowly about until the mark he he held out. had selected was squarely in the cross-hairs of He tossed it to her. “Landing rations, special the screen. Satisfied, he cut out the clutches. to the head pilot. I got a whole pack bonus for “Nice work, Half-Pint!” She said it with a the landing, to steady my nerves, if I had any. grudging tone, but he knew it was justified, and Technically, you don’t rate, but my chivalry accepted the words at face value. “For delicate won’t stand a suffering female. Take it and stop work, you’re not bad!" whining.” “Uh-huh. Suppose you get on the radio there “Chivalry!” She grunted eloquently, but the and call Earth; once I cut in the blast, you won’t cigarette was already glowing, and she settled have a chance, with the field out there fighting back, some of the hostility gone from her eyes. your signal. Know what you want to say?” “You never found the meaning of the word.” “After working for the news syndicate five long “Maybe not. I never had anything to do with years? Don’t be silly. How long can I take?” women under sixty before, so I wouldn’t know. “Ten minutes, about.”

. . . ’S the truth, don’t bug your eyes at me. As “Umm. Got any messages to send yourself? long as I can remember, at least, I’ve been poison Friends, relatives? I’ll bug out a few words for

to girls, which suited me all right. . . . Nervous?” you if you like—square the cigarette!” She was “A little.” She stared down again through the already pushing the key of the bug back and ’scope. “The Earth doesn’t look so friendly down forth, throwing full power through the bank of there from this distance. And I can’t help re- tubes and out across space on the ultra-short membering that Swanson must have cracked up. waves that would cut down through the Heaviside Wonder if he’s still alive?” on a reasonably tight beam. Grey shook his head. This was both an explor- “No friends, no relatives, no message. I had a ing expedition and a rescue party for Swanson dog once, but he died, so we’ll forget him, too.” and his two men, if any remained alive; but they’d Grey was estimating speeds and distances from set off the double magnesium-oxygen flare indi- the few instruments and the rough guide of the cating a crack-up almost eighty days before, and image of the Moon, knowing that the calculations their provisions had been good for a month only. made back on Earth would be far more accurate “If none of their supplies were injured, perhaps. than anything he could arrive at, but still feeling You can go through a lot of hell if you have to; the need of checking for his own satisfaction. probably depends on how much faith they had She glanced up from the bug, a glint of curi- in a rescue whether or not they tried to make osity showing. “You’re a queer duck, Grey, but

out till we reached them. . . . I’m going to re- I didn’t figure you were a misanthrope.” verse now. Staying here?” “Not. People just don’t think the same way She nodded, and he reached for the tinny little I do, or something; maybe because nobody wrote phone that connected him to the engine hold. anything on my blank pages except what I scrib- “Ralston? Get set, because time’s due for a turn. bled myself.” He thrust up a hand into the steel- Gyros ready? And power? O. K., strap in.” He gray hair that bushed up on his head, sweeping was already fastening himself down with webbing it back from cold gray eyes, grinning at the men-

straps, while Correy came over beside him and tal picture of himself. Even that didn’t fit in with began doing likewise. A final glance at the chro- normality, since healthy human skin shouldn’t be nometer, and he reached out for the gyro clutches, tanned to a dark-brown that somehow had a gray throwing them in. undernote, making him a complete monotone in Slowly, the Moth heeled, dipping her tail re- harmony with the name he'd chosen for himself. luctantly, and through the small observation win- “Don’t go asking personal questions, Carrots, be- „dow before him, sighted out along the side of cause I can’t answer ’em any better than you could the great rocket tube, the small ball that was for me. I’m an amnesiac, had a seventy-year-old Earth slithered away and out of sight. The sec- psychologist for a mother, an encyclopedia for a onds ticked by slowly as the tiny gyros reacted, father, and the hell of making a living for a one thousand turns or more to make one half turn school.” for the Moth, since they were in a ratio of a He could see nothing of her face, but her voice pound per ton of ship. In space, there was no held none of the. expected pity or maudlin slop need for any sudden maneuvering, but the saving he’d become used to when the facts were spilled. of weight was immensely important, even with “Then how’d you ever decide on this?” atomic fuel supplying the energy that activated “Donno that, even. Hunch, or something. Fin- the tube. Then the rough face of Luna began ished . . . Good, then shut up while I start this to peek in at the edge of the window, and Grey thing gentling down. Luna doesn’t look pretty snapped off all lights in the cockpit, sighting down there, but I reckon we’ll find a level place through the now glowing screen of the telescope. somewhere to slap down on our tripod. Ralston, He reached for the gyro controls again, edging here we go. Keep ’em smooth 1” —

12 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

Grey’s long, sensitive fingers went out to the on meanings, and the first sentences became again vernier and studs that covered the action of the familiar to him. Oh, he’d learned rapidly—some single tube, cutting in the circuits, letting it faint neural paths were still left, easing the job warm up, then throwing in the high potential of learning. He’d heard that it was amnesia needed to start it before normal action could pro- not partial, but complete, wiping out all mem- ceed. A small red button on the panel clicked on, ories with an utter finality; and during the year and he dropped back, feeding in power slowly, that followed, he’d stored into his .unfilled mind while the edge of the window nearest the tube all the information from the libraries at hand, took on a faint blue glow, and a slight haze and all the odd relations of mankind he could showed up near it. The blue streak of inferno glean. But in learning so rapidly, he’d had no that was the rocket blast was blazing out behind time for the normal prejudices and devious tricks —or ahead, really, since the so-called bottom of of the mind. He’d been forced to think in his the ship was always directed toward the destina- own way, almost without relation to those about tion when power was on. Rockets at each end, him, and with its own peculiar advantages. But or strung along the sides, would have made the there could be no friendships in that frantic chase weight unmanageable. The gravitometer needle after knowledge. He’d never realized, until the flickered upward, quarter-gravity deceleration, psychiatrist died, that he was an object of charity, half, then a full gravity pounding out behind though he found shortly after that living was them. done by the sweat of a man’s brow. The feeling of weight came back over him, set- Well, it hadn’t been too hard, all things con- ting his stomach into a belated sickness that he sidered. He’d been analyzed before and told that was totally unprepared for, but it was only mo- he had an ability for mechanics, so the job in mentary, and the action of his heart surged up, the airplane factory had followed almost auto- then settled back into the routine business of matically. The other men had stared at his strange fighting to equalize pressure and circulation in little figure, and had laughed in well-meant kid- spite of the downward pull. He flopped the ciga- ding that turned slowly to a sullen dislike at his rette package in front of Correy, and she lighted lack of response to what he could not understand; one for him for herself but the work had gone well. Then, the call to run and another ; words would have been wasted while the great roar behind these ships he built had grown in him, and the fly- filtered in, drumming against their ears. Maybe zing school that followed had grudgingly granted a theoretically correct rocket should be soundless, his ability. Learning, to him, was the only known but this one certainly wasn’t. From now on, until pleasure, and he’d tackled all new things with a the actual landing began, it was simply a matter set purposefulness that brooked no obstacles. of sitting quietly and waiting for the blind rush Three years of flying the great ships had won oi; the ship to slow down and the distance to him a certain half-respect, and even an outward diminish, with only a cursory attention from him. familiarity with the other pilots, as well as a repu- He settled back, smoking and thinking idly, tation for courage which he felt unjustified; it stirred again into unemotional memories by Cor- wasn’t recklessness, but a lack of any feeling that reas earlier words. he had anything to lose. Life was oddly un- No child grown to manhood could remember its valuable, though he reacted automatically to the earliest infancy, apparently; but a newborn mind old law of self-preservation when faced with in an adult body might still soak up and remem- trouble. ber impressions for which it had no name; the He’d been flying two years when the first news eyes still carried their training at separating ob- of Swanson’s rocket appeared in the papers. jects, the ears knew still how to sort and classify There, he’d thought, was something worth trying, sounds, meaningless though they were. And now, and for the first time he’d felt the common stir- even as if it were but a moment before, he could ring of envy; Swanson had been a name to con- remember waking there on the strange green jure with among flying men, and his selection as meadow and stirring without purpose, called by pilot by the mysterious company building the the unrecognized pangs of hunger. Under him, rocket had been entirely fair, yet Grey had been his legs had stirred, but he’d forgotten how to almost jealous of the man. There was magic in walk, and had resorted to creeping toward a stream the idea of sailing out beyond the Earth toward that flowed nearby, the call of thirst stronger than the Moon that stirred odd feelings in him, un- blank memories. The farmer had found him there, felt except in the fantastic dreams he sometimes half drowning from his clumsiness, and by the had. time he’d been half carried to the farmhouse, his And then, when Swanson had set off the two legs were again learning the difficult work of sup- flares to indicate a crack-up, there’d been an- porting him, though they had felt weak and shaky. nouncements of a second ship on the ways, which The doctor had turned him over to a psychi- would be used in a gallant, though almost hope- atrist. And then, days later, words began to take less, attempt to rescue the three men in the first LUNAR LANDING 13 one. But this time, they had no hand-picked can- indicated both the frantic last-minute rush and didate for pilot, and it had been conducted on a the depletion of funds, though the important severely practical series of competitive tests things were well-enough done. among the pilots flying commercially or privately Her voice came driving in through the phones, who volunteered. In the long run, it was his size now that some of the thunder of the tube was and weight, along with the smaller amount of muffled out. “Wake up from your dreams, Squirt I air and food he needed, that had turned the scales Listen to that tube! Hard, it isn’t obvious; I’m in his favor; others were as good pilots, as quick not sure I hear anything, but I think I do, and in their reactions, and as clever at learning the don’t like it!" new routines. But none had been as economical He yanked back one earpiece and listened, to ship, and the small balance had gone in his screwed up into a small bundle of concentration, favor, just as the same factor had helped all of but at first there was nothing wrong. The thun- the rest of the crew’s selection, with the excep- der came rushing in like an overgrown bee against tion of Bruce Kennedy, designer of the Moth. He a microphone, a tumultuous Sh-Sh-Sh-Sh, gradu- stood almost six feet tall, but of the others, June ally revolving into something faintly but distinctly Correy was the tallest with her exact five feet of different, a slightly changing Sh-Sh-Zh-Zh-Sli- height; and even among them, Grey was the Sh-Zh-Zh, almost unnoticeable. That change had smallest. no business there. And even as he strained to Not that it bothered him; he was apparently catch it, it seemed to become more pronounced. lacking in the normal human self-consciousness “Damn! I do hear it, Correy! How long’s it about such things, and for the weeks that fol- been going on?” lowed, the grind of preparing himself as best “I don’t know—I only just noticed it, but that he could for the task ahead was to give him no was because I was listening deliberately, trying time for thoughts. Swanson and two men were to find some nice description to write up if we up there on the Moon, short on food and water ever get back. What is it?” and the all-important air needed for life, while “Donno, but I’ve got suspicions. Ralston ! Hey, the mysterious sponsor of the ships operated Ralston, cut in! Notice anything funny about the through its trust company with a frenzied drive tube sound?” that could rush the Moth through in too long a There was a long pause from the engineer, then time at best, but had to hope that the men would a grunt came over the phones, which might have somehow survive. indicated anything. Grey called again, but got It had impressed Grey at the time, the struggle no answer, and his skin began to feel tight with to save those three men who’d already managed the one sensation he could clearly recognize as to accrue more glory than a normal lifetime could an emotional response to danger. Correy started give them. He’d felt more hopeful for this to get up from the straps, obviously intending to strange mass of humanity. But to him, the im- go in person after -little Ralston, but he shook portant factor was that the Moth must get his head, and something about him made her sink through, since there could be no more—that had back quietly. Finally, a faint noise came over, followed been made clear to them ; ships cost fortunes, and by the boy’s excited voice, its normal not all people were willing to spend the money bitterness washed out. needed. Now, here he was, and under his fingers “Yeah, Grey, something’s damned funny. I’ve lay perhaps the future of all space travel; cer- checked over everything here, and it isn’t in my tainly the life of the queer crew with him. Below province. Nothing I can do about it. Motors are him, the hungry pits and craters of the satellite feeding perfectly, voltage and amperage aren’t seemed to reach out jagged teeth to swallow this off a hair, ionizer’s perfect, and the whole hook- presumptuous bug that insisted on daring what up’s about as good as anything can be. Any ideas, men had never been created to try. or you want mine?” “I’ve got ’em, but I’m hoping I’m crazy. That “Strange,” Grey muttered, leaning forward be- tube’s control field tested out one hundred per- yond the screen to stare directly at the black and cent, didn’t it?” white selenography under him. “Logically that The boy’s voice caught faintly. “So you’ve stuff down there should be queer to me, but it been thinking the same! Yeah, it tested O. K., isn’t. Not half as strange as old Earth looked the and Kennedy told me it was theoretically perfect, first time I really saw her. I . . . Huh?” but—Grey, do you think that’s why Swanson Correy was clutching his shoulder, gripping at cracked?” him and trying to attract his attention. The He hadn’t thought of it, but it was an idea. ship’s combination radioman, reporter, and as- “Umm, could be. But look, how can we check on sistant pilot was indicating his headset, and he it?” grunted, adjusting the ill-fitting thing reluctantly; “We can’t. If it gets worse in geometrical pro- there was a lot of equipment on the Moth that gression, then we’re right, and ions are eating ”

14 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

through, in spite of the field, working on their For a moment, Grey put it down to imagina-

own controls, and the more damage they do, the tion, but then he realized she was right; it was faster it goes. Of course, if you can shut off the an obvious whishing now that had no business rocket, give it time to cool off where there’s al- there, and steadier. He grunted, feeding in most no convection, and let me get out into the slightly more power, and watched while the gravi-

tube in a suit; maybe I can fix it, maybe not. I tometer rose back where it should be. The moon- doubt it.” scape on the screen was still too far away to “No use trying. Luna’s too close, and we’d hit suit him—though it might soon be too close. Be before you could get inside. Think we could ease a pity if anything happened to the Moth, with up a little? Umm, no. Won’t work, same amount all the hopes and dreams that must be in her. of damage in the long run, and we’d have to take Alice Benson’s gently faded face with its hidden a course to make an orbit; that’d give us a longer purpose flashed through his mind, then the per- trip and probably do more harm than good. At verse warmth he’d seen in June Correy’s, but they this rate, how long should it last?” Were less than the ship to him. “Your guess is as good as mine, Grey, but I’d He looked again at the screen, then back to say about an hour and a half.” the girl. “I’ll get us down somehow, June; I June cut in, her voice somewhat relieved. “Then give my word on that, if I have to climb out in we won’t have to worry until we land! We’ll be the tube and swear against gravity.”

down in half an hour more!” “Somehow . . . somehow I can picture that "At this rate, I said,” Grey reminded her right now.” She nodded slowly, a puzzled mix- brusquely. “If this keeps up, we’ll begin to lose ture of worry and surprise on her face. “Nemo efficiency, and fast! Then we’ll have to cut in Grey, I never believed those stories about your more juice, more damage, more juice, and so on. rescue of the group in Canada, but I do now. Right, Ralston?” Don’t you know what fear is?” “Right! It’ll be nip and tuck, though I think He shook his head slowly. "Not exactly, I guess. you’ve got leeway. Swanson made it, even if he But watch it, Carrots, you’re getting soft. You’ll crashed, and our tube figured against weight and be clinging on my shoulder in a minute, just an- things with a minutely higher safety factor than other woman trusting in a man. Scared?” he had, so we should be good for a little better “Yes. That sound out there, getting worse. luck, if that’s what failed him. Look, June, you And then when I look at the screen— Could I still there? . . . Uh, well, if you can . . . the have — another smoke, Grey?” She took it, sucking others in eagerly on it, suffering from too good an im- Grey chuckled a little, amused at the odd quirks agination, he guessed. But her sudden about- of human thought that could be embarrassed about face surprised him, and aroused the ghost of an- its other twists, even now, and answered for her. other emotion he couldn’t place. Women were "They’ll be all asleep, unless Mrs. Benson’s still a strange species to him, and his little knowledge awake. No use waking them up to worry ; nothing of them came mostly from books. “You know, they could do. And if you’re thinking about right now I am just another woman, I guess, and Helen Neff, the doctor was snoring a nice so- that scrawny shoulder of yours may look pretty prano when I left. She’s as safe as she can be. good to me, before we land. You seem so damned Go back to your engines and let me worry about sure of yourself and so unruffled.” the others.” “Cling if you want; I won’t hold it against you He cut Ralston off, still grinning, and looked after we land. But right now, I’d rather you used across at Correy’s frowning face. “Heart’s on his that telescope and tried to hunt out the wreck sleeve, eh, Carrots? Sometimes I can guess why of Swanson’s ship if you can spot it. Reports of you women don’t like little men—they’re too the flare indicate it’s about there, I think.” He darned intense and obvious. She knows she’s got pointed to a dot on the screen, now showing a him, so she chases big Bruce Kennedy.” greatly enlarged version of the Moon’s face, or “You’re no giant yourself. Pipsqueak,” she re- part of it. minded him absently. “And since when did you She seized on the chance, and more confidence take over command of the ship?” came back to her with something to occupy her “But I don’t feel like a little man—I don’t mind besides the mental picture of a crash. Grey bother thinking one way or the other. That’s had his hands full, trying, to keep the indicator the difference. As to the command, I took that where it should be, against the slowly tapering- over when we took off, by my own consent; no- off thrust of the rocket. And they were close body thought to figure out that somebody had to enough now that another factor began to enter, be boss here, so I’m it. If you’ve any objections, one on which he’d counted, but for which no let’s have them, and then I’ll forget them.” amount of “tank” work could fully prepare him. “You get us down, and I’ll argue about it later. The ship was top-heavy, its center of gravity lo- Listen, it’s worse already.” cated a good many feet above the center of thrust, LUNAR LANDING 15

and the feeble gravity of the Moon was begin- tenth over one gravity, as corrected against lunar ning to act on that; the top showed an alarming drag by the radio indicator that was now work- tendency to swing over toward the Moon, away ing, giving altitude by signal echo time. Again from the straight line of fall. he had to jerk back to the gyro controls. And No rocket impulse could be exactly centered or the rocket was behaving abominably now, wast- exactly balanced on both sides at all times, and ing a large part of its energy in fighting itself, the faintest off-center effect wks enough to start while the temperature continued to rise. a list. He swore, watching the slight movement June motioned suddenly, switching the scope of the window over the moonscape, working the back to the screen at full amplification, pointing gyro clutches to correct it and bring them back to a tiny spot that gleamed more brightly than

to dead center. As long as the tilt was only a the rough ground around it. It was located in slight one, the gyros could do it, in spite of their the oddly shaped crater to which he was headed, slowness of response, but the moment he let it and a careful inspection seemed to show the shape

get beyond a degree or two, they’d be too feeble of a broken rocket. “Must be it, don’t you think, to do the work, and his only chance would be to Grey?” cut the rocket and let them work without the “Must be. Wrong side of the crater, of course. thrust; that had happened on the take-off, but Damn! Leave the scope on and make sure all there’d been time. Now, with the closeness of your straps are tight. We may hit hard. Umm, the moon and the deterioration of the tube, he’d Men should have three arms. Yeah, that’s it, all have no chance to try it successfully. right. I caught a gleam of metal that’d been pol- Again the tube sound was worse, and there ished then.” He bent forward, catching the tog- was a rise in temperature inside the room, com- gle switch with his teeth. “Ralston, get set. Land- ing from the rocket side that formed one wall; ing in ten minutes. Tube’s raising hades, but I that meant a considerable loss of efficiency. Grey think it’ll last."

dropped his hand from the gyro clutch, stepped “O. K., Grey." The boy was scared, but deter- up the power, and jerked it back, just as the tilt mined not to show it. “I’ll keep my hand on the decided to take advantage of the one uncontrolled main motor switch, try to cut it off as we hit, angle. But he was in time, by a slight margin. so that won’t get out of control. Luck!” !” Correy’s face had jerked from • the scope and “Luck, Phil The use of the first name was tightened as she took it in, but she nodded, caught deliberate, since he seldom used them, but it herself, and went back to searching. should sound friendlier. He released the toggle -''His estimate indicated their fall was faster than again with his teeth, his eyes screwed to close safe, and he snapped his eye from the window focus on the indicators, then slid back. Slowly, the gravitometer, to setting the thrust up to a cautiously, he let the ship slip over two degrees ”

16 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION toward the direction of the wreck, and the ground II. in the window slid sluggishly aside as it drew Grey stirred mentally, his hand groping up to nearer. But he couldn’t keep it up; too much the painful lump on his forehead, and his mind risk of the tilt getting out of hand. He straight- straining for something that he couldn’t reach; ened again, and moved the switch over almost the perversely calm part recognized the impulse full way; now nearly the last amount of available and the frustration of it, though. Whenever any power was coming from the rocket. Suddenly shock hit him, he unconsciously expected the the tendency to list stopped, and a whine growled amnesia to lift, as it did in the books; but it out from somewhere in the center of the ship. never happened that way, though it wasn’t the had “God bless Ralston!” Grey realized what first time he’d gone through a mental blackout. happened; during the trip the boy had been piec- A hand brushed the thick hair off his face, and ing out extra gyros, crude and unsafe, from any- he looked up into the troubled eyes of June thing he could lay his hands on, knowing that Correy. the regular ones had been almost inadequate for “Hi, Carrots, you got through?” his rough the take-off. Probably they’d burn out “We all did.” She’d jerked her hand back, and bearings, blow up from centrifugal force, or over- now something like embarrassment passed over load their motors in a few minutes, but for the her face. “It wasn’t a bad landing, Grey; but moment they’d work, and it would be long enough. the combination of me hanging onto you and "That’s real courage for you, Carrots! The kid’s your own loose strapping threw you against the scared sick, but he still bucks it through in time! control panel. Sorry I got so soft.” spot Well, she’s steady, she’s pointing to the best “Skip it!” He wasn’t sorry. I can locate, so all I have to fool with is the power Alice Benson’s frail hands were adjusting a control, and I think it’ll last. . . . Hey!” cold compress on the lump that ached, and he The glance he’d shot at her had spotted her looked around then to find himself in the main white knuckles and clenched teeth, her eyes set room of the ship where most of the others were on the screen that showed ground rushing up making preparations of some sort. She poured at them, growing like the face of a monster in the something onto a cut that stung sharply, smiling stereoscopic movies, seeming to swallow them up. at him. “It was a very fine landing, lad; we

On an impulse that he recognized as probably nor- hardly felt it through the springs holding our mal but still surprising, he reached around her sacks—just enough to waken the others. Feel shoulders with his free hand, pulling her over better.” against him, and turning her face from the sight. “Fine, thanks.” His eyes located bitter little "Hey, it isn’t that bad, Carrots. I said we’d get Philip Ralston, and he turned to him. “Did you through, didn’t I?” tell the others?” She nodded, burying her face against him, and “Left it to you.” The kid’s blue eyes flicked her voice was almost too faint to hear. “I’m away from Helen Neff, then back again, while !” scared, Grey ! I’m scared Her arms came around his hands went on pulling out the spacesuits. him then, pulling hard at him for the purely ani- “Go Aiead and tell them, Grey.” mal comfort his solidity could give, and he recog- Grey pushed aside the hands of Mrs. Benson, nized it as something not related to him per- and pulled himself to his feet against the light sonally, but there was an odd pleasure in it, all gravity, surveying thq others as they turned to the same. face him, watching their various reactions. “O. K., He kept his voice level, one hand on the con- then, here it is, in a nutshell. We’re here, and trol lever, trying to match the erratic thrust we spotted the other ship quite a ways off. But against the gravity, the other patting her shoul- right now, I wouldn’t risk a ten-foot hop with der. “Easy, June. It’s all right.” But he knew that tube—it’s shot! You might look it over,

it wasn’t. An irregular, fading blast was compli- Kennedy, but I don’t think there’s much we can cating his calculations until a smooth landing do unless there’s enough left of Swanson’s tube would be impossible. Then the ion stream struck to put the two together and make one good one.” the ground below, and the screen became a blue “Shot?” Kennedy scowled, his heavy sullen glare. On a guess, he set power to counteract face looking more aggressive than usual. “Look, their motion. Grey, that tube was right—it tested for double For a seemingly endless quarter of a minute the time we took. What’d you—do—forget to warm or less, he held it there, then jerked his hand it up? If you ruined it, I’ll away and struck the cut-off switch savagely, just “Yeah?” Ralston jugiped up facing the bigger as something caught the tripod landing gear, man, a little blond bantam defying a brunet giant. and his stomach seemed to drop through the seat. “You got two to clean up, then, Kennedy. Grey "Landed!” The word leaped through his head did a damned good job, and it wasn’t his fault as a lance of pair 'truck and ended in blackness. your theories couldn’t take the actual work.” LUNAR LANDING 17

Grey put a hand to the boy’s shoulder, push- much good. . ... You know, you look almost ing him back gently. “It’s O. K., Phil, forget it. like a man in a suit, Half-Pint.” Kennedy, you know darned well you can’t say that He grinned. “So do you, Redhead, so don’t tank tests are the same as actual work-outs; any- count on feminine wiles out there. O. K., let’s how, Swanson cracked up, probably the same way. go. This is serious business, so no foolishness But we can’t stop to fight about it now. We’ve from anyone. Swanson, Englewood, and Mars- got to get out there, locate the other ship, and den may be dying any minute in their ship; and find out whether we can work it up from the two we’re looking out for our own lives, too. Take it tubes. Otherwise—well, there won’t be any other- easy, remember you’re dealing with only a sixth- wise. Now get out and into that tube; find out normal gravity here, don’t turn on too much what happened, and how we can fix it. The rest oxygen, and stay together. We’ll go over your of you get into space togs so we can start out- findings when we get back, Kennedy, and report side. Orders! I’m taking command!” on the other tube. See you.” “By whose consent?” The ship’s designer stood “Right.” The big man had decided to take it rooted, unmoving, his eyes challenging the pilot, with outward pleasantness, at least, and he man- and something unpleasant on his face. aged a smile through his suit’s helmet. “Luck!” Grey grinned, turning toward the others. Cor- rey made a face at him, along with an overly Grey should have felt strange as the little lock humble bow, but she nodded and stepped to his opened finally, and he stepped out, his suit bal- right, just as Ralston’s quick steps carried him looning in the absence of pressure. There was to the left. With a little smile, almost of amuse- an odd feeling inside, but it was one of home- ment, Mrs. Benson joined them, leaving Neff and coming, as near as he could place it. The harsh Wolff on Kennedy’s side. black shadows and glaring sunlight, with no shad- Ralston jerked his head savagely. “Come over ings, looked good to him, and the jagged ground here, Helen, or I’ll drag you back with us!” seemed friendly now. He stepped back out of The sharp-featured doctor opened her enormous the others’ way, and let them climb down care- eyes in hurt surprise, her hand going to her thin fully, staring with them at the ship and the scene hair. Grey never had seen what attracted the around. boy to her. She stared at the big man slowly, They were in a queer valleylike crater, at one found him not looking at her, and bkck to Ralston. side of which a seemingly topless cliff rose up- Then, like a spoiled child being forced to its duty, ward, sheer and colossal. The great ship thrust she obeyed. The kid should try those tactics more up seventy feet from the floor on its three legs, often, maybe. a pointed cylinder that ended finally in the rocket Wolff was a dwarf. Now he bobbed his im- tube and the observation window. Above, the mense head, shrugged the shoulders that seemed sky was black with a harsh sun shining at one hunchbacked, and ran his tongue over his thin side, a swollen Earth on the other, glowing by lips. “I ... ah ... of course I side with the the reflected light. It was beautiful in a coldly impersonal way, and he others, Mr. Grey. I . . . I’ll obey orders, to the breathed deeply, relax- ing. Then, with a shrug, letter. But . . . umm . . . I’d rather not go he turned off toward out, if—" the spot that had shown on the screen, marking “You’ll come. It’ll take six of us to carry back the other ship. the three men out there, if they’re still alive. Ralston and Correy were having troubles in We’ll get them first, make a second trip for the adjusting to the light gravity, both putting too tube parts needed. Well, Kennedy?” much effort into it. They bounded along, strug- Kennedy shrugged, his face expressionless, gling to keep their balance, fighting where they picked up the suit and began climbing in. Sat- should have relaxed, and only slowly gaining a isfied, Grey reached for his own suit, wondering mastery of the situation. Neff minced primly, about Alice Benson. Bjit she was in her cumber- not efficiently, but with fair success, while Wolff some outfit before any of them, her voice cheer- hitched himself over the ground with an appar- ful over the phones as she offered to help Neff. ent expectation of instant death. Alice Benson It might have been a pleasant little picnic from alone seemed to take it easily, relaxed and quiet, her reactions, though there was a suppressed staying at Grey’s side. They halted, ahead of eagerness to her voice that he could not explain. the others, and he could see her smiling. He donned his own outfit, turning to Correy. “I like this, Grey. It makes me feel young again “Carrots, what about the radio?” to walk without effort and actually see myself

“Still working, or was, and I sent back a re- making progress instead of creeping along. . . . port; but two tubes were weakened and they blew Where are your shoe plates, lad?” out when I switched over for the acknowledgment He looked down quickly, then realized he’d —the big special ones for which we only stocked forgotten to put on the heavy lead plates that one spare. So that’s out now, not that it’d do us were to compensate partially for gravity. He ”

18 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

hadn’t noticed the lack, though; the feeling of and they seem to follow this particular type of walking here had seemed completely natural to rock formation. Carbonates, nitrates, probably him. "I guess I don’t need them; why not take gypsum, containing water of crystallization. I yours off? You’ve been taking it easy enough to suppose they could get all the elements of life be safe, I think, ma’am.” that way; the lichens on Earth managed to come She put her foot out, and he found himself out of the water and make soil out of our rocks stooping to remove the plates. Then she tried before the other plants got there. Life insists on it, a little uncertain at first, but soon moving going on. Only qestion is how they evolved to easily. “This is lovely, Grey. It’s like those begin with.” dreams of sliding along above the ground without He bent down, pricking open the tough skin of effort. Do you think perhaps men have been one of the smaller domes, watching it deflate rap- here before, leaving the memories with us—that idly. The air in them was under considerable falling dream and this other?” pressure, probably equal to five or six pounds.

"Doubt it, ma’am. I’m afraid that’s romanticism, “You know what this means, don’t you? Well, though I can’t prove they haven’t. Next thing if worst comes, we could probably pump out a you’ll be expecting to find people here.” fair quantity of oxygen from these things—there She smiled again, but he wondered if she didn’t are miles of them. Squeeze water out, too, and expect just that. Oddly, it wouldn’t have sur- maybe they have food value. We couldn’t live prised him, either. Then the others were with indefinitely, I feel sure, but they might help.” fchem, and they began moving down a compara- Wolff stared at them unbelievingly,— but with tively gentle slope to the smooth floor of the a flicker of interest. “Until . . . ah valley’s bottom. Progress was rapid, now that “Yeah.” It was foolish. "Until we died, any- even Wolff was catching the swing of the loose way. There’ll be no rescue ship for us. Well, motion needed; they were traveling along at a Carrots?” sort of lope that must have covered ten to twelve “Animals!” she reminded him, grinning. miles an hour, and the long decline shortened “Coming up!” He pointed across the lichen- rapidly. covered ground toward the motion that had first June tapped on his shoulder and pointed, as attracted his attention. At the time it might have they neared the bottom. “Look, Pipsqueak! Is been a falling rock, but now, as it approached, it that green down there—growing green?” obviously wasn’t. Rather it resembled a cross be- He stared. It was green—the same green as tween a kangaroo and a balloonlike bird, two long, grass would have been. But it meant nothing, heavy legs under it, and an elongated beak in he knew. There were plenty of rocks that could front. “Watch!” give the same color, and without an atmosphere, The thing had been traveling at a tremendous how could chlorophyll-type plants grow? Then rate, sailing in bounds. Now it stopped a few out of the corner of his eye, he caught something, yards in front of them, ducked its beak down and a crazy hunch formed in his mind. "Bet a into one of the bigger domes, and rooted around, cigarette against a kiss we find animals, too!” gulping up some of the growth there, while the “Done! Now you’re being silly!” dome deflated slightly as it took up all but a

The 1 others had heard, of course, and the stir- little of the air, leaving enough, probably, for

ring of excitement was good for morale, at least. the lichen to continue, and no more ; the creature They hurried down, Grey, Correy, and Mrs. Ben- should have swelled up enormously, but there son in the lead, taking it in long easy jumps of was no outward difference. twenty feet at a time, a sort of run that lifted “Must have some tricky way of absorbing the from one foot to the other, as a ballet dancer oxygen into a loose chemical compound, unless seems to. A few minutes more found them at the it’s got a magnificent pressure tank inside it some- bottom, staring at the ground. where. More likely something like a whale uses It was covered with domes of some thick Cello- to store oxygen in its body for a long trip under phanelike material, varying in size from a few water. Notice how he exudes a cement out of inches to several feet across, and under them, defi- that beak as he draws it out—sealing the dome so nitely, were plants. “Lichens, highly complicated he won’t kill the lichen completely?” ones, too,” Neff said. “They’ve adapted some- June grunted. “O. K., you win, darn it. Look how.” at him go!” Grey nodded. "Probably four or five different “Has to—he can’t stay on the dark part of the types of life together, in symbiosis. One must Moon, I’ll bet, so he has to travel fast enough form the dome—that greenish-brown ring they to equal the rate of rotation—-once around the spring from. Another probably cracks raw ma- Moon in a month. It can be done here, rotation, terial from the rocks, another takes energy from size and gravity considered. The lichens must sunlight, and so on. Looks to me as if they grow spore up during the two weeks of night, grow by budding out a small cell from the main one, during the day. And probably that dome has —

LUNAR LANDING 19 heat-filtering powers, like no-heat glass; he’s car- a minute. You see, I know that ship. I helped !” rying a bright shell on top to reflect heat, you build it—thirty years ago notice. ’Smatter?” “Thirty years—just before the Great War?” “I was just thinking of his love life.” She gig- June looked at her carefully, searching for hys- gled again, watching the vanishing ball. “No teria and finding none. “But they didn’t have fis- long courtships there, unless he’s like bedbugs sion motors then, nor ion releases. How—fuel sufficient unto himself.” rockets?”

'“Probably is. O. K., gang, we’ve wasted enough “Bill had a fission motor, June; oh, it wasn’t time, though we should make a study of all this. a good one, but it worked. And he wasn’t using I’ll collect later, Carrots!” an ion release. He broke water up into monatomic hydrogen and oxygen, then let them explode again. They turned on, winding among the domes that They worked better than any normal oxy-hydrogen were everywhere, bits of conversation going on jet could have. Thirty years—and I’m finally here. among the others. The finding of life here had Now do you see why an old lady forced herself cheered them all, somehow, made them feel that into your crew, lad? Come, let’s go down.” the satellite wasn’t as unfriendly as it had seemed. They fell in beside her, and now she moved There was a kinship to protoplasmic life, no mat- leisurely, telling them the story as she went, while ter how distant. Grey accepted the fact as a mat- the others caught up. It could have been a color- ter of course, wondering if he hadn’t expected ful story, a great one, but she told it simply, giv- it, and led on, his eyes peeled for a sight of the ing only the highlights, and letting them fill in other ship. the rest with their imagination. Mrs. Benson beat him to it, though. She stopped, More than thirty years before, about the time and pointed to the small part showing, a mere the Great War was starting, when the first speck across the rough ground. “Grey, June, uranium fission was discovered, she’d married a Philip! See!” boy with a dream. It must have been a wonder- Now their leaps increased, and they stfaggled ful dream, for he wasn’t the type, otherwise, to out. Correy ripped her plates off, dropped them, use his wife’s fortune, but he’d done so, burning and staggered before redoubling her efforts to it up carelessly while he applied his own rather keep up with Grey. But ahead of them, the seem- remarkable genius toward extracting the elusive ingly feeble legs of Alice Benson sped along, cov- U-235 isotope and using it; and he’d succeeded, ering the ground with a fluidity of motion that while others were groping toward the solution. indicated the dancer she must have been once. He’d even managed to work out a motor light There was a faint sound of her voice in the phones, enough for the dream he had, and to construct two and it sounded oddly like praying, but the words ships, using an adaptation of the monatomic re- were too muffled for understanding. They stopped lease already known and used in welding, now as she lifted herself to a slight projection and that he had a reliable source of energy. looked down. “Two?” Grey cut in quickly. “Bill!” It was a shout and a prayer, and the “Two, Grey. He had to.” She went on quietly. ship thinness of her voice was suddenly gone, leav- One had been fitted for himself—it was im- ing it strong and young. Grey stared at June, possible for her to accompany him, though they’d shaking his head. There were no Bills in either tried to make it that way. The other was radio- his or Swanson’s crew. But again the cry came. controlled. Then he’d taken off in one, secretly “Bill! Oh, God!” at night, and she’d sent the other up near him, Then they were beside her, staring down at the up until he could fall into an orbit around the ship lying below, on its side, and Grey caught Earth, high enough to have conquered part of the her as she slumped forward. But he had eyes drag of gravity. One ship couldn’t hold enough only for the object ahead. It wasn’t Swanson’s supplies for the voyage. But using his own radio ship. Thirty feet long, or slightly less, it was controls, he’d somehow brought the second one an even cylinder, blunt fore and aft, one great beside him, joined them, and transshipped sup- rocket at one end, and little muzzles stuck out plies and fuel, released it, and waited until his athwart, somehow fragile, but apparently with no orbit brought him in position for a try at the damage. Whoever had set it down had done a Moon. She’d seen his supply ship explode into magnificent job of space jockeying, coming in at tiny fragments that could fall back to Earth or an angle and sliding forward on steel runners, drift harmlessly in space, and her watcher in instead of making a tail landing. He glanced at one of the observatories had thought he detected Correy, but her look was as dumfounded as his the flare that indicated success where Bill had own. chosen to land. Mrs. Benson struggled to her feet, a red spot “There were two other ships being built,” she showing under the pallor of her cheeks. “I’m went on. “I was supposed to follow, and we sorry, children, I’m afraid I was overcome for hoped that from the two, and what fuel was left, AST—2L ” ” — —

20 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION we could escape the Moon’s lighter gravity and in his suit—he wanted to see this world he’d return, risking a parachute fall in spacesuits to found. I think we needn’t look for him.” She’d living, land on Earth; it might have worked. I think it labored under no delusions of finding him would, since we could bake our needed water and it had been no shock. Now she shook her out of the gypsum here. But the war came white-haired head, and smiled at the crew. “Well, and metal became harder to get, and finally un- shouldn’t we try to find Swanson, Grey? I taken much time when they available. Our helpers went— off to fight, mostly, shouldn’t have up so and the months slipped by might be dying, and so much depends on our find- Hearing her, Grey could imagine the desperate ing the other tube. I’m sorry.” months going, while she fought vainly to go on, Grey stirred, such emotions as he had retreat- stumbling against the impossible, afraid to tell ing before her self-possession. “Right, Mrs. Ben- too much and release the horror of atomic energy son. But there’s no use searching from here for war, unable to get supplies or help otherwise. the ship we saw was this one, and we’ll have to Three years had been spent in a sanitarium, to get up to higher ground to spot the other, so come out and find fire had destroyed their shops we might as well go back to the Moth. From on and the notes that had contained Bill’s precious top of her we should have a fair view of the area secrets. By then, even she knew that saving him nearby. We’d never find the ship in searching was hopeless. But she’d promised to meet him around from here.” there. She agreed, apparently, and they started back, “Some money remained. And I could remem- this time in a solid bunch, exchanging idle com- ber part of the secrets. New engineers, working ments about the sights around them. By com- from my memory, finally managed the separation mon consent, the story of Alice Benson and her of the isotope again, and Wohl perfected the Bill was unmentioned. Slowly, the conversation motor for me. After that—well, money wasn’t picked up, mostly in a discussion of the lichens a problem any longer. You see, I own Atomic as they came to them again. Others of the bird- Power. Nobody knows it, save a few, and Cart- like creatures were speeding across the ground stopping occasionally, then driving on in wright, who handles it all for me. . . . That’s now, right, Wolff, I’m really your employer, though their never-ceasing march around the Moon. you didn’t know why Mr. Cartwright instructed Grey caught one, and there was no fear about you to watch over me, as well as report on com- it, only an impatience to continue. The flesh was mercial possibilities, if any. I didn’t want it that abnormally firm, but was obviously protoplasm, covered with some thick, "rubbery skin, and it way, but he insisted, so you know now. . . . Any- way, it took time to work out the problems again, might have weighed forty pounds on earth. He differently this time, but money can hire brains dropped it again, and it went leaping off after its and what has been done can be done again, per- fellows. “Odd, accord- haps better. I wanted to— go with Swanson, but “They have sex,” he commented. it was impossible. Now ” She put out a hand, ing to our standards, but there are two kinds. See, touching the ship they had reached. “Now,— I’ve the females have a pouch, and if you noticed, that kept my promise to Bill, finally. I wish one was full. I’d guess they were egg-laying, Grey nodded, holding the others back. “Go with the eggs hatching in the pouch. Then the ahead, ma’am, we’ll wait.” young cling to the little tubes there, drawing air She smiled faintly, thanking him silently, and from the mother. She must feed them with lichens opened the little lock of the ship that bore her drawn from the domes. Nature seems to stick to namd on its side, her hands fumbling briefly. Then fairly familiar patterns.” she was inside, and the others clustered around, “Wish I’d brought a camera, at least,” Correy forgetting for the moment even their own and muttered ruefully. There was one in the ship, Swanson’s plight. but the quarrel before leaving must have jostled Wolff stirred, and Grey snapped at him. it out of her mind, or else she’d figured on being “Shut up!” unencumbered during the rescue attempt. Then they were out of the valley of the lichens, Alice Benson’s low voice came over the phones going up the slope, and the rocket ship began this time, and the few words should have been to show up above it, climbing slowly into view consecration enough for even the soul of her Bill. until they could make out the tube, and finally They heard her at the lock again, and she came see the tripod resting on the rocks under it, in down, calm and collected, a little book in one the little pit the blast had scoured. Grey flipped hand, a thin sheet of paper in the other. a switch outside his suit, and pointed the beam “His body isn’t there. It’s all here in his diary, antenna toward the Moth. which you can read. Bill waited as long as he “Come in, Kennedy. Grey calling Kennedy. in.” could, until he knew something had happened ; he Come answer, though he tried again. never thought we’d failed him ! Then he went out There was no ;

LUNAR LANDING 21

It wasn’t important, but it was odd. Those radios slide through the lock, his skin tight again, but were supposed to be on at all times, and with full his mind troubled only by the paradox presented. power running through the directional antenna, The boy was back again in fifteen minutes. “Not

it should have reached in clearly. Or, if the man there I I scoured the whole area!” was inside the tube, the metal might blanket out Bruce Kennedy couldn’t go a thousand feet the signal. In the ship proper, the outer antenna without a suit—yet he had. How? would have shot it through a speaker; the short- distance tubes had been sturdier than the tricky .III. experimental ones in the space set, and should still be working. They were no nearer a solution as Mrs. Ben- The little company loped up beside the ship, son and Neff cleared up the food and disposed of and Ralston slid under the tube, looking up it, the thin paper plates. It couldn’t have, happened, and pounding. There was no response, nor could but it had. Of course, it was conceivable that Grey find anything inside when he flashed the Kennedy might have rigged a sort of oxygen flask beam of his headlight in through the inky black- and breathing nozzle and gone out, but it was ness of the shadows, here where no air diffused utterly reasonless, in the actinic glare of the sun the light. he wouldn’t have gotten far, anyway, and there

“Funny, he must be inside, but why doesn’t the was no use speculating on it. fool answer a CQ?” Ralston asked. “Madness,” June suggested, not too positively. Helen Neff glared at him resentfully. “Bruce “There’s life here, so there must be bacteria.” is no fool, Phil Ralston, and he’s probably busy Neff shook her head. "Anything that would fixing that tube of yours. Don’t be so aggressive effect such life as we saw wouldn’t be likely to about everything.” hit at men; too much difference in body organi-

“Umm.” Grey didn’t like it. Kennedy was zation. Of course, gangrene attacks almost any supposed to answer—that was one of the rules flesh, but the more complicated diseases are choosy posted, that all sets should be on when anyone about their hosts.” was outside, and answers should be prompt. It There was no answer to that, beyond the use- might mean life or death, and if the designer less speculation of a possibility among improba- was taking things into his own hands, there would bilities. Grey thrust back and shrugged. “O. K„ be an accounting, pronto. “O. K., inside, all of let’s face it. Kennedy didn’t leave. He was taken!” you 1” "But—” They climbed the ladder, slipped into the lock, “No buts. When there’s only one simple solu- and let air come in, then out of the suits, and tion to a problem, that solution is to be taken as removed helmets rapidly. At a gesture from him, the correct one, unless something else comes up. they left the suits stacked in the lock, breath- We found life here—plant and animal life. Neither ing the much fresher oxygen-helium mixture of form would have hurt Kennedy, but we don’t with light gravity demanding know what kind we failed to find. the ship ; here Granted, there’s smaller energy from them, the ten-pound pres- still the problem of that life getting into the air sure of the air was ample, though it had seemed locks and finding Kennedy, without the suit—and thin when he first dropped it in space. the answer to that is intelligence, of some sort. “Kennedy!” The voice boomed through the So we’re dealing with intelligent life—pretty room, down into the engine well and the cockpit, highly intelligent, too—and apparently inimical. its echo sounding back metallically. Ralston slid We don’t have weapons; nobody thought they’d down to the engines, and was up again. “Not be necessary. Well, we’d all hoped to find intel- there, Grey!” ligent life on Mars, I guess, but we find it here “Nor in the cockpit,” June reported. “Where instead.” is the stubborn idiot?” Wolff licked his thin lips. "When we get back Alice Benson came back from the hampers, her the government’s going to hear of thi !” face tight. “I’m afraid even he doesn’t know, now. “Yeah? Why? Ship in a space navy and kill His suit’s in the locker, and he’s nowhere in the off the natives, I suppose, to pay for Kennedy. ship!” What makes you think the government’ll be in- Dumbly, they stared at each other, fear climbing terested?” into their faces. The ship had been searched thor- “They will. I . . ah . . . I’m a fair metal- oughly, and he wasn’t on it. Yet his suit was, lurgist, Mr. Grey. There’s plenty of raw mate- and there had been only seven of them, of which rials here, just as Mr. Cartwright suspected. six had been used by the rescue gang. These craters and things . . . umm, whatever “He couldn’t have gotten far enough away from caused them forced the rarer metals up out of the ship without a suit not to be seen by us. We’ve the inner strata ; M£r. Cartwright thought it might, got a clear view for hundreds of feet. Phil, get even if the Moon is made of much lighter stuff out there and search!” Grey watched Ralston than Earth. We’ll tame down these Moon crea- 22 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

tures, all right; we’ll put ’em to work digging when we landed to show up in the screen. About out ore, that’s what.” three miles off, is all.” Ralston bristled. “Slavery went out with the That was better luck than Grey had hoped, for Fourteenth Amendment, you slimy snake. Sure a change. He supervised their entry into and out there’s metal here—I spotted some pretty rare of the lock, listening to Ralston’s description of stuff myself, in scouting over nearer the cliffs, the location, then sent the boy on ahead, holding but you won’t get far in dealing with any natives Correy back. She looked surprised as he moved on that line.” toward her.

“They’re not exactly . . . ah . . . human, you “You owe me something,” he reminded, grin- know.” Wolff flinched away from the boy’s eyes, ning. but held firm. “It isn’t exactly slavery to make “Darn you! I thought you’d have forgotten. horses work, is it?” The nerveless wonder, eh? O. K.” She turned The boy took a step toward him, to be halted her face around, the expression halfway between by Grey. “I agree with you, kid, but you can’t a grimace and a smile. “Collect, Shylock!” convince that sort of man; he doesn’t know about He’d never done it before, and his skin was little things like ideals, such as you have. This tighter than when finding Kennedy gone, but whole problem isn’t new—Wolff and Kennedy movies are instructive, if one is curious enough were talking about it back on Earth, and there about human habits. Also he found he had in- are plenty who’d agree with them, said plenty stincts that guided his arms and tightened them having most of the money for something shown for him. Her lips were tense at first, but her commercially worth while. To you and some of own instincts softened them, until some of the the rest of us—perhaps even to me—interplanetary analytical calm went out of his. Finally, he drew trips are an ideal, sort of a dream; to them, it back, to find her face faintly flushed. means money, and it doesn’t matter how they “Whoof! For a nerveless guy, you do all right, get it.” Pipsqueak! Where’d you hide those muscles, any- “I’m afraid you’re right, lad. Bill used to worry way?” She shook back her hair, seemingly sur- about that, too. . . . Wolff, I’m paying your sal- prised at herself. “Now I need that darned ciga- ary, still. You’ll tell no tales of what we find rette.” — here.” Alice Benson gave the order firmly, and “For an encore ” His grin wasn’t as mocking the man nodded; but Grey saw the look on his as it should have been, he felt. He was growing

face, and knew how much obedience she could soft himself. But it was worth it. Afterward, expect. There were people who’d pay for infor- she dragged at the smoke, studying him with an mation, and Wolff wanted the money. expression he hadn’t seen before, then sharing it “Anyhow, that doesn’t settle the problem. Right with him in a hasty consumption of the cigarette. now, the main thing is to find out where Swanson Outside the lock, someone was pounding out a came down, and try to get out his tube. Ralston, signal for them to come on, and they moved out, can you make repairs, do you think? Good. Then, both looking foolish. Alice Benson smiled, and suppose you go up to the emergency lock at the the others were grinning, amusement temporarily top and see if you can spot the other ship from stronger than their worries. June avoided hia there? We’ll hope we don’t meet any of these glance, and slipped back, leaving the older woman hypothetical natives until we get off this place, beside him as they started. and the sooner we do it, the surer we’ll be. The rest of you might as well get ready to go out It was rougher ground this time, and almost im- again.” passable from Earth standards, but they skimmed Ralston was already swarming up, a small tele- through easily enough here, leaping over the scope in his hand. Wolff wriggled in his seat. heavier boulders, or moving from one high spot

“I . . . ah . . . don’t you think someone should to another. Going was comparatively slow, since stay here?” Grey had to pick the trail, but progress was en- “ 'Smatter, afraid to go out and face those na- tirely satisfactory. No sign of life showed on tives you’re all set to subdue? Well, Kennedy any side; there were no trails, no indications of stayed on the ship. Like the idea?” intelligent construction. Only the forbidding

“There are locks. I . . . umm . . . that is, if it’s cliff loomed up closer, jagged edges of it unshaped ” locked inside— by wind or water. Grey looked at him, and his eyes were colder than Grey waited for Alice Benson, his eyes admir- usual, but he shrugged. “O. K., stick around and ing her as she made the spring to his side. “I whimper then, and if they do get you, I’ll be wonder what sort of a girl you were, ma’am?

darned sure nobody looks for you! . . . See any- Right now, you’re the best man in the bunch!" thing, Ralston?” “Thank you, Grey. It’s nice not to be a nui- “Spotted it in a few seconds, almost in the sance.” Then she smiled. “As a matter of fact, shadow of the cliff. Must have been too dark I was a little imp. Just about tha same nort as ”

LUNAR LANDING 23

June Correy. That girl’s got good stuff in her; log out into his hands, and riffled through its all she needs is a bridle!” pages quickly. The first entries were about the June’s grunt came in scornfully. “Don’t get routine preparations, the take-off, and the coast ideas from her, Half-Pint. It’ll take a man to through space after killing the blast. Then, trou- put that bridle on!” ble, just as it had appeared on the Moth, but He started to answer, then caught the older worse. woman’s warning headshake, and left it to her June 29: Landed night, judgment. The girl looked up, expecting a reply, somehow last expecting the blast to cease entirely every moment. It was crooked, frowned when none came, and seemed surprised. and we tipped sidewise, breaking open the engine room. picked Mrs. Benson winked at Grey, as they up Poor Englewood didn’t have a chance, juried him their way again, leaving him wondering why. today after finding the radio ruined, and setting off Maybe he was soft, but he wasn’t fool enough to our flares; doubt they’ll be visible from Earth, but we hope somehow they’ll noticed. is think he’d have a chance with the girl—even if be Marsden quite confident of a rescue by the second ship. With two he wanted to. of us, we can hold out some time. First men on Finally, the ship became visible, lying close to the Moon I the cliffs. It had been hard hit, there was no doubt of that; apparently it had landed on only That, Grey knew Jiow, was wrong, though one leg of the tripod, and had been falling too Swanson and Marsden had every right to believe rapidly. The leg had crumpled under it, letting it at the time. There followed pages of their esti- the whole side of the ship slip over, and come mates, their ipinor activities in going outside, and crashing down. Where the engines were located, a gradually dimming hope as they figured more the walls had broken in, though the tripod leg carefully on the length of time needed to confplete must have soaked up most of the initial shock, the other ship. leaving a comparatively small blow from the crash. July 11: Marsden and I talked it over this morning The fact that the two flares had been set off, and decided that one man can easily last until rescue, however, indicated that the air within must not two almost certainly cannot. We agreed to draw lots have been lost; the ships were designed to take a tomorrow. Tonight, while the boy’s sleeping, I’ll go fair blow on their thin outer skin without it break- out; I’ve already seen a fair sample of life, and I’m ing the walls of the living quarters. He flipped content. Keep a stiff upperlip, Bob, and when you read this, I hope you’ll realize I was right in going. the switch over, beaming in his call. “Swanson! July 12: Poor Bob Marsden. He must have drugged Englewood! Marsden! Ship Lunar Moth calling my food, for I lay down expecting to wait for him to Spaceship Delayed Meeting! Come in!” sleep, then slept myself. When I awoke, he was gone, They hung waiting for an answer, but none leaving only a note wishing me good luck. I went out of came. It meant nothing, though. Any one of the lock searching for him, but on this ground there is no spoor, and I failed. A fine assistant, numerous reasons could have existed for the lack a gentle- man, and a great guy l God rest his soul. Somehow, of response. The men might be dead, or nearly I’ll last until rescue comes, to make sure he gets the so. Or the antenna outside the ship might have credit he’s earned. been broken; more probably, the whole radio out- fit was smashed, since no signal had been pushed After that, entries became rarer, though they through to Earth. He shortened the distance in were still hopeful. A stray Biblical quotation long bounds, until he was directly under it. showed how Swanson was filling his time. Then As it lay, the air lock was within reach, and he Grey came to the last brief entry. stretched up and twisted at the handle. It came July 23: I miss having someone to talk open easily, letting the four climb into the lock to, but I’m fairly cheerful. Tomorrow I must clean up the mess behind him, closing smoothly after them with a I’ve made of my living quarters. I took some of the sudden hiss of air. flipped open his helmet, He litter out and buried it today. My spade turned sampling it; he’d expected it to be over-used and up gold—a rich vein of it; thank God, it isn’t worth stale, but beyond the smell of too much passage carrying back to Earth, or the Moon might see another bloody chaos such through the filters, there was nothing wrong, and as the other gold rushes have been, and the gold reserves be flushed beyond all the others followed his example in taking off his value as a monetary exchange. I suspect there are helmet. more valuable ores, though. Then the inner lock opened to show the liv- ing quarters, smaller even than those on the Moth, Beyond that there were only blank pages. Grey and in wild disarray. Seals had been clamped looked for any small note, but none was present. down over the engine and cockpit tubes, indicat- “Wish I knew how many suits they had.” ing both had lost their air. Inside, there was Mrs. Benson answered. “Two—they were sup- no one! posed to leave one man inside at all times, so only Grey shook his head, glancing into the food and a pair of suits were provided. You mean— water tanks and noting that they were still half “Probably. There’s a well-used suit in the full, jerked open the paper drawer, spilled the locker, and Marsden must have worn the other. Get all the pictures you can to confirm it, will “Now, I suppose we go back to the ship empty- you, Correy? And we’ll take the log along. Some- handed again! Six of us, left, and with the pro- thing must have taken Swanson out without a suit visions and air from this ship as well as the Moth, —again with no sign of a struggle.” we can live for at least two months, by taking it He clapped his helmet back on and headed for easy; then, or rather before then, we’ll haves to the lock, out of the way, while she snapped the try getting air and food from the lichens. Maybe pictures and pulled the finished negative roll out. those bird-things are edible, too, though I doubt Then they filed back again, toward the rear of it. Perhaps we can find ores and materials to the Delayed Meeting. NefF, he noticed, was shiv- make a repair on the Moth that will work.” He ering and sticking closer to Philip Ralston, who looked at the boy, who made no answer; it was seemed almost glad of the troubles that confronted just as well, since Grey knew they had no tools them. June was frowning, looking to him for in- for all that work. But it would leave some faint structions. hope for the others, perhaps. He had none. Hunting the missing men was worse than senseless. All they could do now was They spread out again, going slowly this time. to remove the necessary parts from the big tube, Grey wondered whether there was any hope of if possible, and proceed back to the Moth. He mo- finding the natives, if such they were. If so, they tioned to Ralston, and the two rounded the ship, might not be inimical, but only different, and some proceeding to the tube. contact might be made that would enable an un- Only the shell was left! The lining had been derstanding. To himself, though, he still doubted entirely removed, and as he flashed his light in- the existence of intelligent lunarites; the birds side, he could see that a few bolts were left, all could exist by keeping in motion—but could in- wires and connecting pipes cleanly snipped off. telligence appear from such a life? And it would Someone had removed it before them. “God!” take a pretty fair civilization to reach the stage Ralston stepped back slowly, his face falling back where they could survive the long night in one to its former bitterness. “Now what?” place; until that stage was reached, intelligent Grey dropped to the ground beneath, his light evolution seemed out of the question, and without on, searching for some faint clue as to the ones intelligence, the stage was impossible.

who had done it, but there were none; the hard Correy was beside him, and he noticed her flip rock held no imprints, and the coating of dust her switch, addressing him over a beam that left was undisturbed, though there was no wind to the others out. “Curtains, do you think? Give blow it about and remove prints. The whole lin- it to me straight, Half-Pint!” ing would have been a staggering load for all He beamed his own answer. “Probably, though five of them, even here, but there was no sign as we may be able to stave it off for quite a while. to its removal. And—blooey goes space travel; it was bad with- ”

LUNAR LANDING 25 out two accidents, but now they’ll be surer than suit was off and he was pushing open the inner ever it won’t work! Just the same, we’ll try to seal to finish inspection. get back, somehow. Maybe we can get Bill Ben- A gentle snore answered him, and the body of son’s old machine to working, since it’s in good Kennedy rolled back from the door as he pushed condition, and send one person back with the it, the man sleeping heavily, but apparently un- straight of it, maybe to lead a rescue trip. We’ve touched! Wolff was nowhere to be seen, and got the fuel he needed, and we can bake out water there was no answer to Grey’s shout. Kennedy for his jets. Willing to try it?” did not awaken, but went on snoring easily, re- "Me? Chivalry getting the best of you again?” laxed, sliding slowly aside as the pilot pushed the But her eyes carried the same speculative glint lock the rest of the way and stepped into the he’d seen before. “I’d risk it, if necessary, of room. course.” Neff stared as Grey picked up the big designer "No, but you’re the official reporter for this and dumped him into a more convenient place, trip, and you’ve got the connections to put it her mouth open and her eyes threatening to pop across; I haven’t. The others aren’t acceptable, out of her head. "He’s—back!” either. That seems like the answer, so far. Any- “That’s right, so he is! Suppose you see why how, if I don’t get you out from under my feet, he’s still asleep after all the pushing he’s just I’m likely to find myself beginning to get used received.” Grey made way for her, wondering to you, sort of. Then you’d probably be insuf- how such an old-maidish child could ever have ferable.” decided on a trip like this one, or how she’d ever "Think so?” He could read nothing in her re- become a first-class physician with her ideas un- mark, and put it down to devilishness that wanted touched. “He’s either been injured pretty badly to make more of a fool of him. “I’m afraid you’d or it’s drugs.” be, Pipsqueak. I like men, but— She began fussing over the man then, and Grey She snapped back to nondirectional sending, watched, wondering how alien life could know the dropping back beside Mrs. Benson and leaving physiological effect of drugs on a human being, him to lead on alone. But if he was supposed to unless they’d decided to give him something harm- think about her, she was mistaken. He had other less, and this had happened. That might possibly worries, and he turned to them. Right now he’d account for his return ; if they were curious rather have been just as happy without the responsibil- than unfriendly, they would have decided to bring ity of the command he’d assumed, though he knew back the man to where his own kind could min- that there was more need of it now than ever. ister to him and correct their unexpected harm. Ahead loomed the Lunar Moth, and the best ob- On the other hand, this sleep might be the ex- servatory from which to survey the surrounding haustion following some peculiar mental torture, moonscape for some sign of life. and his return be a warning to get away and He leaped ahead of the others, flipping the stay away. switch and calling the ship. His fears were jus- It was up to Neff, now; if she could revive him, tified; there was no response, and Wolff would they’d soon find the answers from the man him- have been too glad to have them return not to an- self. Now she was injecting some colorless fluid swer. So now Wolff was among the missing! Not into him, watching the reaction. Then she turned that it was any loss, but it added somewhat to to the crew. "I’m sure it’s drugs. But I can’t the mystery. How did the things know when to guess which one would produce this result; those strike? that show so few marked signs—he seems almost Obviously their method was shaping up. They normally asleep—shouldn’t have such a strong ef- apparently made no move to seize a group, but fect. But I think the stimulant I gave should chose to pick them off one by one. Bill Benson overcome it.” and Bob Marsden were accounted for. But they’d Apparently she was right, for Kennedy taken Swanson after waiting—either because of began twisting, his mouth working the lock or for reasons of their own—then Ken- loosely; it wasn’t a pretty sight, and the girl turned nedy at the first opportunity, and now Wolff. away, avoiding it. Then he grunted in purely Seemingly, then, if they all stuck together, they involuntary sounds. She bent again, giving might be safe. And again, they might not. him another shot, and wait- ing for it to take effect. He gripped the outer lock, relieved to find it still unlatched; if they could unfasten it from The reaction was stronger and faster this time, outside, they could fasten it again—and he had and the man sat up abruptly, staring at the others.

no means of forcing his way in. A relieved look “Uh . . . Grey, Ralston, what we doing here? came to the others, who apparently assumed that Won’t be take-off for hours. Say, bow’d I get

Wolff had opened it, but Grey said nothing, wait- here?” ing until he was inside and the facts were con- “That’s what we want to know. What hap- firmed before adding to their troubles. Then his pened? Did you see the other life, and what’s ””

26 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION it like? Any message of any kind sent back with provisions to divide among you. See you!” you?" The inner door closed behind him, and he Kennedy shook his head, puzzled. “I don’t passed out and down the ladder. Correy’s yells know what you’re talking about. Say, it feels had disappeared with the closing lock, and now funny here . . . where the deuce am I, anyway?” only the sound of his own feet striking the rocks “Still on the Moon, —of course; the tube’s missing beneath him reached his ears, carried up through from Swanson’s ship the air inside his suit. If there was life waiting “The Moon!” His face contorted, and he looked for him, it could approach soundlessly, but he re- from one to the other in amazement. “You kid- fused to spend his time looking back over his ding? . . . No, guess not. It feels like a light- shoulder. gravity effect should, and things look funny here. He sped along, through the valley of the lichens, How’d we get up here, though? Last I remember, up the rise, and across the rocks to the Alice, see- we were told to lie down and to catch up on sleep ing no hint of life other than what he’d already before the take-off. Don’t tell me I slept through seen. For a moment, he hesitated, wondering if the whole thing?” they had guessed his purpose and were waiting “Hardly. You were supposed to be fixing the for him inside the ship; then he shrugged and tube, then you were gone when we came back.” reached up for its tiny lock, Grey could make no sense of it; Kennedy had an excellent memory and a clear mind, whatever his IV. faults. “Pull yourself together, will you, and try to recall what happened? There’s a lot depend- They were eating when he returned, or rather ing on it, especially since Wolff’s gone.” picking at food that had been placed before them, I “Uh. donno. . . . Lord, I'm sleepy!" He and in the few minutes he’d stood outside the was yawning and fell back, his eyes closing. inner seal, he’d heard no words spoken. They “Can’t remember a thing. Grey. Go ’way and jumped as he threw back the door, varied ex- lemme sleep. Lemme sleep.” The other words pressions crossing their faces. Ralston mirrored that he started to say faded out into an indistinct frank relief and admiration, Correy’s face lighted mumbling, followed by the same even snoring momentarily. Grey reached back into the lock. Grey had first heard. Shaking him had no more “Any disturbances while I was gone? Hear any- effect, either. thing?” Neff shrugged thin shoulders. “If he can sleep “Not a sound, Grey. We were peaceful enough, with all that injection in him, I give up. It might waiting to hear something from you come over not be safe to wake him— again. No drug acts like the speaker. Another ten minutes and I’d have that! Do you think followed you.” The boy was tackling his food “I don’t think anything. At first, he was clear- now with a much better appetite. headed enough, it seemed, and he didn’t remember “Umm.” Grey drew in the figure of Wolff, flac- a darned thing; he wasn’t fooling us. Well?” cid and snoring faintly, dragging it to the middle The others had no suggestions, ob- of the floor. though they “Little present for you ! Found him viously had imaginations that were working over- between the outer and inner seals, just like that. time. Grey’s was quiescent; the facts as he now He was quiet enough for you not to hear him, found them fitted into neither of the possibilities but I can’t figure how they pushed open the lock that had occurred to him, and he was no nearer and carried him in without sounds reaching you. a solution of the intentions of the other life than Look him over, Neff.” before. Her diagnosis was rapid this time. “Exactly “Wolff’s gone, as you’ve probably noticed. I the same as the other! Do you think I should can’t say I consider it a great loss, but I’d look try to revive him?” for him if I had any idea where to search. Until “Don’t bother. You’d get the same results. No- one of you can figure that out, I’m going outside, tice, though, that he isn’t wearing a suit of any over to Benson’s little ship. I want to look the kind, and that means they either had suits for motor and other things over. The rest of you stay humans or else they carry their customers in some here and keep an eye open for anything suspi- kind of air-tight vehicle. Nice little game, isn’t !’’ cious it? it Only isn’t a game . . . there’s good sound June frowned at him. “You can’t go out there reason behind this, somewhere; practical jokers alone, Runt! Those things seem to pick out any- don’t work that hard. Find the reason and maybe one who’s by himself, and they’re likely to get you’ll have the clue to them.” !” you. Don’t be a fool They put the sleeping Wolff in his sack, for “Maybe I want them to get me, Carrots.” He want of a better place for him, and Grey shook headed for the lock, screwing on his helmet. “I’ll his head as Mrs. Benson began putting down be back when I get here, and if I don’t come back, paper dishes for him. “Not now. I’m going up you’re off no worse —you’ve got that much more and have a look through the top emergency lock.” LUNAR LANDING 27

"What did you find at the other ship?” Cor- "As you like.” He selected one deliberately, rey asked, still looking at the sacks that held running it back and forth over his thumb, tamp- Wolff and Kennedy. ing down the end, and lighting it. The little end

"Guess ! I should have expected it, but I didn’t.” glowed in the semidusk of the cubbyhole, and the She glanced around at him, curiosity giving thin wash of air that came in through the pipes place to sudden suspicion. “The motors had been only served to stir the smoke around, letting it removed! Is that it?” cloud the air before drawing it out. Grey grunted

"That’s it ! They’ve been gone a long time, too. in animal comfort, doubling his legs under him There was still some air in the ship—nice con- and sprawling out on the floor. "Our favorite struction there—and the metal was dulled on the brand, too! Seems a pity to think of their being bolts, showing the nuts had been removed long gone so soon.” before this. No hope there.” He pulled down She held out longer than he’d expected, know- the little ladder leading up to the escape hatch, ing how thoroughly tied to the habit she was. and began climbing. June brushed back her hair, Then she shrugged and flopped down beside him. following him up the long climb, and into the "O. K., O. K., be a cad if you want to. What’ll little lock that was just big enough for the two you do when they’re all gone?” of them. Four little quartz windows gave a view "Use the two whole cartons left on Swanson’s of the crater around them, once the shutters were ship—Englewood and Marsden left quite a sup- pulled back; it had been intended as a look-out ply, and Swanson never used them, apparently. station as well as an escape. Since we’re the only ones who smoke on this scow, As he swung the telescope from one side to the they should last quite a while. Don’t go looking other, nearly all of the crater was visible, stretch- for them, though; they’re all locked up in my ing out to the abrupt horizon on one side and to hamper. Hey!” He sat up, rubbing his face, and the towering cliffs on the other. He was looking grabbed. for a trace of a trail, a cleared section among the She ducked, grinning at him. "You’re a rat, rough rocks, or any sign of life, but he found Nemo Grey, and you deserve worse. That’s the none. No buildings, no piles of trash, not the lousiest trick I’ve heard of!” "It is,” he admitted cheerfully, beginning to un- faintest hint of intelligence ; then he caught sight of a long stretch of the bird-creatures hopping derstand why men who work under a strain de- into a stream from some point beyond his vision to vote so much of their free time to horseplay, partly eat and replenish their air before rushing out of amused at himself, and partly amazed. “What are sight again. you going to do about it, though?” "Maybe they don’t live here,” Correy hazarded. “Slit your throat when I’m sure there are none “They could come from some other part, only left, I suppose. . . . Now, do I get that darned visiting here to take away or bring back some- smoke?” body.” “They could, but I don’t believe it. They’re There were four butts on the floor when he somewhere near, or they wouldn’t be so quick to finally picked up the telescope again, and he was know when we’re all away and spot our weak mo- less amused, more amazed. She brushed her ment. Well, that leaves only one place—the clothes, rising. “This is a lunatic world, all right, cliff 1” He swung the telescope then, studying the Half-Pint. People go crazy here. . . . Did you rugged wall, until she took it from his hand and know that Neff’s decided somehow Phil’s her looked herself. heart-throb, after all? Well, she has, and he’s “It doesn’t look like home to me, Half-Pint. half delirious about it; doesn’t care whether he If people lived here, you’d expect them to have gets back or not.” some structure outside their entrance.” "Donno what he sees in her; he’s a swell kid,

"But these aren’t necessarily people. They might though, and I’m glad he’s happy. . . . Umm! Take have different ideas.” a look over there—between the green-black stuff "I suppose.” She put the telescope down, rub- and the crack beyond it. See what I do?” bing her eyes. "I can’t see anything, but I’ll try She looked, her forehead wrinkling. “A hole, again when my eyes clear up—hurts to look too maybe? Looks something like one.” “Must be. They have to have some place to much across this glare. . . . You wouldn’t have any of those cigarettes left, would you?” live, and I’ll bet they’re oxygen-breathers. Wish He grinned, holding up the package that was me luck, Red-Top!” Grey caught the rope and still half full. “Uh-huh. I’m no pig, Redhead. was down hand-over-hand, moving toward the lock, with her at his heels. "Uh-huh, you stay here. Look nice? . . . No, now wait a minute—don’t get so hurried about it. There should be some I think I’ve spotted their hideout, Ralston, and kind of a ritual to using this reserve, don’t you I’m going scouting. Take command while I’m think? Any suggestions?” gone.” "Darn you, Grey! Keep your cigarettes, then!” Correy caught the inner seal, slid through. “I’m — ”

28 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION protecting the cigarette supply, you usurer! and you’ll be forced to hold your breath again. You’re not running off and leaving me without a Now—a normal breath and hold it!” smoke. Don’t say it ! It won’t do you any good.” The sun had been glaring down on the metal,

He knew she meant it, and nodded, climbing heating it, though part of the trip had been into his suit and helping her with her own out- through pools of shadow. But he had no time fit. At that, taking someone alpng might be a to worry about burns as his fumbling fingers good idea, since at least one of them would stand screwed out the old tube and fastened in the re- some chance of getting away and back to the ship placement. The ten pounds of pressure in his with information. They jumped from the lock body made his hands seem puffy in the vacuum, and went leaping across the rocks, heading to- though it was insufficient to cause serious dam- ward the cliff, each selecting a path separate from age. Finally, though, the new tube was in, and the other, but fairly close. Swanson’s ship was he turned on the valve again, letting oxygen feed half a mile to their right as they passed it, then in to her. the ground grew rougher, breaking into jagged She came to her feet shakily, looking at his red- gullies and humps of rocks, and they were forced dened hands, over which he was drawing his mit- to slow down. tens. “I’m sorry, Grey. I shouldn’t have been “Plenty of minerals here,” he called over the so careless. You’re— phones. “I’ll bet the bottom of that cliff is a “Forget it!” He was breathing heavily him- treasure house; may even contain radium in fair self, ashamed of the shakiness of his legs, and his quantity. Hey, where are you?” voice was brusque. “Nothing serious. We stick !” She was out of sight, but her voice came back together hereafter, that’s all. Come on instantly. “Left, down the gully; it turns and it’s “Wait!” It came over the phones, without di- narrow, but it looks like the best way. Come on.” rectional sense, but they both swung around to see He saw the place she meant and headed down Alice Benson coming toward them. “Wait, please. after her. Freakishly, the floor was fairly smooth, I’ve had the hardest time following you two from and his bounds carried him along at a brisk pace. the little I could see of you. You don’t mind, do Correy wasn’t waiting for him, apparently, satis- you?” fied that nothing could jump on them here. Then “Ralston had no business letting you come, the crack straightened out and he could see her ma’am,” Grey told her. “Why’d you do it?” ahead, passing through the narrowest section. He “Because I’m tired of waiting for things to glanced to his right, wishing he knew something happen, lad. I want to know what’s going on, more of metals and their ores, and back in time just as much as you do. And here, I’m almost to see her sprawl forward on her face. young again, so I didn’t think I’d be a nuisance. “June!” Besides, what’s the difference, really? If you get “I’m—all right, I guess! Jarred a rock loose, caught, I’d be stranded here anyway, to die and it hit my back. I . . . Grey! Help! My slowly.” air tube’s cut!” Her voice was frantic, and he “Let her come, Grey?” June asked. He thought could see the suit collapsing. She wriggled, and it over, briefly, and nodded, starting again toward !” her voice was sick and weak. “Grey the cliff. “Steady !” He was leaping toward her now with- As she’d said, she was agile enough here to be out caution. “Hold your breath, if you can, I’ll no handicap, and the chances could be no worse. be there in a second! Don’t waste your energy. They slipped through the end of the cut, and were There/’ He caught the rock that was still on against the bottom of the cliff; above them, the her, tossing it aside, and looking down at the dark circle that must be a hole could be seen lacerated tube that led the oxygen into the hel- clearly, sixty feet up the steep side of the rocks. met from the tank. It was short, and normally He wasted no time in explaining his methods, protected, but a jagged edge had slit it neatly, but made a running leap, rising nearly twenty feet and the last air rushed out as he watched, faster off the ground, and managing to catch an out- now that the rock no longer plugged the hole. cropping above the smooth bottom part. Some- With desperate haste he jerked his mittens where, his feet found a place to hold on, and he from his hands, snapping the wrist bands closed spotted another hold within reach before remov- to save his air, and his naked fingers swept down ing a small coil of rope carefully and lowering onto the scorching metal of the tube, wrapping it to the other two, who swarmed up quickly and around it tightly, covering the damaged section. caught the same jagged tooth of rock. The air rushed back into the suit as he twisted Actually, what had looked hard because of the valve, and he could hear her breath catch. Earth memories proved surprisingly easy, their

“Take it easy, now. Breathe deeply a few times bodies in the suits weighing less than a quarter empty your lungs after each! That’s right. I’ll Earth weight, and the cliff being covered with have to take a couple of minutes to screw in the sharp, uneroded cracks and projections. There

is . . . a little shelf beneath the hole, and they were spare one ... . thank the Lord, there one was LUNAR LANDING 29

standing on it in a matter of seconds, staring into peting on the floor as they passed down the hall

absolute blackness. and rounded the corner into a room beyond it. “We’ll have to feel forward,” he ordered. “No Then they stopped, staring. lights 1” Bob Marsden tossed aside the strange roll of writing he was studying and bounded forward, a The utter black was eerie, having none of the grin on his homely face, with Swanson at his slight usual hints of light found in an atmosphere; heels. “Earth people, finally! Howdy, folks! I he tested each step, one hand held to the cold rock see they didn’t bring you in asleep!” wall, the other above and in front to locate some- Swanson was pumping Grey’s hand, grinning. thing that might bump against his helmet. Foot “So they picked you for this trip, eh? Good. by foot, they advanced, the breathing of the other Heard you did better than I did, too. How about two heavy in his phones. Then his hand found introducing the ladies, fellow? . . . Hey, Burin a flat obstruction, felt along it, and revealed it Dator, you’ve got guests!” as a smooth, rounded end to the tunnel. He put Into the room, a creature walked, resembling his hands over the light, leaving only a slight a man somewhat in general formation, though only hole, and set the beam forward. In front of him, three feet tall and slightly built. The features a metal door was set into the rock, a handle pro- on the head spread wider apart, the nose lying jecting from it, and a row of odd characters be- under the mouth, instead of above, and the skin side the handle. On the other side, English let- was thick and leathery, entirely devoid of hair. ters showed whitely: “WELCOME!” He resembled a rough rubber caricature of a hu- June gasped, but his own mind found a hint of man being, but his appearance was somehow civi- a solution. They’d had Swanson for days now, lized and pleasant, as any well-formed and graceful and some kind of communication might have been animal is pleasant. set up. Whether the sign was actually a greeting “Mike!” It rumbling or a trap, he had no way of knowing. Nor could was a low voice, oddly at variance with hfs size, but the intonation he be sure that its meaning was anything beyond was hearty and genuinely glad. a bit of grim humor on Swanson’s part. “Mike, boy, you finally returned. We’ve missed you around, been He tried the handle, found that it turned easily, wondering why you didn’t first and stepped in, a glare of light springing down make the trip. Swanson here explained as he did so. The two women cried out, but fol- you couldn’t, so we were pretty lowed, and the door closed automatically, while sure you’d make the rescue ship, but we didn’t get close enough to a sudden hiss of air spilled in. Seconds later, an- see you, and the de- scription we of that other seal opened by itself, leading out into a wormed out man, Kennedy, wasn’t exact long, smooth hall of white stone, lighted softly enough to make us sure. I was just

about to go out and . from the sides and ceiling. Grey’s skin tightened, meet your gang. . . Wel- but he entered, the others behind him, and the come home, boy!” inner seal swung softly shut. Burin Dator slid his delicate “hand” into Grey’s, his eyes warm, and an expression The air, as he tested it, was sharp with the smell Grey knew to of ozone, and slightly thinner than even the mix- be meant for a smile on his face. "Sound general assembly! Mike’s come home! Lursk, ture in the ship, but it was breathable, and rather some of that pleasant after a minute. He debated leaving his synthetic wine! This calls for a celebration!” suit on for an emergency escape, then decided against it; those automatic doors could undoubt- V. edly be sealed against him at any time. He was It had been quite a celebration at that, in it now, and had to see it through. with others of the Martians trooping in and joining “We might as well be comfortable,” he told quietly, all regarding Grey with the same look of the others. “Let’s take ’em off and go ahead to familiarity. Finally Burin Dator shoved back his meet our hosts in suitable style. Wonder why seat and led them into a comfortable room where they haven’t shown up? Here, Carrots, light up!” padded seats were arranged gracefully along the “Thank you, kind sir,” she said, mock amaze- walls around a low table, his wrinkled face beam- ment on her face. “If I didn’t see it, I still ing. The Earth trio followed in growing surprise, wouldn’t think there weren’t strings to the offer somewhat annoyed by Swanson and Marsden, who somewhere. Where to? Down the hall?” chose to answer no questions; they were still un- “All we can do. Want to try it, Mrs. Benson?” sure that this was real, eager for explanations that “I do, Grey. People who can design those soft had been hinted at. Grey was clutching his sanity lights and cut such rock to make their walls can’t grimly, unconsciously sticking close to June for be all bad. This is culture, and a well-developed a straw of normality to cling to. one, too.” The little Martian selected a seat leisurely. Their steps were muffled by some form of car- "Comfortable, everyone? I sincerely regret the —

30 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

unpleasantness of our first contacts with you, but son. It took us nearly a month to repair the in- it was necessary that we find out what type you juries to his health from his wanderings outside were. Unfortunately, the two men whom we first the ship, and his exhausted air. It took time to obtained were both of a type we’ve been forced establish a common understanding, but while our to take measures against, so they were returned people and yours differ surprisingly, their simi- in good health, but somewhat restrained.” larity in social behavior and thought is much more June stirred. “Just what did you do to them?” surprising.” “Nothing permanently unpleasant, I assure you. The Martian paused, thinking before resuming. We removed some of their memories, after deter- “Like you, we have a practical type and an ideal- mining that their words on your Earth would have istic one. From the former, there could be only trouble in a meeting races it strug- bad results for us—they were filled with a desire of ; would be a to exploit this world, you know. They’ve for- gle for supremacy, and would go ill for the both. gotten the last few days, with the help of a little Unlike you, our idealists recognized the fact when surgery, and now are under a drug to keep them the first attempts at constructing a rocket were from knowing more. We’ll give you an antidote begun, and organized a small, secret group. It is to counteract it before landing again. ... It from them that all our people here are drawn, was rather ticklish work, removing some memory, and only that group knows of our success. We but leaving all except the very recent events, and are forced to deceive the others. Bill Benson I’m a little proud that we didn’t have to blank agreed that only the idealists of his race must their whole mind." know, also. You are such, so are we. The two “Earth surgeons can destroy memory,” Grey men asleep in your ship are not, and they cannot know, nor must your world. agreed ; he should know something about it, since the whole subject naturally interested him. “But “Because, this world is rich in things we both they can’t do that, certainly not to another race. need, ores and materials that are immensely pre- You’ve got good reason to be proud.” cious, even in small loads. World-shaking for- tunes are to be made from them, the “It was difficult. But remember that our hands and from secrets gleaned are somewhat more delicate than yours, and that by each from the other. We’ve already we’ve studied the mind of human type with great begun using them—your engines, your gadgets, the other things Bill Benson could de- care, only recently realizing how it sorted its memories, and what nerves controlled them. Also, scribe, and especially your atomic energy, which is the real key. where your race leads ours immeasurably in me- They’re infiltered slowly, out- wardly the chanics and inventiveness, we are much further result of individual luck or skill, and you must do the same. advanced in medicine, psychology, and the gen- eral study of life-chemistry and thought than you. “What we envision, then, is a small group on Swanson wasn’t the first, nor Marsden; we met each planet, controlling gradually a large amount our first Earthman much before that,” of that world’s wealth, seemingly with no connec- Alice Benson leaned forward, her eyes gleam- tions here, until such a company holds the balance ing. “That man, Mr. Dator—was his name Bill of power. It would be composed, quite naturally, Benson?” at the head, of men who know and sympathize. Then, when the idealists have paved the way, we “It was, lady. And I gather you’re his wife, so can open the gates between the races, controlling we’ll turn over his manuscript work to you before the opinions carefully so the mobs will agree with you leave. He believed you were dead when you us. We can never live on your heavy planet, and didn’t come, not knowing of that War you had, you would find ours most uninviting, but here or he would probably have gone back. . . . But, your Moon—we find a common ground for the to begin, we on Mars had a better medium of ob- future of both races. The other way, we fear de- servation than you^-our air is thinner, causing struction. Can it be done?” less loss of detail in astronomical observation. We saw his flare on the Moon by chance, observed, and Grey nodded, his mind filled with that huge plan for a future perhaps later. analyzed it carefully, and decided that it indi- centuries “It can cated there was life on your world, and that you be done, I think. Certainly the men who control had successfully bridged space. At the time, we the finance of a nation can do a great deal to shape had completed, by a fortunate coincidence, a space- its thoughts and laws." ship upon which our people—or at least our group “And the nucleus of the company already ex- —had been working some two hundred of your ists,” Mrs. Benson pointed out eagerly. “I own years; we are slow at such things, as I said. It Atomic Power, which itself is a powerful instru- used a simple oxygen-hydrogen jet, since it was ment. At the moment, my liquid assets are de-

barely possible from our light-gravity to your pleted, but that is only the money ; the real wealth Moon, and I was fortunate enough to be one of is still untouched. Cartwright, who runs it for the crew. Then, when we finally located Bill Ben- me, is to be trusted, and he’d know how to organ- ” — ”

LUNAR LANDING 31

ize better than almost anyone else. If we were operation would bring you back, if possible. It to land on a desolate place, damaging our ship seems we were right, fortunately.” afterward and radioing for help, then represent “Can you give back the memory, then?” the Moon as completely— unprofitable, a danger- “No. It is final when performed, though we ous, useless place can show you records of your life from its begin- “Precisely, lady.” Burin Dator favored her with nings that are almost as good.” Dator hesitated, another of his toothless grins. Those two men glancing from one to the other. “We hope, natu- were mentally impaired by some kind of radiation, rally, that you will remain with us when the as you were yourself, of course—only the very others go; they can explain it as lunar madness, young can withstand it—and the others all can how you walked away and were never seen again. be made to show severe suffering, by certain drugs Mr. Swanson can pilot the ship back. But we we have. Such pictures as have been taken will need at least one representative from your planet show nothing. Then you organize secretly, form- to remain.” ing mining companies, small inventive groups, and Grey considered it slowly. Earth had never been so forth, and building a very small but efficient particularly kind to him, a freak among normal fleet of freighters to carry the idealists and the men, and it was only here that he had found refined metals that are valuable in tiny quantities friends—Mrs. Benson, Ralston, these Martians; —jewels, too, to be found in the craters—and we perhaps even June Correy. Back there, they’d can safely trust the future from there.” be swallowed in their work, and he’d be alone again. But June broke in, settling the matter. “Of course Grey could agree with it, and could see how we’ll stay. It’s the only solution.” the company could operate quietly, not as one, He jumped at her voice, swinging to study her but as many. It still left the big problem on his face, but it remained calm. "We? Naturally, I’m hands, however. “How do we get back? Our the one to stay, but you— tube’s shot, and you probably use something dif- “Stick. That is, if you don’t mind. I’m being ferent that won’t fit the Moth!” honest, now. Here, you’re a man, and one that “We use a type of propulsion similar to yours spits me under these conditions. Size doesn't now, perfected by Bill Benson, and much more count. On Earth, I’d be ashamed to walk down efficient; it does not destroy itself, either. One the street with you. I’d erase you from my life can be fitted easily. We are visionaries, Mike, so fast you’d never know what happened! But but not foolish ones.” I’d rather not do that.” "What’s all this ‘Mike’ business, anyway? Don’t Grey didn’t care to think of it himself; maybe tell I’m a Martian, transformed somehow?” me it was a lunatic world, but insanity such as this calm use of that name was beginning to wear The was better than his normal life had been. He’d nerves, coupled with the fatherly interest on his been afraid to think of such things, even here, but shown by the Martians. now— “Do the Martians have some ceremony, Burin Dator laughed, an obvious imitation of Dator?” Earth emotions, but one that had become natural Dator nodded, beaming. “Indeed yjs, or we to him. “Not at all, boy. I said we were far have a copy of the Earth one. In the morning, advanced in life-chemistry. When Bill decided then, my engineers will fix your ship, and you to stay here, he wanted a son, if our methods can say good-by to your friends. Tonight, after worked as well as we claimed. We made nine you phone them to attend, why not the cere- failures, and one that was almost a failure, but we mony?” learned, and you’re our eleventh attempt at ex- Alice Benson had eyes that were filled with a ogenesis; I’m afraid it wasn’t perfectly adapted hunger that had already accepted Grey as her for Earth life, since you’ve always shown some own son. “That would be kind, Dator. And some peculiar features, but you’re the . . . ah . . . day, I’ll be back. This is my world. . . . What’ll foster son of Mrs. Benson.” you have for a wedding present, Michael?” “And bow’d I come to Earth, then, carrying no It was his world, too, he knew, the only place memories with me?” where he fitted. But new world or not, his emo- “We’d promised your father before he died that tions were finally flooding in on him, too new for you’d be returned, but we knew it was unsafe to him to express adequately. It was June who an- trust a boy who knew nothing of his native planet, swered, her grin somehow sweet, mocking though so we were forced to remove your memory first. it seemed. We hoped habits of thought and emotions would “Cigarettes, Mrs. Benson. That boy gets more develop a similar character in you, and that cer- mileage out of a package than your rocket ever „ tain wordless suggestions we planted after the can.

THE END. —•

32 WARRIOR'S AGE

By Peter Risk

• A moment's glance at a distant age—a different culture and an episode based on a different philosophy of life—

Illustrated by R. Islp

Fresh green shoots were pushing up through “I’m not hungry.” Resolutely the amazon tight- dead grass, and gnarled trees were losing their ened her metal warrior’s belt, swung her cyanide ugliness as tiny leaves shrouded them that spring gas gun to readiness on her right hip and straight- of 2942, but there was no responding lift in the ened her long sword sheath on her left. She hearts of Dan O’Keefe, soldier of fortune, and the clucked to her white mare. “Let’s go.” lithe amazon, Barbara Doone, as they drew rein “Barbara!” O’Keefe’s voice vibrated with ex- on the rim of wooded foothills that overlooked citement. “That farmhouse! Don’t you see men savage New York. on horseback dashing around it? Hark! I think The man cast wary glances behind him, his atti- I hear cries.” tude one of listening, then turned troubled gray The girl’s metal-shod sandals raked her horse. eyes on the ruined city to the east. A fresh sea “We have troubles of our own. My two missions breeze, salty and pure, danced on their travel- are near completion, and I will not be turned aside stained faces. by your chivalry. I don’t see why you decided to Their huge horses, slender of shank and sleek accompany me from Rogersville in the first place, of barrel, feeling loose reins, nibbled hungrily at unless it was to get out before the Chicagoans the fresh shoots. O’Keefe, on his chestnut stallion, swooped down. You soldiers of fortune are all and Barbara, on her white mare, sat like riders alike. You fought with my father while his born to the saddle. armies were winning, but after his men were bot-

“It seems so hopeless,” said the girl, her tired tled up in Rogersville and we found out the brown eyes, in which latent fires blazed, taking in Council was betraying its own people and us, just the city’s cracked buildings and numerous inhabi- to sell ammunition and supplies, you decided to tants, which moved like ants in the distance. come with me.” Antique airplanes whirled in the sky. Laughter rose in O'Keefe’s gray eyes. He bided O’Keefe’s lean jaw hardened. Muscles rippled his time. beneath the smooth skin of his face. “We’ll get “Now you see the chance to join some guerilla through,” he said. “It’s taken us almost a month gang in looting a wealthy farmer and you want to to cross the mountains, and from the looks of pitch in,” the young amazon continued angrily. things, spring has come early to the coast. The “You came with me knowing full well that as soon Chicagoans will be closing in on your father as I delivered father’s note to Dr. Leering that I almost before Dr. Leering can send reinforce- would take the celibacy vows and accept steriliza- ments. We must get to him tonight, Council or tion. What a figure of a man you are—accompany- !” no Council.” ing a girl to her own sterilization “But the snowstorms, the wolves, the bears,” “I came with you to stop you,” said O’Keefe the girl defended, “we could not help it that our softly, “if your idealistic little brain can ever be progress was so slow.” Her small jaw also set in penetrated by love and devotion.” a hard line. “But we’ll make up for it. We’ll get “You’ve read too many old books!” Barbara to Dr. Leering tonight. We have ten hours before snapped. “Why do you suppose women like my- dark.” And she added, “After that, the hospital self have been accepting sterilization for hundreds for me.” of years? In order that men like you could marry “Are you hungry?” O’Keefe asked. “I think other women who would give you male children, I see a farmhouse, and a rich-looking one, too, and not overrun this country with more of us down there behind the trees.” His eyes fixed on females! We’re trying to change an unnatural the white corner of a house. population proportion that has existed since those ”

33

terrible wars of the twentieth century. And you, to the farmer’s assistance was apparent on the the eternal male, seek to dissuade me!” soldier of fortune’s face. His love of the girl and "How do you know you won’t have boys?” the sting of the old argument triumphed momen- O’Keefe put in in his gentle voice. tarily. He was rewarded by sparks from the girl’s eyes. "You would rob yourself of the joys of a hus- Both ducked to avoid tree limbs along the weed- band, a family and a home to make yourself like grown path. these other sexless creatures?” O’Keefe questioned. "I have no way of knowing whether I’d have "What of your old age? Would you shine harness, sons or daughters,” snapped Barbara tartly. “But clean stalls, to keep body and soul together?” I do know this—that if there are less women bear- "I always have my sword,” the amazon said ing children, there will be less girls. Population simply. will return to normal percentages of male and “But your wrist will not always be supple— female as existed before the twentieth century.” “You misunderstand me. My sword has always served me. It will seek my breast, in answer to O’Keefe turned his head sharply as sounds of my bidding, as well as the breast of another.” fighting from the farmhouse, which Barbara was O’Keefe’s gray eyes reflected the horror he felt circling to the left, became louder. Swords clanged at that brisk statement. on swords, and the desultory pop of the gas guns "An outlaw band might charge on you from was heard. Victorious cries arose from wild ambush,” O’Keefe argued. “You’d become the throats. slave of its dirty chieftain.” The conflict of remaining with the girl or going “That is why sterilization was added to the ” :

34 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION celibacy vows. And I have my friend here.” She They peered cautiously out at the thatch-roofed, patted her long sword as it swung at her hip. stone farmhouse, a tall, ivy-grown, two-story O’Keefe gritted his teeth. “You have too much affair, from the shelter of a clump of yellow wil- faith in your sword.” lows. “It saw me through the mountains. A lazy curl of blue smoke arose from the straw- The soldier was stung to retort: “You got brick chimney, but there were no other signs of through the mountains because you were with a human life. In the front yard lay motionless mamwho knew every inch of the way. You were bodies of farmhands and hairy guerilla warriors. going to ride at day, in full view of planes, you Two horses stamped at the wide stone steps of and your copper hair on that white horse. I made the house, and chickens cackled noisily in the you ride at night. You were too haughty at first bushes. to wade streams to throw the Chicagoan warriors “Perhaps the others are around to the back," off our trail—until they nearly overhauled us two said Barbara. days out of Rogersville. When that bear rose in “We’ll take a chance,” rapped the soldier. “Ride your path and you charged it, it was my gas to the front door." bullet that downed him.” They crossed the yard without hearing an out- “I would have ran him through.” cry, their horses’ hoofs plopping softly on the “You don’t know the dexterity of a bear, or its grass. The other horses whinnied friendlily as endurance, even after mortally wounded. You O’Keefe and Barbara tied their horses to the trusted your horse to outrun wolf packs, and you porch rail. never thought of dropping a deer to stop them!” “Mountain horses,” whispered O’Keefe. “My horse can outrun any wolf pack that ever Barbara nodded. howled.” They stepped softly through the open doors and “For how long? And how many packs? And instantly heard voices. what condition would that poor horse be in by the O’Keefe led the way through the parlor’s dainty time you got to New York?” furnishings, and pushed the curtain aside in the Barbara waved an imperious, smoothly muscled sitting-room doorway. They were transfixed by arm. “Remember your place, soldier. My father is the scene before them. a chief and you are a hireling. When your talk Four guerilla warriors in rusty harness were ceases to be amusing— holding a white-haired old servant, a slender She locked her angry brown eyes with his gray youth, a dignified, gray-haired woman and a tall, ones in an effort to stare him down, but O’Keefe handsome girl. On the patchwork hide rug lay Interrupted her hot flow of words with a question the body of a well-dressed farmer, blood staining “Do you expect to ride into New York as you the back of his white blouse. are now?” A fifth guerilla, in captain’s harness, looked up “Certainly, soldier.” as O’Keefe and Barbara pushed aside the curtain. They were abreast of the farmhouse, from which “Visitors,” he grinned, showing yellow teeth. the noise of conflict had ceased to emanate. An His face was covered with black hair save for a ominous stillness hung in the warm air. wide blue scar on his left cheek. His eyes were “Don’t you suppose the Chicagoans who lost our bloodshot. “You are in time to watch how we deal trail have sent word ahead to keep you from with traitors to the Council.” Dr. Leering?” O’Keefe’s voice was cold. “Don’t O’Keefe’s eyes fell to the man’s harness. He you suppose that the Council’s men are already wore the trappings of Richard Shay, a corpulent, looking for a copper-haired girl on a white horse grasping councilman who had been elected from and her soldier friend on a chestnut stallion? How New York’s West Side when he scattered pennies far would you expect to travel along New York’s to the poor. streets before you were set upon and captured?” The tall, handsome girl, with blond hair that “I have my sword.” cascaded over her smooth shoulders, raised her “You reckless little vixen, it must be love I chin. “We are not traitors. You are. You know have for you, or I’d let you go your way! Could we are loyal to Dr. Leering, and so you are afraid you prevail over a city of traitors? Don’t you know we will get word to him of the number of supplies the best swordsmen in the country make up the going over the mountains to the Chicagoans. Well, Council’s constabulary?” we would have if every way to Dr. Leering’s ear Slowly, the girl drew rein. “Dan, what are we had not been blocked by Shay and the other fat to do?” she asked. rats Dr. Leering suffers to live.” “So you’re sweet again, are you?” O’Keefe .“Hush, hush, girl,” said the ruffianly captain, his stormed. He rapped his metal sandals smartly hot eyes fixed on the girl. “We’ll get to the against his stallion’s flanks, and whirled abruptly bottom of this business in short order. Bring the at right angles toward the farmhouse. “Come. servant.” I’ll show you.” The captain led the way into an adjoining room ”

WARRIOR’S AGE 35

to the left, while one of his men pushed the strug- “Go to a farmhouse where you know you will gling, white-haired servant in after him. A cry be safe,” O’Keefe instructed the lad. “Keep travel- followed, and the captain and his companion re- ing from farmhouse to farmhouse until this blows turned, the captain sheathing his sword. over.” “He wouldn’t talk,” said the captain. “Now you, The boy raised glazed blue eyes. “I wish I were my big heifer.” He motioned the man holding dead, too.” the gray-haired woman to lead her to the side “Here, none of that !” O’Keefe snapped. “You’ve room. your own life to live. Your turn will come. But O’Keefe stepped forward, hand on sword.—“Cap- now, son, give this girl your clothes and take her tain, this is murder. In the name of justice harness. If you don’t like her warrior trappings, The scarred-faced captain ignored him. “Look you can get clothes at the next farmhouse.” behind you,” he said. Numbly, the boy began to strip himself, and O’Keefe and Barbara whirled. The doorway Barbara, quick to understand, stepped behind the behind them had filled with grinning ruffians. boles of a clump of willows and threw her gar- "I’ll question the blonde!” a red giant called. ments to O’Keefe, while he in turn tossed her the The dignified woman stepped toward the room. long trousers and light-tan blouse of the peasant “I will show you a brave woman is not afraid to boy. die.” She marched into the room, head erect. The boy’s eyes glittered as he stared down at his The blond girl’s eyes were wide with horror and warrior’s harness. Then, poising before flight, the slender youth sobbed, jerking futilely at the he said: strong hands that held him. “I’ll see if I can get some of the farmers to- The captain and guerilla returned, the captain gether to follow that band.” And he was off, flit- again sheathing his sword. There had been no ting through the brush toward the southeast. cry. Barbara emerged from the willow clump, holding “Now the girl,” he said. “Watch the boy and her steel helmet in one hand and her belt, with its our two visitors. Here, don’t push her into that gun, sword and cartridges, in the other. She room. Lead her back this way.” smiled roguishly at her strange garb. The youth cried and sprang forward. A warrior “What shall I do with these?” she asked. “I struck him across the mouth and he collapsed, don’t want to give up my weapons.” blood oozing between his lips. The soldier holding “Strap them on,” said O'Keefe. “It’s not un- him leaped after the men with the girl. The usual around New York to see armed farmers. But warriors behind O’Keefe and Barbara jostled the you better smear a little clay on your sheath and two as they surged after the girl and her captors. belt. Farmers usually don’t have their weapons Hastily, O’Keefe leaned forward and hoisted the shined for instant use like a professional fighting unconscious boy to his shoulder. Brutal laughter man.” came from the rear of the house when a girl’s As the girl bent to scoop up earth, O’Keefe shook voice screamed in terror. his head. “There’s a far worse error than that in Despite his burden, O’Keefe bounded for the your make-up, my lissome redhead. Tear off the parlor doorway. bottom of that blouse where it tucks into your “The girl!” cried Barbara, lingering. trousers and tie it around your chest under your Roughly, O’Keefe grabbed her hand and dragged blouse.” her after him. “We can be of no help to her,” he Barbara straightened angrily. “Make myself said grimly. flat-chested?” she cried. “Never.” He threw the youth across the pommel of his O’Keefe grinned mischievously. “Oh, ho, so the horse and leaped up. With white faces they raced little amazon who is going to acknowledge celibacy their horses across the yard and into the shelter is proud of her wares.” of trees. No shots or cries pursued them. For The fire in Barbara’s brown eyes burst forth only a moment they heard the raucous cackling and she stormed, “I don’t see the reason for dis- of the chickens. guise anyway. It’s sneaking and cowardly to resort to such tactics to carry an honorable mes- A mile from the house, O’Keefe drew up where sage. I’m going to tear these clothes off me.” a narrow, pebble-bottomed creek wound through She grabbed her blouse in strong brown fists, a willow grove. The farm youth was conscious but O’Keefe laughed. and slipped to the clayey soil. For a moment he “You haven’t any other clothes.” stood erect; then, his face in his hands, he shud- The girl glared at soldier. the “Laugh ! Stand dered and dropped prostrate to the ground, sob- there and laugh! I suppose you glory in seeing bing tearlessly. a chief’s daughter attired like a peasant. I sup- O’Keefe dismounted and bent over him. Barbara pose you think I’m humbled. I’ll show you ’’ was concerned and brought the slender youth water She was about to yank the blouse apart when from the brook. O’Keefe reached out and grabbed her. In almost AST—3L 36 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION a single motion he yanked her to him, dropped copper hair under your helmet and trot after me.” to one knee and, throwing the girl across it, He heard a faint swish, but before he could duck slapped the bottom of her trousers vigorously. the flat of the amazon’s sword struck him across Barbara struggled and made futile grabs for the cheek. her weapons. O’Keefe found her slight body was The girl’s voice crackled. “I said draw, or do as strong as whipcord. At her first cry of pain, you prefer a coward’s death?” O’Keefe desisted and grabbed her flailing arms. O’Keefe leaped lightly onto his stallion, rubbing “Let me up, you coward! Draw your sword!” his cheek ruefully. "Brat, I don’t know that “This isn’t a gentleman’s way,” gritted O’Keefe I care to marry you after all.” as he drew the girl’s arms up behind her in a He had left the brush and was within a stone’s double hammerlock, “but it’s effective.” throw of the tall city gates, a high cement wall “Fight a warrior like a warrior!” the girl cried. stretching away to north and south, before he "Ouch! You’re breaking my arms.” heard the rhythmic thud of the white mare’s hoofs behind him. O’Keefe had no intention of fighting the girl O’Keefe turned and saw a slender but handsome, with a warrior’s weapons. He had seen her skilled flat-chested peasant boy drawing abreast, his head sword arm in play too often not to realize she incased in a shining steel helmet. A muddy sword would be a dangerous antagonist. He didn’t doubt and gas gun dangled from his waist. that in the end he could defeat her, but probably “How does the outfit feel?” O’Keefe asked. not before one of them or both were seriously Barbara stared straight ahead to where a winding wounded. line of field workers and scattered travelers was He pinioned the amazon’s wrists together and passing through the steel gates. A burly guard held them with his powerful left hand. With his eyed each person with raking glance. right he pulled out the bottom of the blouse and “These long trousers itch like the devil,” began tearing off a strip of the silklike spun-glass snapped Barbara, “and the helmet and that mop cloth. of hair are crushing my brains. I suppose you’re When he had finished, he said to the sullen happy.” girl across his knee: “Are you going to bind “You pay yourself a compliment,” said O’Keefe, yourself with this, or are you going to risk having spurring forward. “It’s best that we don’t enter reinforcements sent to your father in order that side by side, for our horses might give us away you can strut down the streets of New York with if seen together. I’ll go first. You follow that old villainous warriors casting admiring glances at woman with the bundles of sticks under her your curves?” arms.” Crying in mortification, the girl twisted and squirmed. “I don’t care if men never look at me! The guard saluted O’Keefe as his stallion shied

You’re 'filthy-minded. I just . . . just . . . don’t through, but once inside the gates, O’Keefe turned believe in a sneaking disguise.” in his saddle to look back and see how Barbara “Do you want another paddling?” was faring. Her horse stepped high, avoiding the The girl squirmed again, then subsided. “I’ll field workers. tie it on,” she snapped. “Hey!” laughed the guard when he spotted the “Your word of honor?” slight youth atop the big white horse. “What’s “Yes.” Her sibilant answer was almost a hiss. that stick hanging at your side, sonny? And "I think you’re jealous. I’m glad I’m going to be where did you find that helmet? Do you want to sterilized if men are like you. ‘Joy of a husband, alight and exchange a few parries?” a home!’ Humph!” The crowd took up the laughter. The boy O’Keefe stood up and set the girl on her feet. raised his small chin and struck his horse’s flank Instantly, she whirled, her eyes blazing into with his heels. They passed through quickly. O’Keefe’s. Her right arm had flicked her long O’Keefe grinned. The guard would have been sword from its muddy sheath with unbelievable surprised if the boy had dismounted and engaged speed. O’Keefe stared down at the point at his him, O’Keefe thought, for the guard would have chest. encountered a sword arm equal to his own. “Draw your sword, soldier. You’ll never humili- At the third intersection, O’Keefe cast anxious ate me again.” eyes north and south along the side street for a O’Keefe read murder in the eyes of the chief- livery. His worried eyes relaxed as he saw a huge tain’s daughter. Perhaps he had gone too far. horseshoe above double doors a half block south. But she had it coming to her, he considered. He He motioned the oncoming Barbara to follow. made no move to reach for his sword. They rode into the stable together. A small, Her blade pinked him. “On guard, male!” round-shouldered boy ran forward to grasp the O’Keefe turned toward his stallion. “When you bridles. get that cloth on, you can pile that wild mess of Dismounting, O’Keefe instructed the boy: “I :

WARRIOR’S AGE 37 want these horses taken to the stables across from the street and an occasional ray car, its ray power Dr. Leering’s palace on West Street. Can you not yet exhausted, swept through the traffic. arrange it?” “It’s strange our workers haven’t been able to He dropped a gold coin into the boy’s dirty recapture the scientific knowledge of the ancients,” hand. “I’ll take them myself, mister,” the boy mused O’Keefe. “When one of those vehicles cried. quits running, there it sits. A few mechanics “And see that good care is taken of them.” know how to make the simpler repairs on a “Don’t worry about that, mister,” the boy piped. gasoline-driven automobile, but none have yet un- “I never saw such beautiful horses. You bet I’ll earthed the power of a ray motor.” take good care of them. I’ll feed ’em and water “Dr. Leering knows,” said Barbara confidently. ’em first. They look like you’ve rode ’em hard.” “Some day when he brings order out of this chaos, As they stepped out into the noon sunlight, you’ll see thousands of men and women at work Barbara asked: “What’s your plan? You must on the things he has rediscovered. I hear he has have one, sending the horses on ahead of us.” workshops around his palace now where his men Like a veteran New Yorker, O’Keefe strode for are making great strides in medicine, chemistry— ’’ the nearest eating house. A greasy-aproned waiter stood over them. They “I want them handy to the palace in case we learned they could have fried potatoes and fried have to leave in a hurry,” explained O’Keefe. eggs, or fried potatoes and fried fish. O’Keefe “After we eat, our best bet will be to grab a caught himself about to order for his companion. conveyance of some sort. We can approach the The boy picked eggs and so did O’Keefe. center of town without being seen. Several of The coffee pleased Barbara. “What is that?” the constabulary may remember my last job was she asked. with your father.” “That’s coffee,” O’Keefe said. “The original Before they reached the sidewalk, a crowd of coffee. Your people make it by burning berries. ragged street urchins, some with the accoutre- This is the stuff that the boats bring from the ments and cast-off weapons of warriors, swirled South.” about them. “There’s so much I’d like to see here,” Barbara “Look at the helmet that kid’s got,” cried one. said. “Ain’t that a beauty?” O’Keefe paid the waiter. “How can I get a con- A hulking youth in his late teens, with dark, veyance?” beady eyes closely abutting his nose, stepped “Go out on the street and hail one.” squarely in Barbara’s path and drew a rusty blade. They walked along, jostling with the sidewalk “Fair fight 1” the dirty youth cried to O’Keefe. crowds, and watching vehicles hurtle by, but “Keep out of it. I declare battle with your friend. O’Keefe could not tell which were for hire. On guard. Skinny." At an intersection, he boldly accosted a bearded The boy at O’Keefe’s shoulder looked amused. constable. “Am I supposed to fight him?” Barbara asked “Stand here,” said the constable. “I’ll signal O’Keefe. one for you. Most anybody when they want to “Tear into him!” cried O’Keefe in mock anger. go some place rents a horse if he doesn’t have his “Show him how we do it on the farm.” own.” His eyes lingered on O’Keefe. urchins jeered. encourage- The They shouted He turned, puzzled, and flung out his hand at ment to the bully. a ray car. “Would you take these people where “I want that pretty helmet of yours, Skinny, they want to go?” the constable asked the driver. and I want that long sword,” the bully said to “You can pick up a small piece of change." Barbara. “Don’t you know how to draw?" The sallow-faced young driver nodded, and The steel of Barbara’s sword flashed like a ray wiped a mop of yellow hair from his forehead. of light in the sun. The bully’s rusty blade leaped “Hop in,” he beckoned O’Keefe and Barbara. from his hand and clattered on the sidewalk. As The girl was already in the ray car’s rear seat quickly as it was drawn, Barbara’s blade sung back and O’Keefe had his foot on the running board in its scabbard. She pressed on toward the eating when the bearded constable exploded house. O’Keefe looked back. The bully stood with jaw “Sure, I know you now.” His meaty hand clamped down on O’Keefe’s shoulder. drooping. “Chee! Can that kid fight!” he said. “You’re Dan O’Keefe, the guy we was told to look out for.” His whistle leaped to his They chose seats at a small table back from the lips. dusty, cracked window, but where they could see O’Keefe knocked the constable’s hand down and the passing throng of men and women workers, drew his sword. warriors, grizzled strangers from foreign lands, In a movement too quick to follow with the eye, squint-eyed adventurers and people of class. the bearded constable’s sword leaped to his hand. Antique gasoline-motored trucks chugged by on “You asked for it, O’Keefe.” ”

38 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

Barbara, shrinking in the ray car, remembered nature or his city all at once. When he heard of O’Keefe’s remark that New York constables were the Council’s supporting the army of Chicagoans the best swordsmen in the world. Suddenly, she advancing East, there would be fireworks. She realized she would be lost without her companion. had heard her father say many times, that he and What did she know of New York? How could she his people had been supported by Dr. Leering in go about getting to Dr. Leering’s presence? From order that they could form a protective bulwark the first she had depended on this hard-bitten for New York against the encroachment of wild soldier of fortune with the immaculate manners. hordes from the West. She also knew Rogersville, Well, almost immaculate. the periled city in which her father had put up She watched each leaping thrust of the con- for the winter, was the right wing of Dr. Leering’s stable’s sword and marveled that O’Keefe’s blade, proposed spring drive against the barbarian Chi- with slight movements, parried it. O’Keefe was cago army. She sensed that the Council might falling back under a relentless assault, but he was want the Chicagoans to win, for if and when not working. It seemed as if he were biding his Dr. Leering created peace, the Council knew its time. Barbara saw that the callow driver had no richest days were gone. intention of driving away. His darting eyes fol- She tried to picture the enormous city as it lowed the flashing motions of the singing blades. once had been. Barbara also realized that the crowd that had col- lected was cheering O’Keefe. The constables must Brakes on the ray car screamed as it pulled to be unpopular! Perhaps they had killed too many the curb on West Street, opposite a magnificent men with their skilled swords. stone palace and brick warehouses, surrounded by The constable was grunting with the savage- a high stone wall. ness of his onslaught. He intended to run the O’Keefe tossed gold coins to the callow driver warrior through quickly, there was no doubt of and rushed Barbara across the sidewalk and into a that. The more the crowd cheered his opponent, livery. A blond giant amazon met them just the more desperately the bearded constable inside the double doors. lunged. “Here! Where do you think you’re going? Oh, Barbara relaxed when she saw O’Keefe’s eyes it’s you, O’Keefe!” The amazon’s voice was flashing up and down the street. He was alert for musical despite the bulk of her body. She wore the constable’s reinforcements. He really was a red leather harness and smelled of horses. waiting, she knew. Then, in a divisionless frac- “Cleo, we’ve got to get into the palace,”— O’Keefe tion of a second, his chance came, a chance to beat said, “and we need you to help us through the constable’s fierce attack. The con- “Why, go right over to the gate and walk in,” stable had lunged just a trifle too far forward. Cleo pointed. “You know Dr. Leering’s policies. He had put his weight momentarily on his toes The gates are always open to all. He’ll stop what- instead of the balls of his feet. Before he could ever he’s doing to listen to the complaint of even recover, O’Keefe’s blade was protruding from the a harness polisher.” back of his neck. O’Keefe was shaking his head. “We can’t afford O’Keefe leaped into the ray car and the driver to be seen.” swept forward. “Good work!” the callow youth "What’s this . . . dirty work?” frowned Cleo. exulted. “Nice job, warrior! Nobody likes those “It doesn’t sound like you, O’Keefe. And who’s bloody constables. They’ve done nothing but mur- your timorous young friend? A radical?” der since the Council brought them here from the “Do you have a room where we can talk?” asked corners of the earth to enforce their crooked laws.” O’Keefe. Through the maze of traffic the car sped. Pur- Barbara jabbed him with her elbow. suit was useless unless another ray car were avail- The blond giant led them to a cubicle beneath able. With expert ease the driver avoided horses a ramp, and shoved heavy wooden chairs toward and vehicles. them. An oil lamp flickered on the table. Barbara saw tall buildings, braced with timbers, Despite Barbara’s angry glances, O’Keefe ex- on the point of falling. Persons moved by on the plained their mission. streets unheeding. She saw other buildings which Cleo was indignant. “Doone’s army trapped at had collapsed and were complete ruins, their bricks Rogersville?” Her blue eyes shot fire. “Why, and mortar and twisted steel covering entire blocks. never a word of that got through! And this is Some day, when Dr. Leering had restored a sem- Doone’s daughter?” blance of peace, he would begin the great task of Barbara sat sullen. rebuilding New York, she knew. Dr. Leering, a “What’s your plan?” asked Cleo. “Where do I great man, loved and respected by millions, headed come in? Mark you, Councilman Shay’s behind the Council, whose depredations he permitted this. He’ll have every gate watched.” until he was strong enough to crush them. He “If you can get word to Captain McUlroy in was a wise man—he didn’t expect to change human charge of Dr. Leering’a horses,” said O’Keefe, “he ” ”

WARRIOR’S AGE 39

can let us in through the stable door as soon as that . . . that woman’s bedroom is?” it gets dusk. He knows me and hates the Council.” O’Keefe felt grossly accused, from the first “I'll go over right now,” volunteered Cleo. word of Barbara’s harangue until the shocking “Meanwhile, there’s some wine in that cupboard, last. “I can explain— and perhaps your pretty friend would like to go “Shut up. You’re a fool. I’m going to find that up to my room and lie down. You can show her wine." where it is, Dan. When I come back, we’ll have a lot to talk over.” She headed toward the small “Take off your sandals,” O’Keefe whispered. door. Stooping in the dark stone corridor on the sixth “Barbara is getting sterilized tomorrow,” said floor of the palace, Barbara obeyed. O’Keefe O’Keefe solemnly. —“She’s in no mood to sleep on kicked off his and shoved them into a doorway. the last day of her “Can we risk it, rushing into the Council cham- “Shut up, Dan O’Keefe!” Barbara cried. “Isn’t bers to get to Dr. Leering?” Barbara asked her

it bad enough without your mocking me?” voice quavering now that the end of her long The giant amazon turned. “Don’t ever sterilize journey was at hand. yourself, child. Ten years from now all you’ll be “You heard McUlroy,” O’Keefe answered softly. fit for is to run a stable, like me. Nobody wants “Tonight is Council meeting night. After that, you. Sterilization sounds noble, but it isn’t. Dr. Leering gets in the elevator and is whisked to Other women laugh at you till your dying day. his laboratories where no one can get to him.” If O’Keefe here had even looked twice at me back Crouching low, they padded along the corridor

in those days, I’d never have gone through with it, on bare feet until they drew abreast of the wide but then he was just a punk. Some day he’s going double doors of the Council chambers. They were to lose something he values above everything else partly ajar and a murmur of voices was audible. in this world just because he’s such a gentleman Just inside they glimpsed a constable lounging he won’t take what’s there for the grabbing.” against the door frame. O’Keefe felt self-conscious. The door closed O’Keefe put his lips to the girl’s ear. “I’ll behind the big woman. Barbara stared at him, throw the doors open and you rush to Dr. Leering. eyes blazing. You know him, don’t you? Tall, white-haired “Now I know why I don’t like you,” she said. old man about eighty with a high forehead? He’ll

“That . . . that . . . woman put her finger right be sitting in the center of the table. Leave your

on it. I’ve never once heard you assert yourself weapons here so no one will think you’re running except today when I got stubborn out there in toward the doctor to assassinate him. I’ll cover

the woods. You’re a gentleman. You wouldn’t you. If Shay or a constable tries to shoot, I’ll pound it into my thick head what a fool I was take care of him.” coming across the mountains, but you waited until Deftly, the girl lowered her belt and deposited I got you mad, then you exploded and told me it and the weapons on the stone corridor floor. everything I had done wrong. You wouldn’t She picked a folded note from the gas gun holster maneuver that constable close to the ray car in and turned to face the door. order that I could have stabbed him. No, you O’Keefe stepped toward them, ready to push. fought him fair. You’ve never tried to kiss me, He raised his eyebrows and the girl tensed herself but always try to argue me out of sterilization. and nodded. Oh, don’t get fancy ideas, Dan O’Keefe— I’ll never The doors flung wide on grating hinges. The be slow with my sword again when you’re around. constable yelled as a door slammed him against I’m just telling you why I don’t like you. Now, the wall. answer me one more thing, Dan O’Keefe, and don’t Barbara darted in and saw a sea of faces before try to be a gentleman—how do you know where her, heads turning her way. Then to her right at ”

40 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

the far end of the room she saw a mounted plat- Explanations were short. The doctor turned form. Dodging arms and eluding restraining and barked orders to an aid. He turned to the hands, she raced toward it. girl. “An army leaves at dawn. My next job is Cries arose. The Council leaped up from its to run down the traitors who have prevented word chairs and a tall, white-haired man in the center of your father’s plight from reaching me. Rest of the group frowned, motioning other constables assured, I will be thorough.” forward. O’Keefe leaped at the girl’s heels, sword drawn. Barbara raised haughty eyebrows as she pre- “Dr. Leering!” Barbara cried. “Dr. Leering!” pared to remove her boy’s clothing and step into A constable grabbed for her, but she ducked her bath. O’Keefe, with a wild expression in his and he grasped only her steel helmet. Her copper gray eyes, stood in the doorway of her bedroom hair poured over her shoulders. She raced on. in Dr. Leering’s palace. With a loud oath, a corpulent man stepped for- “Soldier, our associations are through. I ward. “I know the girl!” he cried. “She’s an thought I thanked you sufficiently and told you !” assassin father would reward you. Please leave before I He raised his gas gun. summon help.” “Put it down!” commanded the tall, white- O’Keefe eased into the room. “Do you need haired man. “We’ll see what the girl has to say.” help?” he asked. “I thought you were capable She was almost on top of them. O’Keefe was of defending yourself.” behind, but he saw the fat councilman, instead of “I wouldn’t shed blood while I was a guest— lowering his gun, take careful aim. She got no further. O’Keefe had bounded for- O’Keefe’s blade whirled from his hand. He had ward, pinned her arms and throwing her over his grasped its tip and had thrown it as if it had been a shoulder, he raced from the room. The girl dagger. The sword buried itself to its hilt in the shouted and struggled. fat man’s chest. His gas bullet exploded against O’Keefe swept down a succession of stairs, the ceiling. leaped across a moonlit courtyard into the stables. The girl was tripped, but as she fell she threw He passed through a door in the stone wall and her arms forward and clung to Dr. Leering’s sprinted across the street to Cleo’s livery. ankles. Constables had swarmed over O’Keefe, “You caught me without my sword!” raved overpowering him. Barbara. “Put me down! Do you hear?” “Up, girl,” commanded the doctor, his blue eyes O’Keefe motioned a sleepy-eyed boy to saddle almost black with anger. “What is the meaning the chestnut stallion and white mare. of this?” He brushed the constables away despite As the warrior climbed quickly into the stal- the attempts of some to stab the prostrate girl. lion’s saddle, throwing the girl carelessly across Barbara got to her knees and extended her the pommel, a door opened in the rear of the father’s note. Dr. Leering accepted it gravely and stables and a rectangle of light silhouetted a big assisted the girl to her feet. “Your face is famil- woman. iar,” he said. The blond amazon saw the struggling pair and “I’m Barbara Doone,” she said. “Please read recognized O’Keefe, leading the white horse. father’s message.” Dr. Leering staggered back against his high- “Where are you going?” the blond giant called. backed chair. “Rogersville surrounded? Girl, “I’m going to take your advice,” answered why did you bring this note this way? Why O’Keefe. didn’t you send it by courier?” The horses clattered across the sidewalk, and Barbara sobbed. Dr.. Leering motioned the con- their hoofbeats died away in the night on a street stables to release O’Keefe. toward the hills. the’ END. THE ANALYTICAL LABORATORY

This month’s issue is “tight”—space is decidedly Place Story Author Point score at a premium. The Lab this time must consist, 1. Waldo Anson MacDonald 1.1 therefore, of the bare figures—and an apology. 2 The August issue, likewise, was very tight, and . Jackdaw Ross Rocklynne 2.9 the Lab was held waiting for the appearance some- 3. Impediment Hal Clement 3.1 where of a space to slip it in. The space didn’t 4. Deadlock Lewis Padgett 4.0 appear when the proofs came down—and the issue 5. The Link Cleve Cartmill had to be locked up without it. Sorry. Asimov’s 4.1 “Bridle and Saddle” won. The Editor. 41

THE SECOND SOLUTION

By A. E. Van Vogt

• Any fact which is of importance to mankind that is discovered by one man would, almost certainly, be discovered elsewhere, somehow, by another man. One man discovered that the ezwals were intelli-

gent—and nearly lost the knowledge and his life. Another, far away—

Illustrated by Kolliker

The little thin chap with the too-sharp voice tions. The inventions, the ideas of individuals

was saying: grow out of that mass ; they would occur regardless “My point is, we didn’t need Edison, Paladine, of the birth or early death of any individual genius, Clissler, or any particular scientist. It is the so-called. There’s always a second solution.” mass mind that moves inevitably in certain direc- Somebody disagreed: “Inventions change the

, — : : ” ”

42 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

course of history. A new weapon wins a war ever get free! You know what they’re like. Any- because it was introduced when it was. A year body who’s been to Carson’s Planet—” He groaned later would have been too late.” in fury. “Damn Jamieson for having ezwals The big man cleared his throat, drawing our brought to Earth. I was against it from the— attention to him. I had noticed him idle over He caught himself: “And Brenson: be at the from the club bar a few minutes earlier, and lifeboats in seven . . . no, make it six minutes for listen with that bored contempt which deep-space safety. Even if they’re not dead ! Now, run!” !” men have for groundlings. He had the tan of The young man blanched whiter still. “Yessir space in his hawklike countenance; and it was he breathed again, and was gone, tugging at his obvious that this was between voyages for him; gun. and he didn’t know what to do with himself. For McLennan there were vital things to do, “I hate to enter an impractical discussion,” he valuable papers to retrieve; and then the time was said, “but it just happens I can illustrate your up. He plunged through the door of a lifeboat, argument. You all remember the experience some gasped: years ago of Professor Jamieson with a full- “Brenson here yet?” grown ezwal in the ocean jungle of Eri6tan II “No, sir!” how they captured a Rull lifeship intact, and “WHAT?” eventually escaped with its secret of perfect anti- They waited. One minute slipped by. Two. gravity, and prevented a revolution and a mas- Then it was Carling who whispered: sacre on Carson’s Planet?” “We’ve got to leave, sir. He can use that empty We all recalled it; the big man went on: “Ac- lifeboat, if he comes. We’ve got to leave.” tually, Professor Jamieson had captured two McLennan looked strangely blank. “He’s the ezwals on that visit of his to Carson’s Planet. One son of old Rock Brenson. What’ll I tell my old was a male, which he took with him on his own pal?” ship, and with which he was later wrecked on Carling made no reply. And McLennan’s lips Eristan II. The other was a female, which he had twisted to the shaping of a curse, but no sound dispatched to Earth on an earlier ship. came, and no real thought of violent words was “En route, this female gave birth to a male about in his mind. As he slid the lifeboat smoothly into as big as a lion. The young one grew about a foot the safety of space, he heard the fierce whisper on the trip, but that wouldn’t have mattered in of one of the men itself. What precipitated the whole thing was the “Mistake . . . send a fool like Brenson down. antigravity converters, the old, imperfect, pre- He’s got the killer mind. That’s what’s holding Rull type—in their fashion, they began to dis- him. He’s got to kill— charge torrents of free energy; and that’s where the story begins.” From above him came the terrible snarl of his "Does it prove my point or his?” asked the little mother; and then her thoughts, as hard and sharp chap with the sharp voice. as crystal The big man grimaced at him; and silence set- “Under me for your life! The two-legged one tled over our little group. comes to kill!” Like a streak, he leaped from his end of the The grim, iron-hard face of Commander McLen- cage, five hundred solid pounds of dark, dark-blue nan twisted toward the two officers. “Absolutely monstrosity. Razor-clawed hands rattled metal- !” out of control he said from clenched teeth. “The lically on the steel floor, and then he was into Sparling free energy effect! Ship’ll strike Earth blackness under her vast form, pressing into the in fifteen minutes somewhere in the great Toganna cave of soft, yielding flesh that she made for him Forest Reserve in northern Canada. —taking unbreakable holds with his six hands, “Carling, get the men into the lifeboats, then so that, no matter what the violence of her move- make contact with the superintendent of the ments or the fury of her attacks, he would be Reserve. Tell him we’ve got two ezwals of Car- there safe and sound, snugly deep in the folds son’s Planet aboard, who’ll probably live through between her great belly muscles. the crash. Tell him to prepare for any eventuali- Her thought came again, curt and hard as so ties; and that I’ll be to take down charge of the many blows : “Remember all the things I’ve told wreck in half an hour. Brenson!” you. The hope of our race is that men continue “Yessir!" The white-faced younger officer to think us beasts. If they suspect our intelli- sprang to rigid attention as Carling whirled out gence, we are lost. And someone does suspect it. of the room. If that knowledge lives, our people die!” “Go down and kill those two ezwals, mother and Faster came her thought: “Remember, your son. We can’t take a chance on those two beasts weaknesses in this crisis are those of youth. You getting loose on Earth. They’ll murder a thou- love life too much. Fight the resulting fear, for sand people before they can be killed—if they fear it is. Take death if the opportunity comes " —! ” ” :

THE SECOND SOLUTION 43

to serve your race by so doing.” created smashed with pile-driver speed at the Her brain slowed, grew cold. He watched with weakened bars of the cage. The cub strained with her then, clinging to her mind with his mind as every ounce of tautened muscles against the thrust- tightly as his body clung to her body. ing compression of that wall of steel-hard tendons He saw the pole-thick steel bars of the cage; surrounding him—and lived because even in that and, half hidden by their four-inch width, the moment of titanic attempt, he felt the distinct

figure of a man ; he saw—the thoughts of the man effort his mother made to prevent the smashing “Damn you!” those thoughts came. “If it wasn’t force of her muscles from squeezing him to jelly. for you being on this ship I’d be out of danger now. Beyond the vastness of her body, he heard the I—” harsh grating of ripping metal as mighty bars The man’s hand moved. There was a hard, bent and broke, where the flame had destroyed metallic glint as he pushed the weapon between their tensile strength. the bars. It came alive with white fire. “Good Lord!” the man thought in high dismay. For the briefest moment, the mental contact with Strangely, then, the preternatural sharpness of his mother blackened. It was his own ears that his thoughts weakened, retreated strangely into heard the gasping roar; his own flat nostrils that dimmer forms. The picture of him vanished and ; smelled the odor of burning, cooking flesh; and where the mother ezwal’s thoughts had been, there there was no mistaking the tangible, physical was no movement. The ezwal was aware of her reality of her wild charge straight at the merciless lying above him, a great, flabby dead mass, com- flame gun projecting between the bars. pletely covering him. The fire clicked off. The blackness vanished The reality of her death struck him instantly; from his mother’s mind; and he saw that the and it explained why the man’s mind and the weapon and the man had retreated from the mad, picture of him had faded. It was his own weaker reaching threat of those mighty claws. powers now that were catching the man’s “Damn you!” the man flared. “Well, take it thoughts. from here then!” They were queerly distorted, senseless thoughts. The man mumbled: “Only got a minute, only

There must have been blinding pain, but none minute . . . then I’ve got to go . . off — . get the of it came through into his brain. His mother’s ship before thoughts remained at a mind-shaking pitch of He was aware of the man crawling onto his malignance; and not for a single instant did she mother’s back, and tingled with dismay. It was remain still. She ducked this way, that way; he who was being searched for now; and if that she ran with mad speed, twisting, darting, rolling, white flame found him it would deal out equally sliding, fighting with an almost inconceivable merciless death. Frantically he pushed deeper violence for life in the hopelessly narrow confines into the yielding stomach above him. of the cage. And then—all hell broke loose. There was a Like a squirrel she ran twenty feet up the bars piercing screaming of air against the freighter’s of the cage; and then, §t the ceiling, she swung hull. The crash was world-shattering. His six along with the agility of a monkey from bar to hands were wrenched from their holds. He struck thick bar. But always, in spite of her vaunting intolerable hardness; and the blackness that came passion, in spite of deadly desperation, a part of was very real and very personal. her mind remained untouched, unhurried, terrible in its icy ferocity. And always that tearing fire Slowly, the darkness grew alive. Somewhere following her, missing her, then hitting her there was movement, muffled noises, and a confus- squarely—hitting her so often that finally she could ing sense of many men’s thoughts: incredible no longer hold back the knowledge that her end danger! was near. And with that thought came another Alarm leaped along his nerves, faster, faster; his first awareness that she had had a purpose in in a spasm of movement, he pressed upward into keeping the weapon beyond the bars, and forcing the saving folds of his mother’s flesh; and, as he it to follow the swift, darting frenzy of her thresh- lay there quiveringly still, deep into her, the world ing about. beyond and around her enveloping body began to By following her desperate movements the beam grow clearer. Thoughts came of the flame gun had seared with molten effect “Never saw such an awful mess!” somebody’s across the hard resistance of those thick, steel mind whispered. bars! “What could have ailed Brenson?” another “God!” came the man’s thoughts. “Won’t it groaned. “That fighting instinct of his got him ever die? And where is that damned young— one? at last, in spite of his love of life. His body’s Another minute now, and I’ll have to go. I plain jam . . . what did you say, Mr. McLennan?” The thought stopped—stopped as sixty-five hun- “I’m talking to Kelly,” came the curt, savage dred pounds of the hardest organic body ever answer. “Kelly, I said— ”” I! —

44 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

“Just a minute, boss. I was getting an important brightness, and somehow it connected with the message from the patrol’s science headquarters. unfamiliar cold wetness into which his feet were Guess what? Caleb Carson, Professor Jamieson’s sinking. A sticky, clinging wetness that would second in command here on Earth, is coming by slow him in the swift dash he must make through air express to take charge. Carson is the grandson the deep, resisting softness of it. of old Blake Carson, who discovered Carson’s Above him there was a sudden brrr of power;

Planet. He’ll arrive at noon . . . that’s two hours and the weight of his mother seemed to lift from and— him. Then the weight sagged again.

“Oh, he is, is he?” McLennan’s answering “Nope!” came a thought. thought, as it penetrated to the ezwal, was trucu- “Try again!” McLennan replied sharply. “You lent, immeasurably grim. “Well, I don’t think almost got it. Do a little more horizontal p-ulling he’ll be here in time for the kill.” this time—and the rest of you stand back. We “Kill? What kill?” may have to shoot fast.” “Don’t be such a fool, man!” the commander Body taut as a drawn wire, the ezwal poked his snarled. “We’ve got a five-hundred-pound ezwal square-shaped head out. In one swift flash his to locate. You don’t think a smash-up like this will three glittering eyes verified the picture he had kill one of those things.” caught from their minds. “Lord!” The spaceship had broken into three massive “It must be alive!” McLennan went on tensely. sections. And everywhere lay an appalling litter “And do you know what it means if an ezwal gets of twisted steel girders, battered metal and a con- loose in this million square miles of wilderness? fusion of smashed cargo. For half a mile in every He’ll murder every human being he gets hold of.” direction the wreckage sprawled, spotting the “This looks like a hunting party with a venge- snow with splintered wood and miraculously un- ance.” harmed boxes as well as a vast scatter of dark, “You bet. That’s where you come in. Phone chunky things impossible to identify. down to the reservation superintendent’s office, And each chunk, each piece of metal, each frag- and tell him he’s got to round up the biggest, ment of cargo offered obstacle to the guns that toughest hunting dogs he can get, preferably those would be flaming at him in just about who’ve trailed grizzly bears. Make him realize “Look!” Somebody’s mind jmd voice spewed that this is the most important thing that’s ever forth the single word. happened in this forsaken land. Tell him that, on Carson’s Planet, where these killers come from, It was the queerest, most shattering moment in settlers are being massacred in droves, and that all his world; for the age-long second after that men are not even safe in fortified cities. Tell him explosive yell, he was aware of the first maddening ... I don’t care what you tell him, but get action pang of pain-expectation that he had ever known. Parker!” Not even when the fire was burning away his “Shoot, boss!” mother’s life had that stark, terrible realization “Lower your ship and let down some tackle. touched him. But now, abruptly, he knew it was I’ve started the ball rolling for a hunting trip a matter of—given seconds! that may be absolutely unnecessary. But never He quivered in every shrinking nerve. His mind that. I believe in planning. And now— impulse was to jerk back into the folding safety, think you’ve got enough power in that bus to however brief, of his mother’s great, comforting hook into this old scoundrel and turn her over. mass of body. Then, even as his eyes blazed at One of the tricks of this tribe is that the young the stiffened men, even as he caught the sudden, ones—can tangle themselves in their mother’s skin, tremendous strain in their minds, memory came; and His mother had said, in effect: Fight fear or it The ezwal let himself sink slowly through the will destroy you! cave of flesh. His lower, combination-feet-and- The thought caught him in a rhythmic, irre- hands touched something cold and wet, and he sistible sweep. His muscles galvanized frantically stood there for a moment, trembling. His nose in enormous effort. He heaved, squeezed pro- caught a draft of air, and savored the scent of digiously, and was free of the great, crushing cooked flesh that stank at him from his mother’s body above him. body; and the memory it brought of fire and Straight ahead was a run-and-hide paradise. agonizing death sent a sick thrill along his nerves. But in that part of his brain where fear was He forced the fear aside. With a spasmodic already vanquished, the straight-ahead course was effort of his brain, he analyzed his chances. Wil- instantly dismissed as unutterably the most dan- derness, their thoughts had said; and in their gerous. To his left was a clustered group of minds had been pictures of brush and trees. That unarmed workmen, milling in stunned panic at meant hiding places. Winter? That was harder the appearance of an animal as big as a grown to picture because there was only a sense of white lion, and terrifying in the alien, hideous power — — — — — —

THE SECOND SOLUTION 45

suggested by six claw-armed limbs. And to his aloneness in him. He must evade those dogs before right— he could hope to know even the remotest sense Like a charging demon, he plunged at the little of comfort and security—and there was only one line of men with guns who were drawn up at method by which he could do it properly. his right. Alert guns twisted toward him; and then were fumbled in horrible dismay as the Dogs followed trails; that meant they could desperate thought leaped through the minds of scent things as easily as he could. That meant the wielders that their fire would shear a burning the reservation headquarters must be approached path through the workmen to the left. upwind, if he ever hoped to kill those dogs—if he “You fools!” came McLennan’s wail of thought could ever find the place. from behind him. “Scatter—for your lives!” The planes had certainly gone in this direc- Too late! Hissing in astounded triumph at the tion completeness of this opportunity to kill these Planes! One diving leap and he was under murderous beings, he crashed into the group. cover as a great, silent plane swooped by over Blood sprayed before the raking ferocity of his his head; there was the briefest blur of a man’s claws, as if he had leaped into a pool of the warm, thought—Caleb Carson’s thought, the assistant of turgid red stuff. He had a wild, desperate impulse the mysterious Professor Jamieson; and then the to pause and crunch bodies with his teeth, but long, shining machine settled behind some trees there was no time. to his left. The village must be there. He was clear of them. The rearing bulk of He saw the buildings after a moment, consider- tattered ship, the harsh cacophony of screaming ably to the right of the plane. A dark machine fell away behind him; and he was running with a car—was pushing along from the village toward

every ounce of speed that all his six limbs could the plane . . . and he was upwind . . . and if he muster. could attack the dogs now, before that car brought A glare of flame from McLennan’s gun sizzled the man, Carson, back to the village, before the in the snow beside him. He dodged, twisted skill- men swarmed out to begin their hunt fully behind a thick section of shining, bent metal. With glowing, coal-dark eyes, he stared down The beam fought at the metal—and was through, at the ten dogs from his vantage point on the little spread reaching with incandescent violence above him as of hill. Ten . . . ten . . , ten . . .

he dived into a shallow arroyo. too many, many ; and they were chained in a bunch, A dark-bluish streak, he hurtled through a sleeping now in the snow, but they could all attack spread of bush, /whipped along for four hundred him at once. yards behind a shielding ledge of rock and snow There was a horrible, alien smell from them, but that extended roughly parallel to the ship. He it was good, oh, so good that they were on his halted on the rock lip of a valley that curved away side of a large outhouse, that the men were inside below him. There were trees there, and brush other buildings beyond; and that it would take and a jagged, rock-strewn land, bright with glaring —minutes—before they could come out with their snow, fading away into the brilliant white haze irresistible guns. He of distance. His thought scattered madly as he saw the car Incredibly, he was safe, untouched, unsinged push over a hill a quarter of a mile away, and and to his brain reached the outer fringe of the start along almost straight toward him. Caleb raging storm of thoughts from the men beyond Carson would be able to see his whole attack, and the great hind section of ship that hid them from even the snow that slowed the car wouldn’t hold his view: it more than two minutes—human time. “ —Parker, yours is the fastest plane; get these Two minutes ! Time limit added to all the other there’s things men to the reservation hospital ; death here that were against him. Fury pierced him. if we don’t hurry. Kelly, what about those dogs?” These merciless human beings with their killer “The superintendent says he can get ten. They’ll animals. At least they had had to fly the dogs in; have to be flown in, and that’ll take about an hour.” and they’d be harder to replace. He’d have time “Good! We’ll all fly to the reservation, and get to lose himself in these miles of forest and moun- started the moment this Caleb Carson arrives. tains, and With those dogs to do our hunting, a couple of The first dog saw him.' He caught the startled hours’ start won’t do that thing any good.” thought as it lunged to its feet, heard its sharp The ezwal slid under spreading bush as the warning yelp, and felt the blackness snap into its planes soared into the sky. The picture of the brain as he dealt it one crushing blow. dogs was not clear, yet the very blur of it brought He whirled; and his jaws swung beautifully a chill. A slave animal that murdered for its into the path of the dog that was charging at his killer masters. neck. Teeth that could already dent metal clicked He spat with sudden, flaring hate that only par- in one ferocious, stabbing bite. tially overcame the sudden, enormous sense of Blood gushed into his mouth, stingingly, bit- — 1 ;;: : —! ” ”

46 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

terly unpleasant to his taste. He spat it out with ferocious beasts. We knew that if they ever sus- a thin snarl as eight shrieking dogs leaped at pected our intelligence, they would declare what him. He met the first with a claw-armored fore- they call war on us, and waste all their wealth hand upraised. and millions of lives to destroy us—and now, The wolfish jaws, slashed at the blue-dark, de- someone does suspect it. If that knowledge lives, scending arm, ravenous to tear it to bits. But in our race dies!” an incredibly swift way, the hand avoided the Someone does suspect! Here in this man Carson reaching teeth and caught at the neck. And then, was that someone, the most dangerous man in all fingers like biting metal clamps gripped deep into the world. the shoulders; and the dog was flung like a shot The ezwal shivered involuntarily. It had not from a gun to the end of its chain. been his intention to remain near this dangerous The chain snapped from the frightful force, camp an instant after the dogs were neutralized. and the dog slid along in the snow and lay still, But now broken-necked. It was terribly obvious that he must act, no matter what the risk. Caleb Carson must be killed The ezwal reared around for an Irresistible —at once plunge at the others—and stopped. The dogs were surging away from him, fear thoughts in their “I can’t understand those dogs not following minds. He saw that they had caught his unnatural that trail!” McLennan’s thought came dimly, scent for the first time in that one wild rush, and complainingly, from inside the house. “On Car- now son’s Planet, they use dogs all the time.” He stood there, quivering with uncertainty. “Only dogs that were born there!” came the Poised there, exploring the meaning of the madly unemotional reply. And it was the calmness of racing thought forms in the brains of the dogs. the mind behind the thought that sent a quiver of Crouched there while the engine of the motor car hatred through the ezwal, where it crouched under became a soft, close throb, while a veritable fury the little berry bush beside the house of the forest- of men’s thoughts approached swiftly. reserve superintendent. Seven dogs left—and all scared to death of him. The superlative confidence of this man brought Scornfully, swiftly, he turned; and with a wild strange fear, unnatural rage. Carson went on dismay saw that the car had stopped less than curtly fifty feet distant, that there was only one man in “That much I gathered for certain from Profes-

it. The other man must have stayed behind to sor Jamieson’s documents. The rest is merely my watch the plane. own deduction, based on my special studies of The human being, Caleb Carson, sat in the open my grandfather’s explorations. When Blake Car- long, ugly, shining son first landed on the planet, the ezwals made door of the car ; and he held a no gun. It pointed at him, straight and unwavering attempt to harm him. It was not until after the and then—incredible fact—a thought came from colonists began to arrive that the creatures turned the cool brain behind the weapon; a thought so immeasurably murderous. directed at him "Mind you, I didn’t see the truth on my own. “See,” it said, “see! I can kill you before you It was only when I heard yesterday that Professor

rifle; three . . . . . can get to safety. This is an express-flame Jamieson was four— now . days over- and it can blow a crater where you’re standing. due at the Eristan I base I can kill you—but I won’t. "Eh! Jamieson missing?” “Think that over with your best thought. And “Sounds serious, too. Some Rull warships are remember this, even though you escape now, in in the vicinity, and of course no spaceship is big future you live or die as I will it. Without my enough to carry the Lixon Communicators that help you cannot get away; and my price is high. make the interstellar telephone possible; so he Now, before the others come—get!” couldn’t send a warning, unless he was reasonably He plunged over the hill, a startled, amazed, near some—point of transmission. Apparently, he wondering, dismayed six-legged monstrosity. wasn’t; so Minutes later, he remembered that those dogs Carson paused; then: "Anyway, I thought his would not dare to pursue him. He sprawled to documents might show that he had taken a side a sliding stop in the snow. trip. And it was in going through them that I jangled emotions straightened found, no suggestion for a side trip, but my first His brain cooled ; and what had happened began to fit into a coherent glimpse of the truth. Everything is as vague piece. Time and again on that trip through space, as possible, but by putting his notes beside my own his mother had told him: knowledge, it adds up.” “Man will only accept defeat from one source It was all there, the ezwal saw, in Carson’s mind. blind, natural forces. Because we wanted them to Whether the man called it conjecture, or believed leave our land alone we pretended to be senseless, it fully, here was what his mother had feared. — ”: ” —

THE SECOND SOLUTION 47

Basically, this man knew everything. And if what in the next room, and I overheard ... I tell you, they were saying about the master mind, Professor sir!” he blazed at Caleb Carson, “Commander Jamieson, being missing meant what it could mean, McLennan is right. While you were talking, I then in this house was the only remaining person was thinking of the dozens of men I’ve met on in the world with the knowledge. various trips to Carson’s Planet who’ve simply talk about it, we younger And he was telling it. Both men therefore vanished.— We used to must officers The ezwal’s thought scattered as McLennan’s “There’s no use quibbling,” said McLennan mind projected a surprisingly cold, unfriendly sharply. “It’s an axiom of the service that the thought man in the field knows best. Unless he deliber- “I hope I’m wrong in what I’m beginning to ately surrenders his power, or unless he receives suspect. Let me tell you that I’ve been to Carson’s a direct order from the commander in chief, he Planet half a dozen times. The situation there is can retain his command regardless of the arrival so bad that no stay-at-home studying documentary meanwhile of superior officers.” evidence could begin to comprehend the reality. “I shall have the order in an hour!” said Carson Hundreds of thousands of people have been slaugh- bleakly. tered— “In an hour,” McLennan glowed triumphantly, “I won’t go into that,” said Carson curtly. “The “you won’t be able to find me. By the time you very number of the dead demands an intelligent do, the ezwal will be dead." and swift solution.” To the ezwal, the words brought an abrupt “You have not,” said McLennan softly, “visited rebirth of murder purpose, the first realization of Carson’s Planet yourself." the immense opportunity that offered here. Here, “No!” under this one roof, were the three men who must “You, the grandson of Blake Carson—” He be counted in both the immediate and remote sense broke off scathingly: “It’s the old story, I see, of as the most dangerous of humans to himself and subsequent generations sponging off the fame of his kind. the great man.” There was a door just around the corner. If “There’s no point in calling names.” The he could solve its mechanism—to kill them all younger man was calm. would be the swift, satisfying solution to his McLennan’s thought was harsh: “Does this various problems. this truth you say you deduced include keeping Boldly, he glided from his hiding place. cub ezwal alive?” it your duty to “Certainly; is my duty and In the hallway, the first stinging sense of per- when deliver the young one to Professor Jamieson sonal danger came. He crouched tensely at the and if he returns.” foot of the stairs, dismayingly conscious that to time “I suppose you realize that it may be some go up after the men would leave his way to escape is captured, and that meanwhile before this beast horribly unguarded. And if he were trapped up ' it will become a killer." there after killing them “Because of the danger from the encroaching A clatter of dishes from the kitchen distracted Rull enemy of man,” replied Carson with abrupt him. He suppressed the swift and burning impulse chillness that matched McLennan’s steel hardness, to go in and smash the woman who was there. “because of the importance of finding some answer Slowly, he started up the stairs, his purpose cold to the ezwal problem, high government policy re- and unyielding, but his mind clinging now with quires that all necessary risks be taken.” fascinated intensity to the thoughts that came from “Damn government policy!” snarled McLennan. the men. “My opinion of a government that appoints fact- “—Those things read minds!” McLennan was finding commissions at this late date couldn’t be scoffing. He seemed quite prepared to go on talk- properly put into words. A war of systematic ing. There was certain equipment he was waiting extermination must be declared at once—that’s the for, and every word spoken would delay Carson solution—and we’ll begin with this scoundrelly so much longer from radioing for that vital order. little cub.” “Professor Jamieson must be crazy.” “That goes double for me!” A harsh thought from a third mind burst forth. “I thought,” Carling cut in, loyally backing his commander, “that scientists worked by evidence.” “Carling!" McLennan exclaimed. “Man, get back “Sometimes,” said McLennan, “they get an into bed." hypothesis, and regardless of whether half the result of their “I’m all right!” the young first officer of the world is dying as a theory, they go smashed warship replied fiercely. “That freak on trying to prove it.”

accident that happened to me when we landed . . . There was an acrid impatience in Carson’s but never mind that. I was lying on the couch thoughts:, “I don’t say that is Professor Jamie- — — — — — —

48 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION son’s opinion. I merely drew that conclusion from The wreck spread before him, a sprawling, a number of notes he made, particularly one which skeleton structure, a vast waste of metal. No was in the form of a question: ‘Can civilization sounds, no thought-blurs of life reached out to exist without cities, farms, science, and what form where he lay vibrantly quiescent, probing with his of communication would be the indispensable mind, listening with his ears. One long, tense, minimum?’ straining moment; and then he was leaping for- “Besides”—his mind was narrowed, the intention ward, racing into the shelter of the deserted, shat- to be persuasive strong inside him—“while the tered hulk. % existence of intelligence in the ezwal would be Somewhere here was the food that had been wonderful, its absence would not constitute a brought along for his mother, enough to keep him, reason for any of us to nullify Professor Jamie- if he could hide it, until son’s plans for keeping this young ezwal alive.” He dared not quite think of what must follow

He broke off : “In any event, there’s no neces- if he really hoped to save his life. There was a sity for you to go after him. He’ll starve to death plane to steal, to operate, a million facts to learn in three weeks on Earth food. It’s practically about this alien civilization, and finally a space- poison, utterly indigestible to him.” ship Outside the door, the creature quivered with He saw the shadow of the airplane sweep across shock. Swift memory came of how bitterly un- the snow to his right—and froze to the ground pleasant the dog’s blood had tasted. He cringed; in one instinctive jerk of interlocking muscles. then flaring rage struck through him. At least His brain jangled so horribly it was like a dis- he could kill these men who had brought such cordant blare of noise. His thoughts disintegrated dreadful fate upon him, and there was just a into one all-powerful half-thought, half-mind- chance that wrecking emotion: With an effort he suppressed the leaping hope He must appear to be another piece of jetsam, that surged, memory of at least one place where one more shattered box, or chunk of metal. He food was plentiful. McLennan was saying: “You needn’t try to hidel” came the acrid, "Men have eaten ezwals.” directed thought of Caleb Carson. “I knew you’d “Ah, yes, but they have to treat the meat with come up here. Even a full-grown ezwal might chemicals to render it digestible.” have taken the risk. A young one being simple and honest needed only the hint. Well, your hour "I’m sick of this,” McLennan snapped abruptly. of decision has come.” "I can see it’s no use arguing. So I’m just going Snarling, he watched the plane circle, down, to tell you what I’ve done, and what I’m going down, till it hovered less than a hundred feet to do. A couple of dozen flivver planes will be above the ground. In abrupt despair of rage, he arriving in about fifteen minutes. We’ll scout reared up toward it like a man on his hind legs, every inch of the country this afternoon; and you reached up horribly with his forearms, as if he can’t tell me five hundred pounds of dark-blue would somehow stretch up to the plane and smash ezwal can remain hidden, especially as the thing it down beside him. The cold thought came: won’t know— What the devil are you pointing “That’s right! Stand up and be as much of a that gun at the door for?” man physically as you can. You’re going to learn Caleb Carson’s frigid, steel-hard thoughts came to be a man mentally, or die. out to the ezwal: “Because just before you came “Know that I have just told McLennan that in I saw the ezwal sneaking through the brush. you’re here, and what I expect will happen. He I was sort of expecting him, but I never thought thinks I’m a fool; and he and Carling will be here he’d come into the house till I heard claws rattle in five minutes. a few seconds ago. I wouldn’t—advise—him—to “Think of that: five minutes! Five minutes to come—in. Hear that you!” change your whole attitude toward life. I’m not One terrible instant, the ezwal froze then, with ; going to try to pretend that this is a fair choice. a rasp of hatred, he launched himself at the stairs. Men are not angels, but I must know . . . men Out the door, and then off through the brush, must know about ezwal intelligence. We are fight- darting, twisting, to evade the flame that poured ing a destroyer race called the Rulls; and we must out the second-floor window from McLennan’s have Carson’s Planet in some form as an advance pistol. base against those damnable white worms. On and on he ran, harder, faster, until he was “Remember this, too, it will do you no good to a great, leaping thing under the trees, over the die a martyr. Now that the idea has come of snow, an incredible, galloping monster—on and on. ezwals possibly having intelligence, we’ll start a Of all his purposes, the only one that remained propaganda campaign along those lines. Every- after his failure to kill, was: He must save his where on Carson’s Planet men, weary of fighting own life. He must have food. And there would what they think is a natural force, will brace up be no food unless with that curious military morale that human ; :

THE SECOND SOLUTION 49

beings can muster in the face of intelligent “I’m taking this terrible chance because every- enemies. thing you’ve done so far seems to show that you “If you yield. I’ll teach you everything that have intelligence, and that you’ve understood my man knows. You’ll be the first ezwal scientist. thoughts. But we can’t take off; McLennan’s If you can read minds, you’ll know that I’m sin- burned the tail struts. That means we’ve got to cere in every word.” have finally clinching proof. I’m going to open He was trapped. The knowledge beat at him, this door that leads away from them. You can a tearing mixture of fear and—something else! kill me and, with luck, escape—if you hurry. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust this man’s words; “The alternative is to stretch yourself here be- it was the sheer tremendousness of the decision. tween my legs, and face them when they come.” “The proof of your choice,” the cold thought With a shuddering movement the ezwal edged penetrated to him, “will be simplicity itself. In forward and stiffly settled down on his long belly. one minute I shall land my plane. It is all-metal He was only vaguely aware of the cursing wonder construction, divided into two compartments. You of McLennan. cannot possibly smash into my section and kill me. He was suddenly feeling very young and very “But the door of your section will be open. important and very humble. For there had come

enter it . . When you will close tight and . good to him the first glimpse of the greatness that was Lord, here comes McLennan!” to be his in the world of ezwals, in that world of The big plane almost fell to the ground, so fast titanic construction, the beginning of dynamic did Carson bring it down. It drew up in a spread new civilization. of clearing a hundred feet away. A door yawned and the scientist’s urgent thought came: There was silence among us, as the big man !” “Make up your mind finished. Finally, somebody said critically: “This grandson of the discoverer of Carson’s And still he stood, taut in every nerve. He saw Planet seems a pretty cold-blooded sort of chap.” great cities, ships, space liners, with ezwals in Somebody else said : “Caleb Carson didn’t know command. Then he thought of what his mother that the number of dead on Carson’s Planet was had told him and that was abruptly like an im- actually thirty million, the morale situation pro- measurable pain. portionately more dangerous. He would never have “Quick!” came Carson’s thought. had a real sense of urgency. His solution would have Flame seared down where he had been; and been too late.” “The point is,” there was no time to think, no time for anything said the small thin chap sharply but with satisfaction, but to take the initial chance. The flame missed “there’s always somebody else who, for various him again, as he twisted in his swift run; this reasons, has special insight into a problem. The time it reached deliberately ahead across the tail accumulated thought on Car- son’s of Carson’s ship. Planet by its discoverer’s grandson is what made it possible for him to read between the He caught the deliberateness of that act in rather sketchy lines of Professor Jamieson’s McLennan ’s mind; and then he was inside the now notes." unusable machine. The other plane landed. Two Somebody said : “Why didn’t we hear men with guns raced toward him. about this second solution at the time?” He snarled hideously, as he caught their murder The sharp voice snapped: “That’s obvious. It intention, and half turned to take his chances was the very next day that Professor Jamieson’s outside. The door clicked shut metallically in own experiences and fuller solution captured all his teeth. Trapped. the headlines. Incidentally, I read last week that Or was he? Another door opened. He roared a new co-ordinator has been appointed for Car- as he leaped into the compartment where the man son’s Planet. His name is Caleb Carson.” sat. His whole mind shook with this final, unex- We grew aware of the big man standing up, just pected opportunity to kijl this man, as his mother as a boy came over to him. The boy said had charged him to do. “Commander McLennan, your ship is calling It was the steadiness of the other’s thought that you. You can take the message in the lounge, sir.” held him stiff, suppressed the deadly impulse to We all stared as the giant headed briskly for strike one mighty blow. Caleb Carson said the lounge-room door. A minute later the argu- huskily: ment was waxing as hotly as ever. THE END. — —

so THE PARIS GUN

By Willy Ley

• Super artillery, both super-size and super-range, has been tried. Sometimes, for special occasions, itjworks. Here's the story of one

famous super that didn't prove out — the Paris Gun, of World War I. It was not, incidentally, the Big Bertha — that was a different, and suc- cessful, thing, a super-size howitzer of short range but terrific impact

Illustrated by E. O. Mondorf

It was the 23rd of March, 1918, in France. might wreck the nerves of the Allies, or cause a The front lines were alive with the thunder of revolution. If nothing else, the presence of these barrage and counterbarrage, the rattle of machine guns and the news of their long-distance activity guns and the crash of hand grenades, the bright, would improve the morale of the German soldiers. sharp crashes of the Allied “pineapples” and the After the war, German socialists often said that more resounding hard noises of the German this battery was mainly a “shot in the arm” for "potato mashers.” The German offensive had the tired German army. started viciously a few days before that date. All these possibilities, so pleasant for the Ger- The British Fifth Army was in a desperate posi- man General Staff to contemplate, hinged upon tion and beginning to retreat reluctantly. Its lines two factors. One was that the shells would cover were worn to the danger point and the Germans, the distance of one hundred twenty kilometers having most of their troops from the East avail- but two of the greatest ballistic experts of all able, pressed on with utter disregard of losses. times, Professors Rausenberger and von Eber- The Germans also knew that they had to win that hardt vouched for that. The other was that the offensive or lose the war. The Allies, on the "Paris Battery” would be able to fire for some other hand, knew that American troops would length of time, in other words, that it would not finally save their fate—if they could hold out be discovered, at least not quickly. This was to until enough Americans arrived. be assured by a special organization. Only one sector seemed fairly quiet by com- At four o’clock in the morning thirty heavy parison—the portion of the lines near Laon. But German batteries, grouped around the forest of it was just in this sector where a new and special Crepy, began to get ready for simultaneous shoot- kind of warfare started. At four o’clock in the ing with the hidden battery, or rather one gun of morning an organization woke up somewhere be- the hidden battery. Ninety heavy shells were ready hind the German lines. It was a very thorough to be fed into ninety breeches. They were to strike organization. at targets in and behind the Allied lines, while the There was a battery of guns hidden in the ninety-first shell traveled through the stratosphere forest of Crepy behind the German lines, not in the direction of Paris. Fired simultaneously, the quite eighty miles from Paris. It was a small sound detector units of the Allies would have a battery of guns, designed to shell the French hard time untangling the sound and ground vibra- capital from this enormous distance. tions of ninety-one heavy guns in order to find the The Germans had many hopes attached to these location of one of them. guns. One of their two-hundred-sixty-pound One hour later ten field airdromes made ready. shells might crash into an important section of the Their planes were to prevent Allied aircraft from French War Ministry. It might destroy important reconnoitering. The order read: “At any cost.” records, or kill important people. Or one of the Possibly it would not cost too much for this shells might fall into a railroad yard and blow particular day because there was a sufficiently up a shipload of American munitions. Or it heavy morning mist to warrant poor visibility. might blow up a French ammunition plant in or Four reserve companies were ready to repulse a near Paris. Continuous hammering from these possible surprise attack. The line of trenches guns—provided they remained undiscovered itself had been reinforced and had strict orders to 51

The Paris Gun—above, in Bring position with bracing to eliminate or reduce barrel sag. Below, being loaded. t 52 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

be as watchful as possible. The minor command- The first shell ever to be shot over a distance ers spent their spare minutes pondering the reason of about eighty miles left the muzzle of its for all this commotion under strictest secrecy. A 120-foot barrel at exactly seven nine a. m. on field weather bureau prepared a sounding balloon March 23, 1918. The gigantic barrel shook and

and compiled weather reports for the points west quivered behind it. If a test gun of the same of the forest, as far as they were able to obtain kind had not behaved the same way on the ar- them. tillery range at Meppen, the experts would have At six o’clock there was no mist any more over feared that it might break into pieces. When the the forest of Crepy. Therefore forty airplanes huge cloud of orange-red smoke began to dissi- took to the air. In a deep concrete dugout near pate the Paris shell entered the stratosphere, forg- the position of the Paris Battery there was an ing ahead with an average velocity of five thou- assembly of officers of high rank, all of them sand feet per second. It found little air resistance listening very attentively to the utterances of two in the stratosphere, which is what made the ex- civilians, Professors Rausenberger and von Eber- treme range possible. When the other ninety hardt. Both were held in high esteem by the shells had already crashed down on their targets ordnance department. Professor Rausenberger and exploded, the Paris shell was still climbing. had been the designer of the gun “Y”—or, as the The barrel of the Paris Gun needed not quite Germans pronounce that letter, Ypsilon—the ultra- two minutes to quiet down. By that time the shell heavy 420-mm. howitzer whose shells had smashed passed the peak of its trajectory, some forty miles the fortifications of Li&ge during the first days of from the muzzle and about thirty miles above the the war. That was the gun nicknamed “Big ground. It needed, according to the latest calcula- Bertha.” Professor von Eberhardt, on the other tions, one hundred ninety-nine seconds to arrive hand, was the discoverer of “stratosphere shoot- at No. 6, Quai de la Seine, Paris. ing,” which method had made this new monster Being not a very heavy shell—weighing some gun possible. The new gun, the one that was to two hundred sixty pounds and having a caliber of shell Paris, was officially named Kaiser Wilhelm about eight inches but a comparatively small high- Geschutz—Kaiser Wilhelm Gun—but was usually explosive charge because of the extreme thickness referred to as the Paris Gun. It bore no more of its walls—it did not cause damage that would resemblance to the original Big Bertha than does be mentioned in a present-day report of bombing. a hippopotamus to a giraffe. Even theoretically The second shell arrived at about seven forty the two guns were as unlike as possible. It is one a. m., falling about one and a half miles from the of the minor mysteries of history why some peo- Quai de la Seine on the Boulevard de Strasbourg, ple insist in calling the Paris Gun “Big Bertha.” n4ar the Gare de l’Est, just a hundred feet from Around six. thirty a. m. the last reports came in. the entrance to the Metro—the Paris subway. It To the majority of men who saw them they were killed eight people, wounding thirteen more. Shell useless data concerning density, pressure and No. 3 arrived at eight five a. m., exploding inside humidity of the air at various altitudes. To von an unoccupied building in the Rue de Chateau- Eberhardt and Rausenberger these figures were Landon near the Gare du Nord. Shell No. 4 ar- factors in the formula for the probable air re- rived at eight seventeen a. m., striking at No. 15 sistance the projectiles of the gun would encoun- Rue Charles V, killing one man. ter. Tables were consulted, slide rules pushed. The bombardment continued at fifteen-minute The result was telephoned to the officer in charge intervals, the shells striking in an irregular pat- of the powder magazine. Three hundred and so tern around the geographical center of Paris, each and so many pounds of powder were required for shell about two miles from the point -demolished the first round. The driving charge looked like by the preceding shell. There were no duds, the long, fat macaroni, packed in silken bags. To- designers had seen to that by providing each shell gether the charge was taller than the tallest can- with two compartments for high-explosive charges noneer in the crew. The powder had a specified and each charge with a separate fuse, but having temperature, the dugout housing contained devices both compartments connected so that the explosion for heating and cooling so that the air in the of one would explode the other. Just the same, the magazine could be kept at the precise tempera- French military authorities needed only a short ture. time to decide the question the Germans had hoped “1” A long shell bearing the number was hoisted would puzzle them for weeks, whether the frag- into the breech. The communications officer made ments were shell or bomb fragments. And while sure that the other ninety guns were loaded, too. the public was still believing in airplane bombs Then he telephoned GHQ, stating that the lange of some sort and while newspaper commentators 22.2-centimeter Kanone—the official designation, were advancing the hypothesis that the Germans “the long 222-mm. cannon—was ready to fire. had transported a heavy gun piecemeal by air to At seven five a. m. GHQ answered with only one a forest close to Paris or else that they were firing word: “Fire!" a loaded gun barrel which discharged itself in — —

THE PARIS GUN 53 the air, the ordnance experts knew that the bom- ballistic experts of the Allies could'not be fooled bardment was accomplished by a long-range gun in so simple a matter. And they noted another and that the whole secret of the long range was thing, too : The average range of the shells, com- a muzzle velocity of such magnitude that it had puted from point 47 :23, had been 74.2 miles on hitherto been thought impossible of achievement. Saturday, the average range of Sunday was 71.8 Actually the muzzle velocity of the Paris Gun miles. The gun was beginning to show signs of was about one mile per second and it is now well wear. known how it was done. All heavy guns wear very quickly gunnery out ; But to go on with the story itself. officers keep careful count of the number of rounds fired for this reason. And when the number of Shells continued to fall all morning on Satur- rounds for a heavy gun approaches the two- day, the 23rd of March, 1918. One struck the Rue hundred mark, they begin to get nervous. The Frangis Miron, another the Rue de St. Cloud, Paris Gun was virtually worn out after Round Gardens, one one fell south of the Luxembourg No. 50—it is now known that it was supposed to Place in the gardens of the Tuileries, one on the stand sixty rounds, but did not quite make it. de la R4publique that one killed two people and — The first shell of Monday morning arrived at wounded nine and one on the Avenue Jean — six thirty a. m., the second at seven a. m. It killed the Paris Gun had Jaur&s. Shortly after noon one and wounded another Parisian. Then there fired dozen rounds, killing sixteen people and two was silence. Nor were there any shells on Tues- twenty-nine. wounding day, Wednesday and Thursday. By that time the military authorities had done The reason, then guessed by some Allied ob- their utmost in searching for the gun. The disper- servers, was that Gun No. 1 was worn out. Gun sion of the shells indicated a line of flight which No. 2 was, apparently not in position or at any cut the front lines near Laon. The massing of event not ready to be fired and Gun No. 3, which heavy German batteries near the forest of Cr6py had lobbed three shells on Sunday, had exploded. was suspicious, but it could have to do with the It exploded when its fourth or fifth round was to German offensive. Sound-ranging did not yield be fired, wiping out all but a very few of its crew. useful results, just as the Germans had planned. But the files of aerial routine pictures showed the To explain this occurrence the construction of curves of two railroad tracks leading into the the Paris Gun has to be explained. As I stated forest of Crepy. The picture had been taken earlier, the range of the gun was attained mainly March 6th, so it seemed likely that these were by way of a high muzzle velocity, combined with the railroad tracks used to transport material for Professor von Eberhardt’s method of stratosphere the position of the gun and the gun itself. shooting. On the map the end of one of the tracks coin- That method utilized the fact that the density cided with point 47 :23. Several 12-inch and 1354- inch railroad guns were brought into position and of the atmosphere diminishes rapidly above, say, three miles. It is obvious that a gun pointing were ordered to fire at that point—they opened slightly upward can shoot farther than a fire thirty hours after the first shell from the gun Paris Gun had landed on the Quai de la Seine. firing perfectly horizontal. In fact the range for the same gun, the same projectile and the The first shell of the second day, Palm Sunday, same propelling charge increases with the increase in arrived at six fifty a. m., killing one and wounding — elevation of the barrel fourteen in the Rue de Meaux. The second shell, —up to an optimal angle. If the barrel is still more elevated above nine minutes later, fell on the Rue Julien Lacroix, that an- gle, the range decreases again. almost in front of the church Notre Dame de la The optimum, as elementary calculation shows, is forty-five Croix. It exploded in the midst of the crowd an de- grees, half of right angle. going to early mass, killing two and wounding a But Professor von Eberhardt found, partly theoretically, eighty. Two more shells fell far outside the city, partly by experiment, that that does not hold true for but the others—again about two dozen in all guns with normally long range. angle slightly hit the city proper. This time the intervals varied a An steeper than forty-five degrees greatly, the longest was fifty-three minutes, the tends to shorten the air resistance shortest one minute. There was also one two- the range, but lessening encoun- minute and one five-minute interval that day, tered along the greater part of the trajectory tends evidently the Germans were using two guns, since to lengthen the range. Lessening air resistance to be influential for one gun of such dimensions could at best fire proves more and long-range guns the optimal angle is, therefore, above forty- six rounds per hour. For some curious reason of degrees. their own the Germans deny to this day that more five than one gun was in operation—or even in ex- In the case of the Paris Gun it was fifty-seven istence—at any time, but the shell fragments prove degrees; the gun was built to fire at that elevation that they were fired from different barrels. The only. The range then depended only on the muz- 54 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION zle velocity which, in turn, depends on the in- of the crew were killed by splinters from shells ternal pressure in the gun barrel. This could be bursting nearby. made to conform to necessity by means of varying the powder charge, something that was necessary The shelling of Paris was resumed on Friday also because a hot gun performs different from a afternoon, Good Friday of 1918. The first shell cold one. To judge the performance of the gun, from the new gun dropped at three thirty p. m. a small pressure gauge was inserted into the in Montrouge, outside the city proper. It was the powder chamber; it consisted essentially of a cop- first of four rouqds that were fired that day. The per pellet that was deformed by the pressure. If second shell fell at three fifty-five in Chatillon, the deformation was great enough, the gunners also outside the city limits. So did the fourth knew that the shell had had enough muzzle ve- shell at five forty-five; the new gun was over- locity to reach Paris. shooting most of the time. While Rounds 1, 2 and But even a large powder charge needs time to 4 did no harm at all, Round 3 was catastrophically act. For this reason, the Paris Gun’s barrel effective. It hit the Church of St. Gervais during was so enormously long, one hundred fifty times the afternoon services, smashing through the roof. the diameter of the bore. (Normal guns are only Even if the shell had buried itself in the floor of fifty times as long as their bore or caliber.) It was the church and exploded there, the loss of life pieced together, the barrel of a 380-mm. coast would not have been very large—but it hit a vital defense gun formed the outer cover. A rifled supporting pillar and the roof collapsed; eighty- 210-mm. barrel was put inside that outer barrel eight dead bodies were recovered from the debris and the inner barrel was lengthened by another and sixty-eight people were treated for injuries. long 210-mm. barrel. Probably many more, who received only slight The spiral grooves of the rifled inner barrel injuries, went home without being counted. cause the spinning motion of the projectile which Meanwhile the German offensive had been suc- prevents tumbling while in flight. But in a too- cessful and a new position for the Paris Battery long barrel the rifling can cause trouble. For this was prepared in the Bois de Corbie, not far from reason a long section of the muzzle end of the Amiens. Some time later in April the Germans attached barrel wasn’t rifled. It amounted to a full moved the undercarriage of the gun. There was no quarter of the total length. Such a long barrel need to move the barrel, they had worn out two would not remain straight, of course ; it was there- more in the meantime. The one firing the Good fore provided with a bridgelike girder construc- Friday shells fired a last single shot on April 7th, tion which supported its weight and kept it its forty-eighth round. Six of these forty-eight straight. But we are not through with the rifling shells had fallen considerably short; the barrel question yet. Slowly the rifling gets spoiled, had not stood up well. Another barrel had lasted partly because the copper driving bands of the for sixty-four rounds, beginning April 11th with shell leave copper fragments behind, partly be- six rounds. There was no doubt that the explo- cause the steel itself becomes mildly viscous un- sion of Gun No. 3 had thrown the Germans off der the enormous pressures that prevail during the schedule. They had to save barrels and fired instant of firing. To keep such wear to a minimum only a few rounds each day, a few in the morn- the shells were grooved beforehand—even so the ing and a few in the evening, during the time that barrel widened slightly with each round. For this would be called the rush hours in New York. reason each shell was slightly larger than the When the position in the forest of Cr6py wa3 preceding one. They were numbered and had to be evacuated, one hundred eighty-three rounds had fired in proper sequence. been fired. The damage done was almost negligi- It seems that the shell loaded into the breech ble, the loss of life in Paris was slight—but people of Gun No. 3 after the third round was not Shell then did not have the present-day attitude, half a No. 4 for that gun. Nobody can tell, or ever could, million Parisians had left the city, causing the whether the shell bore the wrong number, whether authorities much worry about the transportation a wrong number was loaded or whether the grooves problems they created by their hasty evacuation. in the barrel and the grooves on the shell were The French railroad battery at Vailly kept not matched by mistake. The first or second pounding the forest of Crepy until May 27, 1918. possibilities are the likely ones, the third would The Allies did not know that the Germans had not have happened to a well-trained crew which evacuated the position, they probably thought knew what it was doing. that their fire had put the guns out of commission At any event there was no Paris Gun for a and they maintained the fire to prevent repairs. few days, but the Germans managed to install a On May 27th the Germans suddenly advanced in new barrel on Gun No. 1 although they were under the Laon sector, burying the Vailly batteries under heavy Allied fire. The Germans later estimated so much gas and high-explosive that the gunners that the position received five thousand heavy could not withdraw their guns, but had to destroy shells; none hit the gun itself, though members their precious heavy pieces themselves, lest they —

THE PARIS GUN 55

fall into German, hands. On the same day the The German command made a few half-hearted Paris Gun fired fifteen rounds into Paris from its attempts to use the gun again—fact is that it new position in the forest of Corbie. The total stayed dismantled. It would have been possible toll was four dead and twenty wounded, the first to bring it back to Cr6py, but there were only re- three or four rounds carried too far. The barrels bored barrels available, which did not have the full had been re-bored, which brought their caliber to eighty-mile range. It was finally brought back to 9.1 inches and the weight of each shell to two the Krupp Works and destroyed. hundred seventy-three pounds. But the re-bored gun did not have the full eighty-mile range. The design and the construction of the Paris This time the Allies needed several days to find Gun was an experiment that was and still is most the position. There was such confusion in the interesting from a scientific point of view. An front lines that systematic work was temporarily examination, even a simple recounting of the impossible. As soon as the gun’s position had been difficulties encountered by the designers; teaches approximately located, several 340-mm. railroad more about the principles and troubles of ballistics guns were brought into position and began to than a ponderous theoretical dissertation. All the shell the forest of Corbie. Their heavy shells hit minor factors, like the “drooping” of the muzzle close to the actual position of the gun, but not of a long gun, the rotation of the Earth while the close enough to damage it or harm its crew. shell is in flight, the difference between the cur- Then French aviators managed to photograph vature of the actual surface of the Earth and the the forest from the air and to return with the plane surface always assumed in calculations, the pictures. One of them showed a railroad track influence of the temperature of the propelling and something that looked like a very long gun. charge—and the consequent “hot-gun correction” Of course it was camouflaged, but trained eyes —and, most important of all, the influence of could distinguish it from its surroundings. The diminishing air resistance at high altitudes—all counter battery opened fire—and the Germans felt these minor factors grew into major factors by the elated about it. What they had permitted to be very exaggeration of that gun. The difference photographed from the air was a fake position, between “plane surface” and actual surface, for especially constructed for this purpose. They example, amounted to half a mile. Astronomers had photographed it from the air themselves to had to be called in to compute the influence of ascertain just how deceptive it was. A few days the rotation of the Earth and the so-called later the 340-mm. guns had to be withdrawn; again equator-ward deflection. They even calculated, the German advance was still successful and the it is reported, whether the influence of the attrac- Allies did not want to see a repetition of the fate tion of the Moon on the shell, while it was in ‘of the Vailly batteries. The Paris Gun, which flight, would be large enough to need taking into always formed a nucleus for a separate war, was consideration. Incidentally, it wasn’t—but it was again moved closer to Paris. Finally it had to a question that had to be checked. bridge a distance of “only” fifty-six miles. For these reasons, purely scientific and theoreti- But then the tide turned. The German offen- cal, the Paris Gun experiment is still interesting. sive was stopped, the German armies were thrown From the military point of view it was almost back. The Allies almost captured the Paris Gun, worthless, save for the initial surprise effect which then, but, somehow, the gunners managed to get did not warrant the expense of the guns, estimated the one hundred fifty-four tons of gun and the at fifteen million dollars. The shells could not be twenty-six tons of cradle out of a dangerous very heavy, consequently they could not do much pocket, only a few hours before the weakening damage. A modern 660-pound dive-bomber bomb German lines collapsed. At one of its former has more effect, not as much power of penetration, positions the gun was assembled again and fired but a much larger high-explosive charge. forty-seven rounds, during the interval from It can be said without hesitation that the ord- August 5th—7th. Then the barrel was worn out nance experts of any country could design such a it had stood sixty-one rounds—and the gun was gun nowadays and it would, in all probability, be dismantled. The German lines were pushed back less cumbersome than the original Paris Gun. But some more. its shells would probably be not much heavier, nor The shells fired on August 7th were the last. would it be possible to hit anything smaller than All in all the long-range guns had thrown three a city over a range exceeding fifty miles. Since hundred sixty-seven shells into Paris, one hundred even very haphazard bombing could achieve the two of them of the larger 9.1-inch caliber. The same result, at much less cost, at much longer total toll of life from the four shellings barely range and without the need for all the camouflag- exceeded the two-hundred-fifty mark. Not count- ing required to hide the battery, there is every ing the destruction of the church hit on Good reason to believe that the experiment will not be Friday no important damage had been done. repeated. THE END. —

56

ANACHRON, INC.

By Malcolm Jameson

• Anachron, Inc. were merchants, not missionaries. They were traders whose outposts and trading stations were established across time from

Egypt's glory to Modern America. But Barry's station was medieval France, and his goods were umbrellas and — miracles to order!

Illustrated by Orban

Six o’clock came and a squad of Civic Guards Their systematic devastation of culture centers came out and started breaking up the line. The and also the equally savage reprisal raids of the local placement bureau was closing for the day. United Nations—had left the world without an Ted Barry cursed wearily under his breath and art gallery, a museum, a college or school, church turned away. For the last hour he had been anx- or palace. The incidental destruction of most pri- iously watching the descending sun and counting vate homes had taken care of the pitiful little the men ahead. Fifty-four, fifty-three . . . forty household collections of pictures and books. Vir-

. . . thirty . . . now twenty-eight! That close, tually nothing remained. and it all had to be done over again. He had been Again Ted Barry cursed, but it was a thing that standing there since early dawn hoping against had to be accepted. He made his way into the hope that he would get in that day, but it was public chow hall and grabbed a tray and the nec- not to be. essary utensils. Then he made his way along the He walked down the street, thankful that he electric tables, picking out what he wanted to eat. could at least do that—not shuffle along in the Thank God, at least food was plentiful. Too dispirited fashion of his mates. For most of the plentiful. The unfillable maw of war had forced other men seeking occupation were still in uni- an unprecedented overproduction—to sweeten form as he himself, though his distinctive uni- the oceans with sunken sugar cargoes, to furnish form of a major of Commandos set him a cut fuel for the flaming warehouses smitten from the above the majority. Not that having been a major sky, as well as to feed the hungry billions who was much help—not even a Commando major; ex- fought, or tended the war production machines. majors were a dime a thousand. As he munched his food he thought gloomily He took the nearest cross street that was fairly over his life and the hard luck that was his in clear. The labor gangs were just knocking off being born at the particular time he was. Born for the day, and he saw that their job had been on the eve of what was then fatuously regarded as well done. The street was lined with gaping the greatest depression of all time, he had emerged ruins, but the rubble in it had all been carted from it only to be snatched into the vortex of away and the bomb craters neatly leveled off and the horrible War of Survival. And now, in the filled. Beyond he could see a block of buildings evil year 1956, he had been mustered out—two that had come through the war unscathed except years late, for, except for the final mopping up by for the loss of glass and the scarring of the lower the Commandos, the Axis had been crushed sev- walls by fragments. Directly facing them the eral years before—only to find himself in a de- walls of the elaborate new Museum of Art were pression that might better be described as a bot- rising—one of the many projects of made work tomless pit. Literally thousands of square miles instituted by the Commonwealth of America to of useless war plants existed, tooled for planes, take up the slack of unemployment. It was that tanks, ships and guns; aluminum, now made by that he hoped to be assigned to, yet he wondered a cheap process from common clay, was a drug bitterly what was the good of it all. What would on the market at ten dollars a ton. Except for they fill it with when it was done? For there certain selected industries, such as textiles, staple was no more art. The savage Kultur raids of the foods, petroleum and the like, equally swollen, mid-forties, unleashed by the frantic successors every other kind of plant had long since been con- of the suicide madman Hitler, had seen to that. verted to war uses or else fed into the insatiable —

57

steel furnaces as scrap. Not many had been re- something. So, to avoid a scene, Barry mumbled habilitated. Coupled with the imbalance of pro- something and pocketed the paper without look- duction was the existence of hordes of demobilized ing at it. Then he deposited his penny at the soldiery and discharged workers. The outlook desk and made for the door. A receptacle for was gloomy, despite the vigorous efforts of the trash was near it, and his eye caught sight of a various commonwealths of the Federated States of complete newspaper tossed in on top the other the World. rubbish. Its title was not alluring—The Weekly Barry rose, reached into his pocket for the Financial Digest—but at least it was reading mat- penny that was the nominal price of the meal ter, and anything to read in the dreary little cave a face-saving device that kept it from being a he lived in was an item to be prized. handout—and started for the cashier’s desk. He He turned east in the gathering gloom and fol- noticed a man standing by the wall who seemed lowed the littered street across town to the bur- to be studying the eaters; he was a well-dressed row he had made for himself in the ruins of a man in civilian clothes, and had a sleek, smug gutted building. It was not palatial, but better

look about him that was slightly irritating to than many foxholes he had known, and in it he Barry. was king. He had a small reserve store of eat- As Barry brushed by the man on his way out, ables, but above all he had independence and pri- the fellow handed him a folded piece of paper. vacy. It was a dark hole, but that did not matter. “This ought to interest you, buddy,” said he. “I His service “juicer,” or super-battery, no bigger think you’re just the type. Save it, it’s valuable.” than a half-pint flask, still contained thousands of amperes, enough light for him for many weeks. Barry’s impulse was to shove the hand aside He took off his uniform and laid it neatly away. and pass on; it probably was one of the many Then he rigged the light for better reading, and come-on gags worked on the innocent veterans. settled down for a quiet evening. Idly he glanced But the man was in his way, and now there was at the dodger handed him by the man of the eat- an earnestness in his expression that might mean ing place. It proved to be a printed circular, and —

58 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

he wondered that a man of such well-fed appear- ted world markets. Not only that, but we are receiving ance should be handing them out. It said, in return increasing quantities of such priceless items as books, old paintings, musical instruments, and many QUALIFIED MEN WANTED other things we have grown accustomed to doing with- out. Uneasiness We can use a limited number of agents for our “for- has been expressed in some quarters lest this traffic with the eign” department, but they must be wiry, active, of un- past ages have serious repercussions in our own, but usually sound constitution, and familiar with the use of we are assured by Mr. Otis P. Snooding- ton, Executive Vice all types of weapons. They MUST be resourceful, of President of Anachron, that the fears are baseless. quick decision, tact and of proven courage, as they may He states that the most careful con- trol is exercised over the activities be called upon to work in difficult and dangerous situa- of their field men in order that the economic tions without guidance or supervision. Previous experi- and social life of the older civi- lizations ence in purchasing or sales work desirable but not neces- is not upset unduly. Inventions too advanced for their ready comprehension are strictly sary. EX-COMMANDO MEN usually do well with us. withheld. Our readers in the steel industry, remembering some of the Application should be made at the east door of Anach- amusing orders they have received, will know what we ron Building, 6 Wall Street. Do not apply unless you mean. have all the above qualifications.

Barry folded the paper, closed his eyes and Well, thought Barry, that’s a little better than rested for a moment. His mind was in a state of most. Here was a firm that actually wanted Com- wild ferment. The amazing thing he had mandos! Every other prospective employer had just read sounded like a piece of wild fantasy; turned him down. “Sorry,” ran the formula, “but yet there it was, in an unemotional business paper we’re afraid of you. You fellows are too damned a fact, apparently. Barry was quite prepared for independent—too used to being on your own. Our the concept of time travel—he had been a science- men have to do what we tell them.” fiction fan in the days before the war, and had He laid it aside and took up the financial paper. read many yarns playing with the idea, beginning It was dismal reading. He waded through page with the classic one by H. G. Wells and includ- after page of the wails of frustrated brokers and ing many of its successors. The only real surprise the gloomy forecasts of economic commentators. he felt was that the fantasy had at last become Then he turned the page and came upon the fea- cold reality. He liked the idea of participating ture article of the issue. Among all that crepe in it. He also needed a job. and sounding dirges there was at least one hope- ful item. Rows of big black type proclaimed: Barry shot a quick glance at his wrist watch. ANACHRON BOOMING It was later than he thought-past midnight. He got up and opened his kit and took from it an Orders mount-—Stock soars—Directors optimistic atomizer. He carefully sprayed his uniform with the dirt-removing Barry’s growing drowsiness was instantly over- substance, and when the liquid had evaporated, taking the come. Why, it was the man from Anachron who grease stains with it, he had handed him the circular! He must find out plugged in his little flatiron and did a neat pressing job. An hour later, more about the company, since it appeared now shaved, shined, to be genuine and on the upgrade. He read eagerly pressed and glittering, and with three rows of medal that Anachron Common had jumped that day ribbons spread across his chest, he was from eight hundred sixty to two thousand sixty on his way through the dark ruins to the canyons of rebuilt on the strength of an earlie'r announcement of a Wall Street. However soiled a Com- mando special cash dividend of forty percent and a stock might be from his task, it was the iron rule dividend of one hundred percent; that the com- that when he appeared in public he must be as if on parade. pany was rapidly expanding its “foreign” business and had already taken thirty million bushels of It was four when he reached the towering build- ing that wheat, sixty million tons of steel and much other housed the head offices of Anachron, Inc., but already there surplus material off the market; that its profits were hundreds huddled before on the sale of these commodities had been enor- the side entrance where applicants were received. mous; and that the company was contemplating Most were derelicts, old men still hopeful, but vast expansion. there were many youngsters amongst them as well, chiefly from the ranks of the unrated dischargees. The article went on to say: Barry could see only four men in the Commando The activities of Anachron may be regarded as the uniform, and they were close to the door. most bullish factor in the world today. It is an open “Come on up, major,” called one. “We rate secret that since their acquisition of the Gildersleeve these bums. You’re number five.” patents under special charter from the Federated Gov- He joined them and discovered that one was ernment, they have been utilizing the Gildersleeve Billy Maverick had served Heavy-duty Time Shuttle for intertemporal commerce. who with him in the Thus all the wheat, steel, aluminum, textiles and so forth Hokkaido shebang. After that they swapped that they export is definitely removed from today's glut- yarns until night paled to the pearl of dawn and ANACHRON, INC. 59 that in turn gave way to full day. During that mounting horses with sixty pounds of plate armor time nine others of their kind had joined them. around your carcass? You ain’t seen nothing, kid. Promptly at eight o’clock the doors were opened You may be sent anywhere—and anywhen. After and they were allowed to go in. Barry glanced you’ve been told to sell Prester John ten carloads up at the company’s trade-mark over the portal. of apples or else, you’ll know what we mean when ” It was an overflowing cornucopia about which we say ‘foreign.’ fluttered a ribbon bearing the legend “Merchants, “Oh,” murmured Latham, meekly, “I hadn’t Not Missionaries.” He was to see later that the thought of that angle.” same emblem appeared over the door of every of- They found their bus and were whisked away fice of the far-flung system. Before long he was uptown to the indoctrination center. It was a to learn its meaning. superbly fitted barracks, the chow was good, but The preliminary interviews did not last long they were disappointed to find themselves in a and they were authorized to go ahead for the reception ward in which there were no old-timers physical check-up. That was grueling, including except their trainers. Those wouldn’t talk. “A severe strength and agility tests. Five of the step at a time, laddies,” was all the grizzled top- candidates had to drop out at that point. They kick would say. “If you show you can take it, had all passed the I. Q. standard, but special apti- you’ll learn the rest, fast enough. If not, you get tude tests took a toll of four more. At length the gate with a month’s pay for trying.” Barry, Maverick and a fellow named Latham were “How much is that?” Maverick wanted to know. accepted, the other two candidates being deferred He, alone of all of them, had found surviving rela- for reasons unstated. The three were sent to the tives on his return. office of Director of Personnel where they were “Two hundred trade-smackers, base. When you told to sign contracts agreeing to “perform such go active the sky’s the limit, what with commis- duties as may hereafter be assigned and for such sions, graft, bonuses and things.” remuneration as the company may deem proper, “Did you say graft?” asked Barry, sharply. The for the period of at least one lustrum—or longer, word had an ugly sound. at the option of the company—subject to prior “Skip it,” shrugged the top. “Call it side lines, dismissal at the discretion of the company.” if the word smells better to you. The company “Phew!” whistled Latham. “It reads like the doesn’t mind, so long as they get theirs and you Nazi draft of treaty I” don’t run foul of the Control Board. There’s one But Barry signed without comment. He had of you fellows, a Billy Tolton, that has the sweet- had a taste of what the cold outside was like and est little side racket you ever heard of—he’s sta- how bleak the prospects. Moreover, his imagina- tioned at Rome in Diocletion’s time . . . but say, tion had been fired by the reading of the article. I’m not supposed to tell you guys these things, Maverick likewise signed, and the vocal member you have to find ’em out for yourselves.” followed suit. Maverick snickered and Barry couldn’t repress The personnel man grinned. He knew a Com- a smile. They both knew Tolton. He was as mando couldn’t be held by a contract if he didn’t square as they make them, but a slick barracks want to be held; he also knew that no employee lawyer with it. He was famous for his escapades, had ever wanted to quit. He tossed the papers but somehow he managed always to be safely just into a basket and issued three cards. inside the rules. They wondered what he had “Take these down to Basement A and show slipped across the Romans, but the sergeant would them to the guard. He’ll put you into a bus that say no more, and there was nothing left but to will take you to the barracks.” turn in. Barry went to sleep in a little glow of “Then what?” triumph. He was off the streets and out of the “You’ll be given a room and bed, and get your endless queues of the unemployed. Shortly he basic training. We can’t send you foreign as would be traveling throughout the past, not sight- dumb as you are now.” seeing or adventuring, but engaged i n legitimate “Oh, yeah?” said the incorrigible Latham. business. “Well, listen, brother, we’ve had all the basic training there is, plus advanced, plus expert, plus The drudgery of the next three months came practice. And if there’s any place foreign be- as a rude shock, but the day came when Barry and tween the poles that we haven’t taken apart, I’d Maverick were called up and graduated ahead of like to know what it is.” the remainder of the class. The Foreign Depart- “Uh-huh,” said the personnel man, nonchalantly, ment was shorthanded and rushing men into the “maybe. But were you ever sent to snare a papa field the moment they were qualified. Barry was Brontosaurus and a lady Brontosaurus on the still a little dubious as to his qualifications, for so hoof? I understand the new zoo has ordered many questions still remained unanswered. The some. And how fast can you load and fire a flint- fatal paradox of time commerce troubled him un- lock? How good are you at mounting and dis- duly, though his instructors evaded his questionr ”

60 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

as not being in their province. He could not see Shuttles.” A red light was blinking and a small why tinkering with the past would not have gong tapped out an additional warning. terrific consequences in the future that was to be “Some fellow must be in a jam and is coming founded on it, which in turn meant this present. in to see the boss,” said the guide, indicating They packed their bags and left the school that they might pause and see the time shuttle without regrets. The course had been half lec- land.

tures, and half martial and marine exercises. In In a couple of seconds it did, though it was the mornings they listened to talks on the com- more a matter of materialization than a landing.

merce of the past peoples, from far Cathay to The alcove seemed to fill with shadowy outlines, the cliff dwellers of the Southwest. Otherwise then suddenly a solid platform appeared. The they became familiar with antique arms and modes operator of the shuttle stood in a little pulpit of transportation. All were good rough-and- at one end, operating its controls. A single pas- tumble fighters, but they added the crossbow and senger slumped morosely in the center of the the blunderbuss to their repertory of arms, not vehicle, leaning on a gleaming two-handed sword to mention the catapult, Greek fire, and the han- that had a heavily bejeweled hilt. He was dressed dling of scythed chariots. Two days a week they in flowing garments which Barry’s unpracticed spent at the ship basin where they were told about eye could not positively identify, but which he carracks, galleys, junks, cogs, praus, galleons and took to be those of a medieval Spanish merchant. triremes. They served carronades and the heavier The trader was of dark complexion, with a heavy muzzle loaders of later days. From quarterstaves beaked nose, though it was hard to say just what they graduated to broadsword play. he did look like, for he was wearing in addition “What gets me,” remarked Maverick, as they a watery black eye, a badly cut nether lip and climbed into the taxi that was to take them back many minor contusions. His robes were torn and to the head office, “is why they give us all this bespattered with mud and overripe eggs. Alto- military stuff when they say it’s against the rules gether he seemed to be quite unhappy. to do any fighting except in self-defense.” He glared at them briefly, then without a word “Dunno,” said Barry, “unless it’s to help us ducked under the chain and limped off down the take care of ourselves on the road. There were hall, carrying his gigantic sword with him. The plenty of corsairs and highwaymen in the old shuttle faded from sight, and the trio continued days.” their trip on down the corridor. The bedraggled They got a thrill on arriving at the downtown figure before them turned into an office marked building. This time they went in through the “Western Europe—Medieval.” great main portal, already thronged with business- “He’s one of your gang,” remarked the guide. men coming for their share of Anachron’s bounte- “That is where you are going.” ous orders. The two fresh-hatched apprentice By the time they reached the office, the trader traders did not know the curious specifications from the shuttle had laid the sword across the that accompanied many of the contracts, but they assistant sales manager’s desk, and was talking had an inkling from snatches of conversation rapidly and agitatedly with many furious ges- overheard in the elevator. “I hear Western Spring tures. Steel got the order for fifty thousand Mark III “But, damn it all, Mr. Kilmer,” he wailed, “I all-metal bows, I’m trying to snag off part of that did tell ’em! I sent a sword—King Richard’s own duraluminum arrow allotment. . . . sure, personal snickersnee. I sent Oh, our sketches ; I sent Toledo factory is working nights on palanquins along the exact specifications. I told ’em why. and sedan chairs. ... I hear wallpaper is going What more could a man do?” good all over the Renaissance.” “Keep your shirt on, Jakie,” sighed Mr. Kilmer, The Outside Sales, Purchasing and Contract a thin, harried-looking man with a perpetual fur- departments were all on the first twenty floors, row between his brows. “If anyone up here above which only certified company employees slipped, you’re in the clear— could go. By the time Barry and Maverick “Me in the clear!” screamed Jakie. “Of course reached the thirtieth floor, they were alone except I’m in the clear. But does saying so write off for the guide who accompanied them. They those ten thousand swords and the beating up I started down a long corridor marked “Foreign got? Lissen! This guy Richard says the swords Trade,” noticing with interest that each of the are no good—not fit for knights. So he won’t many suboffices was marked with its specialty, pay, and he won’t give ’em back. He issued ’em to such as “Scandinavia: Vikings to Gustavus Adol- his men-at-arms. What’s more, he had me whipped phus,” “Old American, Mayan, Aztec, Inca, Et around Westminster at the tail of a cart and then Cetera.” stuck me in the pillory where those mugs rocked The guide halted them and called attention to me all day. Look, I lost four teeth, see? And an alcove that was guarded by a swinging chain. that ain’t half of it. The hangman grabs my note- A sign said, “Keep Clear, Landing for Trader books, order books and all my kit material and —

ANACHRON, INC. 61 burns them in the square. A years work shot, and warrior could reject the later model. am I sore !” Kilmer took the older sword and unscrewed the Mr. Kilmer glanced up sadly at Barry and crystal set in its top. Underneath was a small Maverick who were standing silently in the back- receptacle of about the capacity of a thimble, ground, waiting to present themselves. But he hollowed out of the handle. The crystal atop the said nothing for a long time, and then he ad- other sword would not come away until forcible dressed himself to the outraged Jakie. prying got it off. Beneath was only the cement “Right or wrong, this tears it,” said the morose that had held the bauble. Kilmer, dragging the heavy sword to him and “Knights,” explained the sales manager, in his standing it point down beside his chair while he lugubrious tones, “especially crusaders, make the fiddled with a crystalline knob at the end of its vanquished swear on the hilts of their swords to hilt. “Your pal Richard the Lion Heart is just pay ransom, or to reform, or to render fealty or one more pain in the neck to me. Credit putJn what not. You’d think that the crosslike shape of a bad report and insists on cutting the rest of the the sticker would serve, but it isn’t good enough order down and demanding half cash for what to ^tiit a crusader. Oh, no. They’ve got to have we do deliver. It seems that they sent their own this hallowed place to carry a few saint’s relics men to check up on your report and they came in—you know, nail parings, a few hairs, dandruff back and said that Richard was already hocked or what have you. Somehow, it makes the oath up to his eyes. What’s more. Prophecy says that more binding. Well, we ordered a lot of ten even with the better equipment you’re trying to thousand forged, and now you know what hap- get him, the Third Crusade is likely to be a flop. pened. That Richard is a tough egg and I don’t All it accomplished along our own time line was hold with him as a rule, but in this thing he’s the taking of Acre and Cyprus, and he had to split right.” the take four ways at that. Then he got captured The three of them together looked at the blue- on the way home and his ransom broke the king- prints. The receptacle was clearly shown. It was dom. I’m afraid, Jakie, that you’d better forget mentioned in the specifications, and in the con- Richard First of England and hunt up a better tract with Cumberland Steel, who made the prospect. And don’t be so damn gullible next swords. An inspection report was among the time.” papers, stating the swords were as ordered. Mr. Kilmer picked up the phone again. Jakie uttered wild and sizzling words for a “Here’s where a crooked inspector gets fired,” good five minutes, beating his breast and tearing he said, dialing the Chief Inspector, “and where his hair, but all he got further from the boss was Cumberland gets sued. It’s the doggonedest thing the mild order to go down to the gym and get to make these manufacturers realize that when we out of his make-up and have the doctors rub lini- specify some wacky thing, we have a reason for ment on him. Jakie limped out of the office still it. They thought the receptacle idea was silly, smoldering. After which Mr. Kilmer turned his and it saved them a couple of operations to skip mournful mien on his newest traders. Both it. Now everybody loses.” stepped forward, and he sighed heavily as he He swept papers off his desk and hurled the two regarded them. swords to the floor, and scowled a moment at his “New, eh?” he said, with a notable absence of new employees. erT.husiasm. Barry waited. “Maybe what you “You give credit to these . . . er . . . foreigners?” just overheard was as good a start-off as any asked Barry, amazed. gives you an idea why we’re all graying grouches “When we have to,” admitted Kilmer, glumly. up here at home office. Stick around and I’ll tell “Many of the things we value the most are locked you what it’s all about.” up in palaces, cathedrals, or the treasure hordes of For a few minutes he was busy dialing inter- Hindu princes. They are not for sale. So we office numbers—Design, Specifications and Con- look along our own history line and find out when tracts, finally the Chief of Inspectors. Presently a particular place is to be besieged and sacked, a messenger appeared with a roll of blueprints, then we contact the fellow who is going to do the copies of contracts, and another sword of similar sacking and make a deal with him. Usually by design to the one beside the desk. Except that staking him to up-to-the-next-century high-grade that one was black and pitted and crudely made siege equipment. Then we split the loot. Most by hand, whereas the new one was of the best times he prefers cash, which we have too much of, molybdenum stainless steel. Kilmer handed both and we prefer the goods, which he is unable to swords over for inspection, remarking that the transport.” dazzling new one was superior to anything Toledo “What about the ethics' of that, and the effect or Damascus had ever produced. Hefting each on the future?” asked Barry, still hammering and noting the superior balance of the dazzling away at his pet question. Anachron product, Barry wondered how any sane “Oh, that? So you’re the worrying kind, huh?” —

62 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

glared Mr. Kilmer. “Take my advice and forget of tons of stuff. So I proposed selling to Lincoln it. If Projects passes it; if Philosophy, Ethics and Staunton. But no, they said, that was just as and Prophecy give it the go-ahead, and if Budget bad. The computers took the land-grabbing ten- and Research says O. K. and the Control Board dencies displayed by the Republicans in the says hop to it, you can bank on it it’s being decades right after the Civil War and forecast ethical. We’ve had more damn deals upset be- the effect of an easy victory with weapons superior cause some moony old coot in Ethics or some to anything else on Earth at that time. The crapehanger in Prophecy claims the effects might prognosis of that was bad, too. Prophecy opined be unjust.” that the United States would embark on a spree Kilmer mopped his brow indignantly. of conquest that would ruin them in the end. “Not long ago,” he said, “I doped out a plan Tough, you see?” to sell Jeff Davis a lot of modern ammunition “Not quite,” said Barry. The application of I was in North American Recent then—but Ethics ethics to probable alternate time-track seemed a and Prophecy knocked it in the head. They said bit involved. that the prognosis following a Confederate victory “Oh, bother,” exclaimed Mr. Kilmer. “Take the was not good and that we have to assume the rest of the day off and get that stuff out of your moral responsibility for the sort of futures we set system. Go up to Philosophy, or if they’re think- up in these branch time-tracks we generate, even if ing and won’t talk to you, go into Public Rela- they have no effect on us. Well, you can see what tions and ask them for the low-down. Find out a hole I was in—I could have unloaded thousands all you can, because tomorrow I’m shipping you ”

ANACHRON, INC. 63 off to Thirteenth Century France for a shake- may inject extraneous incident into our past at down run.” will. But every such innovation, however slight, “Hell, I can’t speak Old French,” said Maverick. can have no subsequent effect along our own “You’ll be speaking it tomorrow,” said Mr. Kil- proper time-track. At the very instant of intru- mer, cryptically, and pressed a button for a mes- sion a new time-track is set up which will branch senger, “but get out now and leave me with my off and thereafter develop toward its own discreet headaches. I’ve got to tell a guy in the Projects future. Is that clear?” section why we can’t spare a man to get the “Approximately,” answered Barry, though still thousand pairs of dodos the Zoo Commission is a bit dubious. “But if these are divergent and yelling for. The boy will take you to the places independent branches, how does one get back— you want to go.” “As one gets off a railroad siding. By backing “Takes things hard, doesn’t he?” grinned Maver- down to the switch point and then resuming the ick, once they were out in the hall. Barry grinned main line. At the moment, I was considering a back. means to cross these lines at right angles, espe- “You know, fellow, I think we’re going to enjoy cially since there may be independent time lines this job,” he said, quite irrelevantly. And then parallel to us of which we do not dream. For they took the elevator to the lair of the philoso- the present we must be content with shuttling phers. back and forward over the well-worn track. But you tire me. One more question only; I have pa- The philosophers’ room was an astonishing tience for no more.” place. It was a dimly lit but richly furnished “What about the effect we have on the futures library, about which lounged or paced the floor of the new branch lines?” was Barry’s final ques- with knitted brows more than a dozen men. Few tion. would have been taken for philosophers on the “Bah!” snorted the philosopher. “What have I streets; several were bearded and bespectacled to do with such trivia? We deal here with the and had a musty, scholarly look, but for the most larger aspects. Go ask Ethics your other ques- part they looked as if they might as well be tions.” engineers or salesmen. But all had one thing in Before Barry or Maverick could mutter a word common, a deep immersion in profound thought. of thanks, the man had screwed his face back into " Sh-h cautioned the messenger, “don’t speak its former expression of rapt concentration and until you are spoken to. They get awfully sore forgotten them. The messenger crooked a finger if you snap ’em out of it.” and the three tiptoed out into the corridor. The first of the savants to show signs of life They visited a number of other departments was an immensely corpulent gentleman sprawled before the day was over, though not all of in an easy-chair. His eyes were tightly closed Anachron’s many subdivisions by any means. The and his face puckered into an intense frown that order in which they made the rounds was some- seemed strangely infantile in view of his shiny what haphazard, but by midafternoon Barry be- bald pate and the multiple chins beneath. But at gan to have some notion of how the wheels of length he gurgled faintly and the lines of his face Anachron went round, at least in the Foreign relaxed into a placid smile. Then, quite slowly, Department. he opened his pale-blue goggle eyes and steadied First, there was the requisition room, where or- his gaze on Barry, who was standing in front of ders poured in from all parts of the home world. him respectfully waiting. The variety of things asked for was incredible “A question?” asked the philosopher, after an and the quantities demanded immense. On the expressionless scrutiny. cultural side, where the universities, libraries and Barry started to state the doubts that troubled museums of the world were being rebuilt and him, but the wise man seemed to divine the tenor stocked, there was demand for books of all kinds of them after the first four words, for he at once —not only the rare and priceless major documents closed his eyes again and began talking in a dull of the past, but ordinary books for circulating monotone. libraries and for sale to homes. The demand for “No reconciliation of the supposed time para- paintings, sculpture, laces and embroideries, and dox is necessary,” he droned, “for no paradox handicrafts of every sort was insatiable. The exists. For every possible past there exists an reconstituted zoos were planning prehistoric sec- infinity of possible futures of which a certain tions for which they wanted living specimens of number may be considered probable. But once all the animals since creation. On the industrial a complete past has occurred, there is but one side there were many and varied demands, such resultant future, and both it and its past are facts as that for genuine silk, old cheeses and wines and immutable. Through the manipulation of cer- and many others. tain ultradimensions by the application of gravitic Services had been requested, too. The geolo- and temporal fields of force, we know that we gists had asked for surveys to be made of the 64 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

world at various wide intervals in the past; so- assisted in breaking the ice, they were going to cieties for the prevention of this or the promotion be left alone and in full charge. Anachron be- of that would petition to have their pet cause of lieved in bringing up its field men the hard way. the past assisted. Some wanted to turn modern “You’ll do well if you get off by four, Nelly,” knowledge over to the ancient Greeks without said Kilmer, glancing at his watch. “You have to reserve, so that the Roman Empire could never take these boys by and have them psychohyped come into being, while others favored the strength- and costumed first, so you’d better get going.” ening of the hands of the Bourbons to prevent the “Where are you going to send me when I come French Revolution and the Reign of Terror from back, boss?” asked Nelden, anxiously. happening. The files or the order room were Mr. Kilmer ruffled orders stuck on a hook. crammed with proposed Utopias. “St. Petersburg, I think. Peter the Great is Needless to say, but a fraction of the orders starting a big building project there, and it’s a could be filled. The more feasible of the lot were good spot for your construction gang now that culled out and sent to the Planning Section. It you’re finished in the Scillies.” was there that the motto “Merchants, Not Mis- “Yes, sir,” said Nelden, with a dirty sidelong sionaries” came first into play, for Anachron was look at the two who were about to supplant him. a commercial organization having the double pur- They took it he was not overfond of medieval pose of acquiring valued products from the past Russians. and disposing of the unwieldy surpluses of home They walked away, Nelden leading sulkily. Far production. Any other consideration was sec- down the corridor he turned and said, “Pretty soft ondary, and the possible moral effects of any of for you guys. I do all the dirty work, case the its acts worried the planners very slightly. joint, unscramble the dizzy calendar they use and What they approved went to Projects, for prepa- work out the geo position. Then I get a conces- ration and estimates. Then Prophecy had a look sion for a castle and build it for you. Then I at it, and referred its findings to Ethics. If the stock it with trade goods, train a lot of dumb projects survived that gantlet, it went to the marines how to find the way. After that I have Control Board for authorization. to hand it to you birds on a silver platter. And 1 Barry and Maverick .soon became lost in the get a lousy salary while you fellows lap up the maze of operations that followed that, especially commissions!” after the secretary in Control had given them a “Why don’t you change your rate?” asked Field Man’s Manual. Somewhere along the line Barry, mildly. one or more of the many Research Bureaus put “Too uncertain. And too damn risky,” snorted a finger in the pie; then there was Design, Con- the disgruntled advance man. tracts, Credit and all the rest. They even learned They turned into one of the interminable re- there existed an office of Intertemporal Exchange, search wings until they came to the section they where excess byzants, ducats, lacs of rupees, were after. Four or five men sat around a table, talents and pieces-of-eight could be turned in for poring over antique tomes and manuscripts. In appropriate credit. They found that out when the corner a phonograph was rattling off fast they reported back to Kilmer and he sent them dialogue in some foreign tongue. to the office with an order for three bags of coins “These fellows,” explained Nelly, “bone up on to cover the initial expenses of their trip. That local customs, lingo and all that. When I do my night they opened one of the bags and found it scouting I bring back records to show tjiem how to contain many deniers andjobols, as well as gold the stuff sounds when the natives sling it. There coins from the Levant. isn’t any French or English or Spanish where you’re going. Only dialects, and they change

The following morning Mr. Kilmer seemed a every fifty miles. Latin and Lingua Franca is mite less dismal, but he explained that by saying about all you can really sink your teeth into.” it was early yet and he had not opened his mail. “These the men?” asked a man wearing a doc- And he shot the basket of incoming memoranda tor’s smock, who had just come in, nodding in the a glance that would have served equally as ac- direction of Barry and Maverick. knowledgment of the presence of a king cobra. “Yeah. Hype ’em.” A new face was present. He was an undersized The doctor arranged a few chairs, set the chap with beady jet-black eyes, and a fidgety, novices down in two of them and several of the nervous manner. His name was Nelden, but what scholars and Nelly took the others. A dazzling his nationality was was undeterminable. His title little light appeared as if by magic in the ceiling, was “Advance Man,” and it appeared he had com- and the doctor directed them all to study it pleted the preliminary field arrangements for the closely. Barry felt a momentary queasiness and execution of the newest project. Barry and promptly lost all sense of time. At x hours later Maverick learned to their consternation that as he was aware of the chairs being pushed back and as he soon had conducted them to the spot and someone saying to him, “O. K., you’ve got it." :

ANACHRON, INC. 65

Without understanding quite how, he knew that above them for many stories of blind warehouse he was passably fluent in several French dialects, walls. Once inside they were whisked aloft and church Latin, with smatterings of Flemish, Corn- stepped out into a room of astronomical dimen- ish, Navarrese and Arabic thrown in. Then he sions. Barry had time only to glimpse the heaps realized he had been hypnotized and while under of merchandise of eve/y description that stood had been pumped full of the acquired knowledge about the floor. Bronze spears were stacked up of the others. Vague memories of monasteries like cordwood, flanked by hoes, rakes, plows and and castles he had never seen were faintly trou- reapers. Elsewhere there were bags of sugar and blesome, but he supposed that was to enable him flour, crates of grapefruit and other foodstuffs. to recognize them when he saw them. Literally thousands of crates of unknown content "Where’s the bird?” asked Nelden, looking were on every hand. Then they came to a machine around. Then his eye lit on a cage in the corner such as they had seen Jakie arrive on, except this in which a big green parrot was preening itself. one was as large as a harbor lighter and was al- "O. K.?” ready piled high with boxes, bags and barrels. "Hope so,” shrugged the head language student. “Your shuttle,” said Nelden. “Runs nonstop Nelden unhooked the cage and made for the between here and your castle. It’s the only way door, Barry and Maverick following. When they you can get down or up—those one-man shuttles stepped out of the elevator at the ground floor, are only for special duty. Don’t ever lose touch it was into a taxi bearing the company’s trade- with the castle, or you’re sunk. S’long. Good mark. "Freight Export,” snapped Nelden, "and luck.” step on it.” He planted the parrot cage squarely He herded them onto the shuttle, and before on Barry’s lap and began jerking out hasty they knew what was happening a gong was clang- phrases ing and they felt a queer vibration. After that

. of a “Bit of foresight . . might get you out they seemed to sleep awhile when a series of mild birds, like jam . . . barons are nuts about queer jars brought them back to full consciousness.

. . a . . . falcons, eagles . they never saw parrot They were in a different place. It was a huge fluently in and this one curses Basque Walloon vaulted room—or cavern—aglow with floodlights,

. . interminably in bad Latin . . . ought . and prays and the shuttle was nested between a pair of un- to make a hit.” loading platforms. At the blast of a mouth He caught a breath as the machine lurched whistle, two gangs of gigantic Nubian laborers around a corner and climbed a mound of fallen sprang forward and commenced snaking the cargo “ . . . a of brickwork. ’n lissen I’m taking couple out. A gangling redhead strolled over, dressed in in with you days off . . . no sense going down immaculate whites and Barry saw that he had a set. charter from the . . . everything’s Gotta good old Colt strapped to his hip. Duke of Cornwall, tribute one gold bar and three “Hi,” greeted the fellow, “welcome to Isla Occi- fine cows a year . . . base castle’s on one of the dentalis. Suppose you’re the traders. The cogs

Scillies . . partly stocked and with four good . are loaded and ready—when do you want to shove cogs. You open up France ... establish a fair . . . off?” nobility hire peddlers . . . get a stand-in with the “When we get our breaths,” answered Barry, and church. And watch your step. Don’t get into marveling now at his recent impatience with the fights. Don’t get burned at the stake for heresy. slow pace of the sympathy indoctrinational school. Or sorcery . . . that’s worst. Don’t waste Anachron may have been slow on the uptake, but on the serfs, they’re a bunch of ignorant bums. they made up for it in the field. Then, feeling a Merchants, not missionaries, you know. And the few amenities were in order, he introduced Maver- key word is mass sales. Rockefeller made more ick and himself. millions selling quarts of gasoline than Tiffany The supervisor of the unloading said his ever did with diamond necklaces. And don’t name was Clarkson. “I’m slavemaster and storekeeper,” forget ... if you don’t show a profit by the end he added. ear.” of six months . . . bam . . . you’re out on your He shut up with a snap of the mouth and stared “Slaves!” exclaimed Maverick, horrified. He out the window, while Barry and Maverick ex- had just finished fighting a war for freedom. changed blank looks. This was being put on their “Why not?” countered Clarkson. “You’re in own with a vengeance! Then parry’s face broke 1240 now. These fellows are happy as larks and into a grin, which gave way to a hearty laugh. better off than they ever were in their lives. We No wonder they insisted on ex-Commandos! got ’em from a rock quarry of the Carthaginians in the course of a trade, and they can’t be disposed The freight export building occupied most of of up home. So we use ’em here to cut down the the site formerly taken up by Greenwich Village. overhead. You’ll find ’em handy; we’ve taught ’em Elevated railroad spurs ran through the lower all sorts of things—to cook, tap dance, play swing. floors of the vast pile of buildings which rose The trades, too. The company won’t send down ” ;

66 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION anybody but people like us. We have to make Nelden the idea of taking over, but he wouldn’t out with local talent as best we can.” touch it. So— Barry grunted, and proceeded to inspect the “So he picked a pair of greenhorns,” Barry castle. Isla Occidentalis was a glorified ware- finished for him. “I get it. Oh, well. We’ll have house built in castle form. It occupied the whole a look. By the way, what cargo have those cogs of a tiny rocky island off the tip of Cornwall and got in ’em?” its concrete walls rose sheer from the foamy “Everything but the kitchen stove. Your flag- breakers that pounded their foundations. Except ship’s chock-full of miscellaneous what-have-you for a water gate that admitted the clumsy cogs the other assorted livestock. It’s up to you how to the inner basin, there was no opening in the to use it.” walls. Even that was guarded by an Anachron- designed portcullis sliding in well-greased guides. The week’s voyage to the mouth of the Seine In that day of timid mariners and knights who was not hard to take. Parker, ex-commander of a feared the sea, the place was impregnable and submarine, was flotilla captain, and delighted in needed no more than an occasional electric eye pointing out the innovations he had made on the for guards. tublike vessels. To the eye they looked like any Clarkson, they learned, was the chatelain, and other merchant ship of the age, except they were was aided by a squad of six marines who saw that fitted with rudders instead of steering oars. But the slaves kept to their assigned quarters when aerodynamics engineers had reset their masts and not otherwise engaged. In addition there were redesigned the running gear, while the underwater quarters for such cog captains as happened to lines had been altered for the better. Under a be at base, and accommodations for the traders secret deck auxiliary Diesels pushed them along, and home-office visitors. All the rest of the wind or no wind, and there were refrigeration structure was filled with storerooms, some of machines for their perishables. That was a sur- which were refrigerated. The place was full of prising discovery, as Barry had been told that flagrant anachronisms, but it did not matter, as both internal combustion engines and ice machines no one belonging to the contemporary age was were forbidden to the Middle Ages as being too permitted to enter. It had been designed as a far advanced for them. handy central shipping depot for the crew of “How would you keep that stuff secret if a war other traders yet to come—men who were to work galley boarded you?” he asked of Parker. Granada and Moorish Spain, England and the Low “They wouldn’t board us. We’ve got an ace in Countries, and the Baltic ports. The name, Isla the hole. There is a submerged torpedo tube in Occidentalis, was beautifully vague, meaning a the bow; it shoots the cutest little dummy torpedo land somewhere west of Ireland. you ever saw. The thing is only six inches in “I’d hate to be in your shoes,” was Clarkson’s diameter and is electric-driven so it doesn’t leave remark over their nightcap later. “We’ve got a a wake, but it packs a wallop good enough to go hellish overhead here, what with interest, amorti- right through anything now afloat. They’d simply zation and all, and we understand that Audits & sink and wonder what kind of sea varmint did it

Accounts have been burning up Sales about it. to them.” Kilmer stays in a state of frenzy all the time. “Oh,” said Barry. He was getting a better idea After four guys took a fling at that St. Denys of how you did things when the rule book made fair he’s so anxious to crack, only to bust at it, you pull all your best punches. Then, seeing the he’s been hard to live with. He tried to sell coast of France growing more distinct by the ”

ANACHRON, INC. 67 hour, he went down to dress and help Maverick The tingling stopped. The first ship was al- with his costume. In his hurry to shove them off, ready easing up to the bank where the big bearded Nelden had failed to take them to the make-up gorilla in armor strutted impatiently. The cattle place, so they had looted their hold and found ship was hove to downstream, waiting. Barry had something that would do. The best description of no time to analyze the disconcertingly peremptory what they ultimately decked themselves out in is message or reply, so he gave the stone in the outer that the foundation garments were silver em- ring a half turn and pressed out the code symbol broidered Mexican vaquero suits, except that for “acknowledge.” By then they were bumping trench caps were substituted for the sombreros. against the quay and the toll collector sprang As a concession to the contemporary taste for aboard. draperies, they topped the whole ensemble with “Unload your wares on the dock,” he bellowed, Japanese kimonos worn open in front. Each “that I may select that which is the lawful due tucked a bowie knife in his belt, a blackjack, and of my noble master, the duke.” set of chain twisters—just in case. Barry thought of the heterogeneous cargo be- As the low banks of the Seine narrowed on low and shuddered. Half choking he said, “If the either side of them, their hypnotically acquired noble master provost will deign, I will give him memory of the place refreshened. They knew refreshment in the cabin below. There is a flask without being told that they were approaching of the superwine made for sovereigns, and pres- the first of a dozen tax- and toll-collecting stations ents worthy of the honorable provost’s fair lady. that separated them from their goal, for a line of It will do no harm to let these villains and slaves obstructions blocked the river, forcing them into wait while we parley. Unloading is so noisy, you a little channel close under the south bank. There know.” stood a formidable stone tower, and on the bank “Umph," grunted the brute in hardware, thrust- a number of crossbowmen and archers led by a ing out a bulldog jaw. He was not too intelligent man in chain mail. The latter was beckoning the and he feared trickery. On the other hand, he ship to come to him. had a keen nose for a hidden bribe and he, some- “This bandit takes an eighth of all you’ve got,” how, thought he sniffed one. He barked an order growled Parker, telling the Nubian steersman to to his men and clanked into the cabin. Barry put over the wheel. “I wish they’d let us work followed and tapped a little silver gong, where- on him like we worked on those Japs up the upon a giant Nubian appeared, slickly black and Yangtze— nude except for a brilliantly spotted leopard skin Just then Barry’s ring finger began to burn. about his middle. Anachron used the same type of self-contained “The goblets, Sambo, and the bottles—all of midget radio sets as the Commandos had. Barry them.” kept his eyes on the approaching beach, but his He set out two massive silvery goblets whose attention was on the succession of prickling dots handles were formed of elephant heads from which and dashes that his finger felt. The message was trunks curled down to rejoin the stem. They were being relayed from the Isla. rather impressive-looking ornaments to the table.

The provost fingered his, then lifted it with a Kilmer to Barry: Ten days and no report of sales. jerk of the arm that almost hurled it over his Wake up and get busy. Quit paying out all the profits head. in tolls and start merchandise moving. Must have ample booth space at Lagny or St. Denys fairs by Mon- “Mon Dieu!” he exclaimed, with his eyes pop- day, your time. Acknowledge. ping, “what manner of silver is this?”

AST—SL 68 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

"The quintessence of silver, excellency, from against Sambo, snatching the leopard skin away in which the,base dross of lead has been distilled by his clumsiness. His eyes bugged again, for the ab- silversmiths of far Occidentals,” said Barry. As sent hide revealed a pair of purple velvet tights, for himself, he preferred less capacious vessels, glittering with spangles and held up by a belt of preferably of glass, not aluminum, when he went brilliants. It was an idea of Clarkson’s, that little in for a friendly snort. But he was in an experi- sop to his slaves’ innocent vanity. Whatever the mental mood, and Kilmer’s testy message had ag- intent, its effect on Grospied was profound. He gravated it. So something had to be done about had to have another drink. Barry suggested river tolls, eh? Well! Barry pretended non- okolehau, which up to that time had not been chalance as the messboy stood a row of bottles sampled. along the table top. Rye, Scotch, tequila and A little later, when the genial Grospied lay good red rum were there, and the boy had thought- slumbering on the deck, Barry stole out onto the fully added a half gallon Mason jar full of yel- deck. Parker was leaning on the rail thought- lowish, pure, fresh West Virginia moonshine. fully regarding the sprawled bodies of the duke’s “Precious and potent vintages these,” said henchmen. The upended jug told the tale. Barry, respectfully pouring out a beaker of Scotch “For Pete’s sake,” said Parker, “what did you for his guest, “fit only for warriors. A lowly give ’em—Mickey Finns?” merchant such as I needs content himself with “The next thing,” grinned Barry. “But say, ordinary wine. A lemon squash, please, Sambo, didn’t you tell me that you had a special type- for me.” writer packed away in the event we should ever The provost started with an exploratory sip, fall in with a cardinal?”

then drained the cup at one gulp. There were “Yeah. I’ll have it broken out for you if you tears in his eyes for a moment, for nothing want it. There’s a box of initial blocks and a

stronger than a few drops of his master’s new pad that goes with it, too, and assorted sealing “medicine,” or the recently invented crude brandy, wax.” had ever passed his lips before. But he mastered “Swell,” said Barry, and he began trying to his tears and looked speculatively at the other recall all the legal phrases he knew. bottles. The clear glass of the bottles and their A little later he was sitting in the cabin again, perfect symmetry were marvels enough, but their pecking at a monstrous oversized typewriter that contents surpassed them. He tried a shot of rum. wrote in black Gothic letters an inch high. He From then on the conversation ran smoothly. carefully left a large space where the initial letter

It was chiefly monologue, devoted to the prowess should be, and then wrote on without it, using the in love and in battle of Fran§ois Grospied, the best grade imitation parchment he had on board. worthy but ill-rewarded provost of a grasping It was an agreement between one F. Grospied, duke. He reproached the duke bitterly for having provost of the duke, and hence the king, and one exacted too high a price for farming out the river Anachron, Inc., ambassador Occidentalis, granting rights. “But,” he assured, with an owlish wink, —by right of Grospied’s farmer-generalship—the “I get mine, at that.” perpetual free use of the river up as far as the “I’m sure you do,” agreed Barry, and crooked confluence of the Oise. He stuck in carbons and a finger for Sambo. To him he said in an aside, made four copies. Then he surveyed his work. “See that the boys outside have something—the Barry scrutinized the last line, “transito sano mountain dew will do; let ’em have a five-gallon hoc flumen in perpetuam,” and wrinkled his nose jug-” a little. Considered as Latin it probably stank, but what the hell! He selected the correct block to Things looked better. Barry bethought himself supply the omitted initial and stamped on an or- of the present he had promised for the little wife, nate one picturing a knight on a rearing horse so he stepped to a cupboard and pulled out a box sticking a groveling dragon. It was in a bright of assorted rayon stockings. It was a shotgun vermilion. Barry chose a stick of dainty pink package, of various sizes and colors. He handed from the box of sealing waxes, and another of over a sheeny pair of brilliant green and one of baby blue. Then after lighting a candle, he went hectic red, leaving the less passionate colors in at the dirty work of getting the party of the first plain sight in the box. part, the aforesaid F. Grospied, to his feet. It The bleary Grospied held up a pair, then held couldn’t be done. The gentleman was out. So them up again, with colors mixed that time. Barry gently abstracted his signet ring and sealed "Marry,” he said, “a sweet combination, eh?” all five copies with the pink, after which he re- “Mix ’em any way you like,” said Barry. “The stored the ring. Then he sealed for his own part, box is yours.” pressing the blue wax with a Chinese coin he “My frien’,” assured Grospied, near to complete carried as a pocket piece. Two of the documents unbending. He missed Barry completely in the were for the principals, the copies were for duke, affectionate sweep of his arm, but fetched up king and pope respectively. Barry wanted no ”

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misunderstandings. So he tucked Grospied’s and that lay ahead, he would arrive at Paris with the duke’s copies inside the slumbering provost’s empty holds. He understood then why the pre- belt. After that he had Sambo and the cook carry vious expeditions had failed. His coup over Gros- him back to his men. pied was a pretty good victory at that, and the “Rather unmilitary looking, don’t you think?” thought of it bucked him up when next he an- asked Parker, apparently fascinated by the pro- swered Kilmer’s daily “hurry-up” demand. ceedings, but referring to the haphazard arrange- Have a heart, boss. Sure, we’ve been two weeks on ment of the snoring forms on the shore. Their the voyage—you can’t fly from the Scillies to Paris. dignity had not been enhanced by the addition of We’re nearly there; our cargo is intact; we’ve spent no their chieftain, for Barry had kept the faith. An money; and we’ve got a perpetual free pass to the lower irregular pyramid of mingled-colored stockings river—and that ain’t hay. surmounted the sleeping warrior’s chest and rose and fell with every labored breath. The boss snapped back:

“Uh, yes,” agreed Barry. “Let’s have ’em No, it ain’t hay, but breaking even ain’t making straightened out in rows. And to avoid hard feel- profits, either. And wait until you knock their eye out ings later, I guess we’d better leave another jug at St. Denys or Lagny before you get fresh, young man. of lightning for consolation when they wake up.” “The dope,” muttered Maverick. “Why don’t he When he went to borrow Grospied’s standard, go down to Research and get a hype, too. He which had been left leaning against the castle keeps yelping about St. Denys and Lagny, when wall, he relented further. the corks part- He drew all these shindigs are seasonal affairs. Lagny way in half a dozen bottles of rye, and stood good closed up shop for the year in February; St. them, together with the rare goblet, alongside his Denys is a fall show. This is June. How could erstwhile guest. After he Grospied that had the we sell out at either by last Monday?” banner hoisted his notice to cog’s peak to serve as “Oh, well,” shrugged Barry, indifferently, “let to all upstream that the ships were under ducal him rave. All he wants is sales, and if he’s like protection. the breed I used to know, he don’t care when or “Let’s go,” he said, and then relayed the mes- how we get ’em— sage to Maverick, who still hovered anxiously off “I didn’t know you'd ever sold,” said Maverick. shore, wondering what it was all about. “Sure. Before the war, when I was a kid. “Awr-rk," squawked the parrot, unexpectedly, Vacuum cleaners, cemetery lots, grand pianos— ’’ from its perch on the poop. “A king’s ransom, “Ouch! O. K., buddy. You’re chief from now egad! Ora pro nobis. Ora, ora, orra!” on. Anybody who can sell cemetery lots is a better man than I am.” Progress up the Seine was slow, for its lower Barry was about to admit he hadn’t actually courses were sinuous and during many hours each sold many when the vessel went round a sharp day the tide was against them. They would have bend and there was another castle barring the made faster progress had they been free to use way. This one flaunted the white banner of the their kickers, but for fear of stampeding the plod- King of Ile-de-France. An arbalest quarrel zipped ding serfs along the bank—none of whom could through the rigging, signifying that the colors of probably stomach the sight of a ship of the sea Grospied didn’t mean a thing to them. Barry gliding along against both wind and tide as fast groaned. as man might walk—they had to use the auxiliaries “The jig is up. This must be France.” sparingly. In places there were stretches of tow- For several days they had been running through paths, and whenever they came to one of these, the hazy zone that was either English or French,

Barry would put squads of Nubians ashore and depending upon how you looked at it. Its suzerain give them the end of towropes. Many a doughty was the Duke of Normandy, a French duke, and knight must have gasped in admiration for those therefore a vassal of the French crown. Yet that black giants at seeing them trotting gayly along, same duke was likewise King of England, and dragging the heavy vessels after them with such therefore no man’s vassal. Try as they might, the careless ease. In fact, the slaves towed with such boys could not unravel the intricacies of jurisdic- ease that Parker felt compelled to ring down a tion. So they meekly halted their ships and com- few revs—to avoid the occasional embarrassing menced the haggling over the amount of douane moments when the trotting blacks couldn’t keep they should pay. The tariff to be paid at the ahead of the slack. border of a kingdom was over and above any river They passed many towers where rivage was col- or road tolls. The provost’s deputy was both a lected, but their borrowed banner protected them stupid and greedy man. A dozen golden livres from molestation. Barry computed that if he had satisfied him, and he let them go. After that, they paid an average toll of three percent at each of found, they would have to pay the river tolls them, together with the future taxes of every kind above. ”

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They cast off and stood upstream. Then they ing on the hill above them. In its age people went held a council of war. to bed at darkfall and arose at the crack of dawn. Someone, probably Dilly, captain of the cattle Tomorrow they would visit the castle—and be re- boat, suggested that to avoid the heavy rivage it ceived, for baronial hospitality was the universal would be better to tie up somewhere and proceed custom. Man of whatever degree was welcome, further by land. At once a howl from the others each according to his rank. But baronial hospi- arose. They had an idea of what land travel was, tality expected something in return, again accord- moreover, ing they didn’t have to live on a ship with to rank—from the villein, labor ; from the wan- bawling cows and clucking fowls. dering jongleur, a few entertaining tricks; from “That’s worse,” ruled Barry, finally. “You pay merchants, samples of their wares; from the no- a transit tax to every castle or monastery you bility, presents appropriate to their stations. pass, plus extra for the use of fords and bridges. “We are merchant princes,” announced Barry, Every baron has his hand out for the telonia, gravely, “trot out the invoices and let’s see what— which is the land equivalent of the river tolls. we have to give. First impressions, you know It was near midnight when the last item had That’s not all. The roads are trails—quagmires when it rains; there are bandits everywhere, and been jotted down on the list, and it was a faintly sneak thieves galore. What’s worse, we’d need hilarious party that bade each other good night scores of mules to carry our cargo, and we haven’t and went severally to their bunks. And it was that many. No, that’s out. We’ll stick to the near to nine in the morning when the last box river.” came out of the hold and was strapped to the packsaddle of one of the three sturdy she-asses It was a noble resolution, but destined to be selected for the parade. The ten Nubians chosen broken. They stuck, but “in,” not “to.” A day to go along were resplendently dressed. Their later, two toll stations up, they were scarcely two bodies were oiled to glistening blackness, and in hours past their last big castle when the leading addition to their beloved spangled tights, they cog poked her nose in a submerged mud bank and wore beaded Indian moccasins and the full-feath- stayed there. The other sheered out into what ered war bonnets of Sioux chieftains. Barry and looked like better water; and it stuck hard and Maverick mounted the two smart mules that fast. As far as they were concerned, they were had been saddled for them, and the at the head of navigation. cavalcade set out up the winding road that would take them to the “Shucks,” muttered Barry, as he hung over the castle. taffrail watching the seething mud kicked up They presented an eye-filling spectacle indeed, astern by the struggling little propeller. as attested by the excitement of the native chil- It was midafternoon when they got off, and dren who ran along beside them, shouting and night was falling when they got back to the near- pointing. Villeins who happened to be along the est castle. They obtained permission shelling —by road stepped respectfully to one side and watched out a handful of silver deniers to tie up to the — with mouths agape as they went by. By the time funny little quay beside the toll tower at the they reached the summit of the hill and turned river’s edge. It was a detached outwork, for the toward the castle on the plain ahead, they saw castle itself stood on a low plateau inland about that a great crowd, warned by the runners who half a mile and some several hundred feet above had dashed on ahead, had gathered by the gate in the water. Tomorrow they would have to beard the barbican to await their coming. its baron in his den and induce him to be their The weird, outlandish procession was headed by patron. Somewhere, sometime, they would in- Barry and Maverick, riding abreast, flanked on evitably have to have a terminal where they could either side by a giant Nubian. The Nubians car- erect a warehouse. It seemed that this was the ried what to local inhabitants were queerly bent place, and the time was now. There was no choice tubes of shiny gold having some resemblance to about it. their hunting horns. After the leaders came the three pack animals, each loaded to capacity, the The four ate their supper in a subdued mood, last one bearing panniers from which protruded each thinking in his own fashion of the changed strange comestibles—loaves of bread, corn pone, situation that lay ahead. It was not that they were stalks of celery, and other things. Behind them downhearted, for men of their breed seldom get came three more of the Nubian musicians, again that way. They were merely thoughtful. After walking abreast, the middle one having a horn the coffee, Barry broke out the bottles and quietly stranger even than the others, shaped like a mal- filled the glasses around. formed gourd, and cluttered with silver wires and "Oh, well,” he said, “here are. we Now, let’s disks. The one on the right carried several bar- see—” baric drums, slung on a rope about his neck, while It was pitch dark outside by then, and the black the left-hand man bore a Gargantuan viol on his mass of turreted Capdur chateau loomed unblink- back. Last of all came another black leading a ANACHRON, INC. 71 magnificent Hereford steer, the like of which no. They merged into the bailey, or outer ward, a Frenchman had ever seen, since it was taller and huge courtyard bustling with activity. It stank fatter by far than the best of their own scrawny of manure, unwashed humanity and the smell of breeds. And alongside him marched the ultimate burning wood—a not altogether unpleasant com- Nubian, whose studied dignity was considerably bination, for in addition to the stables and black- impaired by having to break ranks from time to smith shop and the mews where the hawks and time to bring back to the fold one or the other of falcons were kept, there was a big communal oven the three stately turkey gobblers he was shep- and an open ditch filled with fire over which the herding. spitted carcasses of pigs and sheep were being Thirty paces before the gate, the procession roasted. Chickens and peacocks and hogs roamed halted. Barry lifted a finger and the two fore- the inclosure, pecking or rooting among the or- most musicians stepped forward and raised their dure piles; naked children played amongst them, bizarre instruments to their lips. They sounded stopping only long enough to stare with their a wondrous fanfare, shifting uncannily from key amazed elders at the strange procession passing to key in flat defiance of all known laws of hornry. through. Just before the final grand flourish, the trumpeter Barry led on, since still no one had appeared sang out a long, sustained thin note while his to greet them or to bar their way. The farther squirming mate ripped off a sequence of rasping wall of the bailey was the outer wall of the castle trombone tears. If Old French lacked the equiva- proper, higher and stronger than the first wall and lent of the word “wow” until then, those present better turreted. It, too, was guarded by a moat, invented it on the spot. Never had there been but again the drawbridge was down and the way such trumpeters; not even had the king himself open. The surly porter lounged against the stone had such, when he came to Capdur two years portal, but made no move to stop them. So they before. entered the great paved court of the castle, mules, The fanfares over, the procession moved on. steer, turkeys and all. And there they were met The crowd at the gate opened a lane for them, by a flustered squire. His master wanted to know and since no one impeded, they went on through. the meaning of the astonishing fanfare of trum- Barry glanced at the crude stockade of pointed pets that had heralded their approach. Were they, tree trunks and made the mental note that its perchance, gentry incog, or the mere merchants purpose would be served as well or better by they seemed to be? cyclone fencing. He must order a few thousand “Both,” said Barry, calmly, with a touch of

lineal feet of it. And then, as they crossed the hauteur. “In the land of Terra Occidentalis the tilting ground, he studied the battlements of the merchants are the gentry. We are skilled in the outer wall of the castle with a professional eye. arts and sciences and the use of weapons, and He looked at the towers and their embrasures and are not to be treated lightly. But we are come the moat of stinking, stagnant water that made as friends, to pay our respects to the baron, and them hard to get at. Instantly he conceived the we have gifts for him, his lady, and his house- proper mode of attack. Instead of the cumber- hold. Pray inform him.” some befiroi towers which besiegers built and The squire surveyed the halted cavalcade and pushed forward in order to top the walls and span looked troubled. It was something for which the moat, he would employ a modified version of there lacked precedent. So he bowed stiffly and the standard hook-and-ladder fire wagon. An begged them to remain where they were; then armored cowl would do the trick, with a hatch in scurried away to fetch the baron in person. Barry the carapace through which a swiftly extensible and Maverick dismounted, as etiquette demanded, ladder could be upreared. It would be a cinch to await their host. to get a foothold on the walls with a few such The Sieur de Capdur was a mountain of a man, vehicles. of dark complexion and beetling brow, but though The drawbridge was down, the portcullis up, he had the arrogance born of a lifetime of undis- and the gates open. So they clattered across the puted command, there was a rough-and-ready jo- bridge and under the gloomy arch. Again Barry’s viality about him that was appealing. He brushed inventive mind was running away with him. In- away the formalities of greetings with a brusque stead of the clumsy timbers of the bridge, sus- question. pended by heavy, rusty chains, he would substi- “You have presents for me?” he asked, getting tute a light bascule span of duraluminum, coun- straight to business; “fine,” and he looked ap- terweighted so that a boy could operate it by praisingly at the laden donkeys. His lady, the grinding a crank. He wondered whether there slender and fair Yvonne, joined him with a group was any chance of selling the medievals the idea of maids, and in his train had come the gaunt old of standardized sizes. At any rate, his next requi- seneschal, his marshal of horse, his provost, and sition on Kilmer would contain a number of curi- other officials of the house. They gathered eagerly ous recommendations. about the newcomers in a semicircle, backed by :

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the small fry of the chateau who had crowded tion to the materials for stuffing, cleavers, roasters, in from the bailey and were craning from behind. grills and other accessories. Merchants from afar did not often stop at Capdur; it promised to be a gala day. The ceremony of presentation took up the whole “O. K. said Barry, “I’ll be Santa Claus,” and of the morning. Both Barry and Maverick were he began undoing bundles. Meanwhile the Nu- busy dishing out the gifts, and demonstrating bians in the rear had brought up the animals, their uses when necessary. They dealt them out which Maverick presented with a flourish. The in fair rotation, allowing each givee ample time steer received unstinted admiration, but it was the to play with his new acquisition before swamp- gobblers that aroused the greatest delight. ing him with another, but the distribution ran so “What bee-yootiful pheasants!” chortled Lady To the Sieur de Capdur: a pair of ten-power, Yvonne, as one of the creatures strutted past, ruf- prismatic binoculars in a handsome carrying case; fling its tail and grumbling in its craw. the mate to friend Grospied’s drinking mug; a “Turkeys, lady,” corrected Maverick, “and roulette wheel and folding layout, together with they’re good to eat. We brought along our chef an adequate supply of chips; two bottles of Ba- and the fixin’s so you won’t go wrong on how to cardi rum with silver-handled corkscrew; and do them.” Whereupon the herders of the beef and lastly but not least, a homemade slot machine turkeys, and the leader of the third ass, at a sig- built by Parker to while the time away. It was nal from Maverick, made off toward the bailey a thing not on the Control Board’s approved list, to prepare the evening meal. They had, in addi- but the Sieur de Capdur didn’t know that. For ANACHRON, INC. 73

his part, all barriers were down when he learned guinea pigs were nervous at first, but as they were that a quarter of the take went to the house. released, one by one, they broke into loud guffaws. “Zounds!” he roared, “my fief holders wail about It was a grand idea and all approved. Not a few the taxes. We shall have their taxes, O wise mer- of them had seen fetters put on hot and hammered chant, and place one of these machines in every to fit the wrist by the blacksmith with his maul. hamlet of our domain. ’Twill have the same effect, From any point of view, lockable ratchet hand- or better, if I know the varlets, and reduce the cuffs were the thing—swift, sure, and painless. volume of their bellyaching.” There were a multitude of minor presents—hoes “Truly,” said Barry, winking knowingly, and and rakes for the gardener; a breast drill and bits then went on with his distribution of gifts. for the armorer; a set of silver—including forks To the Lady Yvonne, who had had a chair —for the chateau table; an acetylene bicycle lamp brought, and was sitting among a cluster of twit- for the warder making his rounds; a pair of clip- tering doncelles, he presented first a five-pound pers for the barber. There was a gross of paraffin box of assorted chocolates and bon-bons. She fon- candles, and a few cartons of matches. A box of dled the glistening box uncertainly, until he rudely assorted ground spices were for the kitchen, in- broke the precious cellophane wrappings and ex- cluding curry and chile powder as well as the rare posed the contents. Amid a chorus of oohing and spices already known, such as pepper and cin- ahing they sampled them. Chocolates and cocoanut namon. were unknown to them, and sugar only as a nov- The baron melted. Had he the possession of elty, horribly expensive and in crude lump form, as Aladdin’s lamp he could not have wished for such brought back from the Levant by the crusaders. treasures. The Lady Yvonne was in the seventh When the excitement over that died down, Barry heaven. In addition to the gewgaws and confec- passed out hand mirrors—a tremendous advance tions earlier presented, she now had a bolt of cot- over the polished bits of silver they had been ton sheeting, and many ten-yard strips of print using—lipstick, rice powder, and perfumes in fabric in a variety of colors and designs—not to crazy little ornate bottles. To the maids in wait- mention the gorgeous pair of rayon pajamas of ing Barry gave quantities of costume jewelry of orchid hue. the five-and-ten grade, but enormously attractive, “Ho! Enough!” bellowed the baron, wheeling nevertheless. and raising his hand. “Summon my trumpeters, There were presents for all. The Quixotish summon my couriers, saddle the horses. Hear ye!” seneschal, a hungry-looking seven-footer with a Messengers scurried from the court, the rabble drooping mustache and limp beard, and who was gathered up closer. Something was in the air. charged with the defense of the castle, received Barry wondered what. a brace of Pyrene fire extinguishers and a super- “Master Provost,” roared the Sieur de Capdur, arbalest. It was an improved crossbow of Anach- “notify all my gentry and fiefs, and the neighbor- ron design, whose bow was a piece of high- ing abbots as well, that I, the lord of Capdur, have grade spring steel and whose spring was fine piano as my protege the veritable prince of merchants. wire, jerked into firing position by a single mo- We shall hold festival here for the week to come, tion of the cocking lever. It far surpassed the and thereafter go in state to our market town of slow and clumsy jacks of the contemporary ar- St. Guy du Nord and there hold market until it balest. The baron had an oaken target set up and is our pleasure to cease. Tell the knights of the Barry clumped eight bolts into the bull’s-eye manor also that they shall furnish such asses, within the space of a minute. mules and other animals as these, my friends, shall “Marry,” exclaimed the Sieur de Capdur, “and find needful to convey their wares to St. Guy, and had we twelve score of those we would soon drive that without fee or charge. It is in my service. the accursed English into the sea.” You have heard. Let it be so done.” “Did you say twelve score, sir?” asked Mav- Barry sighed a deep sigh of relief. It was done. erick, whipping out his order book. “A livre each He had a market, transportation, protection, and

is the price, sir, which includes a bag of fifty a noble’s favor. Then he saw the beetle-browed quarrels.” baron bearing down on him, scowling fiercely. Barry ignored the sideplay and went ahead with “That’s that,” growled the baron. “Let’s eat.” his Santa Claus act. The chaplain was looking on with a hungry air, so to him he gave a folding Throughout the remainder of that hectic day, reed organ for his chapel, and a ream of good Barry and Maverick maintained their composure. bond paper with pen and ink and blotter. To the They got through the midday meal somehow. It marshal he gave a currycomb; to the provost a was Barry’s fate to be seated beside a gay little pair of adjustable handcuffs with key. The lat- doncelle and share her plate with her. He taught ter gift created quite a stir, since^the provost her the technique of the fork, but found her odor promptly went out into the gaping crowd and strangely disturbing. At length he reached into began trying them on villeins of various size. His his pocket and produced an oval cake of scented 74 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

soap—an act that might have given offense in a Occidentale; and the prize beef, instead of being more sophisticated age—and handed it to her. She barbecued in hunks, had been neatly dissected into bit at it tentatively, but he stopped her and as- sirloins and porterhouses and roasts of manage-

sured her it was not the confection it appeared able size. Later, they passed around the candy, to be, and told her of its proper applications. She bananas, oranges and rum, and sat until dark was most grateful. warned them that it was bedtime. The traders, The Nubian quintette had sounded off. They having seen the musty feather mattresses between had been fed earlier and were in fine fettle. Dur- pairs of which the castle people slept four in a ing the meal they restrained themselves admira- bed, declined the invitation to spend the night. bly, but the moment it was over and the novel Back aboard their cog. Maverick spilled a small candies had been passed around, they cut loose. mountain of coins on the cabin table.

From dreamy waltzes they sheered suddenly to “Not bad,” he murmured. “Let’s see . . . our improvisations of their own. It wasn’t jazz, nor presents invoiced three hundred odd trade-dollars

swing blues, it partook of all of them. . . . this stuff comes to over five . . hun- yet or but . v two The day being warm, the meal had been served in dred net profit in cash.” the court, and shortly all hands were up and gam- “Plus favors,” added Barry, yawning. Then he boling about to the ravishing strains of the music. sent off a crisp report to Kilmer, ordered two more And as the towering black slapped his doghouse cog loads of stuff from Isla Occidentalis, and went and the sax artist went to town, the denizens of to bed. the castle let go. From lady to scullion they pranced on the flags, squirming in utter abandon. The period of festivities passed rapidly. Barry The knights and squires were not so quick to set up a booth on the jousting field and sold to catch the idea, but once they got it they went all all comers at prices as high as the traffic would out and capered to the throbbing tempo of the bear. The amount of money they took in was em- drums and sobbing sax in a manner appropriate barrassing, since it was not money they wanted, to its wild rhythm. It was, in short, a riot. but select produce of the times. However, they But it could not go on forever, for all hands managed to pull several bits of good barter—Barry were anxious to gloat over their treasures. The traded a second pair of binoculars to the Comte Sieur de Capdur dragged Barry up the tortuous de Boisblanc for a good Ceylon ruby, a string of and tricky steps of the inner keep for a view of pearls, and a richly ornamented and bejeweled the countryside through his miraculous binocu- scimitar that was a trophy of the last crusade. lars. The seneschal and the provost came too, but The women were glad to swap their crude hand- the latter soon went bounding the stairs, yelling made laces for the niftier rayon from Occidentalis, for his horse and men-at-arms. They had spotted while old paintings and bits of wood carving were a gang of rogues squatting about a fire in a copse considered cheap pay for the marvelous aluminum on a hilltop a couple of miles away. Capdur was pots and pans. The biggest coup of the week oc- enormously pleased, and promised Barry a good curred when Barry induced three impoverished show as an added reward—a mass hanging. On knights to form a well-drilling company. To them the way down he showed him his prison cells in he rented the single mule-powered drill rig he the basement of the tower, where a handful of had, and sold them a quantity of pipe and a stock emaciated wretches languished in their fetters. farm windmill, easily assembled. They planned to The stench of the place was terrible, especially drill their initial well in the inner court of Capdur near the black hole that gave access to the oubli- —which had been taken in siege once due to the ette. A few barrels of chloride of lime would exhaustion of its water supply—and to mount the help, Barry decided, and promised the hangman windmill atop the keep. Barry showed them how —who had been previously overlooked—that they to use a walking beam to offset the pumping rod’s would be sent up on the morrow. action. The remainder of the day was spent in demon- Toward the expiration of the time, Barry left strating the gentle game of roulette, which Mav- Maverick to mop up at the castle, while he set erick banked, Capdur was a little crestfallen at out for St. Guy with a train of twenty mules and seeing the livres and deniers being raked away a group of their slaves. He wanted to have his to fall into a foreign purse, but he consoled him- booths installed before the party of nobility ar- self with the thought that hereafter the privilege rived. of banker would be his. The mathematics of the St. Guy was but thirty miles away, but it took double-zero wheel were not clear to him, but the him four days to make it, cursing the so-called practical results were. He must entertain oftener road fervently at every slogging step. It chanced hereafter. to rain the night before his departure, and the Supper was held within the great hall of the rough trail was a bottomless slough of mud. baron’s residence, and proved to be the biggest Often they had to strip the nearby woods of event of the day. There was roast turkey, a la branches and corduroy the road to keep the mules ANACHRON, INC, 75

from miring up to their bellies. Having made but in a central square, the tall houses were of tim- five miles the first day, Barry sent off a message ber and built close together. Between ran dark, to Clarkson asking for a heavy road plow, a noisome alleys, forever a mass of gooey mud, for grader, ten scrapers, and all the vitrified pipe he they were unpaved and the sunlight rarely reached had on hand. If St. Guy was to be their future them as each successive upper floor of the houses market place, it must have negotiable roads lead- stuck out beyond those below until the upper- ing to it. most floors almost touched across the lane. It was By the third day the roads had dried except for not needful that there be rain to keep them muddy, an occasional hog wallow in the fiats. Barry was for the downpour of slops from upper windows riding along, deeply immersed in thought and not supplied abundant moisture. even heeding the raucous chatter of the parrot “Damn,” yelped Barry, as he turned into the which hung in its cage from his saddle bow. Sud- tortuous canyon that led to the clothmakers’ guild. denly, before he was aware of danger, a rough- Someone above had dumped a gallon of dishwater, looking gang of men, garbed as friars, but armed and most of it went down his neck. He stopped with quarter staves, spears and swords, sprang out his string of animals in their tracks and put the of the brush. The caravan was outnumbered and Nubians to breaking open a box. Then they pro- surrounded. The big ruffian who headed them ceeded, everyone more secure under the shelter of brandished a wicked battle-ax and informed his dollar-grade umbrella. Barry had planned to Barry in a hoarse voice that he was come to col- sell them at twelve deniers each, but now he knew lect toll for the bishop of—mumbled—diocese. that he could get at least a livre for them from the Barry dismounted cautiously, planning to spring approaching silk-clad nobility. the jujitsu trick the occasion called for, when he thought of the bird. If his reception had been dank and cheerless, he “Sick ’em, Polly,” he hissed, knowing something quickly found there was worse to come. St. Guy would result, though not exactly what. was a market town, not a fair town, and as such Polly responded nobly. She had spent the after- was ruled by the guilds, each fiercely jealous of noon rattling off her repertoire, including the new each other and all outsiders. There was not a foot sequences of barker spiels Barry had taught her of space in the town for rent or sale, so that he for use at the fair, and had come to the end of had perforce to deal with the guilds. And they her list of beneficent prayers. Now she launched not only collected what amounted to blackmail into invective, and it was not the invective of cor- for the use of their stalls, but forced him to scat- sairs, but of the cloth. ter his exhibits. Only ironware could be sold in “Avaunt, fiends and impostors!” she screamed, the blacksmiths’ quarter; only silk, cotton, linen ruffling her feathers and beating on the bars with and woolen goods in the clothiers’ district. Cat- her wings. “Back—to the gloomy depths of hell tle had to be sold in the cattle market outside the whence you come ” and then poured forth the town, while the bulk of his wares defied classifi- sonorous Latin phrases for the exorcism of evil cation. His aluminum kitchen utensils, for ex- spirits, winding up with an all-embracing, awe- ample, were denied by the smiths, who said they inspiring curse that worked backward and for- were of precious metal and could only be sold ward unto the nth generation. It invoked lep- by silversmiths. But the head of the goldsmiths’ rosy, boils, the choicest samples of the hangman’s guild hefted the pans and ponderously announced art of torturq, starvation, thirst and eventual hope- that no metal so light could possibly be precious.

less damnation. And as the last withering words They were barred, that was all; they did not fit hurtled forth, the bandits tore their false frocks the traditions of St. Guy, and St. Guy was a place from them and fell beseechingly on their faces. of venerable traditions. It was a fearful portent when a bird of the air Barry had other bad news. Though St. Guy spoke with the tongue of priests. had been founded by a charter granted by an an- “Ye have heard,” said Barry sternly. “Begone cestor of the present Sieur de Capdur, it had and repent, lest the curse come true to the utter- fallen under the iron hand of the abbot of the most word.” neighboring monastery of St. Guy du Nord. It Then there was a flash of pink as the hoodlums was he—the pious elder known as the Incorruptible vanished into the thicket, and the placed Nubians —who collected the grievous taxes on all com- began picking up their discarded clothes and modities sold, and those were in addition to the weapons. exactions of the guilds themselves. Barry saw “Good Polly,” murmured Barry, and jogged his his profits go aglimmering, and was further en- mount into motion with a dig of the heels. raged to learn that friars and monks of any order, St. Guy was a bitter disappointment. It was whether local or otherwise, were tax exempt a walled town of five thousand souls, but so closely throughout the land. And since the many transit built that it was scarely a thousand paces from taxes amounted to most of the value of the goods, wall to wall. Except for the church, which sat that alone put him at a terrific disadvantage. His ” ”

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plans for setting up a central depot at St. Guy “Did it work?” asked Barry grimly, looking at were knocked in the head, for Capdur’s favor ex- his bunged-up partner. tended no farther than the borders of his domain. “Lissen. We were strung out along the edge of He pondered those considerations, and the ad- the woods; all the knights and squires and their ditional fact that of the army of peddlers who ladies were there, and their retainers. They had volunteered to vend his wares throughout the spears and swords and bows and arrows, and also kingdoms of Europe, with few exceptions ap- hawks and falcons. They were ready for anything.

peared to be shifty-eyed rascals whom he dared Almost, that is. Well, the howling got louder, not trust out of his sight. He shuddered to think and we could hear plenty of crashing in the brush. of what Credit would say should he hand over Then things began coming out— thousands of trade-dollars’ worth of merchandise “What kind of things?” to them to vend on no more than their bare prom- “Oh, everything—woodchoppers, boars, game ise to come back some day and split the profits. wardens, stags and does, snakes, wild cats, poach-

There were no bonding companies in that good ers, pheasants, rabbits . . . you know, just about year, and what references were offered were oral, all the fauna there was in there. They kept com- vague, and invariably referred to some obscure ing, wave on wave, and then— nobleman on the other side of Christendom. Barry “Yes, yes! And then?” was wrestling “That’s all, I guess,” said j with the problem while he stood Maverick ruefully. “I over the counter in the leather goods quarter ; buf- got trampled, I tell you. It was about dark falo robes and coonskin coats were going big, and when I came to and helped some of the others were showing a big profit despite handicaps—for home. Yvonne is in bed, and pretty sore, and as

the buffalo hides had been bought by Anachron at for the baron . . . well, the hunt was pretty much half a dollar each by a buyer sent to Fort Dodge of a flop in some respects.” After that he added of the ’70s for the express purpose. The knights hopefully, “We did turn out the game, though, gladly exchanged their commonplace ermines and didn’t we? That’s what he said he wanted.” sables for the novel furs. And as he wrestled, he became aware of a commotion in the crowd and Barry snorted. Things weren’t getting better saw Maverick approaching. His pal looked rather fast. He saw clearly then that he would never the worse for wear, since his face was a mass of get anywhere unless he made a deal with the scratches and he carried one arm in a sling and Church, and since the incorruptible abbot of St. walked with a pronounced limp. Guy du Nord showed no sign of coming to him, “Now what?” was Barry’s greeting. and it was now impossible to send Maverick, he must go to the monastery himself. So he turned “I got trampled,” said Maverick, with a little the local business over to Maverick; and set out foolish smile. “We went hunting.” across the valley to where the castlelike convent “Huh?” stood. “It was this way. A few nights ago the baron He paused for a short time at the north gate pulled a big party, and had me provide the eats, of the town, where comestibles were being sold drinks, and noisemakers. had some, you know We by one of his subcontractors, a young squire ratchets, whistles, tin horns, all that New Year’s — named Phillipe. Business in that quarter was ex- Eve stuff and I threw in a pair of hand-operated — cellent, for the hamburger and hotdog stand was Klaxons, and a few of those siren howlers thati surrounded by deep ranks of clamoring burghers. Clarkson told us had been designed for ancient Hot roasted peanuts and buttered popcorn, pink war chariots. Well, they made a hit. Brother lemonade and orange juice were going well. The Capdur got high and spent most of the evening cook, looking strangely unknightly in his high grinding the crank on the siren he had. It almost white chef’s bonnet, told him that the last of the got him excommunicated, ’cause the people out- canned goods had gone the day before. Once the side the castle heard it and ran off to the nearest barons understood their nature, they bought them sanctuary swearing the devil all his fiends had and by the score of mule loads, stocking their donjons over taken and were holding high jinks inside.” against the days of siege. Barry requisitioned from “That’s bad,” said Barry, but he grinned, never- him the six fat Jersey cows that had been keeping theless. “Go on.” the soda fountain supplied, and added them to his “Well, the next morning the baron had a brain- mule train of things designed to impress the throb. He has a hunting preserve up in the hills, crusty old abbot. The convent of St. Guy was and complained his beaters were a lazy, rascally noted for its cheeses—among other things—and lot and rarely made enough noise to scare out Barry was convinced that his six cows would out- more than one boar and a stag or so on even the produce all its skinny herds. biggest hunts. He wanted to know why the. sirens As he rode through the monastery lands, he was wouldn’t jump up more game. So I sold him all struck by the superior condition of the fields, and we had, and they sent the beaters off with them.” noted that the monks were far better laborers than ANACHRON, INC. 77

the baronial serfs. He already knew that they tively of selling a batch of tear gas as an unlethal were excellent traders. So, with strengthened re- means of conquest, but on reflection decided to solve, he went on. postpone that. There was always the Control Once he was within the grim outer walls, having Board to think of, and Barry figured he had trou- passed the inevitable moat and drawbridge, the ble enough without running foul of them. Indeed, place looked more like the cloisters it was than he had the uneasy feeling that he had already cut a military stronghold, though the prior who met a few corners—like that slot machine and Mav- him bore himself like a soldier and wore the scars erick’s weird boar hunt. of battle. Barry was interested to learn that he He had his mules unpacked and spread the was a veteran of a number of campaigns, his favor- wares out. The cows were to be presents, but ite weapon being a heavy mace. the rest of the material was for sale, though at “I like the mace,” he explained, “and it gets not unreasonable prices. There was a steel plow around the cardinal’s order that we live not by and harvesting machine, a blacksmith’s forge with the sword. When you swat a knight with an iron hand-operated blower, together with four bags of club, you don’t kill him as a rule—you just knock coke. The choicest bit of merchandise he had him cold. And a vanquished knight is worth more along was a pedal-operated job press, complete alive than dead. We’ve expanded our holdings a with ink, suitable fonts of type and other printer’s great deal by taking lands for ransom.” accessories. Two mule loads of good paper com- “Neat,” complimented Barry. He examined the pleted the cargo. The prior’s eyes widened when prior’s battle club and decided that not even the press was set up and put to work. “ Anachron could improve on it. He thought tenta- “Verily,” he exclaimed. ’Twill seem a miracle ” ”

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when we send out many copies of surpassing even- to that effect, and he spends all his time these ness and each as like the other as grains of wheat. days mooning about the cloisters, thinking of the I must bring the abbot. He will reward you as miracle that will come about when the yokels per- befitting, without a doubt.” form their pilgrimage to look upon him and see The interview with the abbot dashed all Barry’s that he rotteth not. It will insure his beatifi-

hopes. He was an old man—incredibly old and cation, and . . . . . St. on the uh . put Guy’s lank—with piercing blue eyes and imperious map, as it were.” hawked nose. His attitude was one of cold sour- “Hm-m-m,” mused Barry, thoughtfully, “maybe ness, and he spoke in biting monosyllables, the you’ve got something there. Is the old boy in commonest of which was the little word “no.” good health?” When the Incorruptible uttered it, it had a chill “No. He has flutterings in the breast, great finality that was unchallengeable. The substance pain, and at such times he falls as if dead. He of the talk ran thus: may be taken to his Maker on any day. Then we “Yes, the cows were fine animals, comely and shall see whether he is truly incorruptible.” The milksome . . . but St. Guy accepted favors from prior sighed. It was quite evident that his piety no man, only the tithes and just taxes that were did not include so embracing a miracle. He had

its due . . . the cows would be paid for in their seen many men die in his long and busy life, and own weight in cheeses of Brie and the finer ones not all of them were bad men. Not one had been of St. Guy. The book-copying machine was wel- incorruptible in the fleshly sense. Neither mag- come, as was the fine paper that came with it, but gots nor carrion crows were respecters of their it, too, would be paid for, and justly. So, like- clay. Dead men had best be buried. wise, for the farm implements. No, the abbot could “Ah,” pursued Barry. “If his stuffiness kicks not countenance his monks engaging in common the bucket and the miracle doesn’t come off, that trade, nor would be grant a charter for a store- leaves you holding the bag as his successor—the house in his domain.” abbot of a third-rate monastery and the goat for The vinegary old man rose and abruptly left a miracle that misfired.” the room. His prior smiled sadly, then sent lesser “Something like that,” said the prior morosely. monks scurrying to find the wherewithal to pay Then he studied Barry with greater interest. for the new treasures. In time they returned, lug- “Four of our brothers returned yesterday from ging carved statues, delicately embroidered altar Capdur, where they saw matters of your con- cloths of fine linen, and delightfully wrought sil- trivance that smack of miracles. Or perchance, ver basins and ewers. Leathern flasks containing of wizardry, though I would prefer not to raise a “tonic” brewed from herbs were brought. The that question in an hour of trial. A practical abbot rolled bundles they carried proved to be tapestries will not look a gift miracle in the mouth, if you of rare workmanship, the largest of them six feet know what I mean, providing his face is saved. wide and nearly a hundred feet in length. Barry We have to think of form, after all. Now, touch- gazed upon them, with no show of enthusiasm, ing upon your request for a charter for a trading though he knew they would be appraised high up guild to employ those of our cloth who yearn for in the thousands up home. Any mule load that pilgrimages to far markets, would it be possible he might take away from the convent was worth for you—in the event of the calamity of our the cargo of a cog, and he should jiave been well worthy superior’s death, and in the event that the content with the deal. But what rankled was heralded miracle did not take place— that what he wanted was to establish a year-round “Would I step in and make it so?” laughed fair run on department-store lines, under his own Barry. “I wouldn’t know offhand; ’tis a matter exclusive direction so that he could provide a for contemplation and the searching for guidance. secret direct shuttle terminus in an inner com- In Occidentalis we deal neither with true miracles partment to take part of the load off the slow nor yet sorcery. Our god is Science, whose ways cogs. He also wanted to recruit a host of wander- are plainly understandable to the initiated— ing salesmen wearing the smocks of friars in order “Yes, yes, I know,” remarked the prior irritably, to escape the crushing burden of taxation at every “spare me your sophistries. We are both men ac- turn. None of that he got. quainted with inner mysteries, and methinks need not spar with one another, howe’er much we cozen “Too bad,” commiserated the prior, whom Barry our flocks. Now, as I was saying—if the unto- was beginning to perceive was a man of parts, ward events I fear come to pass, would you help "but that’s what comes of being incorruptible. me? We sorely need a fresh miracle hereabouts, It makes one hard to deal with. My most rev- and I am not unmindful of the strange lamp you erend superior is quite convinced of his incor- gave the seneschal of Capdur which burns with ruptibility. So much so that he has had a special a hot white fire from wetted gray rocks. Nor chapel built to house his remains after his soul forgetful of the marvelous moon metal that looks has departed this flesh. Lately he has had visions like silver but is light as air, nor the other mar- —

ANACHRON, INC. 79 vels of your bringing. We have both much to The road back to Capdur was dreary. Barry gain by working together.” did not take the same interest he took on the “I’ll see what Science can do,” promised Barry, other journey. On those first days he had been with considerable mental reservation. He knew keenly absorbed in planning how to lift it over that Science could do the trick. What he didn’t the flats, stick culverts under, and ditch along the know was what the Control Board would do about sides. But that dirt work would probably never

it. Or rather, he was quite certain Control would be done now, though his road-making machines slap him down, for the rule book said definitely were on order. And the Capdur-St. Guy road was that certain things were not available for the Mid- to have been but a beginning, a pilot road, so to dle Ages. Belief in the supernatural was too speak. It was his intention to organize a com- strong to hope to explain some things away by pany to spread the gospel, much along the lines pure reason. of his well-drilling crew. All shot! Barry made his departure and went back to the The road wound closer to the fields of the con- town. As he rode, he made up his mind what to vent of St. Guy du Nord than he had remembered. do. There was so much to be gained by helping He glimpsed its gray walls once, through a rift the prior in his coming dilemma, that he felt jus- in the trees, and his ear caught the dull clang of tified in going out on the limb all the way. So tolling bells. He noticed then that the fields were he twisted his ring and sent off a message to deserted, and wondered if the Incorruptible had died. Clarkson at the base. And then a couple of solemn-faced friars, riding asses, came out of an abutting lane and Rush me by fastest vessel the glass case you keep asked if they might join his company. He said with fresh fish in; also the refrigeration unit that goes they might, and asked the news. it. Must have it for coffin of saint elect. “Alas, the good abbot of St. Guy is dead, though we who are left to carry on should rejoice, for Barry was in town and bringing Maverick up we carry news abroad of the great miracle that to date on events when the tingling of his finger has come to pass. His prior has assumed the apprised him that Clarkson’s answer was com- abbotship and laid the Incorruptible in the chapel ing through. But the message was not from the builded for his resting place. Even now the new island storekeeper; it was from Kilmer himself, abbot is kneeling in supplication to our patron hot and to the point. Clarkson must have had a saint, the good St. Guy of the Northland, to in- chill in the feet and referred the latest order up- voke his assistance in the matter.” stairs. Kilmer’s message ran; “I can well believe it,” remarked Barry, dryly,

You’re fired. Turn management over to Maverick and remembering that the same prior had only the return at once with what merchandise you have acquired. day before made similar supplication to him. “But too much is too much. We want I am a patient man, but tell me, who was St. Guy du Nord and what was a depot established and a native sales force; instead he famous for? Martyrdom of sore sort, I pre- you’ve been having a swell time playing miracle man. sume, since I have noticed that the various Nuts. Kilmer. statues of him always lack hands and feet.” “Nuts to you,” muttered Barry. Then the vision “For an unbeliever from the mythical land of the inhospitable wastes of New York flashed across the sea,” answered the monk, “you are ob- upon him, and the endless queues of jobseekers servant above the run. The holy man was indeed and the other dreary features of being unem- a martyr—a stern one, and his intercession is not ployed. He didn’t mind being hauled onto the lightly obtained.” carpet for insubordination and taking a chance Barry rode on in silence, listening with bowed or wouldn’t have, if the chance had worked out. head while the more talkative of the pair of monks What burned him up was that his scheme was unreeled the long-winded tale of the doings of nipped in the bud. If only Clarkson had been their patron. Guy was a poor parish priest of a good sport enough to ship the butcher’s showcase, hamlet near the Seine, several centuries before. and the pious galoot styling himself the Incor- One year the Norse Vikings came to ravish the ruptible had died promptly—then he would have country, and when they went away, they carried had the local trade situation by the tail. As mat- off many prisoners and hostages. Guy was among ters stood, he was being tossed out for incompe- them. But Guy was a man who knew not sur- tence—the one accusation that Barry could not render. He preached the doctrines for which he stand. stood throughout the North Countries with the "Well, Mav, it looks as if she’s all yours,” he result that he brought many of the fair-haired said with a bleak smile. “I’ll toddle along back barbarians around to seeing the light. He lived to to the ships—then home to get the ax.’’ a ripe old age; long enough to see many tribes “S’long, kid,” said Maverick, shaking hands, “but converted to his creed. But the cost was the loss don’t take it hard. I have a hunch I’ll be only a of his hands and feet. The bitter winters of Lap- week or so behind you. Good luck.” land took their toll in frostbite. In that, and in I

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his long exile, lay the basis of his martyrdom. of the doors were removed and carefully packed “Hm-m-m,” murmured Barry. And his mind for muleback transportation, while in another box slipped out of the grinding low gear it had been a number of the enameled white plates and fas- turning over sluggishly in and slipped into high. tenings were put. The tubing and refrigeration He thought fast and hard. A little later he was units were also packed, together with spare stabbing at his ring, having set the power to short- lengths and fittings. After that Barry found some distance transmission only, trying to tune in on brass sheets, selected a small hammer, and then Maverick. At the same time he whipped up his went topside to the cabin. For some hours there- mules. after the ship resounded with the steady tapping of the hammer. Go over to the monastery tomorrow afternoon and It was near to dawn when Barry found time have a sniff at the late abbot. I’m curious. to go out onto the quay and examine the loads he had brought And having sent that, he forced his train into down with him the night before. One box was of about the dimensions of a coffin, the best speed it could maintain. By nightfall and the next day he was wending his way past Cap- that one he robbed of its lid. Inside it was a stiff figure carved solid oak, dur’s gates and down the hill to where the ships from a bit of the handi- work of the of of Anachron lay. It was then that Maverick’s an- monks St. Guy—it was no other than effigy swer bit him in the knuckle. an of the holy man himself. Barry lifted it from its container and carried it Inside.

It’s hot. Phew / Likewise phew —the late lamented’s Thereafter a listener might have heard the sound virtues appear to have been exaggerated. Prior worried. of steel bits gnawing into wood and then another Keeps asking for you. What do? shower of hammer taps. After that all the noises were stilled except those made by the Nubian crew Barry back to Maverick: as they nailed up the final boxes and fastened

Shu-usht Not a word of this goes higher, but tell them to the packsaddles. the new abbot to hang on and have faith. I’m working Barry chose Dilly to captain him home, leaving on it. Don’t worry about being canned. I’ll take the rap the empty cattleboat to the protection of their for both of us. patron Capdur. He wanted Parker, who alone knew all the details of the plan, to carry the Maverick to Barry: miracle-making equipment to Maverick. So Par- Who’s worried? If you can’t talk yourself back onto ker departed at dawn, shepherding a train of the job, they can have mine, too—to hell with ’em. Your sturdy mules, and Barry waited on the quay while pal. the blacks stowed his plunder aboard. * There were bags of coins, most of them gold; priceless tapes- Over supper that night Barry and Parker talked tries, ecclesiastical statuary, and many other items ways and means. Parker had been around longer of value to the home world, but Barry knew that than Barry had and was deferred to in some of they were not enough. Anachron wanted things his opinions. done on a big scale. And then the ship cast off “I think,” said the young mariner, scratching and slipped down the river. Barry ate a belated his head, “that you’re plain crazy—and that abbot, breakfast, after which he sent a curt message to too. Control is right; these old dodos that run Kilmer that he was on the way. this country can’t savvy modern refrigeration. A week later, having had favoring winds all the You’d better call all bets off and go up home and way, the cog lifted the snowy walls of Isla Occi- try to square yourself with Kilmer. Even if he dentalis. Only one message had come from Mav- cans you like he says, it won’t be as hard to take erick during that time, and that but an hour be- as being burned at the stake. And don’t forget, fore. It was laconic to the point of exasperation: if they roast you, they’ll likely roast the lot of us.” Everything lovely so far. Pilgrims flocking here, many There followed half an hour of impassioned plea converts. A cardinal, two archbishops, and a whole flock of bishops on the way to check on authenticity. Keep by Barry before Parker finally could be brought your fingers crossed. to see things his way. Then, with happy grins, they went about their nefarious work. It was a By midafternoon the clumsy vessel had nego- night of feverish activity, and five of the Nubians tiated the last of the tortuous channels among the were kept up to do the heavy lifting and packing. foaming rocks about the castle, and slid under the The first task was performed below the holds, lifted portcullis into the quiet basin within. Clark- under the false deck that hid the forbidden things. son was there to meet them, but he showed no joy Barry ripped the big refrigerator apart and spread at the reunion. Beside him stood a heavy-set man its innards out for examination. Swiftly he took with a bulldog jaw and a roving eye. The stranger measurements here and there, and made sketches wore a blue uniform and the badge “Marine In- and fast computations. The plate-glass panels spector.” As the ship sidled into the dock, he ” ” ”

ANACHRON, INC. 81

stepped on board with a curt nod for Dilly and trader he had seen at the barracks was also there, a savage glare for Barry. Then he ducked below, frowning and registering a curious mixture of an- where they could hear him prowling about, ejacu- noyance and worry. Then Barry was aware that lating snarls and muttered curses. Presently he Kilmer was having one of his customary fights returned to deck and made furious entries in a with someone over the phone. little black notebook. “Can’t I get anything through your thick head?" “The fat’s in the fire,” he hurled at Clarkson. the sales manager was asking wearily. “We don’t “They did it anyway.” Then he marched off to care what the blasted machine cost—I said I’d al- the waiting shuttle cave. ready sent a chit to transfer the charge from their “Well, you’ve played hell,” remarked Clarkson, account to ours. That washes the transaction out. coldly, “but at least I had sense enough not to get What more do you penpushers in Accounting messed up with you. I was bright. I covered.” want? This would be a better— world if there “Yeah?” snapped Barry with bitter scorn. “So wasn’t a scrap of paper in it it takes brains to cover?” There came a click and a frying sound accom- He spat, and turned his back. And there he panied by sputtering. Whoever had been at the waited while his cargo was being transferred to other end of the line had hung up and Kilmer the freight shuttle. With the aid of the big steve- didn’t like it. Then he calmed himself to some doring gang of the castle the job did not take degree and bawled out for Mobberley. The dark long. When his own bag came along, Barry fol- trader beside Barry jumped to his feet and went lowed it inside. up to the desk. Kilmer favored him with a fishy “I’ll be seeing you,” said Barry to Clarkson stare, then shook his head sadly. with more the air of threat than happy anticipa- “You fellows are so dumb,” said Kilmer, pity- tion. ingly. Barry expected him to squeeze out a tear. “Not if I know Anachron,” replied Clarkson “I talk and I talk and no one listens. I send you grimly. Then the shuttle operator closed the to Seventeenth Century Spain; we wanted olives, switch. sherry, cork—we also wanted Inca and Aztec trophies, ornamented gold trinkets or featherwork. The powers that be kept him cooling his heels And you come back with tons and tons of gold for another solid week before they saw fit to hale ingots I What is gold good for nowadays? In- him before them. He was cooped up in barracks tertemporal exchange is swamped with it, and on the top floor of the freight export building, every dumbbell in the field keeps sending more— along with other field men who had come in for “Y-y-you can buy things with- it in any age,” some reason or other. But they were a taciturn stammered the unhappy Mobberley. lot and Barry learned nothing from them. He “We don’t want to buy; we want to trade,” fretted the days away, since they not only treated wailed Kilmer, tearing his hair. “Our charter re- him as a prisoner, but had also taken his radio quires that we export ton for ton what we import ring away. He had no idea how Maverick was so as to help get rid of our surpluses— doing or what the eventual payoff was on the “Can I say a word?” ventured Barry, coming miracle of St. Guy. over to join the fray. Since he was about to be On the eighth day the summons came. A mes- canned he figured he might as well, not that he appeared senger and called out Barry’s name. wished to help Anachron, but he was willing to They went in a company car to the home office give a fallen brother a helping hand. in Wall Street, and there Barry was conducted to Kilmer looked at him and grunted, “O. K. . . , the antechamber of Kilmer’s office. He saw at once hope it makes sense." that he was not to be the only one to grace the “If there was ever a time when gold was in carpet that day, for a sullen, dark-complexioned demand,” Barry said, “it was in 1932. People were ” ” ” ! ”

82 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION clamoring for it, making runs on the banks, hoard- “Not altogether what?” demanded Barry, bris- ing yellow paper money, selling anything - they tling. He didn’t like being played like a cat’s had for a song so long as they could get the price mouse, first hot, then cold. in hard money— “Completed, I was about to say,” said Kilmer, “Bah!” snorted Kilmer. “Who wants what they and then hastily interposed, “Oh, don’t worry, had? Their art was lousy and there’s nothing you’ll be allowed the customary overwriting— on their industries put out that we can’t do better all subsequent sales there. But about Rome and cheaper today. Just tell me one thing they “Say,” said Barry rising, “come clean, won’t had that we can use— you? You wire me I’m fired and you haul me up “I can tell you a dozen, but one will do,” an- here and keep me incommunicado for a week. swered Barry quietly. “There’s a requisition Now you pat me on the back. Am I in Dutch, the downstairs for ten thousand complete public li- fair-haired boy, or what?” braries, but no project. In ’32 the publishers were “Well, yes and no,” said Kilmer in his madden- sitting on their hands, weeping like orphans, paper ing fashion. But he refilled the glasses and again mills were folding up overnight, printers were settled comfortably back in his chair. “It must be selling apples on the street, while Hoover was admitted that there was a minor infraction of the worrying himself into the fantods on account of rules on your part, but it’s no worse than the run the vanishing gold reserve. That’s the spot for of my daily headaches. It will be ironed out your gold. They’d sell their souls for it.” shortly. It appears that you robbed one of our “My, my,” said Kilmer, brightening perceptibly, trading cogs of its refrigerating equipment and "perhaps you’re right. I’ll take it up at confer- the Custodian of Marine Equipage has raised a ence this afternoon. Thank you, Mobberley, that holy stink about it. However, I’ve made good will be all for today.” their loss by transfer of funds.” “I take that to be the ‘yes’ part of the answer. Mobberley went, but slightly baffled. It might What’s the ‘no’?” Barry had not yet made up his not. sat down mind whether he liked his boss or not. Some- be a reprieve ; it might Then Barry while Kilmer dug into his desk drawer and pro- times Kilmer got in his hair. duced a squat bottle of black glass with the rem- “I admit there was apprehension here for a time nants of heavy sealing wax about its neck. He concerning your proposed sale of a cooling unit poured two slender wine glasses full of a pale vio- to the monastery of St. Guy,” said Kilmer. “We let liqueur and offered one to his trader. The bot- were afraid of unfortunate repercussions. You may tle was labeled in antique script “Liqueur Guy- not remember, but you are insured, and our In- esque—Seven Hundred Years Old.” Barry tasted surance Division hates like the dickens to pay out it and found it delicious, resembling Benedictine claims on fool traders who get themselves cruci- and Chartreuse, but differing from both in color fied and what not. There are few things more and tang. dangerous than peddling miracles in the Middle

“Quite a find, that,” said Kilmer, and Barry Ages. Unless you have just the right touch . . . sensed that he was being congratulated, though well he did not know for what. It was a cinch that “However, your assistant, Maverick, assures us he had never seen or tasted the stuff before. Then that our part in the miracle at St. Guy was . . .

he waited cagily for what else Kilmer might say. well . . . negligible. He says the highest rank- “You sent up a number of flasks of tonic from ing ecclesiastics of France have viewed it and that monastary down there. It was mildly alco- pronounced it authentic and wholly commendable. holic, but far too bitter for beverage use and Re- He states that if it were not for the piety and zeal search said it had slight medicinal value. So we of the multitude of pilgrims who are now pour-

tried smoothing it by adding a heavy sugar sirup ing in, it could not be maintained at all. His only and stepping up the alcohol content. This is the part is the supplying of a candle booth in the answer.” vicinity, for which, incidentally, he has ordered He sipped his drink and so did Barry, but Barry ten thousand of our best candles.” still didn’t know what his boss was driving at. “Really?” Now Barry let a faint smile drift “We haven’t enough yet to put on general sale, onto his face. The plot was beginning to thicken. but we sent samples of our own bottling to direc- Kilmer filled the glasses again; he was not done. tors of the company and also the members of the “What bothers a few of us here in Sales,” pur-

Control Board. They were delighted. And . . . sued the sales manager, “is how you got away course. is er . . . rather better disposed toward you.” with it. Confidentially, of But what “Uh-huh, I daresay,” said Barry, and waited. the lowdown?” “We want you to take over at ancient Rome Barry threw back his head and laughed. He un- . . . the fellow there had made a hash of things and we want a man of resource and talent. Now, derstood the lay of the land now. It was just like while your work in France was not altogether— being in the army. If you stuck to the book, you — — ;

ANACHRON, INC. ' 83 might or might not get anything done; if you of the saint and drilled holes through it for our departed from it the penalty was disgrace or fame, ducts. We supplied the effigy with brass hands depending on the outcome. He had taken a long and feet and sat him on a stump with his limbs shot and put it over. He was being forgiven. So outstretched in an attitude of benediction. And he told briefly the story of a French priest who that we placed alongside the tomb. The rest was converted the Vikings and of what befell him in up to the faithful pilgrims.” the Northland. He also described his next to the Kilmer scratched his head. He felt he ought to latest successor, not forgetting to mention his in- get it, but something was missing. How could ordinate pride in his incorruptibility. He wound Maverick have concealed the compressor and motor up with the tale of the predicament his successor so that the inspecting bishops failed to see them? found himself in, and the concessions he was will- What was the source of power? It was unthink- ing to make for an out. able that the traders would have been rash enough “The problem,” Barry concluded, “was how to to risk that secret. So Kilmer asked the questions. mask the workings of the miracle so as not to raise “Power?” said Barry, and grinned from ear to embarrassing questions. Our clue came from the ear. “You forget. We might have had an awk- attributes of the martyr himself. His chief suf- ward time with Clarkson’s machine, but the one ferings had been from cold, so that it was a hu- we swiped from the cog was different. It was mane and Christian act to alleviate that cold. The built along the lines of the early Electrolux and deceased abbot, if he was to maintain his title, powered by an oil flame. We ran the tubing was desperately in need of cold to pull him through the arms and legs of the wooden figure through the summer. We rigged things in such of St. Guy and planted candlesticks beneath. What a manner that the pilgrims could arrange the oil flames, do with transfer from him that had too much to him that you can do with or gas you can had too little. It was as simple as that.” candles.” “Please, Barry,” pleaded Mr. Kilmer, “we’re “Ah,” murmured Mr. Kilmer. Then he raised friends; don’t you understand? Give I” his own glass and tinkled it against Barry’s, wink- “Well, we tore down a refrigerator and made ing profoundly with the gesture. a glass bier for His Nibs. Then we took a statue “To success in Rome,” he said.

THE END.

IN TIMES TD COME \

Crowded out of the Analytical Laboratory Duval of the Outlaws, with fixed ideas on the where it really belongs, the story of the August subject of general disruption. Makes a good yarn Probability Zero department appears herewith. of the situation which results when the chief of First place—and twenty dollars—goes to “Time the Plastic Center police is turned out as a Marches On,” by Ted Carnell. L. Sprague de treasonous spy. Point being, he wasn’t, a point Camp’s tale of the financial difficulties of Drink- which makes one highly trained and competent whiskey Institute, the Negative Wugug and man who’s mad at everybody—the Centers, the Lichtenstein took second place. Joseph Gilbert Outlaws, the whole darned system Probability Zero should have been with us this collects the five-dollar third prize for Uncle month. The stories are on hand. But the maga- Louie’s misfortunes. zine, a jigsaw puzzle of inelastic type and a firm Next month’s lead novel is by Cleve Cartmill determination not to butcher stories to make room interesting speculation on the possibilities of an for something, refused to go together in any form evolved technological cul- city-States in a highly but the one you see. The yarns are on hand ture such as ours seems headed for. America the Liars’ Roost will be returned next issue if I four hundred years hence, when cities are States, have to eject a short story and run six pages of and they’re named for their chief industries lies. ’Sa promise! Power Center, Food Center, Plastic Center— And The Editor. AST—6L Now—Hit new 1942 FOOTBALL

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CITY STATE THE WABBLER

By Murray Leinster

# An old favorite of science-fiction returns —with a tale of a robot that had patience,

a brain adequate to its task, and a slow-working, patient urge to self destruction.

Illustrated by M. Isip

The Wabbler went westward, with a dozen of tience for the accomplishment of its destiny. It its fellows, by night and in the belly of a sleek, and all its brothers were pear-shaped, with ab- swift-flying thing. There were no lights anywhere surdly huge and blunt-ended horns, and with small save the stars overhead. There was a sustained, round holes where eyes might have been, and furious roaring noise, which was the sound the shielded vents where they might have had mouths. 6leek thing made in flying. The Wabbler lay in They looked chinless, somehow. They also looked its place, with its ten-foot tail coiled neatly about alive, and inhuman, and filled with a sort of pas- its lower end, and waited with a 6ort of deadly pa- sionless hate. They seemed like bodiless demons ! —

86 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

out of some metallic hell. It was not possible to It swung about, and its writhing tail settled down feel any affection for them. Even the men who below it. For a little while it seemed almost to in- handled them felt only a sort of vengeful hope in tend to swim back to the surface. But bubbles their capacities. came from the shielded opening which seemed to The Wabblers squatted in their racks for long be a mouth. It hung there in the darkness of the hours. It was very cold, but they gave no sign. sea—but now and then there were little fiery The sleek, swift-flying thing roared on and roared streaks of light as natives of the ocean swam about on. The Wabblers waited. Men moved some- it—and then slowly, slowly, slowly it settled down- where in the flying thing, but they did not come ward. Its ten-foot tail seemed to waver a little, as where the Wabblers were until the very end. But if groping. somehow, when a man came and inspected each Presently it touched. Ooze. Black ooze. Sea one of them very carefully and poked experimen- bottom. Sixty feet overhead the waves marched to tally about the bottoms of the racks in which the and fro in darkness. Somehow, through the stilly Wabblers lay, they knew that the time had come. silence, there came a muffled vibration. That was The man went away. The sleek thing tilted a the distant surf, beating upon a shore. The Wab- bler hung for an instant with little. It seemed to climb. The air grew colder, the very tip of its tail barely touching the bottom. it made but the Wabblers—all of them—were indifferent. Then small inside itself. Air was not their element. Then, when it was sounds More bubbles came very, very cold indeed, the roaring noise of the from the round place like a mouth. It settled one foot two feet three. feet its tail flying thing ceased abruptly. The cessation of the ; ; Three of rested on the soft ooze. It noise was startling. Presently little whistling, hung, pear-shaped, some seven whispering noises took the place of the roar, as feet above the ocean bottom, with the very tip of hearing adjusted to a new level of sound. That its horns no more than four feet higher yet. There whistling and whining noise was wind, flowing was fifty feet of empty sea above it. This was not past the wings of the flying thing. Presently the its destiny. It waited passionlessly for what was to happen. air was a little warmer—but still very cold. The flying thing was gliding, motors off, and descend- ing at a very gradual slant. There was silence save for the faint vibration

The Wabbler was the fourth in the row of its from the distant surf. But there was an infini- brothers on the port side of the flying thing. It tesimal noise, also, within the Wabbler’s bulk. A rhythmic, insistent, did not stir, of course, but it felt an atmosphere hurried tick-tick-tick-tick— of grim and savage anticipation. It seemed that It was the Wabbler’s brain in action. all the brothers coldly exchanged greetings and Time passed. Above the sea the sleek, swift-fly- farewell. The time had definitely come. ing thing bellowed suddenly, far away. It swerved, The flying thing leveled out. Levers and rods and went roaring back in the direction from which moved in the darkness of its belly. The feeling it had come. Its belly was empty, now, and some- of anticipation increased. Then, suddenly, there where in the heaving sea there were other Wab- were only eleven of the Wabblers. Wind roared lers, each one now waiting as the fourth Wabbler where the twelfth had been. There were ten. did, for the thing that its brain expected. Minutes There were nine, eight, seven, six and minutes passed. The seas marched to and fro. The Wabbler hurtled downward through black- The faraway surf rumbled and roared against the shore. ness. There were clouds overhead, now. In all And higher yet, above the clouds, a low- the world there was no speck of actual light. But hanging and invisible moon dipped down toward below there was a faint luminosity. The Wab- a horizon which did not show anywhere. But the waited. bler’s tail uncurled and writhed flexibly behind it. Wabbler Wind screamed past its ungainly form. It went The tide came. Here, so far from the pounding plunging down and down and down, its round surf, the stirring of the lower levels of the sea was holes—which looked so much like eyes—seeming slight indeed. But the tide moved in toward the incurious and utterly impassive. The luminosity land. Slowly, the pressure of water against one of underneath separated into streaks of bluish glow, the Wabbler’s sides became evident. The Wab- which were phosphorescences given off by the bler leaned infinitesimally toward the shore. Pres- curling tips of waves. Off to westward there was ently its flexible tail ceased to be curved where it a brighter streak of such luminosity. It was surf. lay upon the ooze. It straightened out. There Splash The Wabbler plunged into the water were little bluish glows where it stirred the phos- with a flare of luminescence and a thirty-foot spout phorescent mud. Then the Wabbler moved. Shore- It of spume and spray rising where it struck. But ward. trailed its tail behind it and left a little then that spouting ceased, and the Wabbler was glowing track of ghostly light. safely under water. It dived swiftly for twenty Fish swam about it. Once there was a furry feet. Perhaps thirty. Then its falling checked. purring sound, and propellers pushed an invisible THE WABBLER 87 floating thing across the surface of the sea. But upon the tip of its tail. It spat more bubbles. it was far away and the Wabbler was impassive. One—two—three feet of its tail rested on the mud. The tide flowed. The Wabbler moved in little It waited. Presently the flood tide moved it again. jerks. Sometimes three feet or four, and some- It floated always with the current. Once it came times eight or ten. Once, where the sea bottom to a curve in the deeper channel to which it had slanted downward for a space, it moved steadily found its way, and the tide tended to sweep it up for almost a hundred yards. It came to rest, then, and out beyond the channel. But its tail resisted swaying a little. Presently it jerked onward once the attempt. In the end, the Wabbler swam more. Somewhere an indefinite distance away grandly back to the deeper water. The current were its brothers, moving in the same fashion. was stronger there. It went on and on at a mag- The Wabbler went on and on, purposefully, moved nificent two knots. by the tide. But when the current slowed again as the time Before the tide turned, the Wabbler had moved of tide-change neared, the Wabbler stopped again. land. it not two miles nearer to the But did move It swung above the yard-length of its tail upon the in a straight line. Its trailing, flexible tail kept mud. Its brain went tick-tick-tick-tick and it made it in the deepest water and the strongest current. noises. It dribbled bubbles. It sank, and checked, It moved very deliberately and almost always in and dribbled more bubbles, and sank cautiously small jerks, and it followed the current. The cur- again— It came cautiously to rest in the mud. rent was strongest where it moved toward a har- In miles shoreward, the bor entrance. moving two During this time of waiting, the Wabbler heard also moved more than two miles nearer Wabbler many sounds. Many times during slack tide, and harbor. to a during ebb tide, too, the water brought humming, There came a time, though, when the tide slack- purring noises of engines. Once a boat came very ened. The Wabbler ceased to move. For half an near. There was a curious hissing sound in the hour it hung quite still, swaying a little and pro- water. Something—a long line—passed very close gressing not at all, while the tick-tick-tick-tick of overhead. A mine-sweeper and a mine-sweep pa- its brain measured patience against intent. At the trolled the sea, striving to detect and uproot sub- end of the half-hour there were small clanking marine mines. But the Wabbler had no anchor noises within its body. Its shielded mouth emitted cable for the sweep to catch. It lay impassively bubbles. It sank, and checked, and gave off more upon the bottom. But its eyes stared upward with bubbles, and sank again. It eased itself very cau- a deadly calm until the mine-sweeper passed on its tiously and very gently into the ooze. Then it way. gave off more bubbles and lay at rest. Once more during the light hours the Wabbler It waited there, its brain ticking restlessly shook itself free of the bottom ooze and swam on within it, but with its appearance of eyes impas- with the tide. And once more—with another wait in the darkness like some creature sive. It lay on the mud while the tide flowed out—at night. from another world, awaiting a foreordained But day and night meant little to the Wabbler. event. Its ticking brain went on tirelessly. It rested, and For hours it lay still with no sign of any activ- swam, and swam, and rested, with a machinelike ity at all. Toward the end of those hours, a very and impassive pertinacity, and always it moved faint graying of the upper sea became manifest. toward places where the tide moved faster and It was very dim indeed. It was not enough, in all with channels more distinct. likelihood, for even the Wabbler to detect the At last it came to a place where the water was movement of semifloating objects along the slight no more than forty feet deep, and a distinct, ebb tide. But there came sea floor, moved by the greenish-blue light came down from the surface movements ceased. Again a time when even such sunshine. In that light the Wabbler was plainly full ebb. the the sea was still. It was And now visible. It had acquired a coating of seaweed and Wabbler stirred. slime which seemed to form a sort of aura of It clanked gently, and wavered where it lay in wavering greenish tentacles. Its seeming of eyes the ooze. There was a cloud of stirred-up mud, appeared now to be small and snakelike and very as if it had emitted jets of water from its under wise and venomous. It was still chinless, and its parts. It wabbled to one side and the other, strain- trailing tail made it seem more than ever like some free, ing, and presently its body was and a foot or bodiless demon out of a metallic hell. And now it two and then four or five feet of its tail—but it came to a place where for a moment its tail caught still writhed and wabbled spasmodically—and then in some minor obstruction, and as it tugged at the suddenly it left the sea floor and floated free. catch, one of its brothers floated by. It passed But only for a moment. Almost immediately its within twenty feet of the fourth Wabbler, and tail swung free, the Wabbler spat out bubbles and they could see each other clearly. But the fourth descended gently to the bottom again. It rested Wabbler was trapped. It wavered back and forth 88 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

in the flood tide, trying to pull free, as its fellow its small round, seeming eyes with a look of un- swam silently and implacably onward. impassioned expectancy. Small boats roved over- Some twenty minutes after that passage there head. Once engines rumbled, and a wooden- was a colossal explosion somewhere, and after that hulled craft swam on the surface of the water to seen. very many fuzzy, purring noises in the sea. The the very dock whose pilings the Wabbler had Wabbler may have known what had happened, or Then creaking sounds emanated from those pil- ings. The Wabbler may have known that unload- it may not. A submarine net across a harbor en- ing-cranes were at work. this its des- trance is not a thing of which most creatures have But was not tiny, either. knowledge, but it was a part of the Wabbler’s environment. Its tick-tick-ticking brain may There came other sounds of greater import. have interpreted the explosion quite correctly as Clankings of gears. A definite, burbling rush of water. It continued continued. the destiny of its brother encountering that bar- and The Wab- bler could not possibly expected to understand, rier. It is more likely that the brain only noted be with relief that the concussion had broken the grip of course, that such burbling underwater sounds of the obstruction in the mud. The Wabbler went are typical of a drydock being filled—the filling beginning near tide a great ship is to onward in the wake of its fellow. It went se- low when dately, and solemnly, and with a sort of unholy leave at high. Especially, perhaps, the Wabbler purposefulness, following the tidal current. Pres- could not be expected to know that a great war- ently there was a great net that stretched across ship had occupied a vastly important drydock and the channel, far beyond any distance that the Wab- that its return to active service would restore bler could be expected to see. But right where the much power to an enemy fleet. Certainly it could Wabbler would pass, there was a mostrous gaping not know that another great warship waited im- hole in that net. Off to one side there was the patiently to be repaired in the same basin. But the restless tick-tick-tick-tick which tail of another Wabbler, shattered away from that was the Wab- other Wabbler’s bulk. bler’s brain was remarkably crisp and incisive.

The fourth Wabbler went through the hole. It When flood tide began once more, the Wabbler was very simple indeed. Its tail scraped for a mo- jetted water and wabbled to and fro until it broke ment, and then it was inside the harbor. And then free of the bottom. It hung with a seeming impa- the tick-tick-ticking of the Wabbler’s brain was tience—wreathed in seaweed and coated with very crisp and incisive indeed, because this was greenish slime—above the tail which dangled its chance for the accomplishment of its destiny. down to the harbor mud. It looked alive, and in- It listened for sounds of engines, estimating their human, and chinless, and it looked passionately loudness with an uncanny precision, and within demoniac, and it looked like something out of a its rounded brainpan it measured things as ab- submarine Gehenna. And presently, when the stract as variations in the vertical component of flood tide began to flow and the eddy about the terrestrial magnetism. There were many sounds docks and the drydock gates began, the Wabbler and many variations to note, too, because surface inched as if purposefully toward the place where craft swarmed about the scene of a recent violent water burbled through flooding valves. explosion. Their engines purred and rumbled, Sounds in the air did not reach the Wabbler. and their steel hulls made marked local changes Sounds under water did. It heard the grinding in magnetic force. But none of them came quite rumble of steam winches, and it heard the screech- close enough to the Wabbler to constitute its ing sound as the drydock gates swung operi. They destiny. were huge gates, and they made a considerable and on as the flood tide swept in. It went on eddy of their own. The Wabbler swam to the one, The harbor was a busy with many small craft very center of that eddy and hung there, waiting. moving about, and more than once in these day- Now, for the first time, it seemed excited. It light hours flying things alighted upon the water seemed to quiver a little. Once when it seemed and took off again. But it happened that none that the eddy might bring it to the surface, it came sufficiently near. An hour after its entrance bubbled impatiently from the vent which appeared into harbor the Wabbler in a sort of the was eddy, to be a mouth. And its brain went tick-tick-tick- in a basin, and it made four slow, hitching circuits tick within it, and inside its brainpan it measured the same spot during one of which it about — came variations in the vertical component of terrestrial near to serried ranks of piling before the time — magnetism, and among such measurements it noted slack water. But even here the Wabbler, after of the effect of small tugs which came near but did swaying a little without making progress for per- not enter the drydock. They only sent lines haps twenty minutes, made little clanking noises within, so they could haul the warship out. But inside itself and dribbled out bubbles and eased the tugs were not the Wabbler’s destiny, either. itself down in the mud to wait. It heard their propellers thrashing, and they It lay there, canted a little and staring up with made, to be sure, a very fine noise. But the Wab- — — —

THE WABBLER 89 bier quivered with eagerness as somewhere within itself it noted a vast variation in the vertical mag- netic component, which increased and increased steadily. That was the warship moving very slowly out of its place in the drydock. It moved very slowly but very directly toward the Wab- bler, and the Wabbler knew that its destiny was near. Somewhere very far away there was the dull, racking sound of an explosion. The Wabbler may have realized that another of its brothers had achieved its destiny, but paid no heed. Its own destiny approached. The steel prow of the battle- ship drew nearer and nearer, and then the bow plates were overhead, and something made a tiny click inside the Wabbler. Destiny was certain, now. It waited, quivering. The mass of steel within the range of its senses grew greater and greater. The strain of restraint grew more in- tense. The tick-tick-ticking of the Wabbler’s brain seemed to accelerate to a frantic—to an in- tolerable—pace. And then The Wabbler achieved its destiny. It turned into a flaming ball of incandescent gasses—three hundred pounds of detonated high explosive squarely under the keel of a thirty-five-thousand- ton battleship which at the moment was only half- way out of a drydock. The watertight doors of HERE'S HOW the battleship were open, and its auxiliary power was off, so they could not be closed. There was WHO’S WHO IN UNIFORM, a new much need for this drydock, and repairs were not complete volume, provides for the first

completed in it. it the Wabbler’s destiny But was time, J information and a simplified to end all that. In three minutes the battleship method for determining the rank and was lying crazily on the harbor bottom, half in branch of service of and half out of the drydock. She careened as she sank, and her masts and fighting tops demolished The Army, Navy, Marines, Coast sheds by the drydock walls. Battleship and dock Guard, Red Cross, Civilian Defense, alike were out of action for the duration of the and affiliated services of the United war. States, its allies and its enemies. And the Wabbler

A long, long time afterward—years afterward Over 500 beautiful illustrations, many salvage divers finished cutting up the sunken war- of them in color. ship for scrap. The last irregularly cut mass of metal went up on the salvage slings. The last It’s the first complete guide to the uni- diver down went stumbling about the muddy har- forms of this war. Get your copy nowl bor water. His heavy, weighted shoes kicked up something. He fumbled to see if anything re- WHO'S WHO IN UNIFORM mained to be salvaged. He found a ten-foot, still- flexible tail of metal. The rest of the Wabbler 25c a Copy 30c in Canada had ceased to exist. Chronometer, tide-time gear, If your dealer cannot supply you, fill out this coupon: valves, compressed-air tanks, and all the balance of its intricate inwards had been blown to atoms WHO'S WHO IN UNIFORM when the Wabbler achieved its destiny. Only the 79 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY flexible metal tail remained intact. Inclosed is twenty-five cents (thirty cents in Canada). The salvage diver considered that it was not Kindly send me my copy of WHO’S WHO IN UNIFORM. worth sending the sling down for, again. He NAME dropped it in the mud and jerked on the life line to be hauled up to the surface. ADDRESS :.

THE END. CITY STATE... 90 LATE-MODEL STARS

By R. S. Richardson

# There's a ban on new model cars, but the astronomers go on working out new model stars right along. They don't make 'em, of course— but they do

try to figure out how they were made, what makes them tick, and why.

Like to see some late-model stars? Fancy jobs of whether stars are liquid or gaseous at the sur- that are the last word in energy generation and face. Some even had crusts forming over them. proton-proton reactions. Or perhaps you were Thus the irregular flare-ups of the red variables looking for a good reconditioned model that has were attributed to the release of pressure when a been rendering faithful service for the last twenty weak spot gave way and the fire and brimstone years. And did you have some particular type below came shooting out. in mind? A red giant? A superluminous B? Now we know that a comparatively dense star Could I demonstrate how smoothly our white like the Sun would seem to be practically all at- dwarfs run this year? mosphere if we could view it from sufficiently Designing stars is the chief occupation of a close range. The trouble is we have never gotten small but prolific group of men who have charge in the habit of thinking about the Sun in the same of the section listed in the index as “Stellar In- realistic way that we do the planets. Landing on teriors.” Strictly desk astronomers, they can tell Mars or Venus has been vividly described so many at great length just what makes a star tick, yet times that each of us has a pretty definite mental never bother to look at one through a telescope, or picture of what our sensations would be when examine their spectra, or even know how to locate we get off the ship. But even science-fictionists them in the sky. They fill the pages of the have generally shied away from Man-Goes-To- Astrophysical Journal and the Monthly Notices of Betelgeuse, although I suppose it has been done. the Royal Society and the Zeitschrift fur Astro- The extraordinary fact that emerges from a physik—now defunct—with their formulas for realistic approach to the Sun is that it immedi- polytropic gaseous spheres and the settling in of ately becomes a totally different kind of body “degeneracy” in dense matter. For model-star from the one shown in the prints taken from some builders in addition to having exceptional ability observatory’s stock supply. That solid surface, as mathematicians, seem also born with a gift for the sharp edge, and the inky black spots turn into self-expression which enables them to turn out flimsy intangible things that vanish if you get too papers, books, and essays with apparently no effort close to them. If some clumsy giant from hyper- at all. Little trifles like a five-hundred-page mono- space should grasp the Sun, he would be surprised graph entitled “An Introduction to the Study of to find his hand closing over a little ball about Stellar Structure,” for example. half the size he anticipated with the rest of it Right now there is a boom on in this field and sticking put between his fingers. For ninety per- developments are coming so fast that anything cent of the mass of the Sun is contained within written way back in 1936 is as dated as a silent half of its radius. motion picture. For a long time stellar construc- tion was stalled by the lack of a dependable power It is not too difficult to assemble a star that supply. Then in 1937 came the discovery of the will demonstrate these points provided we don’t energy available from thermo-nuclear reactions ask too much of it in the way of performance. and the bottleneck was broken. With plenty of One of the simplest models that is still giving fuel on hand, theoretical astrophysicists are really good service after twenty years is the old Edding- getting into production. Blueprints for stars are ton “Standard.” A thoroughly dependable star, pouring from colleges and observatories in a steady it keeps on shining steadily and is guaranteed stream. There is no priority on hydrogen. against sudden collapse or explosion. Regular In the light of our present knowledge of stars equipment includes a handy set of formulas for and atoms, it is incredible how little was known finding the luminosity and diameter and there is about them less than half a century ago. Looking no extra charge for tables that show the tempera- through old textbooks we find serious discussions ture and pressure at all points. Subsequent stream- 91

lining has altered but not profoundly changed was first given to the world by Professor Henry Eddington’s original design. Recent years have Norris Russell of Princeton University from his seen the hydrogen content greatly increased and assay of the relative abundance of elements in the the central temperature lowered by a half. But solar atmosphere, and is now recognized over the taking it all in all, the Standard is a first-rate, entire astronomical world. By making a star of general-purpose star. thirty-five percent hydrogen and sixty-five per- To build a star the size of the Sun we shall need cent Russell’s Mixture we get the closest approx- the following raw materials, given in terms of the imation possible to the exact constitution of the Earth’s mass as unity (E is 2.2 x 10 27 tons). stars. If this material is removed from the disturbing HYDROGEN 116,200 E effect of other large masses, it will eventually set- OXYGEN 107,900 E tle down under the influence of its own gravita- SODIUM AND MAGNESIUM 53,950 E tional attraction into the form of a sphere. To IRON 28,054 E insure that the star is at all times under proper SILICON 12,948 E control we impose upon it the principle of me- POTASSIUM AND CALCIUM 12,948 E chanical equilibrium, which in plain words means that the pull inward at any point must balance the The seven heavy elements when used in the pressure outward. The moment this law goes into proportions given above are known as “Russell’s effect the gas can be treated by simple relations Mixture” and come already made up for con- among pressure, temperature, and density familiar venient astrophysical use. This famous compound to every engineer. — a

92 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

Our job is far from complete, however. The of a star, however, everything is much easier— trouble is we have something more than merely a star that generates energy per unit mass at the ball of gas. IT SHINES! The temperature be- same rate from center to surface. In 1916 when comes terrific inside so massive a sphere and this Eddington first began tinkering with this model complicates matters tremendously for it means we no one knew how a star managed to generate have to contend with a formidable new quantity energy at all, but it seemed like a fairly reasonable radiation pressure. It blows through the star like assumption to make and a lot of stars were turned a mighty wind helping the gas pressure to keep out on that basis. the material extended against gravity. The more The interior of the Sun built on the Standard massive the star the more powerful the pressure plan is shown in Figure 1. In order to make its

of radiation. In a small star such as the Sun it inner workings more vivid, let us consider it from bears about ten percent of the load. But for a star the standpoint of a being whose natural habitat of mass 100 S radiation pressure builds up to is at a layer within the Sun where the density has eighty-five percent of the total pressure and stars attained a value of 5.5 times that of water, which much more massive than this would be in constant is the average density for the Earth as a whole. danger of disruption. Which probably is the This density is found at a distance of 164,000 miles reason why stars of mass 1000 S have never been or 0.39 of a solar radius (0.39 R) from the center. found. The temperature at this depth is 15,100,000 F. Let us suppose that the Helioid feels as comfortable at To determine the structure of a star taking this temperature as we do when the temperature radiation pressure into account is extremely is 71 F, which is about right for most of us. In laborious, involving the necessity of working out- order to fix the extreme limits of his environment ward step by step keeping track of the weight of corresponding to our frigid and torrid zones, let successive layers as you go. Since the mass of us assume further that they are proportional to the the star is known from the beginning, the prob- lowest and highest man has experienced in nature lem is to dole the material out in precisely the and survived, which would make them around right amounts so that the demands of pressure, -70 F and 140 F, respectively. The equivalent temperature, and gravity are all satisfied at once. solar temperatures are then 11,160,000 F and If you run out of material before the surface 17,100,000 F. Since the temperature at any distance layer has been applied or if you finish the star from the center is known for the Standard model, and then discover there are 10,000 E’s of hydrogen these immediately locate the greatest and least and Russell’s Mixture left over, something is ob- distances from the center of the Sun that the viously wrong. It then becomes necessary to start Helioid may safely venture. In the diagram they all over again and try to hit it a little closer this are denoted by S’ and S” with Sn marking the time. normal region. In the following table are given If we are allowed to build one very special kind the values for other quantities at these positions.

CONTRASTING CONDITIONS IN TERROID AND HELIOID EXISTENCE TERROID HELIOID

Normal Min. Normal Max.

Position on globe Surface (1.0 R) 0.49 R 0.39 R 0.34 R

Force of gravity 1.0G 100 G 132 G 151 G

Pressure in atmospheres 1.0 60,000,000 300,000,000 600,000,000

Density of environment 0.0013 (air) in grams/cc. 1.0 (water) 1.5 5.5 9.1

Temperature 71 F 11,160,000 F 15,100.000 F 17,100,000 F

Main type of radiation Visual rays At these temperatures radiation consists to which exposed Near ultraviolet mostly of soft X rays

Substance available Compounds of for food, air, et cetera 1 carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydro- gen, et cetera Electrons, Protons, Stripped atoms, Photons LATE-MODEL STARS 93

We begin our investigation of the Sun by tak- per cubic centimeter, the density of water. . ing the Helioid out of his nice warm shell and Both temperature and density increase rapidly of corona, bringing him up to the region the inner from now on. At 0.6 R gravity is up to 70 G and first taking care that he is properly equipped to the density stands at 4.5 times that of water. How withstand conditions there. A Helioid would it would feel to move through a dense fluid which feel much more lonely and out of place in the is also a perfect gas makes a splendid subject for upper solar atmosphere than a man would in the meditation when troubled by insomnia. My guess stratosphere. It would be a portion of the Sun is the sensation would be similar to that of a man invaded only by intrepid explorers seeking data trying to force his way through some fine heavy for scientific research or purposes of defense. The grain such as rice or wheat. intense cold of 7000 F would be a severe menace At last the Helian reaches a point where his to the Helian. Equally dangerous would be the hydrometer reads 5.5 and he realizes he has safely necessity of moving about in almost total dark- made the journey home. By a coincidence his ness aided by the feeble glow from the few X rays environment has the same average density as that emitted by the photosphere. He would have con- of one of the most insignificant members of the siderably more ease of motion, however, owing to Sun’s family of planets. But of course the Helian the drop in gravitational attraction from 132 G to doesn’t know this and has little chance of ever 27 G. Probably the greatest threat would be from finding it out. The sole means by which he might the nearly perfect vacuum that prevails every- become aware of bodies acting upon the Sun from where. The minute quantities of electrons and without would be from some shift in the center protons that are available would be rendered use- of mass due to tidal disturbances. less as food owing to contamination from foreign The most disagreeable thing about living inside substances such as iron, silicon, oxygen, calcium a star is that nothing ever happens! The climate and others. There also would be icy molecular would be monotonous beyond endurance. If the particles of CH, NH and CN. average temperature in a space the size of a box His scientific tests completed, he plunges down car underwent a drop of 0.001 of a degree, it would into the photosphere glad to leave this inhos- be more remarkable than a killing frost sweeping pitable land. The temperature rises rapidly al- over Death Valley on a sunny afternoon in Au- though he is scarcely aware of so small a differ- gust. No insulation devised by man could ever ence as 10,000 degrees. Strange to say, the den- hope to be half so good as the luminous walls of sity, after a slight initial rise, suddenly begins to star gas. Two points a yard apart are as isolated drop at a depth of one hundred miles. This means as our polar regions. that he has entered the layer where hydrogen is undergoing ionization into electrons and protons.

Over a very limited thickness it causes the pe- One of the original strong points in favor of culiar condition to exist that once a current of the Standard Model was that it gave a ready ex- gas is started circulating it does not tend to die planation of the observed fact that the more mas- out but may continue indefinitely. The Helian sive stars are the brightest, which stated mathe- barely escaped from one of these ascending col- matically is Eddington’s renowned Mass-Lumi- umns rushing toward the surface where it spreads nosity law. But slowly the truth began to dawn out and congeals into a sunspot. But he has soon that perhaps it wasn’t so remarkable after all. penetrated the layer of hydrogen ionization and Astrophysicists working with other models dis- breathes more freely again in a pure atmosphere covered that it didn’t seem to make much differ- of electrons, protons, and stopped atoms. ence what kind you used, you still got a pretty He hurries onward toward the solar core for fair relation between mass and luminosity. Also even at 0.8 R the temperature remains down to the Standard model had a serious defect in that 2,500,000 F and is unbearable without artificial stars built according to this plan invariably came protection. He feels little or no resistance from out too bright and it was hard to see how any- the medium as yet for the density is scarcely one- thing could be done about it. twentieth that of water, and many tens of thou- After trying several remedies, with negligible sands of miles must be left above before he begins results, Eddington finally decided upon a daring to approach the real solar globe. innovation in stellar structure. Instead of a The way grows lighter as the temperature model which generated energy throughout its reaches 5,400,000 F and the surrounding radiation whole mass the source of supply was to b,e con- grows richer in X rays. But at the most he can- centrated into a single point at the center. By not see more than a few yards ahead for the gas thus forcing the radiation to struggle to the sur- is so hazy from electron absorptions that it is face from the greatest depth possible he hoped worse than a heavy ground fog. He pauses for to reduce the brightness and obtain results in another density measurement. Hooray! He is better agreement with observations. Of course at the halfway post. The density is now one gram no real star was supposed to function in this man- 94 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

the actual conditions in stellar interiors. For owing to the fact that the rate of energy genera- tion from thermo-nuclear reactions increases rap- idly as the temperature rises, most of the energy will therefore be released near the center of the star where the temperature is highest. Which is essentially the Point-Source model again. A star

that succeeded in spite of itself I

Regardless of how much we may think we know about the inside of a star, one fact remains cer- tain: we are never going to see anything but the outside of them. We are comparatively ignorant concerning the deep interior of the Earth. HoW futile to imagine that any analytical boring ma- chine however keen can reveal to us the inner workings of a star. About a decade ago Professor E. A. Milne of Oxford came to the conclusion that if we expect to make any progress in the study of stellar con- stitution we must begin operations at the surface Outermost circle shows depth at which density is and work down, instead of boring from within as equal to that of water. Dotted circles S' and S" show Eddington had done. The outer layers of the limits of Helioid’s environment within which he could stars are observed to be in the state of a rarefied find existence possible, corresponding to our frigid gas at temperatures ranging and torrid zones, respectively. Sn marks most com- from 4000 F to 40,000 fortable region or temperate zone. Inner circle F. That much we know. Hence we solve the shows depth at which Sun’s density reaches that of problem by starting at the boundary and progress- platinum. Density at center about five times that of ing steadily inward, assuming that the ordinary platinum. For other data at S'. Sn, and S" see table. gas laws hold until conditions become so extreme they are no longer valid. We then change over to a new set of laws and continue as before. This ner; he simply went the limit for all stars built procedure is followed until we arrive at the center along this general line. Eddington called it the of the star. Point-Source model. Milne’s researches led to the result that prac- Considering the basic distinction between the tically all of the mass of an ordinary star is

Standard and Point-Source models, it is surpris- packed into a tiny central nucleus with a density ing how closely the two resemble each other. The thousands of times that of water and at a tem- principal difference is that the Point-Source perature estimated at one hundred billion de- model is more distended than the Standard due grees. He next assumed that because protons and to the terrific blast of radiation pressure at its electrons could unite to form photons—radiation center which drives everything before it for some —then the reverse must be true and photons can distance. This causes the star’s density to in- generate matter. From Milne’s point of view a crease inward in the usual way up to a certain star is merely a sort of thermodynamic inclosure point when it suddenly drops to zero. Another with a leak at the center from which radiant en- interesting feature is that within a radius of 0.17 ergy is pouring. As the radiation is converted R energy is transported principally by what seems into matter a vast extended atmosphere of the like the clumsy method of convection currents utmost tenuity is formed around the condensed rather than by radiation. That is, the region near luminous core. Thus most of the matter that we the Point-Source is kept continually stirred up see in a star is really radiation; only a mere by ascending and descending columns of gas. sprinkling of what might be called bona fide mat- As a device for cutting down the luminosity, ter is present. transferring the source of energy to a point at The Dense-Core model received what among the center was of little help. Capella as a Point- newspaper men is known as a decidedly bad press Source star came out only a magnitude fainter and in the lengthy discussions that ensued bar- than Capella on the Standard plan. Since the rage after barrage of mathematical formulas were model failed of its purpose it might be supposed hurled back and forth between Milne and his that it would have been junked long ago, forgotten critics. It is often hard for many to comprehend by those who were once its warmest admirers. how individuals of more than average intelligence Quite the contrary, the Point-Source model today can become so aroused over an abstract scientific is believed to give the closest approximation to theory. The point is that the theory has come to LATE-MODEL STARS 95

mean far more to its originator than a mere a temperature one would expect the red giants theory. It is a creation of his very own, which to be comparatively faint stars. But it has long he has nursed along and petted and probably been known that they are intensely luminous ob- sworn at during long hours of doubt and vexation jects with a total rate of energy production a hun-

until at long last it develops into his strong, beau- dred times greater than the Sun. tiful brain child. And then when others not only The Shell-Source model is built upon the foun- fail completely to see its many virtues but criti- dation that the rate of energy production from

cally attack it instead, he leaps to the rescue as various nuclear reactions has a maximum value

if a trusted neighbor had given his dog a par- for a certain particular temperature. That is, ticularly vicious kick in the stomach. somewhere within the star is a temperature which

Lest it be thought that technical literature is corresponds to the resonance value of the nuclear reaction chiefly responsible all dry reading—which it mostly is—an excerpt for the energy output of is quoted below from one of Milne’s papers in the the star. By penetrating far enough we will Observatory for November, 1930, in which he re- eventually reach a depth where the temperature plies to a criticism by Eddington. is excetionally favorable to energy generation. For temperatures either lower or higher than this critical value In that celebrated treatise "Flatland, by a Square,” the the rate of energy generation falls two dimensional inhabitants are completely incapable of off sharply. As a consequence, in place of a Point- realizing a third dimension. Similarly, Sir Arthur Ed- Source, the great bulk of radiant energy within dington, shackled by his mass-luminosity-opacity rela- a star is liberated from a thin central Shell-Source. tion, with only two degrees of freedom, has hitherto The unique feature of the Shell-Source model shown himself totally unconscious of the power which is that it can be made to yield a rate results from a third degree of freedom. The third de- high of en- gree allows us to see right through to the center of the ergy even at the low temperatures of the red star. giants. As time goes on the shell slowly expands while the temperature and luminosity star * of the I recognize that Sir Arthur Eddington has dug remain almost unchanged. But when its supply a most valuable trench into unknown territory. of hydrogen is consumed the star begins to con- But he has encountered a rocky obstacle which tract rapidly and soon reaches the dense white he cannot get around. If he would make the men- dwarf stage. Eventually it ceases to shine en- tal effort to scramble up the sides of the trench, he would find the surrounding country totally dif- ferent from what he has imagined and the obstacle entirely an underground one.”

By 1932 it was increasingly evident that no real advance could be made in stellar morphology until more was known about the process of energy gen- eration. It must not be supposed that there was any perceptible falling off in publications on this account, papers continuing to appear at the usual rate, but they consisted mostly of a rehash of pre- vious material or minor improvements on exist- ing models. When five years later the energy from internuclear reactions was tapped, whereby hydrogen is changed to helium with the libera- tion of energy through a chain of reactions with carbon and nitrogen, the whole theory of stellar interiors and the probable course of stellar evolu- tion could be investigated with much more as- surance. Among recent models, one of the most inter- esting and ingenious is the Shell-Source model advanced by G. Gamov. It came about through an effort to account for the high power output of red giant stars by thermo-nuclear reactions alone. The central temperature of a red giant as given by the Point-Source model is 9,000,000 F as com- pared with 36,000,000 F for a yellow dwarf like the Sun. Since the energy obtainable from inter- nuclear reactions would be quite small at so low 96 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

tirely and degenerates into a nonluminous body Progress on the system of Epsilon Aurigae has or black dwarf. been necessarily slow owing to the great interval between eclipses of 9890 days or 27.1 years, the So far we have inspected models suitable only longest on record. When the eclipse does finally for the great run of common stable stars. (Stars begin, it is tantalizingly slow. For six months lacking stability such as pulsating Cepheids, the light gradually declines until the star is about novae, long-period variables, et cetera, are as hard half as bright as at the beginning. For nearly a to handle as unstable people.) But now let us year the light stays constant at this level ; that is, see how stellar engineers proceed to satisfy the the light curve has a long flat minimum—an im- demands for one special kind of star—a custom- portant point to keep in mind. At the end of a built job, so to speak. The method is somewhat year the star begins to brighten slowly and for similar to the reconstruction of a skeleton from the next six months the previous decline is ex- a few miscellaneous bones. The astrophysicist actly repeated in reverse order. So far there gathers up whatever fragmentary data are avail- have been but two opportunities to spectrograph able and tries to fit them together and fill in the the system during-an eclipse: the first in 1901-02 blank spots until the model is complete with no when photography was just coming into general pieces left over and no gaps remaining. Often use in astronomy, and in 1928-29. thousands of observation man-hours will go into The very first series of spectra taken in 1901 a single detail of design. revealed at once that here was no ordinary binary.

There is a project in the constellation of Auriga From the long records of visual observations it that has been under way for over a century and was already known that the light curve was flat although some sections are nearly finished the during minimum which meant that the eclipse final stamp of approval must be withheld. This was complete. The bright component was then is the eclipsing binary system of Epsilon Aurigae. obviously moving in back of the fainter star so One component is a brilliant super-giant of type that its light was entirely cut off. At any rate that F2. When you look at the constellation of Auriga was what everyone naturally supposed had hap- this is the one you see. About three degrees pened. But the spectrograms showed that the south of Capella is a little isosceles triangle of bright component remained clearly visible third magnitude stars easily recognized if you are throughout the whole year of minimum light. at all familiar with the heavens. Epsilon is the Never at any time did the spectrum lines indicate one at the apex and nearest to Capella. The tire- the slightest trace of a second body. Yet all the less Schmidt recorded the brightness of Epsilon other observations were in excellent agreement Aurigae five thousand times from 1843 to 1884 with the eclipse theory. up to the very night of his death. Take a good look at it yourself. Do you notice a curious tin- Now came the first crude sketch of the Gray gling sensation creeping up and down your spine? Ghost, the earliest attempt to rough in a model That is because you are gazing at one of the that would account for the facts of observation. weirdest bodies known to science, so close to It was suggested that the fainter star was in Epsilon no telescope can ever begin to separate reality a long narrow string of dense meteoric the two stars. It is the dark component of the material revolving about the bright star. As the system of Epsilon Aurigae. Our knowledge of stream started to pass between the star and Earth its constitution has been derived entirely from the light declined until about half was inter- inference, for no one has ever seen or photo- cepted. A year was required for the main body graphed it. We know that it regularly eclipses of the stream to pass by. Then it began to thin the bright star, that it must be of enormous ex- out until transmission was complete again and the tent, and that its temperature is very low. But star regained its original brightness. no one can hope to get a glimpse of it through Results so completely out of harmony with all the most powerful telescope although like your- the current notions concerning eclipsing pairs self they may be gazing directly at it. spurred on the variable star men to greater efforts. Before somebody else gets the same idea, the Epsilon Aurigae became a star suspect, an object writer would like to propose the name of “Gray to be kept under the closest surveillance at all Ghosts” for stars of this type. With an abun- times. It was put on the regular program of sev- dance of dwarfs and giants of various shades al- eral large observatories and its most insignificant ready in the literature there is no need to apolo- fluctuation in brightness received immediate at- gize for so fantastic a title. These huge phantom tention. stars which may be more numerous than we im- Between eclipses astronomers did not cease to agine seem to be things set apart from the other cast about for a better model than a string of inhabitants of the sky. Faint—intangible—only meteors. As they pondered the evidence from dif- dimly perceptible to us under the most favorable ferent angles the form of the Gray Ghost began conditions—the Gray Ghosts of space. slowly to materialize, its general outline and the LATE-MODEL STARS 97

more important properties it must have gradually The theory received a little support by the fact came into sharper focus. They shaped up about that similar objects were not unknown, as for as follows: example the dark nebulosity surrounding Rho During total eclipse the brightness is fifty per- Ophiuchi. cent below normal. Hence the two stars must be The model left much to be desired, however. about equally luminous. But when an orbit is Thus we would expect at least some change in computed on this basis the size of the fainter the beam from the bright star after penetrating component is found to be simply astounding. The all that cold gas of the Gray Ghost. When the first bold investigators hinted it might be so large Sun is very low atmospheric absorption is so in- as to extend to the orbit of Jupiter. Thus al- tense that even an experienced observer can though the total radiation emitted by the two stars scarcely recognize certain regions of the solar was equal, it was spread out so thin over the vast spectrum. With a high sun the solar spectrum surface of the secondary that it hardly seemed in the yellow is dominated by the two powerful to shine at all. In addition, its density came out lines of sodium vapor called Fraunhofer’s D lines. one-millionth of an atmosphere, something un- But as sunset approaches strong black bands due heard of at that time (1912). to water vapor in our atmosphere begin to This led to the second model. The Gray Ghost strengthen until the sodium lines produced in was regarded as being not exactly a star but more the solar atmosphere are nearly obliterated. In in the nature of a globular nebula. The nebu- addition scattering by the air molecules elimi- losity was semitransparent so that light from the nates much more of the blue from sunlight than bright star shone right through it. As the eclipse the red. About an hour before sunset the violet was coming on and going off the variations were part of the solar spectrum suddenly vanishes as gradual as the rays passed through layers of dif- abruptly as if someone had pulled a switch. ferent thickness but during totality the transmis- By every rhyme or reason the Gray Ghost sion settled down to a steady value of one half. should have acted upon the light shining through

At end of eclipse the light from At beginning of eclipse Gray

F) star is shining through part of Ghost rotating away from ob- Gray Ghost rotating toward ob- server; produces Doopler shift in

MODEL OF SYSTEM OF EPSILON AURIGAE AS SEEN FROM EARTH 98 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

It in a good deal the same way. Instead the light another rigorous third-degree process along from Epsilon Aurigae was practically identical slightly different lines than those used before. during eclipse as it was before and after. Not The scheme consisted substantially in treating the quite the same, to be exact. Going into eclipse model to a sort of mathematical molding process. certain strong spectrum lines of ionized metals A table was drawn up containing all the require- show a slight increase in strength on their red ments that must be met. Then different models side; coming out of eclipse the lines are widened were examined to see if they could be made or toward the violet. During totality the lines are modified into meeting the requirements of the symmetrical. A small technical point, perhaps, table. Many were found that fulfilled them par- but one not to be overlooked. tially but led to contradictory results elsewhere. To make sense out of this observational hodge- For example, certain orbits had to be ruled out podge more data were needed and this meant wait- because the stars approached so close that giant ing until the next eclipse. An interval of twenty- tides would have made the system unstable. An- seven years is so long that each one is greeted by other orbit was satisfactory except for a single a new set of astronomers armed with more sensi- flaw: it failed to produce an eclipse. This was tive instruments and better theoretical knowledge remedied by enlarging the Gray Ghost consider- than their predecessors. True to schedule, Epsi- ably. But now it was swollen until at periastron lon Aurigae began to show signs of weakening by the bright component was forced either to plow May or June of 1928, which is about as close as directly through it or by-pass it in some way, this eclipse can be detected. which was awkward. Other orbits avoided these pitfalls but raised the luminosity of the primary Our faith in the infallibility of the law of uni- until it was up in the nova class. Gradually these versal gravitation rests in the mipute agreement bugs were eliminated one by one until finally the between the observed and predicted motions of smooth consistent model described below emerged. the heavenly bodies. No more convincing illus- tration could be found than in the homely prepa- The bright component has a mass of 32 S and rations astronomers make to photograph the would fill a space out to the orbit of Venus. eclipse of some spectroscopic binary. Suppose The Gray Ghost has a mass of 23 S and would that Joe Stellafane wants to get a plate of XY extend out to one and a third times the orbit of Cass at its next minimum. This will mean spend- Saturn or two thirds of the distance to Uranus. nights at the observa- ing several away from home This makes its average density one-millionth of tory thirty miles distant perched on a mountain an atmosphere or hundreds of times less than the top seven thousand feet high. Without the slight- ordinary red giants. est misgivings he goes about getting ready. He The surface temperature of the F2 star is checks over his heavy underclothes and woolen 10,900 F ; that of the Gray Ghost is 1800 F. socks, stocking cap and mittens. Everything The eclipse is a grazing one, which means that looks O. K. Now better put some antifreeze in only the outermost layers are concerned in the the radiator; never can tell when a big storm light changes. might hit us. Mustn’t forget to buy a new flash- Here comes the crucial test of the model—the light battery this trip. And see if Aunt Lucy ability to show how a grazing eclipse can pro- can come over for a couple of nights—sure wish duce a light curve with a long flat minimum. For the wife wasn’t afraid to stay alone. All because it would seem that the light curve should steadliy of some star you can’t even see without a tele- decline to a single low point and then rise in the scope ! same way. In the intensive campaign of 1928-29 the pres- The whole trick is revealed when we discover ence of the Gray Ghost was again clearly dem- that as usual our attention has been directed to- onstrated but its true character remained as mys- ward the wrong object, for the bright component terious as before. After discussing all the existing and not the Gray Ghost is the real culprit. In material on the system of Epsilon Aurigae fact, the latter acts as a mere screen for its bril- consisting of measurements on two hundred fifty liant companion. Ultraviolet light from the F2 spectograms, Dr. Otto Struve, Director of the star shining upon the cold gas of the Gray Ghost Yerkes Observatory, announced in 1930: “It is forms an ionized shell upon the side that is turned possible that we are dealing with a completely toward it. Now charged particles can get a much new physical phenomenon.”* A statement that better grip on a light beam than a neutral gas, might have emanated from a fact-finding com- and an ionized shell—even if very thin could mittee on psychic research after a violent session — easily cut down the transmission by half. The with a poltergeist. remainder would go on through practically unaf- A few years ago the material was subjected to fected since the Gray Ghost is almost perfectly transparent. •Aitrophysical Journal, 71, 149, 1930. Furthermore, an ionized shell gives —

LATE-MODEL STARS 99 a natural explanation of why the violet and red light are transmitted equally. It is true that un- charged particles such as those that constitute the great bulk of the Earth’s atmosphere scatter violet light out of a beam much more powerfully than red. But charged particles play no favorites they scatter all colors the same. The ionized shell hypothesis also includes an explanation of the curious widening of the spec- trum lines at the beginning and end of the eclipse. It is significant that the effect is most conspicuous for lines of ionized iron and titanium. Astron- omers early recognized that the widening could be caused by the rotation of the secondary pro- vided its atmosphere contained atoms of ionized elements. For suppose at the beginning of the eclipse the side of the Gray Ghost cutting into the light from the bright star is rotating away Street & Smith commits murderl from the Earth. Then superimposed on the strong Your sleep ij the victim—end the weapon it lines of ionized iron and titanium in the spectrum ALL FICTION DETECTIVE STORIES, 1942. of the bright star will be faint lines due to the The stories, selected from the best we've Gray Ghost, only displaced slightly to the red published, include FIVE complete novels, two novelettes: owing to the Doppler shift resulting from the HOUSE OF HAUNTS, By Ellery Queen rotation. Similarly, at the end of the eclipse the THE MURDER SUN, by Frank Gruber light will be shining through the opposite side THE MONSTER, by Steve Fisher of the Gray Ghost turning toward the Earth and THE WHISPERING SKULL, by William E. Barrett the lines will be strengthened on the violet side. THE VENGEFUL DANE, by Walter Ripperger KILLER'S CARNIVAL, by Edward Ronns From the amount of displacements the Gray Ghost HEX ON HORSEBACK, by Norbert Davis was estimated to be rotating at the rate of thirty You mystery fans know that these names miles per second, or twenty-five times as fast as mean a guarantee of ace reading pleasure. the Sun. In the past the trouble has always been And this NEW super-collection, costing to figure out how a star at a very low tempera- only twenty-five cents, is going to bring you hours of unforgettable chills and thrills. ture could have any legitimate ionized atoms in Get your copy now. its atmosphere. The answer is that it doesn’t. They are put there by the other star. STREET & SMITH'S NEW The foregoing sketch roughly indicates the pres- ent status of the model system of Epsilon Aurigae. Undoubtedly many adjustments and finishing touches will be added in the future. Possibly ALL FICTION something totally unexpected may be found at the next eclipse in 1945-46 that will make many radical changes necessary. DETECTIVE A government spokesman recently recommended that one of the best antidotes for headline jitters and war nerves in general is a lively interest in STORIES 1942 some good hobby. If identifying bird calls or making shadow pictures leaves you cold, why not AT ALL NEWSSTANDS 25C A COPY try your hand at building stellar models? If your dealer cannot supply you, fill out the coupon below. Author’s Note: According to the latest calculations which did not come to the writer’s attention until after this manuscript had been mailed to the editor, the figures for the Point-Convectlvo model ALL FICTION DETECTIVE STORIES should be modified slightly. It now appears that a hydrogen content of thirty-live percent by weight and sixty-five percent 79 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY Russell’s Mixture gives the best results and that the Inner convective core extends outward to twelve percent of the star's Inclosed is a quarter (this offer good in radius instead of seventeen percent. The central temperature U. S. only). Kindly send copy of comes out about 46,000,000 F. and the central density 110 me my grams per cc., slightly higher than those adopted before. On ALL FICTION DETECTIVE STORIES, 1942. the basis of this model the central convective core contributes ninety-eight percent of the star's total luminosity. This is considered the best model available at present but NAME there are still many uncertainties so that all figures are subject to change without notice. For example, for reasons of sim- plicity helium was neglected entirely in this model. The in- troduction of helium would tend to lower the central tempera- ADDRESS ture considerably. R. S. Richardson.

THE END. CITY STATE AST—7L — F

THE BEAST

By I. Ron Hubbard

• He was a professional Government hunter, and he had to get that

strange beast— not simply because it was his ordinary duty, but because

it had stolen from him something without which life was impossible

Illustrated by Kolliker

The crash and the scream which reverberated Something had happened to the head of the through the stinking gloom of the Venusian night line, something sudden, inexplicable in this foggy brought Ginger Cranston to a startled halt upon blackness. the trail, held there for an instant by the swirl Ginger Cranston did not long remain motion- of panicked blues which made up the safari of the less for the blues had dumped their packages white hunter. and had vanished, leaving the narrow trail, which —

THE BEAST 101 wandered aimlessly through the giant trees, clear against a tree. He could not grip the slimy, elu- of men. sive paw but he could brace it away from him with He took one step forward, gun balanced at his forearm. ready in the crook of his arm and then the thing A roaring sound was loud in Ginger’s ears and happened to him which would make his life a before he could halt the last roll he had man- nightmare. aged, beast and hunter were over the lip and into From above and behind something struck him, black and greedy space. A shattering cry came struck him with a fury and a savageness which from the beast as it fell away. sent him flat into the muck, which began to claw Ginger tried to see, tried to twist in the air and rake and beat at him with a singleness of and then he was gagged by the thick sirup of the intent which would have no ending short of depths and twisted like a chip in the strength of death. a whirlpool. He struck upward and then could The white hunter rolled in the slime and beat not orient himself. His lungs began to burn and back with futile fists, kicking out with his heavy the sirup of the river seared his throat. The boots, smothering under the gagging odor of a whirlpool flung him out, battered him against wild animal, so strong that it penetrated through a rock and then left him to crawl, stunned and the filters of his swamp mask, the only thing aching, from the stream. which was saving his face from the sabers this He lay on the rocks, deafened by the roar of thing had for claws. the water, trying to find strength enough to scan Fighting it back, the hunter’s hands could find the space around him in search of the beast. no grip upon the slimy fur; he could see nothing Two hours later the frightened blues, grouped of it because of the dark and the fact that the in a hollow ring for security, found the white blues had dropped their torches to a man. Ginr hunter by the river and placed him in a sling. ger luridly cursed the blues, cursed this thing, One of the trackers nervously examined a nearby cursed the muck and the agony which was being track and then cried, “Da juju! Da juju!” hammered into him. Hastily the carriers lifted the sling and bore its He lurched to his knees, striking out blindly inert burden back to the trail and along it to with all his might. The thing was driven back the village which had been Ginger Cranston’s from him for an instant and Ginger’s hands raked goal. the mud around him for some weapon, preferably his lost gun. When he could not find it he leaped Ginger Cranston woke slowly into the oppres- all the way to his feet and ripped away the swamp sive odor of a blue village from the tangled ter- mask. He could not see. He could hear the ror of his dreams. The heated ink of the Venusian snarling grunts of the thing as it gathered itself night eddied through his tent, clung clammily to for a second charge. his face, smothered the native fires which burned Something in the unexpectedness of the attack, across the clearing. Ginger Cranston woke into something in the ferocity of the beast, shook a new sensation, a feeling of loss, and for a little Ginger’s courage, a courage which was a byword while could not bring organization into thought. where hunters gathered. For a moment he could It was hard for him to bring back the successive think of nothing but trying to escape this death shocks which had placed him here, helpless in which would again be upon him in an instant. this bed, and he began to know things which it He whirled and fumbled his way through the had never before occurred to him that it would trees. If he could find some place where he could be important to know. make a stand, if he could grasp a precious instant He had always been a brave man. As govern- to get out and unclasp his knife ment hunter of this continent, relentlessly wiping There was a roaring sound hard by, the sound out the ponderous and stupid game which threat- of battered water. Ginger knew this continent ened the settlements and their crops, he had been better than to go so far off a trail and he knew considered all about as a man without peer in he must here make that stand. He gathered his the lists of courage. So certain had he been in courage about him like armor. He unclasped the his possession of this confidence that he had never knife. He could feel the beast not two yards wondered about fear, had found only contempt for away from him but in the dense gloom he could those who were so weak as to feel that lowly not see anything but the vague shapes of trees. emotion. It struck. It struck from behind with a strength And now Ginger Cranston woke up afraid. which brought them crashing into the mud and The shocks, wreaked upon another, would have branches. One cruel paw was crooked to feel brought madness. To have been struck twice from out with in? sabers the eyes of its victim, the others behind by a raging beast, to have tasted death scored Ginger’s back and side. between the claws of such fury, would have Rolling in a red agony, strong beyond any past wrecked the usual nervous system. But Ginger strength. Ginger tried to slam his assailant back Cranston was not a usual person and, never hav- —

102 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

ing been other than his gay, confident self, he There were sharpened stakes at the bottom to re- had no standards. ceive them. They do not live, Lord Ginger.” He had lost his courage. “A deadfall?” gaped Ginger. And then, be- In its place was a sick nausea. cause there was a resulting emotion which clam- And Ginger Cranston, out of shame, was no help ored to be felt, he spoke swiftly, carelessly, and to himself but stood away from his battered body smothered it. “Nonsense. There’s nothing like and gazed with lip-curled contempt upon this a deadfall in the arts of the blues. There have sniveling hulk which shook at the brink of re- been no hostile blues for thirty years or more.” calling that which had brought this about. He “Devils,” said Ambu. “Devils of the dark, not had no sympathy for himself and had no reasons blues. I have never seen nor heard of such a trap, with which to excuse his state. Lord Ginger.”

He was ill and his spirits, as in anyone ill, “I’ll have to see it before I believe it,” said Gin- were low. He had been expecting the same stupid, ger. “Er . . . Ambu, bring me a drink.” many-tonned brutes which he had thought to con- stitute the only game of this continent. He had Ambu was perceptive. He knew Lord Ginger been set upon by a thing wholly unknown to him did not mean water even though Lord Ginger at a time when he had expected nothing and he never drank ecxept to be polite or when ill with had been mauled badly in the process. But he fever. He poured from a flat metal bottle into offered himself none of these. He was afraid, a metal cup and the two chattered together. afraid of an unknown, cunning something, the "Very cold tonight,” said Ambu, sweating. memory of which was real in this dark tent. “Very cold,” said Ginger, drinking quickly. “Ambu!” he yelled. The beasts of this continent weighed many A Venusian of wary step and worried eyes slunk tons. They were of many kinds, some of them into the tent. Ambu had done his bungling best carnivorous, all of them stupid, slothful swamp with these wounds, hurling the offer of help back creatures which did damage because they were into the teeth of the village doctor—a person clumsy not because they were vicious. It was who preferred a ghost rattle to a bottle of iodine. a government hunter’s job to kill them because a Ambu was of uncertain age, uncertain bearing. man had to be skilled to rend apart enough flesh He was half in and half out of two worlds—that and muscle and bone to keep the brutes from of the whites in Yorkville on the coast, that of traveling. There were no small animals like the blues in the somber depths of this continent. leopards or lynxes. On all Venus there was noth- He believed in ghosts. But he knew that iodine ing which weighed four hundred pounds and had prevented infection. He belonged to a white, had claws, was cloaked in slimy fur been indifferently schooled by the whites. But “It knew" said Ambu. “It knew Lord Ginger he was a blue. would stop in just that place when the line halted. Ambu hung the lantern on the pole of the tent And it was on a tree limb above Lord Ginger and looked uneasily at his white man. He was waiting for him to stop. It knew.” not encouraged by that strange expression in the "Rot and nonsense,” grinned Ginger carefully. hunter’s eyes, but the fact that Lord Ginger had “I have never heard of a beast with that much come back to consciousness was cheering. intelligence.” Ginger was feeling a strange relief at having “No beast,” said Ambu with rare conviction light. He smiled unconvincingly. When he spoke for him. “Probably devil. No doubt devil. For- his voice was carefully controlled. est devil. Drink again, Lord Ginger?” Ginger drank again and some of the hor- "Well, Ambu I I’m not dead yet, you see.” numb "Ambu is very happy, Lord Ginger.” He looked ror began to retreat before the warmth of the worried. liquor. “Well, maybe we’ll take a crack at hunt- ing it we’ve disposed of this ‘juju’ thing “What . . . er . . . what happened out there when the village is troubled about.” when . . . well, what happened?” said Ginger with another smile. “The devil is ‘da juju’,” said Ambu. “That is Ambu looked into the dark corners of the tent, the thing for which they wanted Lord Ginger. looked out into the compound and then sank on That was ‘da juju’!” his dull haunches at the side of the cot. “The white lord is well?” said a new voice, a "Devils,” said Ambu. tired and hopeless voice, in the entrance to the "Nonsense,” said Ginger in careful careless- tent. ness. Ambu started up guiltily and began to protest "Devils,” said Ambu. “There was a pit. I have to the chief in blue that the white lord was well never before seen such a pit. It was dug deep enough but would talk to no one. with claw marks on the digging. It was covered “Never mind, Ambu. Invite him in,” said Gin- over with branches and mud like a roof; when ger. He knew he would get the full impact of the trackers stepped upon it they fell through. this thing now, would remember all about it, would THE BEAST 103

receive the hopelessness of this gloomy forest and crept out of the tent. chief like one receives an immersion in ink. Ambu pointed to a case which contained a radio- “Greetings,” said Ginger in blue. phone. “Lord Ginger talk Yorkville and ask “Greetings to the white lord,” said the chief for men?” tiredly. “He lives and the village Tohyvo is Ginger startled himself by almost agreeing. He happy that he lives. The white hunter is great had never asked for help. He was Ginger Cran- and his fame is mighty. He comes and all things ston. He looked at the radio case like a desert- flee in horror before him. The blues beat their stranded man might gaze thirstily at a cup of heads against the earth in submission and hide water before he did the incredible thing of pour- their eyes before the dazzling brilliance of the ing it out on the ground. mighty lord." He sighed and sank upon an am- “We won’t need any help,” said Ginger with munition box. a smile. “All I need is a night’s sleep. Have the “Greetings to the star of his people,” said chief throw out beaters in the morning and pick Ginger, mechanically. “His name carries the up the beast’s track. Meantime, good night. NO!” storms of his wrath across the jungle and his he added quickly and then calmed his voice. “No, power is as the raging torrent. A flash of his leave the lantern there, Ambu. I ... I have some glance is the lightning across the storm.” He notes to make.” took a cup of liquor from Ambu and handed it to Ambu looked uncertainly at his white master the dispirited, sodden little chief. and then sidled from the tent. “You met da juju,” said the chief. “We did,” said'Ginger with a timed smile. “On The giant trees stood an infinity into the sky, the next meeting da juju will be dead.” tops lost in the gray dark of swirling vapors.. “Ah,” said the chief. Great tendrils of fog crept ghostily, low past the “You have had some trouble with this thing?” trunks, to blot with their evil odor of sulphur said Ginger. and rot what visibility the faint light might have “My best warriors are gutted and mangled permitted. It was an atmosphere in which men corpses in the forest depths. Women going to unconsciously speak in whispers and look cau- the river have never returned. Children are tiously around each bend before venturing farther snatched from play. And always the dark swal- along the trail. lows this thing, always there is only the silent The beaters had come back with news that da forest to mock. In my long life I have never juju had left tracks in a clearing two kilometers heard of such a beast.- But you have said it will from the village and they added to it the usual be killed. It is good. It is ended. The mighty blue exaggeration that it was certain da juju was hunter gives me back my sleep.” wounded from his encounter with the mighty “Wait,” said Ginger. “You say it makes raids white hunter. on your village?” The party stepped cautiously past an open space “Yes, mighty warrior.” where some wrecked and forgotten space liner, “How does it do this?” which furnished the natives with metal, showed “It rides down from the sky. It vanishes back a series of battered ports through the swirling into the sky.” gloom, a ship to be avoided since its dryness “You mean the trees,” said Ginger. offered refuge to snakes. “It is the same,” sighed the chief, eyeing the Weak and feverish, Ginger occasionally stopped liquor bottle. and leaned against a tree. He would have liked “How do your warriors die?” the help of Ambu’s arm, but could not, in his

The chief squirmed. “They fall into pits cun- present agitated state, bring himself to ask for it. ningly placed on the trail and covered over. They Step by step, turn by turn of the trail, a thing are attacked from behind and torn to bits. Da was growing inside Ginger Cranston, a thing juju has even been known to wrest from their which was like a lash upon his nerves. His back hands their spears and knives and transfix them was slashed with the wounds he had received with their own weapons.” and the wounds burned, burned with memory.

Ambu was shivering. He stood on one foot, then His back was cringing away from the thing it on the other. He scratched his back nervously had experienced and as the minutes went the and in the next second scratched his head. His feeling increased. At each or any instant he ex- eyes, flicking back and forth from the chief to pected to have upon him once again the shock the white hunter were like a prisoner’s under tor- of attack, from behind, fraught with agony and ture. terror. He tried to sweep it from him. He tried “Maybe devils,” said Ambu. to reassure himself by inspecting the low-hanging “Devils," muttered the old chief. “The mighty limbs under which they passed; but the memory white warrior has come. All will be well. All was there. He told himself that if it did happen will be well.” He looked dispiritedly at Ginger he would not scream. He would whirl and begin 104 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

to shoot. He would smash the thing against a tree beast and killed that beast, he would not recover trunk and shatter it with flame and copper. his own. He was being careful to discount any tendency The tracks led on a broad way, clear in the mud, toward weakness and when, on a halt, he had with a straight course. Uneasily, Ginger watched found that each time he had pressed his back behind him, recalling the words of the chief that solidly against a tree he thereafter turned his back the thing often backtracked. But there were no to the trail and faced the tree. overhanging branches in this part and that gave Ambu was worried. He padded beside Lord some relief for they had come up a gradual grade Ginger, carrying the spare gun, wanting to offer and the trail was flanked with tall, limber trees his help, wanting to somehow comfort this huge which barred no light. Here the ground was more man who was now so changed. solid even if covered with thick masses of rot and “Hot, eh?” said Ginger with a smile. the combination of greater light and better foot- “Hot,” said Ambu. ing caused a weight to gradually lift from Gin- “Ask the trackers if we are almost there.” ger’s back. Ambu chattered to the men ahead and then And then it happened. There was a swishing, shrugged. “They say a little way now.” swooping sound and a scream from Ambu! Gin- “Good,” said Ginger, carefully careless. ger spun about to scan the back trail—and to find nothing. Ambu was gone. The trail began to widen and the river of sirup Ginger looked up. In a cunningly manufac- which ran in it began to shoal. The clearing was tured sling, not unlike a rabbit snare, held by one about them before they could see that it was and foot, was Ambu, thirty feet from the ground, then the only sign was a certain lightness to the obviously dead, his head smashed in from its con- fog. tact with the trunk of the tree which, springing “Tracks!” cried the blue in advance. upright, had lifted him. Ginger went up to him. He wiped his face After a few moments Ginger said in a controlled beneath his and put the handker- swamp mask voice, “Cut him down.” chief carefully away. He knelt casually, taking And some hours later the group crawled back care that his thigh boots did not ship mud and into the compound, carrying Ambu, Ginger still water over their tops. Impersonally he regarded walking by himself despite the grayness of his the tracks. face and the strange tightness about his mouth. There were six of them in sets of two. The first were clearly claws; two and a half feet be- With each passing day the lines on Ginger hind them the second set showed no claws; two Cranston’s face deepened and the hollows beneath and a half feet back from these the third and last his eyes grew darker. It was harder now to set showed claws again. The weight of the thing bring a proper note of cheerfulness into his com- must be less than three hundred pounds. mands, to reassure when all chances of success A prickle of knowing went up the back of Gin- diminished with each casualty to the hunting ger’s spine. These tracks were perfect. They party. had been placed in a spot where they would re- There came, one dull, drab day the final break tain their impressions. And from here they led with the blues. Ginger Cranston had seen it com- away into the trees but to this place they did not ; ing, had known that his own power had grown less exist. and less in their eyes, that their faith in the great “Devil,” chattered Ambu. white hunter had slimmed to a hopeless dejec- A devil was very nearly an acceptable explana- tion. Da juju had sapped the bulwark of morale tion to Ginger. No six-tracked animal was known and now the battlement came sliding down like to him, either on this planet or any other. a bank of soupy, Venusian mud. Ginger Cran- Suddenly he stood up, no longer able to bear ston woke to empty tents. The villagers said the feeling of attack from behind. He turned nothing for there was nothing to say. The great slowly. The dark vapors curled and drifted like white hunter was defeated. It was inevitable veils through the clearing. that the remainder of his crew would desert and “Get on the track of it,” said Ginger in blue. it was not necessary that the way of their going The trackers trotted out, too swiftly for Gin- be told, for the blazing mouths of guns could not ger to keep up without extreme effort, but Ginger have driven them back. Seven had died. Five made no protest. remained to flee and the five had fled. He told himself that the fever made him this “Bring me trackers,” said the haggard white way; but he had had fever before. Deep within man. he knew that the beast had a thing which be- The chief looked at the mud and regarded it longed to Ginger, a thing which Ginger had never with intensity. He looked at a pegunt rooting imagined could be stolen. And until he met that there as thougff he had seen such an animal for —

THE BEAST 105

the first time. He looked at a tree with search- There was a slithering, harsh sound and Gin- ing interest. ger, blenched white, came shaking to his feet, his “I said trackers!” said Ginger Cranston. light gun swinging toward the movement, sweat The chief scratched himself and began to sidle starting from him. But there was no target. The away, still without meeting the eyes of the white thrown-back flap of his tent had slipped into man. place, moved by the wind. Ginger struck out and the chief crumpled into He was nauseated and for seconds the feeling a muddy, moaning pile. of claws digging into his back would not abate. “TRACKERS!” said Ginger. He struggled with his pent sanity, sought nerv- The chief turned his face into the slime and ously for the key of control which, more and whimpered. In all the village not one blue could more, was ever beyond the reach of mental fingers. be observed, but one felt that all the village had The scream died unvoiced, the gun slipped to seen and now dispiritedly sank into a dull apathy the bunk and lay there with its muzzle like a as though this act of brutality, borne out of tem- fixed, accusing eye. Hypnotically, Ginger Cran- per, was not a thing to be blamed but merely a ston looked at that muzzle. It threw a twenty- thing which proved that the great white hunter millimeter slug and would tear half a head from was no longer great. With all the rest, da juju a Mamodon bull; the bullet came out when the had him, had his heart and soul, which was far trigger was pressed, came out with a roar of sav- worse than merely having his life. age flame, came out with oblivion as its command.

Ginger turned away, ashamed and shaken. He Limply Ginger regarded it. He knew very little pushed his way into his tent and mechanically about death, he a hunter who should have known wiped the rain from his face, discovering abruptly so much. Was death a quiet and untroubled sleep that he wept. He could not now gain back the which went on forever or was death a passing to thing which da juju had. His means were gone another existence? Would the wings of death with his men. He could hear the chief whimper- carry something that was really Ginger Cranston ing out there in the mud, could hear a wind in out of this compound, away from these trees, this the great trees all around the place, mixed with fog, this constant rain, this . . . this beast? the toneless mutter of the drizzle upon the can- Funny he had never before considered death, vas. odd how little he knew, he who had been so sure In the metal mirror which hung on the pole, and proud of knowing so very much. steamed though it was, Ginger caught a glimpse Death was a final conclusion—or was it a be- of his countenance. He started, for that which ginning? And if he took it now— Suddenly he saw was not in the least Ginger Cranston; it he saw where his thought led him and drew back was as though even the bone structure had some- in terror from the lip of the chasm. Then, as one how shifted to complete another identity. He wonders how far he would have fallen had he had no impulse to strike the mirror down—he was slipped, he crept cautiously back and thought- tired, achingly, horribly tired. He wanted to fully regarded the bottomless, unknowable deep, crawl into his bed and lie there with his face finding within himself at this strange moment a to the blank wall of canvas and never move again. power to regard such a thing with a detached at- Shame was the only active emotion now, shame titude, to dispassionately weigh a thing which for the thing he had done just now, for the chief he believed it to be in his hand to choose. hardly came to his shoulder and the mud-colored He seemed to fall away from himself in body body was twisted by accident and illness into a and yet stand there, an untouchable, uncaring per- caricature of a blue. Ginger took a bottle from sonality who had but to extend a crooking finger a case and went out again into the rain. and call unto himself all there was to know. Sus- He knelt beside the chief and sought to turn pended in time, in action, in human thought, he him over and make him look. But the resistless regarded all he was, had been, would be. There shoulder was a thing which could not be turned were no words to express this identity, this time- and the low, moaning whimper was not a thing lessness, only a feeling of actually existing for which would stop. the first time; layer upon layer of a nameless “I am sorry,” said Ginger. something had been peeled away to leave a naked, But there was no change. Ginger set the bot- knowing thing; a mask was gone from his eyes. tle down in the mud beside the head and went But when he again came to himself, still standing back into his tent. beside his bed, still staring at the gun, he was Slowly, soddenly, he sank upon the rubber cover muddy, weary Ginger Cranston once again who of his bunk looking fixedly and unseeingly at his could feel that something had happened but could fouled boots. Da juju. The devil, Ambu had not express even in nebulous thought any part of him. called Had not Ambu been right? For what the occurrence. Something had changed. A de- animal could do these things and remain out of cision had been born. A plan of action, a somber, the range of a hunter's guns? Da juju solemn plan was his. 106 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

About his waist he buckled a flame pistol and He took his time, now and then pausing to ar- into that belt he thrust a short skinning knife. range some imagined opening in his coat or his He pulled up his collar and strapped his swamp mask, occasionally pulling off the mask altogether mask to it. He picked up his gun and looked into and lighting his pipe, to sit on a rotten log until its magazine. the tobacco was wholly burned. He had no plan of walking save that he stayed When Ginger stepped from the tent the chief in the trees where the great branches leaned out was gone but the bottle sat upright in the mud, above him like grasping hands, only half seen untouched, a reproof which would have reached in the gloom. Ginger a few minutes before but which could not When the dark began to settle he did not return touch him now. For perhaps an hour, even a day, to the village, but kept upon his circuitous way, nothing could touch him, neither sadness nor vaguely aware that the compound was somewhere

triumph. He was still within himself, waiting for upon his right, caring very little about it. a thing he knew would come, a thing much greater When he could no longer see clearly he groped than shame or sorrow. He had chosen his death to the base of a great tree ; he could sit here now, for he had found it to be within his realm of waiting with dull patience for the thing to hap- choice and having chosen it he was dead. It pen. From his pocket he took his pipe and mattered little what happened now. It mattered pouch. From his face he pulled the swamp much that da juju would end. But it did not mask. Steadying his gun against the trunk beside matter emotionally. It was a clear concern, un- him he proceeded to prepare his smoke. diluted by self. Walking quietly through the mud he came to It happened suddenly, silently, efficiently. The the trail which led upward to the series of knolls vine-woven net dropped soundlessly over his head, where the trees were thinner and the ground a slithered to his feet and then with swift ferocity, degree more solid. This time he was not tracking. yanked tight and brought him with a crash into He gave no heed to the ground for he was within the mud! the role of the hunted, not that of the hunter. He There was a scurrying about him as though knew with a clarity not born of reason that he something leaped up and down, darted back and would be found. forth to swiftly study the situation so as to Along the crest of a small hill, looking across out require a minimum of effort in the final kill. the foggy depths of the forest, touched faintly by Ginger’s right hand sought to grip the flame the gloomy sun, he walked and knew he could be pistol at his thigh, but he could not bend his seen against the sky. He stopped a little while arm; his left hand clawed insensately at the net and dispassionately regarded the forest tops again, and a scream of terror welled up in his throat. noting for the first time that gray was not the color He stilled the beating of the hand. He pressed there as he had always supposed but drab green back the scream. He reached to his belt and drew rust red, dark blue and smoky yellow. It was a the knife with a deliberate swiftness and an little thing to notice but it seemed important. He economy of effort. The keen edge bit into the turned and walked slowly back along the crest, gun tough fibers of the vine, cleared it away from half held in the crook of his arm, his body relaxed. his side, began to slice it off his ankles. And then From this end he could see the impression of the the thing struck! village, a vacant space in the trees, a small knoll The foul animal smell of it assailed him, more itself, wrapped in blue-yellow cotton batting which acute than the bite of the claws restively shifted pattern. which went through his jacket and into his side About him the clouds thickened blindingly and like a set of bayonets. the lenses of his swamp mask fogged. For a brief He sensed the drive instant terror was in him before he pressed it downward of the other claws and caught a blurred gently down, out of sight, and buried it somewhere glimpse of the thing. within him once more. The cloud lifted and The slimy fur of the leg was in his fingers and the striking curved easily away. For a little while then the paw missed his face. sun was almost bright and it was this time upon Ginger jabbed upward with the knife and felt which he had counted. He could be seen for a it saw vainly into the thing. With a scream the kilometer or more against the sky, blackly etched, beast twisted away and with it went the knife. motionless, waiting. There was a brief interval before the next, more The atmosphere thickened, darkened, grew sog- savage attack, and in that space Ginger cleared gier with spurts of rain; the sun and any trace of his feet of the net. When it struck him again, it vanished even to Ginger’s shadow. The time like a battering-ram with force enough to smash in was here. He would walk slowly, leaving deep his ribs, he was able to come to his knees and tracks, putting aside any impulse to step on stone fumble for his flame pistol while fending with and so break his trail. He knew it would follow. his left arm. He had no more than drawn the gun THE BEAST 107

when a scrambling kick sent it flying into the mud, far from reach. A cold piece of metal banged Ginger in the mouth and he snatched hungrily for the haft of his flesh-imbedded knife. Slippery as his fingers

were, he retained it, drew it forth. He kicked out with his feet and then drove the keen steel deep into the body of the thing! With a shudder it fell back, a claw weakly seek- ing to strike again and then falling away. There was a threshing, rattling sound and Ginger drew away, trying to clear his sight, fumbling with the other hand for his gun which he knew had been at the base of the tree. He had the weapon in his hand before he could see. There was water in a footprint which his hand had touched and he quickly bathed his eyes. The light was faint, too faint to show more than a dark blob stretched in the muck, a blob which

didn’t move now. Ginger warily skirted it, keep- “IT” was hidden in the vault — ing it covered, fumbling for a flash inside his waterproof coat. The cold, impersonal beam played upon the but Doc didn’t have a vault object, raked it from end to end and then strayed uncertainly back to the head.

Ginger knelt and unfastened the straps of the A little man in a green hat came up frayed, worn leatherlike suit that clothed the corpse and laboriously turned it over. Metal- to Doc Savage. He offered to save tipped space gloves clicked as the arms flopped Doc's friends. All the members of his against each other. There was an almost illegible trace of lettering on the back, fouled —with mud group had been kidnaped! and blood, torn in spots. “SP—E SHII ” it said, before a gouge tore out the ship’s name. Below, But the little man insisted that first “Spacepo—Lowry, U-A.” It stank with dried and rotted blood and meat Doc Savage turn over something that of long-gone kills, and the unwashed body of its occupant. was hidden in a vault. And Doc

Ginger turned it back and looked again at the didn't have the slightest idea what he face. Identification was hopeless. The disastrous landing had gouged and torn the face half away; was talking about. there was a deep dent in the forehead where the skull had been broken inward, and an angry, All of which gave rise to thrills and seamed and cross-seamed welt told of slow heal- ing without the slightest rudiments of attention. excitement ... a better-than-ever Doc Ginger straightened slowly, gathered his things from the ground, and squelched off on his back- Savage story, THE LAUGH OF trail. Native bearers would have to carry that DEATH in the October beast home. The beast some unknown and proba- bly unknowable crash of a small tramp spacer had made from a man. A ruthless, pure animal—with all the cunning of human intelligence still left in the damaged brain. DOC SAVAGE Ginger swung along the trail in the long, easy strides of a huntsman of standing. There were 10c A COPY AT ALL NEWSSTANDS bruises, and certain scratches that twinged a bit, but that sort of damage was of no importance. The great thing was—a thing Ginger now scarcely realized—that he had recaptured that quite in- tangible reality that had been stolen from him. THE END. :

108 BRASS TACKS

So that’s who Jules got hooked by! Maybe he’s got something there—

Dear John: Dear Mr. Campbell: Regarding the question of Harold Shea’s status, There is one thing I have to get off my chest raised by Mr. Carter in the August Astounding: before I go completely mad. How can the modern Pratt and I haven’t been able to keep in close science-fiction writers of today have such incredi- touch with Harold lately, but the last we heard ble lack of foresight as to picture humanity he was teaching his young son to speak archaic decades from now still wearing the convention- Japanese, so he could go back to twelfth-century bound and uncomfortable clothes of this period? Japan and scotch the Son of Heaven’s family at Can it be thkt this race of two-legged mammals, the source. after advancing to such a degree that they can Harold admits he had a lively time in Hub- span the voids between stars, pull planets out of bard’s University of the Unholy Names, but their courses, explore and exploit the fourth claims that he got off easy compared to Hubbard’s dimension, and colonize the planets, still be wear- hero. The unfortunate Riley, you will remember, ing tight-fitting pistons of cloth around their legs? ended up married to one Megaera, who, as every- Impossible! For example: let us look back two body but poor Jules knew, is one of the Erinyes, thousand years when science still thought that or Furies!—L. Sprague de Camp. there were four elements that made up this world. They had the good sense to wear loose-fitting togas that bound no part of the body and per- mitted free motion of the limbs when your life I’ve seen Kodachrome color photographs taken by depended upon a quick start and continued speed. long exposure to moonlight. They do not look Whereas John Q. Public goes blithely along still like moonlight because they are colorful. Some wearing the styles that grandfather set. (The slight color vision remains, but so little as to be first hundred years, et cetera, et cetera.) And almost useless. another thing. This picturization of the space- man of the future wearing boots, tight-fitting rid- Dear Mr. Campbell ing pants, a long cloak, a sword, and enough gold “The Birth of a Superstition,” by Willy Ley, braid to sink a battleship. Especially the sword. in the May, 1942, issue of Astounding Science- What possible use could a sword be in space? Fiction seems to prove that the color blindness of More useless junk is being carried on by custom the ancient Greeks was just a myth. There is than warts on a wart hog. But perhaps I had another myth that is even more prevalent, and better stop now before I start yelling and really much easier to prove wrong. In the September, begin to talk about flaws in the set-up. 1941, issue of Astounding, the editor’s article, About the magazine itself. Now, there are “Optical Instruments,” states that moonlight stories and stories, but, as far as I am concerned, scenes are actually colorless, and that all color seen your magazine has the best. The cover was good, is from memory. I have read this elsewhere, also. but who cares? What difference does it make However, on trying it, the color looked too real what kind of paper the magazine is printed on, to be just memory, so I made some tests on some and whether or not there are any pictures? As color charts and some pictures colored in a way far as I am concerned, you could print it on so that no normal pictures were ever colored. cheesecloth sell it the While some of the colors did not look normal, and by foot. most of them had enough color to be recognizable. I ran across de Camp’s “Lest Darkness Fall” in The tests were made after midnight to be sure our station library. Good idea, that. It gives the that no daylight remained. Perhaps the moon is bookworm a chance to see what science-fiction can brighter here in Colorado. do in the way of entertainment.

I hope you will try it, and prove to yourself By the way, do you plan to give Asimov’s that colors can be seen by moonlight, and explode “Foundation,” a sequel? Seems to me that would another myth.—F. H. Sweany, Henderson, Colo- be a good idea. I’m all agog to find out if the rado. plan will work.—Bruce Massey.

Crowded this month—five to seven pages next month! 109 QRM—INTERPLANETARY

By George 0. Smith

# QRM is the radio ham's designation of man-made interference— and while it

wasn't the ordinary kind of static that practically ruined interplanetary com-

munications, it definitely was man made, and interference of the worst order!

lllustrated by Kolllker

QRM—International code sig- lamo of Yoralen, picked up the but it sounded as though she nal meaning "Interference” of telephone in his palace and said: might be in the next room. Kor- controllable nature, such as man- “I want to talk to Wilneda. He vus thought for a moment and made static, cross modulation is at the International Hotel in then said: “Take this message: from another channel adjoining Detroit, Michigan.” ‘Wilneda: Add to order for min- or willful obliteration of signals “I’m sorry, sir,” came the voice ing machinery one type S6-XXD by an interfering source. of the operator. “Talking is not flier to replace washed-out Interference not of natural possible, due to the fifteen-min- model. And remember, tobacco sources (designated by Interna- ute transmission lag between and sublevel energy will not tional code as QRN), such as here and Terra. Interplanetary mix I’ Sign that Korvus.” electrical storms, common static, Communications will not permit “Yes, Mr. Korvus.” et cetera. audio. However, teletype mes- “Not mister!” yelled the mon- —Handbook, Interplanetary ages are welcome.” arch. “I am Korvus, the Mag- Amateur Radio League. Her voice originated fifteen nificient! I am Nilamo of Yora- Korvus, the Magnificent, Ni- hundred miles north of Yoralen, len!” 110 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

“Yes, your magnificence,” said of Venus clicked on a teletype, larized, ultra-high frequency the operator humbly. It was reading back the message as it wave of five centimeter waves, more than possible that she was was written. modulated with the keying sig-

stifling a laugh, which knowl- Korvus told him : “That is cor- nals of the teletype coupling ma- edge made the little man of rect.” chine. The outer component Venus squirm in wrath. But “The message will be in the was a radially polarized wave of there was nothing that he could hands of your representative one centimeter waves. A radio do about it, television still being Wilneda within the hour!” frequency armor. distant by the same five years It was hurled at the sky, a con- that it was behind in 1929. The punched tape from Oper- centric wave, out of a reflector, To give Korvus credit, he was ator No. 7’s machine slid along by a thousand kilowatt trans- not a pompous little man. He the line. It entered a coupling mitter. The wave seared against was large—for a Venusian—j- machine and was stripped from the Venusian Heaviside Layer. which made him small according the tape and repunched upon a The outer component bored at

to the standards set up by Ter- tape that was operating at better the ionization. It chewed and it restrians. He, as Nilamo of than a thousand words per min- bit. It fought and it struggled. Yoralen, had extended the once- ute. Operator 7’s tape then left It destroyed ionization by elec- small kingdom outward to in- the machine to be rolled into a tronically shorting the ioniza- clude most of the Palanortis file roll and placed in the vaults tion. And, as is the case with Country which extended from below the city. It was of no strife, it lost heavily in the en- about 23.0 degrees North Lati- use save as a reference from counter. The beam was resisted tude to 61.7 degrees, and almost now on. fiercely. Infiltrations of ioni- across the whole, single conti- The coupling machine worked zation tore at the central com- nent that was the dry land of furiously. It accepted the tapes ponent, stripping and trying to Venus. He was a wily monarch, from seventy operators as fast as beat it down. making his conquest of the wild they could write them. It se- But man triumphed over na- and lawless country by treaty, lected the messages as they en- ture! The megawatt of energy and by double-double-crossing tered the machine, placing a me- that came in a tight beam from those who might have tried to chanical preference upon which- the building at Northern Land- double-cross him. Armed con- ever message happened to be ing emerged from the Heaviside quest was scorned, but armed de- ahead of the others on the mov- Layer as a weak, piffling signal. fense was desirable in the Pala- ing tapes. The master tape It wavered and it crackled. It nortis Country—and Korvus had moved continuously at eleven wanted desperately to lie down defended himself up and down hundred words per minute, tak- and sleep. Its directional quali- the inhabitable Northern portion ing teletype messages from ev- ties were impaired, and it wab- of the planet. His conquest had erywhere in the Northern Hemi- bled badly. It arrived at the re- been a blessing to civilization, sphere of Venus to any of the lay station tired and worn. and though publicly denounced, other planets in the Solar Sys- One million watts of ultra- it was privately commended. tem. It was a busy machine, for high frequency energy at the Those who could have stopped even at eleven hundred words start, it was measurable in mi- it did all they could to delay and per minute, it often got hours crovolts when it reached the re- intercept any proceedings that behind. lay station, only five hundred would have caused the conquest The synchronous-keyed sig- miles above the city of Northern of Korvus’ intended country any nal from the coupling machine Landing. trouble. left the operating room and went The signal, as weak and as Korvus’ message to Terra to the transmission room. It was wabbly as it was, was taken in by zoomed across the fifteen hun- amplified and hurled out of the eager receptors. It was ampli- dred rocky miles of Palanortis city to a small, squat building at fied. It was dehashed, de-stat- to Northern Landing. It passed the outskirts of Northern Land- icked, and deloused. And once high across the thousand-foot- ing. again, one hundred decibels high trees and over the moun- Here it was impressed upon a stronger and infinitely cleaner, tain ranges. It swept over open carrier wave and flung at the sky. the signal was hurled out on a patches of water, and across in- But not alone. Not unguarded. tight beam from a gigantic para- tervening cities and towns. It The upper half of the building bolic reflector. went with the speed of light and carried a monstrous parabolic re- Across sixty-seven million in a tight beam from Yoralen to flector, mounted on gimbals. miles of space went the signal.

Northern Landing, straight as a The signal was focused into a Across the orbit of Venus it die and with person-to-person beam. The beam was made of went in a vast chord. It arrived clarity. The operator in the city two components. The center at the Venus Equilateral Station that lay across the North Pole component was a circularly po- with less trouble than the origi- ”

QRM INTERPLANETARY 111 nal transmission through the in the Communications Techni- off at the other end, which made Heaviside Layer. The signal cal Review, Volume XXVII, Channing fume. He would have was amplified and demodulated. Number 8, pages 411 to 716. preferred to hear the inter- It went into a decoupler machine Readers more interested in the change of words between his sec- where the messages were sorted technical aspects are referred to retary and the newcomer. Then, mechanically and sent, each to the article. instead of having the man an- the proper channel, into other But it so happens that Korvus’ nounced, the door opened ab- coupler machines. Beams from message was picked out of a ruptly and the stranger entered. Venus Equilateral were directed hundred-odd messages because He came to the point immedi- at Mars and at Terra. of one thing only. At the time ately. The Terra beam ended at that Korvus’ message was in “You’re Don Channing? Act- Luna. Here it again was placed transit through the decoupler ing Director of Interplanetary in the two-component beam and machines at Venus Equilateral Communications?” from Luna it punched down at Relay Station, something of a 1 am.

Terra’s Layer. It emerged into material nature was entering the “Then I have some news for air station. the atmosphere of Terra, as lock of the you, Dr. Channing. I have been weak and as tired as it had been It was an unexpected visit. appointed Director by the Inter- when it had come out of the Ve- Don Channing looked up at planetary Communications Com- nus Layer. It entered a station the indicator panel in his office mission. You are to resume your in the Bahamas, was stripped of and frowned in puzzlement. He position as Electronics Engi- the interference, and put upon punched a buzzer and spoke into neer.” the land beams. It entered de- the communicator on his desk. “Oh?” said Channing. His coupling machines that sorted “Find out who that is, will face fell. “I sort of believed that the messages as to destination. you, Arden?” I would be offered that posi- These various beams spread out “He isn’t expected,” came back tion.” across the face of Terra, the one the voice of Arden Westland. “There was a discussion of carrying Korvus’ message finally “I know that. But I’ve been that procedure. However, the coming into a station at Ten expecting someone ever since Commission decided that a man Mile Road and Woodward. John Walters retired last week. of more commercial training From this station at the out- You know why.” would better fill the position. skirts of Detroit, it went upon “You hope to get his job,” said The Communications Division land wires downtown to the In- the girl in an amused voice. “I has been operating at too small ternational Hotel. hope you do. So that someone a profit. They felt that a man The teletype machine in the else will sit around all day try- of commercial experience could office of the hotel began to click ing to make you retire so that cut expenses and so on to good rapidly. The message to Wil- he can have your job!” effect. You understand their neda was arriving. “Now look, Arden, “I’ve never reasoning, of course," said Bur- And fifty-five minutes after tried to make Walters retire.” bank. the operator told Korvus that “No, but when the word came “Not exactly.” less than an hour would ensue, that he was thinking of it, you Wilneda was saying, humor- began to think about taking over. “Well, it is like this. They ously, “So, Korvus was drunk Don’t worry, I don’t blame you.” know that a scientist is not usu- again last night— There was quite a protracted si- ally a man to consider the cost lence, and then her voice re- of experimentation. They build Completion of Korvus’ mes- turned. “The visitor is a gentle- thousand-ton cyclotrons to con- sage to Wilneda completes also man by the name of Francis Bur- vert a penny’s worth of lead into one phase of the tale at hand. bank. He came out in a flitter one and one-tenth cents’ worth It is not important. There were with a chauffeur and all.” of lead and gold. And they use a hundred and fifty other mes- “Big shot, hey?” three hundred dollars’ worth of sages that might have been ac- “Take it easy. He’s coming power and a million-dollar ma- companied in the same manner, up the office now.” chine to do it with. each as interesting to the person “I gather that he desires audi- “They feel that a man with who likes the explanation of the ence with me?” asked Don. training like that will not know interplanetary communication “I think that he is here to lay the real meaning of the phrase, service. But this is not a tech- down the law! You’ll have to ‘cutting expenses.’ A new nical journal. A more complete get out of Walters’ office, if his broom sweeps clean, Dr. Chan- explanation of the various appearance is any guide.” ning. There must be many phases that a message goes places where a man of commer- through in leaving a city on Ve- There was some more silence. cial experience can cut expenses. nus to go to Terra may be found The communicator was turned I, as Director, shall do so." 112 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

“I wish you luck,” said Chan- dryly. “May I buy you a drink?” neering projects, and so on that ning. “I never drink. And I do not I was to send in to the Commis-

“Then there is no hard feel- believe in it. If it were mine to sion this morning will, therefore, ing?” say, I’d prohibit liquor from the be placed in Mr. Burbank’s “I can’t say that. It is prob- premises. Venus equilateral hands as soon as possible.” ably not your fault. I cannot would be better off without it.” “Yes, Dr. Channing.” Her feel against you, but I do feel Don Channing snapped the eyes held a twinkle, but there sort of let down at the decision communicator. “Miss Westland, was concern and sympathy in of the Commission. I have had will you come in?” them, too. “Shall I get them im- experience in this job.” She entered, puzzlement on mediately?” "The Commission may appoint her face. “They are ready?” you to follow me. If your work “This is Mr. Burbank. His po- “I was about to put them on shows a grasp of commercial sition places him in control of the tape when you called.” operations, I shall so recom- this office. You will, in the fu- “Then give them to Mr. Bur- mend.” ture, report to him directly. The bank.” Channing turned to Bur- "Thanks,” said Channing report on the operations, engi- bank. “Miss Westland will hand QRM INTERPLANETARY 113

you the reports I mentioned. “Not today,” he grinned. “I never hold Westland on my They are complete and precise. “Your new boss does not believe lap—’’ A perusal of them will put you in the evils of looking through “No?” “ in grasp of the situation here at the bottom of a glass. We must —during working hours !” fin- Venus Equilateral better than behave with decor. We must ished Channing. He grinned at will an all-afternoon conference. forget fun. We are now oper- Franks and ordered another I’ll have Miss Westland haul my ating under a man who will com- beer. “And how is the Office of junk out of here. You may con- mercialize electronics to a fine Beam Control going to make out sider this as your office, it hav- art.” under the new regime?” ing been used by Walters. And, “Don’t get stewed. He may “I’ll answer that after I see in the meantime, I’ve got to want to know where the elec- how the new regime treats the check up on some experiments trons are kept.” Office of Beam Control,” an- down on the ninth level.” Chan- “I’m not going to drink that swered Franks. “I doubt that he ning paused, “You’ll excuse much. Walt and I need a dis- can do much to bugger things up me?" cussion,” he said. “And in the in my office. There aren’t many “Yes, if Miss Westland knows meantime, haul my spinach out cheaper ways to direct a beam, where to find you.” of the office, will you, and take it you know.” “She will. I’ll inform her of back to the electronics office. I’ll “Yeah. You’re safe.” my whereabouts.” be needing it back there.” “But what I can’t understand “I may want to consult you “O. K., Don,” she said. “I’ll is why they didn’t continue you after I read the reports.” see you later.” in that job. You’ve been han- “That will be all right. The Channing left to go to the dling the business ever since last autocall can find me anywhere ninth level. He stopped long December when Walters got on Venus Equilateral, if I’m not enough to collect Walt Franks. sick. You’ve been doing all at the place Miss Westland Over a tall glass of beer, Chan- right." calls.” ning told Franks of Burbank's “Doing all right just means visit. And why. that I’ve been carrying over Don Channing stopped at Ar- Only one thing stuck in Walters’ methods and ideas. den’s desk. “I’m booted,” he told Frank’s mind. “Did you say that What the Commission wants, ap- her. he might close Joe’s?” asked parently, is something new. “Leaving Venus Equilateral?” Franks. Ergo the new broom.” she asked with concern. “He said that if it were in his “Personally, I like that one “No, blond and beautiful, I’m power to do so, he would.” about the old shoes being more just shunted back to my own of- “Heaven forbid. Where will comfortable,” said Franks. “If

fice.” we go to be alone?” you say the word, Don, I’ll slip “Can’t I go with you?" pleaded “Alone?” snorted Channing. him a dose of high voltage. That the girl. The barroom was half filled with should fix him.” “Nope. You are to stay here people, being the only drinking “I think that the better way and be a nice, good-looking Mata establishment for sixty-odd mil- would be to work for the bird. Hari. This bird seems to think lion miles. Then when he goes, I’ll have his that he can run Interplanetary “Well, you know what I recommendation.” Communications like a bus or a mean.” “Phooey," snorted Franks. factory. I know the type, and “I could smuggle in a few “They’ll just appoint another po-

the first thing he’ll do is to run cases of beer,” suggested Don. litical pal. They’ve tried it be-

Interplanetary Communications “Couldn’t we smuggle him fore and they’ll try it again. I into a snarl. Keep me informed out?” wonder what precinct he car- of anything complicated, will “That would be desirable. But ries.” you?” I think he is here to stay. Darn “Sure. And where are you go- it all, why do they have to ap- The telephone rang in the bar, ing now?” point some confounded political and the bartender, after answer- “I’m going down and get Walt pal to a job like this? I’m tell- ing, motioned to Walt Franks. Franks. We’re going to inspect ing you, Walt, he must weigh “You’re wanted in your office,” the transparency of a new type two hundred if he weighs a said the bartender. “And be- of glass.” pound. He holds his stomach on sides,” he told Channing, “if I’m “I didn’t know that optical in- his lap when he sits down.” going to get lunch for three vestigations come under your Walt looked up and down thousand people, you’d better jurisdiction.” Channing’s slender figure. trot along, too. It’s nearly eleven “This investigation will con- “Well, he won’t be holding o’clock, you know, and the first sist of a visit to the ninth level.” Westland on his lap if it is filled batch of five hundred will be “Can’t you take me along?” with stomach.” coming in." ! :

114 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

He wasn’t quite accurate as to about its axis. On the inner sur- “Eavesdropper! Using the the figures. The complement of face of the shell were the homes communicator ?” Venus Equilateral was just shy of the people—not cottages, but “Sure.” of twenty-seven hundred. They apartmental cubicles, one, two, “Better shut it off,” warned worked in three eight-hour three, six rooms. The rotation Don. Burbank isn’t foolish, shifts, about nine hundred to a made a little more than one you know, and there are pilot shift. They had their lunch and Earth G of artificial gravity. lights and warning flags on those dinner hours staggered so that Above this outer shell of apart- things to tell if someone has the at no time was there more than ments, the offices began. Offices, key open. I wouldn’t want to see about two hundred people in the recreation centers, and so on. Up you fired for listening-in.” big lunchroom. The bar, it may in the central portion where the “All right, but it was getting be mentioned, was in a smaller gravity was nil or near-nil, the interesting.” room at one end of the much automatic machinery was placed. “If I’m betting on the right larger cafeteria. The gyroscopes and the beam horse,” said Channing, “this will

Venus Equilateral Relay Sta- finders, the storerooms, the air be interesting for all before it is

tion was a modern miracle of en- plants, the hydroponic farms, finished I” gineering if you liked to believe and all other things that needed the books. Actually, Venus little or no gravity for well- Seven days went by in monot- Equilateral was an asteroid that being. onous procession. Seven days in had been shoved into its orbit This was the Venus Equilat- a world of constant climate. One about the Sun, forming a prac- eral Relay Station, sixty degrees week marked only by the chang- tical demonstration of the equi- ahead of the planet Venus, on ing of work shifts and the clocks lateral triangle solution of the Venus’ orbit. Often closer to that marked off the eight-hour Three Moving Bodies. It was a Terra than Venus, the relay sta- periods. Seven days unmarred long cylinder, about three miles tion offered a perfect place to re- by rain or cold or heat. Seven in length by about a mile in di- lay messages through whenever days of uninterrupted sunshine ameter. Mars or Terra were on the other that flickered in and out of the There was little of the origi- side of the Sun. It was seldom sealed viewports with eye-sear- nal asteroid. At the present idle, for it was seldom that both ing brilliance, coming and going time, most of the original rock Mars and Terra were in such po- as the station rotated. had been discarded to make room sition that direct communication But in the front offices, things for the ever-growing personnel between the three planets was were not as serene. No monot- and material that were needed to possible. ony to become irksome. Not that operate the relay station. monotony What This was the center of Inter- ever set in seriously in had been an asteroid with the ma- planetary Communications. This engineering department, but chinery was now a huge pile of that sacred sanctum of all- was the main office. It was the machinery with people. The in- things - - - - heart of the system’s communi- that didn’t behave sides, formerly of spongy rock, as-they-should found that even cation line, and as such, it was were now neatly cubed off into their usual well manned. Orders for every- turmoil was worse. offices, rooms, hallways, so There and thing emanated from Venus was nothing that a person on, divided by sheets of steel. could set his finger on directly. Equilateral. It was a delicate The outer surface, once rugged It was more of proposition, Venus Equilateral a quiet, under- and forbidding, was now almost cover nature. was, and hence the present-on- -On Monday Bur- all shiny steel. The small as- bank sent around a all-occasions official capacities communique teroid, a tiny thing, was far removing the option of free mes- and office staff. smaller than the present relay sages for the personnel. On This was the organization that station, the station having over- Tuesday he remanded the years- Don Channing hoped to direct. flowed the asteroid soon after long custom of permitting the A closed corporation with one men found that uninterrupted supply ships to carry, free, pack- purpose in mind, interplanetary communication was possible be- ages from friends at home. On communication tween the worlds. Wednesday, Francis Burbank Channing wondered if the Now, the man-made asteriod decided that there should be a summons for Walt Franks was carried twenty-seven hundred curfew on the one and only beer an official one. Returning to the people. There were stores, of- emporium. That was made after electronics office, Don punched fices, places of recreation, he found that curtailing all sorts the communicator and churches, marriages, deaths, and asked of alcoholics might easily lead everything but taxes. Judging "Is Walt in there?” to a more moral problem; there by its population, it was a small Arden’s voice came back : “No, being little enough to do with town. but Burbank is in Franks’ office. one’s spare time. On Thursday, Venus Equilateral rotated Wanna listen?” he set up a stiff-necked staff of QRM INTERPLANETARY 115

censors for the moving picture ter prepared. You speak of many shot full of holes by a screwball. house. On Friday, he put a tax things. There will be more to He stamped down to the ninth on cigarettes and candy. On come. I’ll answer some of your level and beat upon the closed Saturday, he installed time questions. Why should we per- door of Joe’s. The door re- clocks in all the laboratories and mit our profits to be eaten up by mained closed. professional offices, where pre- people sending messages, cost- Channing beat with his knuck- vious to his coming, men had free, to their acquaintances all les until they bled. Finally a come for work a half hour late over the minor planets? Why door popped open down the hall- and worked an hour overtime at should valuable space for valu- way fifty yards and a man looked night. able supplies be taken up with out. His head popped in again, On Sunday, he ran into trou- personal favors between friends? and within thirty seconds the ble! And if the personnel wants to door to Joe’s opened and admit- Don Channing stormed into smoke and drink, let them pay ted Channing. the Director’s office with a scowl for the privilege! It will help Joe slapped the door shut be- on his face. to pay for the high price of ship- hind Channing quickly. “Look,” he said, “for years and ping the useless items out from “Whatinhell are you operat- years we have felt that any man, the nearest planet—as well as ing, Joe—a speakeasy?” woman, or child that was willing saving of precious storage “The next time you want in,” to come out here was worth all space!” Joe informed him, knock on 902 the freedom and consideration “But you’re breeding ill will twice, 914 once, and then here that we could give them. What among the employees,” objected four times. We’ll let you in. about this damned tax on ciga- Channing. And now, don’t say anything too rettes? And candy? And who “Any that prefer to do so may loud.” Joe put a finger to his told you to stop our folks from leave!” snapped Burbank. lips and winked broadly. “Even telling their folks that they are “You m^y find it difficult to the walls listen,” he said in a still in good health? And why hire people to spend their lives stage whisper. stop them from sending packages in a place that offers no sight of He led Channing into the room of candy, cake, mementoes, cloth- a sky or a breath of fresh air. and put on the light. There was ing, soap, mosquito dope, liquor, The people here may go home a flurry of people who tried to or anything else? Why shut off to their own planets to find that hide their glasses under the our beer half the day? Did you the smell of fresh, spring air is table. “Never mind,” called Joe. ever think that a curfew is some- more desirable than a climate "It’s only Dr. Channing.” thing that can be applied only that never varies from the per- The room relaxed. when time is one and the same sonal optimum. I wonder, occa- “I want something stiff,” for all? On Venus Equilateral, sionally, if it might not be pos- Channing told Joe. “I’ve just Mr. Burbank, six o’clock in the sible to instigate some sort of gone three rounds with His Nibs evening is two hours after din- cold snap or a rainy season just and came out cold.” ner for one group, two hours for the purpose of bringing to Some people within earshot after going to work for the sec- the members of Venus Equilat- asked about it. Channing ex- ond group, and mid-sleep for the eral some of the surprises that plained what had transpired. third. Then this matter of cut- are to be found in Chicago or The people seemed satisfied that ting all love scenes, drinking, fe- New York. Hell, even Canalop- Channing had done his best for male vampires, banditry, bed- olis has an occasional rain- them. The room relaxed into room items, murders, and storm!” routine. sweater girls out of the movies? “Return to your laboratory,” The signal knock came on the We are a selected group and well said Burbank coldly. “And let door and was opened to admit prepared to take care of our mo- me run the station. Why should Walt Franks and Arden West- rality. Any man or woman go- we spend useless money to pam- land. Franks looked as though ing offside would be heaved out per people? I don’t care if Ca- he had been given a stiff work- quick. Why, after years of per- nalopolis does have an occa- out in a cement mixer. sonal freedom, do we find our- sional storm, we are not on Mars, “Scotch,” said Arden. “And selves under the authority of a we are in Venus Equilateral. a glass of brew for the lady.” veritable dictatorship?” You tend to your end of the busi- “What happened to him?” Francis Burbank was not ness and I’ll do as I deem fitting “He’s been trying to keep to touched. “I'll trouble you to for the station!” Burbank’s latest suggestions.” keep to your own laboratory,” he “You’ve been working too told Channing. “Perhaps your Channing mentally threw up hard,” Channing chided him own laxity in matters of this his hands and literally stalked gently. “This is the wrong time sort is the reason why the Com- out of the office. Here was a to mention it, I suppose, but did mission preferred someone bet- close-knit organization being that beam slippage have any- :

116 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION thing to do with your condition working on Beam Control. He a place of recreation, laughter, —or was it vice versa?” is to assume the responsibility and pleasantry, Joe’s place had “You know that I haven’t any- for them himself. I’m practi- changed to a room for remi- thing to do with the beam con- cally out of a job!” niscences and remorse, a place to trols personally,” said Franks. “Make that two Scotches,” drown one’s troubles—or poison He straightened up and faced Channing told Joe. them—or to preserve them in al- Channing defiantly. “Make it three,” chimed in Ar- cohol. “Don’t get mad. What was den. “I’ve got to work for him, He went to see the local mov- it?” too!” ing picture, a piece advertised “Mastermind, up there, called “Is that so bad?” asked Chan- as being one of the best mystery me in to see if there were some ning. “All you’ve got to do is to thrillers since DeMille. He manner or means of tightening listen carefully and do as you’re found that all of the interesting the beam. I told him, sure, we told. We have to answer to the parts were cut out and that the could hold the beam to practi- bird, too.” only thing that remained was a cally nothing. He asked me why “Yeah,” said Arden, “but you rather disjointed portrayal of a we didn’t hold the beam to a fellows don’t have to listen to a portly detective finding mean- parallel and save the dispersed dopey guy ask foolish questions ingless clues and ultimately the power. He claimed that we all day. It’s driving me silly.” criminal. There was a sugges- could reduce power by two to “What I’d like to know,” mur- tion at the end, that the detec- one if more of it came into the mured Franks, “is what is the tive and the criminal had fought station instead of being smeared idea of pulling me off the job? it out, but whether it was with all over the firmament. I, fool- Nuts, I’ve been on Beam Control pistols, field pieces, knives, ishly, agreed with him. He’s for years. I’ve got the finest cream puffs, or words was left right. You could. But only if crew of men anywhere. They up to the imagination. It was everything is immobilized. I’ve can actually foresee a shift and also to be assumed that he and been trying to work out some compensate for it, I think. I the heroine, who went into a means of controlling the beam picked ’em myself and I’ve been partial blackout every time she magnetically so that it would proud of my outfit. Now,” he sat down, finally got acquainted compensate for the normal vari- said brokenly, “I’ve got no out- enough to hold hands after the ations due to magnetic influ- fit. In fact, I have darned little picture. ences. So far I’ve failed.” crew left at all. Only my dozen Channing stormed out of the “It can’t be done. I know, be- lab members. I’ll have to go theater after seeing the above cause I worked on the problem back to swinging a meter myself and finding that the only cartoon of the before this is over.” for three years with some had been barred because it best brains in the system. To It was quite a comedown. showed an innocuous cow with- over three date, it is impossible.” From the master of out benefit of shorts. hundred highly paid, highly A click attracted their atten- prized, intelligent technicians, He troubled Joe for a bottle of tion. It was the pneumatic tube. Walt Franks was now the super- the best and took to his apart- A cylinder dropped out of the intendent of one dozen labora- ment in disappointment. By tube, and Joe opened it and tory technicians. It was a defi- eight o’clock in the evening, Don handed the Inclosed paper to nite cut in his status with Com- Channing was asleep with all of Franks. munications. his clothing on. The bed rolled He read: Channing finished his drink and refused to stay on an even and, seeing that Franks’ atten- keel, but Channing found a Walt: I’m sending this to you at tion was elsewhere, he told Ar- I know that is where necktie and tied himself se- Joe’s because den: “Thanks for taking care of you are and I think that you should curely in the bed and died off in him, but don’t use all your sym- get this real quick. Helen S. a beautiful, boiled cloud. pathy on him. I feel that I’m He awoke to the tune of a Walt smiled wearily and said going to need your shoulder to beautiful hangover. He gulped “A good secretary is a thing of cry on before long.” seven glasses of water and stag- beauty. A thing of beauty is ad- “Any time you want a soft gered to the shower. Fifteen mired and is a joy forever. shoulder,” said Arden gener- minutes of iced needles, and Helen is both. She is a jewel.” ously, “let me know. I’ll come come coffee brought him part “Yeah, we know. What does a-running.” way back to his own, cheerful the letter say?” Channing went out. He self. He headed down the hall “It is another communique roamed nervously all the rest of toward the elevator. from our doting boss. He is re- the day. He visited the bar sev- moving from my control the odd eral times, but the general air of He found a note in his office directing him to appear three hundred men I’ve got the place depressed him. From at a con- QRM INTERPLANETARY 117 ference in Burbank’s office. know you are operating. But “What, for instance?” stormed Groaning in anguish, Don went have there been any new devel- Burbank. to the Director’s office expecting opments coming out of your “The last one was the coupler the worst. laboratory, Mr. Channing?” machine improvement that per- It was bad. In fact, it was Someone was about to tell mitted better than a thousand enough to drive everyone in the Burbank that Channing had a words per minute.” conference to drink. Burbank doctor’s degree, but Don shook “Up to that time the best asked opinions on everything, his head. wordage was something like and then tore the opinions apart “We’ve been working on a lot eight hundred words,” said Bur- with little regard to their valid- of small items,” said Channing. bank. “I think that you have ity. He expressed his own opin- “I cannot say whether there has been resting too long on your ion many times, which was a dis- been any one big thing that we laurels. Unless you can bring gusted sense of the personnel’s could point to. As we make de- me something big enough to ad- inability to do anything of real velopments, we put them into vertise, I shall have to take value. service. Added together, they measures. “Certainly,” he stormed, “I make quite an honest effort.” “Now you, Mr. Warren,” con- ”

118 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

tinued Burbank. “You are the a body temperature a half degree “A man isn’t supposed to make man who is supposed to be su- above normal!” eyes at his secretary. A gal ain’t perintendent of maintenance. “You’re being openly rebel- supposed to seduce her boss. May I ask why the outer hull is lious,” Burbank warned him. Now that you are no longer Act-

not painted?” “So I am. And if you persist ing Director, and I no longer “Because it would be a waste in your attempt to make this your stenog, how about some so- of paint," said Warren. “Figure place presentable, you’ll find me ciability?” out the acreage of a surface of a “I never and my gang outright mutinous 1 thought that I’d be cylinder three miles long and a Good day, sir!” propositioned by a typewriter mile in diameter. It is almost jockey,” said Channing, I’ll He stormed out of the office “but eleven square it. miles! Eleven and slammed the door. do What time is it? Do we square miles to paint from scaf- do it openly, or must we sneak “Take a note, Miss Westland. folding hung from the outside over to the apartment and snaffle Interplanetary Communications itself.” a snort on the sly?” Commission, Terra. Gentlemen: “Use bos’ns’ chairs,” snapped “We snaffle. That is, if you Michael Warren, superintendent Burbank. trust me in your apartment.” of maintenance at Venus Equi- “A bos’n’s chair would be “I’m scared to death,” Chan- lateral, has proven to be unre- worthless,” ning informed her. “But if I Warren informed ceptive to certain suggestions Burbank. should fail to defend my honor, “You must remember as to the appearance and/or op- that to anyone trying to operate we must remember that it is no eration of Venus Equilateral. It on the outer hull, the outer hull true failure if I try and fail!” is my request that he be replaced “That sounds like a nice alibi,” is a ceiling and directly over- immediately. Signed, Francis said Arden with a smile. “Or a head. Burbank, Director.” He paused come-on. I don’t know which. “Another thing,” said Warren, to see what effect that message Or, Mr. Channing, am I being “you paint that hull and you’ll had upon the faces of the men told that my advances might not run this station by yourself. around the table. “Send that by be welcome?" Why d’ye think we have it special delivery!” shiny?” “We shall see,” Channing Johnny Billings opened his said. “We’ll have to make a “If we paint the hull,” per- mouth to say something, but careful study of the matter. I sisted Burbank, “it will be more shut it with a snap. Westland cannot make any statements presentable than that nonde- looked up at Burbank, but she without first making a thorough script steel color.” said nothing. Arden gave Chan- investigation under all sorts of “That steel color is as shiny ning a sly smile, and Channing conditions. Here we are. You as we could make it,” growled smiled back. There were grins will precede me through the Warren. “We want to get rid about the table, too, for every- door, please.” of as much radiated heat as we one recognized the boner. Bur- “Why?” asked Arden. can. You slap a coat of any kind bank had just sent a letter from “So that you cannot back out of paint on that hull and you’ll the interworld communications at the last possible moment. have plenty of heat in here.” relay station by special delivery Once I get you inside, I’ll think “Ah, that sounds interesting. mail. It would not get to Terra about keeping you there!” — for better than We’ll save heating costs two weeks ; a use “As long as of the station’s facilities would you have some il- “You idiot,” snapped Warren. legal I’ll have the message in the hands of fluid. stay.” She tried “You fool. Sure we’ll have heat the Commission within the hour. to leer at Don but failed because in here. We’ll save some heat- she had had all too little experi- ing costs. But do you realize “That will be all, gentlemen.” ence in leering. Bring it on!” that we’d have no opportunity to Burbank smiled smugly. “Our “Here’s to the good old days,” control it? We’re on a safe mar- next conference will be next toasted Don as the drinks were gin now. We radiate just a little Monday morning!” raised. more than we receive. We make “Nope. Here’s up the rest by artificial heating. “Mr. Channing,” chortled the to the future," But there have been occasions pleasant voice of Arden West- proposed Arden. “Those good old days all they were old. when it became necessary to dis- land. “Now that the trifling in- — was If sipate a lot of energy in here for fluence of the boss versus secre- you were back in them, you’d one reason or another, and then tary taboo is off, will you have still have to have the pleasure of meeting we’ve had to shut off the fires. the pleasure of buying me a Burbank.” What would happen if we drink?” “Grrrr,” growled Channing. couldn’t cool the damned coffee “Can you repeat that word for “That name is never mentioned can? We’d roast the first time word and explain it?” grinned in this household.” that we got a new employee with Don. “You haven’t a pix of the old learn

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bird turned to the wall, have beam from Venus is over a thou- headed for the Director’s office you?” asked Arden. sand miles wide. It gyrates and on a dead run. On the way, he

“I tossed it out.” wabbles through most of that hit his shoulder on the door, “We’ll/ drink to that." They arc. That is why we picked that caromed off the opposite wall, drained glasses. “And we’ll have particular dispersion. If we righted himself, and was gone in another!” could' have pointed the thing a flurry of flying feet. Three “I need another,” said Chan- like an arrow, we’d have kept the heads popped out of doors to see ning. “Can you imagine that dispersion down.” who was making the noise. buzzard asking me to invent “Right. And he’s tightened Channing skidded into Bur- something big in seven days?” the beam to less than a hundred bank’s office on his heels. “What “Sure. By the same reasoning miles dispersion. Now, every gives?” he snapped. “D’ye real- that he uses to send a letter from time that a sunspot gets hit ize that we’ve lost the beam? Equilateral Station instead of amidships with a lady sunspot, What have you been doing?” just slipping it in on the Terra the beam goes off on a tangent. “It is a minor difficulty,” said beam. Faulty.” We’ve lost the beam eleven Burbank calmly. “We will iron

“Phony.” times in a week. That’s more it out presently.” The door opened abruptly and times than I’ve lost it in three “Presently! Our charter Walt Franks entered. “D’ja hear years!” doesn’t permit interruptions of the latest?" he asked breath- “O. K., said Channing. “So service of this magnitude. I ask lessly. what? Mastermind is respon- again: What are you doing?” “No,” said Channing. He was sible. We’ll sit tight and wait “You, as electronics engineer, reaching for another glass auto- for developments. In any dis- have no right to question me. I matically. He poured, and Walt play of abilities, we can spike repeat, we shall iron out the dif- watched the amber fluid creep Mr, Burbank. Have another ficulty presently.” up the glass, led by a sheet of drink?” Channing snorted and tore white foam. “Got any more? If you’re out, out of Burbank’s office. He “Then look!” Walt handed I’ve got a couple of cases cached headed for the Office of Beam Channing an official envelope. underneath the bed in my apart- Control, turned the corner on It was a regular notice to the ef- ment." one foot, and slammed the door fect that there had been eleven “I’ve plenty,” said Channing. in roughly. failures of service through Ve- “And I’ll need plenty. I have “Chuck!” he yelled. “Chuck nus Equilateral. exactly twenty-two hours left in Thomas! Where are you?" “Eleven! What makes?” which to produce something No answer. Channing left the “Mastermind.” comparable to the telephone, the beam office and headed for the “What’s he done?” electric light, the airplane, or the master control panels, out near “Remember the removal of my expanding Universe! Phooey. the air lock end of Venus Equi- jurisdiction over the beam con- Pour me another, Arden.” lateral. He found Thomas stew- trol operators? Well, in the last ing over a complicated piece of ten days, Burbank has installed A knock at the door; a femi- apparatus. some new features to cut ex- nine voice interrupted simul- “Chuck, for the love of Mi- penses. I think that he hopes to taneously. “May I come in?” chael, what in the devil is going off a couple of hundred It lay was Walt’s secretary. She on?” men.” looked worried. In one hand she “Thought you knew,” an- “What’s he doing, do you waved another letter. swered Thomas. “Burbank had know?” “Another communique?” asked the crew install photoelectric “He’s shortening the disper- Channing. mosaic banks. Instead of having sion. He intends to cut the “Worse. Notice that for the ing a crew of beam-control oper- power by slamming more of the last three hours, there have been ators, he intends to use the pho- widespread beam into the recep- less than twelve percent of mes- tomosaics to keep Venus, Terra, tor. The tighter beam makes sages relayed!” and Mars on the beam.” aiming more difficult, you know, “Five minutes’ operation out sniveling because at seventy million miles, of an hour,’' said Channing. “Great Scott. They tried that in the last every time little Joey on Mars “Where’s that from?” century and swings his toy horseshoe mag- “Came out on the Terra beam. tossed it out three days later. Where’s the crew net on the end of his string, the It’s marked number seventeen, now?” beam wabbles. And at seventy so I guess that sixteen other “Packing for home. They’ve million miles, how much wab- tries have been made.” been laid off!” bling does it take to send a nar- “What has Mastermind tried “Get ’em back! Put ’em to row beam clear off the target?” this time?” stormed Channing. work. Turn off those darned “The normal dispersion of the He tore out of the room and photomosaics and use the man- QRM INTERPLANETARY 121 ual again. We’ve lost every this type of swerving will in- with the glitter in his eye and beam we ever had.” crease in magnitude for a half- said: “If our beams are always hour, maintain the status, and on the center, why is it neces- A sarcastic voice came in at then return, pass through zero sary to use multiplex-diversity?” this point. “For what reason do and find the same level on the Franks smiled. “You’re mis- you interfere with my improve- minus side. taken,” he told Burbank. ments?” sneered the voice. “Since light and centimeter “They’re not always on the but- “Could it be that you are accept- waves are not exactly alike in ton. They vary. Therefore we ing graft from the employees to performance, a field that will use diversity transmission so keep them on the job by prevent- swerve one may not affect the that if one beam fails momen- ing the installation of superior other. Ergo your photomosaic tarily, one of the other beams equipment?” is useless. The photoelectric will bring the signal in. It is Channing turned on his toe mosaic is a brilliant gadget for analogous to tying five or six and let Burbank have one. It keeping a plane in a spotlight or ropes onto a hoisted stone. If was a neat job, coming up at the for aiming a sixteen-inch gun, one breaks, you have the others.” right time and connecting but it is worthless for anything “You have them running all sweetly. Burbank went over on over a couple of million miles. the time, then?” his head. “So I’ve called the men back “Certainly. At several min- "Get going,” Channing to their stations. And don’t try utes of time-lag in transmission, snapped at Thomas. anything foolish again without to try and establish a beam fail- Charles Thomas was not a consulting the men who are paid ure of a few seconds’ duration is small man himself, but after con- to think!” utter foolishness.” sidering Channing’s one’s ninety, Channing got up and left. As “And you disperse the beam to he decided to comply. He left. he strode down the stairs to the a thousand miles wide to keep Channing shook Burbank’s apartment level, he met many of the beam centered at any varia- shoulder. He slapped the man’s the men who had been laid off. tion?” Burbank shot at Chan- face. Eyes opened ; accusing None of them said a word, but ning. eyes, rendered mute by a very all of them wore bright, knowing “Not for any variation. Make sore jaw, tongue, and throat. smiles. that any normal gyration and “Now listen,” snapped Chan- I’ll buy it.” ning. “Listen to every word! Monday morning ! Burbank “Then why don’t we disperse Mosaic directors are useless. was himself again. The rebuff the beam to two or three thou- Have you any reason why? It given him by Don Channing had sand miles and do away with di- is because of the lag. At plane- worn off and he was sparkling versity transmission?” asked tary distances, light takes an ap- with ideas. He speared Franks Burbank triumphantly. preciable time to reach. Your beam wab- bles. Your planet swerves out of line be- cause of intervening factors; varying mag- netic fields, even the bending of light due to gravitational fields will make the beam microscopically. But, Burbank, a micro- scopic discrepancy is all that is needed to bust things wide open. You’ve got to have ex- perienced men to op- erate the beam con- trols. Men who can think. Men who can, from experience, rea- son that this fluctua- tion will not last, but will swing back in a few seconds, or that 122 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

“Ever heard of fading?" asked ble we’ve had in keeping the there was a sort of magnetic at- Channing with a grin. “Your beams centered.” traction. They approached one signal comes and goes. Not Burbank said nothing. He was another. But the spark misfired. gyration, it just gets weaker. It stopped. He hoped that the se- It was blacked out with a nice fails for want of something to cret of his failure was not gen- slice of utter blackness that eat, I guess, and takes off after erally known, but he knew at the came from the screen and spread a wandering cosmic ray. At any same time that when three hun- its lightlessness all over the the- rate, there are many times per dred men are aware of something ater. In the ensuing darkness, minute that one beam will be interesting, some of them will there were several osculations right on the nose and yet so see to it that all others involved that were more personal and weak that our strippers cannot will surely know. He looked at more satisfying than the cen- clean it enough to make it usable. the faces of the men around the sored clinch. The lights flashed Then the diversity system comes table and saw suppressed mirth on and several male heads moved in handy. Our coupling detec- in every one of them. Burbank back hastily. Female lips smiled tors automatically select the writhed in inward anger. He happily. Some of them parted proper signal channel. It takes was a good poker player. He in speech. the one that is the strongest and didn’t show it at all. One of them said: “Why, Mr. subdues the rest within itself," He then went on to other prob- Channing!” “Complicated?" lems. He ironed some out, “Shut up, Arden,” snapped the “It was done in the heyday of others he shelved for the time man. “People will think that radio—1935 or so. Your two being. Burbank was a good busi- I’ve been kissing you." channels come in to a common nessman, give him credit. But “If someone else was taking detector. Automatic volume like so many other businessmen, advantage of the situation,” she control voltage comes from the Burbank had the firm conviction said, “you got gypped. I thought single detector and is applied to that if he had the time to spare I was kissing you and I cooked all channels. This voltage is and at the same time was free of with gas!” proper for the strongest channel, the worries and paper work of “Did you ever try that be- but is too high for the ones re- his position, he could step into fore?" asked Channing inter- ceiving the weaker signal, block- the laboratory and show the en- estedly. ing them by rendering them in- gineers how to make things hum. “Why?" she asked. sensitive. When the strong He was infuriated every time he “I liked it. I merely won- channel fades and the weak chan- saw one of the engineering staff dered, if you’d worked it on nel rises, the detector follows sitting with hands behind head, other men, what there was about down until the two signal chan- lost in a gazy, unreal land of you that kept you single." nels are equal and then it rises deep thought. Though he knew “They all died after the first with the stronger channel.” better, he was often tempted to application,” she said. “They “I see," said Burbank. “Has raise hell because the man was couldn’t take it.” anything been done about fad- obviously loafing. “Let me outta here! I get the ing?” But give him credit. He could implication. I am the first bird handle business angles to perfec- that hasn’t died, hey?” He “It is like the weather,” ac- tion. In spite of his tangle over yawned luxuriously. cording to Mark Twain,” smiled the beam control, he had re- “Company or the hour?” asked Channing. “ ‘Everybody talks bounded excellently and had Arden. about it, but nobody does any- ironed out all of the complaints “Can’t be either,” he said. thing about it.’ About all we’ve that had poured in. Ironed it “Come on, let’s break a bottle of learned is that we can cuss it out out to the satisfaction of the in- beer open. I’m dry!” and it doesn’t cuss back.” jured party as well as the Inter- “I’ve got a slight headache,” “I think it should be tried,” planetary Communications Com- she told him. “From what, I said Burbank. mission, who were interested in can’t imagine.” “If you’ll pardon me, it has anything that cost money. “I haven’t a headache, but I’m been tried. The first installation He dismissed the conference sort of logy.” at Venus Equilateral was made and went to thinking. And he “What have you been doing? that way. It didn’t work, though assumed the same pose that in- asked Arden. “Haven’t seen you used more power than all of we furiated him in other men under for a couple of days.” diversity transmitter our to- him; hands behind head, feet “Nothing worth mentioning. gether. Sorry.” upon desk. Had an idea a couple of days ago “Have you anything to re- and went to work on it.” port?" Burbank asked Channing. The moving picture theater “Haven’t been working over- “Nothing. I’ve been more was dark. The hero reached time or missing breakfast?" than busy investigating the trou- longing arms to the heroine, and “Nope.” ”

QRM INTERPLANETARY 123

“Then I don't see why you in. Channing followed, and were just about to do that very should be ill. I can explain my then stopped cold. thing. I was merely trying to headache away by attributing it “Great Jeepers!” he said in—an dissolve any ideas that you might to eyestrain. Since Billyboy awed tone. "If I didn’t know have.” came here, and censored the “Why, Don! What’s so star- "Don’t bother,” she said pet- movies to the bone, the darned tling?” tishly. "I haven’t any ideas. I’m things flicker like anything. But “Have you noticed?” he asked. as free as you are, and I intend eyestrain doesn’t create an au- “It smells like the inside of a to stay that way!” tointoxication. So, my fine fel- chicken coop in here!” Channing stood up. “The next low, what have you been drink- Arden sniffed. “It does sort thing we know, we’ll be fight- ing?” of remind me of something that ing,” he observed. “Stand up, “Nothing that I haven’t been died and couldn’t get out of its Arden. Shake.” drinking since I first took to my skin.” Arden smiled. “I’ll hold Arden stood up, shook herself, second bottlehood some years my breath. Any sacrifice for a and then looked at Channing ago.” drink.” with a strange light in her eyes. “You wouldn’t be suffering “That isn’t the point. This is “I feel sort of dizzy,” she admit- from a hangover from that hang- purified air. It should be as ted. “And everything irritates over you had a couple of weeks sweet as a baby’s breath.” me. ft ago?” “Some baby,” whistled Arden. She passed a hand over her “Nope. I swore off. Never “What’s she been drinking?” eyes wearily. Then, with a visi- again will I try to drink a whole “It wasn’t cow juice. Nor yet ble effort, she straightened. She quart of Two Moons in one eve- lake filler. What I’ve been try- seemed to throw off her momen- ning. It got me.” ing to put over is that the air tary ill feeling instantly. She “It had you for a couple of doesn’t seem * to have been smiled at Channing and was her days,” laughed Arden. “All to changed in here for nine weeks.” normal self in less than a minute. itself.” Channing went to the venti- “What is it?” she asked. “Do Don Channing said nothing. lator and lit a match. The flame you feel funny, too?” '“1 He recalled, all too vividly, the bent over, flickered, and went “I do!” he said. don’t want rolling of the tummy that en- out. that beer. I want to snooze.” sued after that session with the “Air intake is O. K.,” he said. “When Channing would prefer only fighter that hadn’t yet been “Maybe it is I. Bring on that snoozing to boozing, he is sick,” beaten: Old John Barleycorn. bottle, Channing; don’t keep the she said. “Come on, fellow, take “How are you coming on with lady waiting.” me home.” Burbank?” asked Arden. “I He yawned again, deeply and Slowly they walked down the haven’t heard a rave for—well, jaw-stretchingly. Arden yawned long hallway. They said noth- ever since Monday morning’s too, and the thought of both of ing. Arm in arm they went, and conference. Three days without them stretching their jaws to the when they reached Arden’s door, a nasty dig at Our Boss. That’s breaking-off point made both of their goodnight kiss lacked en- a record.” them laugh foolishly. thusiasm. “See you in the morn- “Give the devil his due. He’s “Arden, I’m going to break one ing,” said Don. been more than busy placating bottle of beer with you, after Arden looked at him. “That irate citizens. That last debacle which I’m going to take you mug was a little flat. We’ll try with the beam control gave him home, kiss you goodnight, and it again—tomorrow or next a real Moscow winter. His re- toss you into your own apart- week.” forms came to a stop whilst he ment. Then I’m coming back retrenched. But he’s been doing here and I’m going to hit the Don Channing’s night sleep an excellent job of squirming hay!” was broken by dreams. He was out from under. Of course, it Arden took a long, deep warm. His dreams depicted him has been helped by the fact that breath. “I’ll buy that,” she said. in a warm, airless chamber, and even though the service was rot- “And tonight, it wouldn’t take he was forced to breathe that ten for a few hours, the custom- much persuasion to induce me to same stale air again and again. ers couldn’t rush out to some snooze right here in this chair!” He awoke in a hot sweat, weak other agency to get communica- “Oh fine,” cheered Don. “That and feeling—well, lousy! tions with the other planets.” would fix me up swell with the He dressed carelessly. He

“Sort of : ‘Take us, as lousy as neighbors. I’m not going to get shaved hit-or-miss. His morning ” we are?’ shotgunned into anything like coffee tasted flat and sour. He “That’s it.” that!” left the apartment in a bad mood, "Don’t be silly,” said Arden. and bumped into Arden at the Channing opened the door to “From the look in your eye,” corner of the hall. his apartment and Arden went said Channing, “I’d say that you “Hello,” she said. “I feel rot- —

124 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

ten. But you have improved. Or could see the opposite wall. ELECTRICIANS is that passionate breathing just Channing snapped on the a lack of fresh air?” lights. were in a room two Earn More Money. Know They Your Job Better. Serve “Hell I That’s it!” he said. hundred feet in diameter and Your County. Get this... He snapped up his wrist watch, three hundred feet long. “We’re AMAZING 3 VOLUME which was a chronograph, at the center of the station,” ELECTRICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA equipped with a stop-watch Channing informed her. “Be- hand. He looked about, and yond that bulkhead is the air AUTHORITATIVE- Prepared by experts. PRACTICAL -Used finding a man sitting on a bench, lock. On the other side of the regularly on the lob by hun- dreds of Electricians, sendee apparently taking it easy while other bulkhead, we have the air men, radio men, air cadets, stu- dents, maintenance men, etc. waiting for someone, Channing plants, the storage spaces, and EASY. COMPLETE. Covers everything Electrical : Arma- clicked the sweep hand into several cubic inches of ma- ture winding, A. C. & D. C. Motors, generators, electronics, gear. He started to count the chinery.” automotive electricity, refriger- ation, etc., etc. Answers your man’s respiration. “Inches?” asked Arden. Then electrical questions quickly, clearly, completely. Also in- “What gives?” asked Arden. she saw that he was fooling. FREE WITH cludes Radio, Television. ENCYCLOPEDIA “What’s ‘It’? are you so “Come on,” he said. He took One year of personal advice SEE THEM RISK FREE Why by mall. ACT NOW and we'll You don't have to risk n penny. juat mail excited? Did I say something?” her the and with a kick Include Certificate entitling To get; youroct promptly, by hand you to Technical Service by coupon. Examine books. 7 day* mall f or one yea r af ter you pur- risk free. Mai I coupon now. LIM- “You did,” said Channing he propelled himself along on a chase encyclopedia. ITED OFFER. after fifteen seconds. “That long, curving course to the op- I H. C. LEWIS, PrM., COYNE ELECTRICAL SCHOOL.*«>£ Paulina Street, D«pt.S2-R-7. Chicago, I 500 South 1! Send me the blrbljr Corn*Coyne Electric*!Electricalectrical RefeiReference end Inenetruetiof) BacyeJopadla. bird’s respiration is better than posite side of the inner cylinder. the book*.booka. TitI’ll alther return them ^j-or a< end joo | ;

I re rHeed price of fit.00 la paid. We pay •hippo* charge*. fifty! This whole place is filled He gained the opposite bulkhead

NAUR— to the gills with carbon dioxide. as well. j Come on, Arden, let’s get go- “Now, that’s what I call trav- lau_! .JIMS. ing!” eling,” said Arden. “But my Channing led the girl by sev- tummy goes whoosh, whoosh, STUDY AT HOME eral yards by the time that they every time we cross the center." Legally trained men win high- er positions and bigger suo- operated heavy oeas in business and publlo were within sight of the ele- Channing a life. Qreater opporiunltiee n vator. He waited for her, and door; They went in through >y moo with legal training. Ability: Mora Pmtigo: More Moiwy then sent the car upward at a rooms full of machinery and into full throttle. stacked to the center with mesumslew Library. Low coat. aaaf Minutes passed, rooms iaw^lYalnlry^or Leadarahlp” and f and they could feel that stom- boxes; stacked from the wall to A Correspondent:* Instt ach-rising sensation that comes the center and then packed with when gravity is lessened. Arden springs. Near the axis of the YOU MISSED IT.r clasped her hands over her mid- cylinder, things weighed so lit- You should have read those yarns you see dle and hugged. She squirmed tle that packing was necessary mentioned in Brass Tacks. You should have and giggled. to keep them from bouncing read “Common Sense” and “Universe.” And to the axis around. you missed something if you didn’t get “You’ve been up “Nightfall,” by Asimov, or that entirely dif- before,” said Channing. “Take “I feel giddy,” said Arden. ferent sort of tale about darkness, “There Shall Be Darkness,” by C. L. Moore. long, deep breaths.” “High in oxygen,” said he.

The car came to a stop with a “The C0 2 drops to the bottom, But you can still get ’em. The back num- bers from January 1941 to date are all avail- slowing effect. A normal brak- being heavier. Then, too, the able. ing stop would have catapulted air is thinner up here because Some few scattered issues for 1940 are them against the ceiling. “Come centrifugal force swings the available. on,” he grinned at her, “here’s whole out to the rim. Out there If you want them, and don’t write for them pretty soon though, they’ll be in the condition where we make time!” we are so used to ‘down’ that of the ten preceding years of Astounding Channing looked up the little here, a half mile above—or to not to be had. flight of stairs that led to the the center, rather—we have trou- Send 25c for each copy you want now to innermost level. He winked at ble in saying, technically, what Subscription Department Arden and jumped. He passed we mean. Watch!” Street & Smith Publications, Inc. up through the opening easily. He left Arden standing and 79 Seventh Ave., New York City. “Jump,” he commanded. “Don’t walked rapidly around the in- use the stairs!” side of the cylinder. Soon he Arden jumped. She sailed up- was standing on the steel plates ANY PHOTO ENLARGED ward, and as she passed through directly above her head. She Size 8 x 10 tnchee or smaller If de- m tired. Same price for full length op A T the opening, Channing caught looked up, and shook her head. bust form, groups, landscapes, pet animals, etc., or enlargements of sA/nnyl her by one arm and stopped her “I know why,” she called, “but part of group picture. Safe returnmof_of — original photo guaranteed. 3 for $1.00 flight. “At that speed you’d go it still makes me dizzy. SEND NO MONEYSUSSiS Come and within a week you will receive your beautiful right on across,” he said. down from up there. Or I’ll be enlargement, ennrantood fadeless. P*y postman 47o plus postage—or send 49c with order and w* pay postage. Big ItuD-Inctl16x20-lnch enlargement sent 0.0.C.O. D. 70c70o plus ypostage‘ She looked up, and there about sick.” prsendBOc andwepar postage. Take advantage of this Ing offer now. Send]rourpbotos today. Spoclrr sis* wanted. two hundred feet overhead she Channing made a neat dive STANDARD ART 8TUDI08. 1 138. Jeff,non Sb. Dipt. 772- M, ChlCRBO ” ” ” ” ”

QRM INTERPLANETARY 123 from his position above her head. "Answer me, please. I’m wor- READ UNKNOWN WORLDS YET? He did it merely by jumping up- ried.” — You haven’t? Better try it this month ward from his place toward her “So am I. Something it’s a lot like Astounding Science- place, apparently hanging head “Tell me first, from what — Fiction gone slightly wackey. Not sci- down from the ceiling. He source does Venus Equilateral ence it’s less restrained. Not fiction turned a neat flip-flop in the air get its fresh air?” — exactly it’s pure fantasy, with its roots and landed easily beside her. “From the air plant. And that — — cut loose and waving in the breeze! Immediately, for both of them, is things became right-side-up “There must be more than For pure fun, try again. one,” said Burbank thoughtfully. UNKNOWN WORLDS “There’s only one.” At Your Newsstands Channing opened the door to “There must be more than one. the room marked: "Air Plant.” We couldn’t live if there He stepped in, snapped on the weren’t,” said the Director. lights, and gasped in amazement. “Wishing won’t make it so. The room was empty ! Com- There is only one.” Do\fou Make pletely empty! Absolutely, and “I tell you, there must be an- irrevocably vacant. Oh, there other. Why, I went into the was some dirt on the floor and one up at the axis yesterday and these Mistakes some trash in the corners, and a found that instead of a bunch of trail of scratches on the floor to machinery, running smoothly, show that the life-giving air purifying air, and sending it out plant had been removed, hunk by to the various parts of the sta- in ENGUSH? hunk, out through another door tion, all there was was a veritable Sherwln Cody's remarkable Invention has at the far end of the room. jungle of weeds. Those weeds, enabled more than 100,000 people to cor- rect their mistakes In English. Only 15 “Whoa, Tillie!” screamed Mr. Channing, looked as though minntes a day required to Improve your Don. “We’ve been stabbed! Ar- they must have been put in there speech and writing. den, on the -type and have years ago. Now, where did the ANY persona Bay, “Did you get M hear from him today?” They should Bay, “Have . . . air-purifying no, wait a minute until we machinery go?” ou heard from him today?" find out a few more things about Channing listened to the lat- ome spell "calendar” "calen- der” or “calender.” Still others this!” ter half of Burbank’s speech Bay "between you and 1" Instead of "between you and me.” It Is They made record time back with his chin at half-mast. He astonishing how often “who” 1b used for "whom,” and how fre- to the office level. They found looked as though a feather would quently the simplest words are mispronounced. Few know Burbank in his office, leaning knock him clear across the of- whether to smell certain words with one or two "c’b” or "m’B” back, and talking to someone on fice. or "r’s,” or with "le" or "cl.” Most persons use only common words—colorless, flat, the phone. “I had some workmen clear the ordinary. Their speech and their letters are lifeless, monotonous, humdrum. Every time they talk or write Channing tried to interrupt, weeds out. I intend to replace they show themselves lacking In the essential points of English. but Burbank removed his nose the air machinery as soon as I Wonderful New Invention For many year*. Mr. Cody studied the problem of creating Instinc- from the telephone long enough can get some new material sent tive habits of using good English. After countless experiments ho finally invented a simple method by which you can acquire a better to snarl, “Can’t you see I’m busy? from Terra.” command of the English language In only 15 minutes a day. Now you can stop making the mistakes which have been hurting you. Mr. Have you no manners or re- Channing managed to blink. Cody's students have secured more Improvement In five weeks than previously had been obtained by other pupils In two years I It was effort. had spect?” an “You Learn by Habit—Not by Rules Channing, fuming inside, workmen toss the weeds out— Under old methods sules are memoriaed, but correct hablta are not formed. Finally the rules themselves sre forgotten. The new 6herwln Cody method provides for tho formation of correct habits by calling swore inwardly. He sat down he repeated dully. “The to your attention constantly only the mistakes you yourself make. — One of the wonderful things about Mr. Cody’s course is tho speed with a show of being calm and weeds with which theso hablt-formlng practice drills can bo carried out. You can write the answers to fifty questions In IB minutes and his hands over his abdo- There was silence for a min- correct your work in B minutes more. The drudgery and work of folded copying have been ended by Mr. Codyl You concentrate always on your own mistakes until It becomes "second naturo" to speak and men like the famed statue of ute. Burbank studied the man write correctly. FREE—Book on English Buddha. Arden looked at him, in the chair as though Channing A new book explaining Mr. Cody’s remarkable method la ready. all of trouble .they were a piece of statuary. Chan- If you are ever embarrassed by mistakes In grammar, spelling, and for the punctuation, pronunciation, or If you cannot Instantly command tho exact words with which to express your Ideas, this new free book, were in, she couldn’t help gig- ning was just as motionless. "How You Can Master Good English—In 15 Minutes a Day," will prove a revelation to you. Bend the coupon or a letter or postil gling. Channing, tall, lanky, and “Channing, man, what ails card for It now. No agent will call. SHEItWIN CODY SCHOOL OF ENGLISH, 399 Searle Building, Rochester,. N. Y. strong, looked as little as you—” began Burbank. The yet “1 possible like the popular, pudgy sound of Burbank’s voice r SHERWIN CODY SCHOOL OF ENGLISH 399 Searle Building; Rochester N. Y. figure of the Sitting Buddha. aroused Channing from his i Please aend me. without any obligation on my part, your I new free book. "How You Can Master Good English— In 15 A minute passed. shocked condition. Minutes a Day." i I Burbank hung up the phone. Channing leaped to his feet. Nam© I “Where does Venus Equilat- He landed on his heels, spun, and i Please print plainly eral get its air from?” snapped snapped at Arden: “Get on the i Address I

l Burbank. -type. Have ’em slap as many I — If 18 years or under check here for Booklet A “That’s what I want oxy-drums on the fastest ship L_ J ! —

126 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

they’ve got ! Get ’em here at full ter, or anything else that will The barely perceptible lack of throttle. Tell ’em to load up the give us oxygen if broken down?” oxygen at this high level was pilot and crew with gravanol and There was a ten-minute wait taking its toll already. not to spare the horsepower until the members of the chem “Look, fellows, we’re in a Scram!” lab took a hurried inventory. mess. Until further notice, take Arden gasped. She fled from “Good,” said Channing. “Start five-minute shifts. We’ve got the office. breaking it down. Collect all the about thirty hours to go. If the

“Burbank, what did you think oxygen you can in containers. going gets tough, drop it to an air plant was?” snapped Chan- This is the business! It has pri- three-minute shifts. But, fel-

ging. ority ! Anything, no matter how lows, keep those beams centered “Why, isn't it some sort of valuable, must be scrapped if it until you drop!” purifying machinery?” asked the can facilitate the gathering of “We’ll keep ’em going if we wondering Director. oxygen. God knows, there isn’t have to call our wives up here to “What better purifying ma- by half enough—not even a run ’em for us,” said one man. chine is there than a plot of tenth. But try, anyway." “What’s up?” grass?” shouted Channing. Channing headed out of the “Air plant’s sour. Losing oxy. “Weeds, grass, flowers, trees, al- chemistry laboratory and into Got a shipload coming out from falfa, wheat, or anything that the electronics lab. “Jimmy,” Terra, be here in thirty hours. grows and uses chlorophyll. We he shouted. “Get a couple of But upon you fellows will rest breathe oxygen, exhale C0 2 . stone jars and get an electrolysis the responsibility of keeping us

Plants inhale C0 2 and exude outfit running. Fling the hydro- in touch with the rest of the sys- oxygen. An air plant means just gen out of a convenient outlet tem. If you fail, we could call that. It is a specialized type of into space and collect the oxy- for help until hell freezes us all Martian sawgrass that is more gen. Water, I mean. Use tap in—and no one would hear us!” efficient than anything else in water, right out of the faucet.” “We’ll keep ’em rolling,” said the system for inhaling dead air “Yeah, but—” a little fellow that had to sit on and revitalizing it. And you’ve “Jimmy, if we don’t breathe, a tall stool to get even with the tossed the weeds out!” Chan- what chance have we to go on controls. ning snorted in anger. “We’ve drinking? I’ll tell you when to Channing looked out of the spent years getting that plant so stop.” big plastiglass dome that cov- that It will grow just right. It “O. K., Doc,” said Jimmy. ered the entire end of the Venus got so good that the C0 2 detec- “And look. As soon as you Equilateral Station. “Here mes- tors weren’t even needed. The get that running, set up a C0 2 sages go in and out,” he mused. balance was so adjusted that indicator and let me know the “The other end brings us things they haven’t even been turned percentage at the end of each that take our breath away." for three or four years. They hour! Get me?” Channing was referring to the were just another source of un- “I take it that something has big air lock at the other end of necessary expense. Why, save happened to the air plant?” the station, three miles away, for a monthly inspection, that “It isn’t functioning,” said right through the center. room isn’t even opened, so effi- Channing shortly. He left the At the center of the dome, cient is the Martian sawgrass. puzzled Jimmy and headed for there was a sighting ’scope. It We, Burbank, are losing oxy- the beam-control room. Jimmy kept Polaris on a marked circle, gen!” continued to wonder about the keeping the station exactly even The Director grew white. “I air plant. How in the devil could with the Terrestrial North. didn’t know,” he said. an air plant cease functioning About the periphery of the “Well, you know now. Get on unless it were dead! Jimmy dome, looking out across space, your horse and do something. At stopped wondering and began to the beam control operators were least, Burbank, stay out of my operate on his electrolysis set-up sitting, each with a hundred-foot way while I do something.” furiously. parabolic reflector below his po- “You have a free hand,” said Channing found the men in sition, outside the dome, and Burbank. His voice sounded the beam-control room worried under the rim of the transparent beaten. and ill at ease. The fine co-ordi- bowl. These reflectors shot the nation that made them expert in interworld signals across space Channing left the office of the their line was ebbing. The nerv- in tight beams, and the men, half Director and headed for the ous work, that made it necessary the time anticipating the vaga- chem lab. “How much potassium to run the men in ten-minute ries of space-warp, kept them chlorate, nitrate, sulphate, and shifts with a half hour of rest in centered on the proper, shining other oxygen-bearing compounds between, demanded perfect mo- speck in that field of stars. have you?” he asked. “That in- tor control, excellent perception, Above his head, the stars twin- cludes mercuric oxide, spare wa- and a fine power of reasoning. kled. Puny man, setting his will QRM INTERPLANETARY 127

against the monstrous void. power, if you please. Why Puny man, dependent upon at- should we burden ourselves with mosphere. “Nature abhors a vac- a lot of cubic feet of supplies uum,’’ once said Torrecelli. that would take up room neces- What braggadocio! If Nature sary to maintain our balance? abhorred a vacuum, why did she We are not in bad shape. We’ll make so much of it? live, though we’ll all be a bunch Electricity ! the mighty power behind out of tired, irritable people who Victory Program. Trained Electrical men arc needed. PREPARE FOR YOU R PLACE in one another’s faces.” thla amazingly easy way. “Learn by Doing”. Arden Westland entered the yawn READ EVERY WORD OF MY MESSAGE. apartment without knocking. "And after it is over?” HOW YOU CAN BEST SERVE YOUR “I’d give my right arm up to “We’ll establish the balance. COUNTRY IN WAR AND PEACE IP YOU'RE DRAFTED. Trained Electrl- here for a cigarette,” she said, Then we’ll settle down again. dans arc eligible to apply for higher Army Ik. ratings. IF YOU'RF. DEFERRED. Every- with can take up where we left one with proper training can aerve in war marking above the elbow We industry. AFTER THE WAR. Skilled Elec- tridans who get their training now should be the edge of her other hand. off.” vitally needed for good-pay Peace-time Jobe. “Na-hah,” said Channing. “Not quite. Venus Equilateral "LEARN BY DOING”—90 DAYS Coyne training is EASY, PRACTICAL! No “Can’t burn oxygen.” has been seared by fire. We’ll dull books. No redting. Don't let lack of money stop you. Get training first—then pay tired, cold, be tougher and less tolerant of for it in easy monthly payments after you “I know. I’m I’m Aduate. If you need part-time work to GIp out with living expenses. I’ll help you and I’m ill. Anything you can outsiders. If we were a closed get it. This school la 43 years old. Mall the coupon for my big, FREE Coyne book. do for a lady?” corporation before, we’ll be Act at once. “Not as much as I’d like to tighter than a vacuum-packed H. C. LEWIS. President COYNE ELECTRICAL SCHOOL 4/.CIU| 500 S. Paulina St.. Dept. 62-85, Chicago, III. do,” said Channing. “I can’t help coffee can afterwards. And the J Send me your Free Book and tell me about jour plana much. We’ve got most of the first bird that cracks us will get to help me. | NAME place stopped off with the air- hissed at.” ADDRESS. tight doors. We’ve been electro- CITY STATE

lyzing water, baking KC103 and Three superliners hove into everything else we can get oxy sight at the end of thirty-one out of. I’ve a crew of men try- hours. They circled the station, helio. High School Course ing to absorb the CO 2 . Jimmy signaling by They ap- at Home Finish hi Yaors Dickson is bringing me hourly proached the air lock end of the Many 2 Go ab rapidly as your time and abilities permit. Course reports on the CO content and station and made contact. Their equivalent to resident school work— prepares for college 2 Ptrance exams. Standard H.& texts supplied. Diploma. K,l, rB - " are losing. Slowly, Arden, bulk tipped the station slightly, * we oclslly. Don’t bo hamllcoDDod nil roar ' Fro# ;into . Start roar train lug now. but we are losing. Of course, tipped it and rotated it by gyro- lAmtrlcan School, Dpt. HP7, Dr.x.1 ,1 Mth, Chirac I’ve known all along that we scopic reaction. The air lock couldn’t support the station on was opened and space-suited fig- the meager supplies we have on ures swarmed over the mile-wide hand. But we’ll win in the end. end of the station. A stream of You Tell The World! Our microcosmic world is get- big oxygen tanks were brought Your handwriting does—tells the world all about you. So let mo tell pou what your handwriting tells ting a shot in the arm in a few into the air lock, admitted, and me. Send 10c In coin and stamped, sclf-addrcsscd envelope' (In Ink). hours that will reset the bal- taken to the last bulwark of hud- ance.” dled people on the fourth level. Mara Lois Ross 1244 Dearborn P'kway, Chicago, III. “I don’t see why we didn’t pre- From one of the ships there pare for this emergency,” said came a horde of men carrying Arden. huge square trays of dirt ^and “This station is well balanced. green, growing sawgrass. There are enough people here For six hours, Venus Equilat- and enough space to make a lit- eral was the scene of wild, furi- tle world of our own. We can ous activity. The dead air was rati THAT LAST SHOT* establish a balance that is pretty blown out of bad areas, and the with the darned close to perfect. The im- hissing of oxygen tanks was perfections are taken care of by heard in every room. Gradually influxes of supplies from the sys- the people left the fourth level S.MARINES tem. Until Burbank upset the and returned to their rightful balance, we could go on forever, places. The station rang with utilizing natural purification of laughter once more, and busi- air and water. We grow a few ness, stopped short for want of vegetables and have some meat breath, took a deep lungful of critters to give milk and steak. fresh air and went back to work. The energy to operate Venus The superliners left. But not WANT A GOVERNMENT JOB? $141 to $158 month first year regular. Railway Mall Clerka—Mall Postoffico Many other overnment Joba obtainable Equilateral is supplied with the without taking a souvenir. Fran- Carriers— Clerks. g Men and women Write IMMEDIATELY for free 82-Dago book collectors sun cis Burbank went with them. with list of positions and Information telling how to Qualify. photoelectric — FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, DEPT. PI94, ROCHESTER,_ N. Y. ”

128 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

His removal notice was on the in that tone of voice," snapped first ship, and Don Channing’s Arden. “I quit! I resign! Ire- Classified appointment as Director of In- fuse to be secretary to a man like terplanetary Communications you!”

was on the second. Channing looked helplessly at Advertising Happily he entered the Direc- Franks. tor’s office once more. He car- Walt looked at Arden, saw ried with him all the things that what was in her eyes, and told he had removed just a few short Patents Secured Channing: “See if you can wrig- weeks before. This time he was gle out of what comes next I” INVENTORS He —Protect your Idea with a Patent. Secure 'Tatent coming to stay. Guide"—Frae. Write Clarence A. O'Brien and Harrey Jacobson, took Joe by the arm and said: Registered Patent Attorney!, 201-K Adams Building. Washington, Arden entered the office be- D. C. “Joe, now that the ban is off, hind him. “Home again?” she may I buy you a drink?” asked. PATENTS—Reasonable term«. Book and advice free. L. F. Randolph, Dept. 518, Washington. And Joe answered: “It is a D. C. “Yop," he grinned at her. beautiful night out, isn’t it?” “Open file B, will you, and break Photo Finishing-— It is always Developing out a container of my favorite a beautiful night beverage?” on Venus Equilateral. The stars ROLL DEVELOPED—16 prints; or 6 prints S enlargements; or 8 enlargements, 25c. Reprints 2c. 50 or more lttc each. shine forever in a sky that holds Peerless Studio, Enterprise. Oregon. “Sure thing,” she said. a molten ball. Sol flares end- There came a shout of glee. lessly in an “Break out four glasses,” absolutely black, Correspondence Courses she was star-studded sky. There is no told from behind. It was Walt CORRESPONDENCE moon. The air is always soft COURSES and educational books, slightly Franks and Joe. used. Sold. Rented. Exchanged. All subjeots. Satisfaction guar- and warm and unchanging. anteed. Cash paid for uaed course#. Complete details and bargain It was Arden that proposed catalog Free. Write Nelson Company. Dept. K-215. 500 8herman, Chicago. the toast. “Here’s to a closed And at the moment that Chan- corporation,” she said. They ning was finding out why Arden Detectives—Instructions drank on that. resigned, a little man of North- She went over beside Don and ern Venus handed a message to DETECTIVES EARN BIO MONET. homo Irorel. . Work or DETECTIVE particular, froa. Experlrnco uonocoisarjr. Writ, took his arm. “You see?” she the operator in the International OKOilOK WAGONER. 2S40-A Brotdwaj. Now York. said, looking up into his eyes. Hotel in Detroit, Michigan. It “We aren’t the same. Things went out on the land wires to Old Gold Wanted Hawaii to Luna; to have changed since Burbank ; Venus Equi-

lateral ; to the rotating relay sta- GOLD $35 ODNOB. Mill old fold tooth, diamondi. Jowelrr. came, and went. Haven’t they?” watches—recolre cash by return maii Satisfaction Guaranteed. Freo tions that circle Venus five Information. Paramount Gold Banning Co., 1500-G n«nna- “They have,” laughed Chan- hun- ptn. MtuneapoU,, Mtnn. ning. “And now that you are dred miles above the planet: my secretary, it is no longer down through the raging heavi- Help Wanted—Female proper for you to shine up to me side layer to Northern Landing: and across the Palanortis Coun- FEW OPENINGS FOR MARRIED WOMEN. E»m to $23 like that. People will talk.” woeklr In any. dignified work without experience. Investment or try to Yoralen. training. No canvassing. Give ago, tires, size. Fashion Frocks. “What’s he raving about?” Desk 44026, Cincinnati. Ohio. asked Joe. Channing was still investigat- Channing answered. “It is ing his secretary’s resignation Nurses Training School considered bad taste for a secre- when Korvus, the Magnificent, tary to make passes at her boss. read: MAKE DP TO 125-135 WEEK AS A TRAINED practical nurse! Learn quickly at homa. Booklet Free. Chicago School of Nursing, Dept. D-9. Chicago. Think of his wife and kids.” “You have neither.” TYPE 56-XXD FLIER F. O. B. DETROIT, MICHIGAN, TODAY. Educational “Maybe so. But it is still— not WILL BE DELIVERED ON proper for a secretary to NEXT FREIGHT SHIP. FINGER PRINT EXPERTS earn big pay! Learn easily at “You can’t call me a secretary home. Low cost. "Crime Book” Free. Write stating age. WILNEDA. Dept. 82, InaL Applied Science, 1920 Sunnyslde, Chicago. THE END.

You’ve heard DEAD MEN DON'T TALK! But A. E. van Vogt proves there’s an- other way to certain silence! Read r NOT ONLY DEAD MEN In the November Astounding Science-Fiction —: —

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Everything about Blueprint Beading is put right at your Anger -tips! Simple as A, B. C. No need to attend an expensive trado or technical school. No previous technical or spodal education Is needed. Hero’s a speedy Blueprint Reading Course for oil trades that Is ABSOLUTELY different. No dry textbooks—you leam by seeing and doing—and you B&AD BLUEPRINTS from* tho very.... FIRST DAY. With this amazingjiew method—a few minutes a day Is all you need to read Blueprints on sight. This simplified, spare-time. Home Study Course meets all Blueprint Requirements for Civil Service and National Defense Jobs. CREATED BY QUALIFY QUICKLY NOTED EXPERTS H. Y. WALSH, B.A., Professor, Columbia U., FOR A BIG PAY JOB 1919-1935; F. A. RAP- POUT. B.S., C.E., Prof., Here is really big news for you— If you have a School of Tech., City Col- Job, or If you want a job in any branch of aviation, lege, N. Y. shipbuilding, sheet metal work, welding, electricity, ; F. H. BURNS, plumbing, carpentry, radio build- B.8.. M.R. Prof.. Now- machine tooling, FREE EXAMINATION : ing, automotive and Diesel Engineering, or any ark Col. of Engineering. other of tho mechanical, construction or INDUSTRIES—the AUSTIN TECH. “Shadow- AU8TIN TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, 899 Broad graph' ' Method CAN HELP YOU QUALIFY for a BETTER JOB AND BIGGER St., Dlv. S8-9, Newark, New Jersey an amazingly short time. This marvelous homo-study method is so easy PAY in Send me on FREE enables even a school boy to leam Blueprint Beading from the first day I APPROVAL your com- it plete 24-Volumo Blueprint Reading Courso with special “Working Model" Bookcase. I This 24-Volumo Blueprint Beading Course Is packed in a specially con- am to get FREE “Mathematics Made Easy" structed bookcase, which in itself is a unique “Working Model” designed and Professional Slido Rule. I will pay post- man to enable you to read Blueprints from the first day. The Course contains a 11.95, plus poetago and C. 0. D. ^ charges on w over 600 Actual Blueprint!—Charts—Tables—Diagrams—Signs—Symbols ^ arrival. If I return everything within 5 days you aro and other Instructive Pictures that holp you to read Blueprints practically to refund my money In full. Otherwise I will remit $2 monthly on sight. for 3 months and a final payment of $1 for tho 4th month until tho total prlco of $8.95 IS SENT ONCE! is paid. (19% discount if full payment ac- EVERYTHING TO YOU AT companies order—same rofund guarantee.) paaaBiBraBaDESssiiBaiaBBKBsnii: The complete 24-Volume Blueprint Reeding Course Is sent to you together— with the speolalfy constructed "Working Model" Bookcase. You also get FREE "Math* Name amities Made Easy" and Professional Slide Rule. Everything is sent in one ship- RISING PRICES FREE GIFT OFFER IS LIMITED. ment. ACT TODAY—DUE TO Address

AUSTIN TECHNICAL INSTITUTE City ^ State 899 Broad Street, Oiv. SS-9. Newark, HTJ. References Address

NOTE: If you enclose $1.95 with eoupon we will pay all postage charges. Every cent SEND NO MONEY refunded if not satisfied. 1 • —

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>H>1WER GEE what a build / 1 No SIR! - ATLAS j&.]l Didn’t it take a long Makes Muscles Grow time to get those muscles? \ Fast /

Will You Let^ Me PROVE ^ I Can Make YOU a Mew Man?

LET ME START SHOWING YOU RESULTS LIKE THESE What a 5 inches ifferencs of new Muscle Py "Have r put S'*" arms Increased on chest •My (normal) and 2 1-" IS ", chest 2> 2 ", lorearm >4". —C. S., expanded." F.

For quick results

Here's what ATLAS I recommend CHARLES CHARLES ) did for ME/ . £ w Jr ATLAS ATLAS Awarded the title "Am sending snapshot Showing wonderful prog* of "The World's ross."—W. G., N. J. Most Perfectly Developed Man” i n international contest in tomoe- GAINED^^ tition with AI L 29 men who would consent to appear (pOUND^f^ against him.

This Is a rerent ••When 1 Started, photo of Charles John Jacobs John Jacob* weighed only 141* V Now i70."-T. K.. Atlas show In a BEFORE AFTER how he looks to- zz day This Is :m actual untouched snapshot.

DON’T care how old or young marvelous physical specimens —my way. you are, or liow ashamed of your 1 give you no gadgets or contraptions to present physical condition fool with. When you have learned to 1 you develop your strength through "Dynamic may he. If you can simply raise Tension," you can laugh at artificial your arm and Hex it. I can add muscle-makers. You simply utilize the SOLID MUSCLE to your biceps DORMANT muscle -power in your own given — It yes, on each arm— in double-quick God- body watch increase and multiply double-quick into real solid time! Only 15 minutes a day LIVE MUSCLE. right in your own home— is all the My method—“Dynamic Tension" will time I ask of you. And there’s no turn the trick for you. No theory—every if 1 full. cost exercise Is practical. And. man, I can broaden your shoulders, so easy! Spend only 15 minutes strengthen your back, develop your a day in your own home. From the very start you'll be using CHARLES ATLAS, Dept. 62Y v whole muscular system INSIDE my method of "Dynamic Ten- USE. 23rd Street. York, N. Y. and OUTSIDE! I can add Inches sion" almost unconsciously every New to your chest, give you a vise-like minute of the day—walking, 1 want the proof that your system of "Dynamic grip, make those legs of yours lithe bending over, etc. — to BUILD MUSCLE and VITALITY. Tension" will help make a New Man of me—give and powerful. I can shoot new strength into your old backbone, me a healthy, husky body and big muscular devel- exercise those inner organs, help you mm FREE BOOK opment. Send me your free book, "Everlasting Health your body so full of pep, vigor and red- “Everlasting; Health and Strength." blooded vitality that you won t feel there's and Strength” even "standing room’’ left for weakness and In It I talk to you In straight - that lazy feel ins ! Before I get through frora -the- shoulder language. with you I'll have your whole frame "meas- Name Parked with Inspirational pic- ured” to a nice, new, beautiful suit of muscle! (Please write plainly) tures of myself and pupils— fel- print or lows who became NEW MEN In What’s My Secret? strength, my way. Let me show Address "Dynamic Tension!" That's the ticket. you what I helped THEM do. See The identical natural method that I myself what 1 can do for YOU! For a developed to change my body from the real thrill, send for this book scrawny, skinny -chested weakling I was today \T ONCE. CHARLES State at 17 to my present super-man physique! ATLAS. Dept. 62Y, 115 East Thousands of other fellows are becoming 23rd St., New York City.