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Short Science Fiction Collection 029 - Various · Thus Spake Zarathustra

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The four D doodler by graph Waaldyre. This is a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Reading by Greg Marguerite, The four D doodler by graph Waldiyre.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Do you believe, Professor Galt, that this four dimensional plane
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: contains life? Intelligent life? At the question, Gault laughed shortly.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: You have been reading pseudoscience, doctor Pilbot, He twitted. I
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: realize that as a psychiatrist you are interested in minds
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: in living beings rather than in dimensional planes. But I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: fear you will find no minds to study in the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: fourth dimension. There aren't any there, Professor Galt paused, peering
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: from beneath bushy white brows out over the laboratory. To
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: his near sighted eyes, the blurred figure of Harper, his
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: young assistant, seemed busily at work over his mathematical charts.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Gault hoped sourly that the young man was actually working,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and not just drawing more of his absurd, senseless designs
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: amidst the mathematical computations. Your proof, doctor Pilbot, broke into
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: his thoughts insistently is purely negative. Professor, how can you
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: know there are no beings in the fourth dimension unless
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: you actually enter this realm to see for yourself. Professor
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Galt stared at the fat, puffy face of his visitor
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and snorted loudly. I am afraid, Pilbot, you do not
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: comprehend the impossibility of such a passage. We cannot possibly
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: break from the confines of our three dimensional world. Here
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: let me explain by a simple illustration. Gault took up
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a book, held it so that a shadow fell on
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to the surface of the desk. That shadow, he said,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: is too dimensional, has length and breath, but no thickness. Now,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: in order to enter the third dimension hour plane, the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: shadow would have to bulge out in some way into
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the dimension of thickness and obvious impossibility. Similarly, we cannot
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: enter the fourth dimension. Do you see no, retorted Pilbot
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: with some heat. In the first place, we are not
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: two dimensional shadows, and why what is the matter? Professor
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Galt's lanky form had stiffened, his near sighted eyes glaring
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: out over the laboratory to the rear of Pilbot. The
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: psychiatrist wheeled around, following his host's gaze. It was Harper
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: that young man's antics drew an amazed grunt from Pilbot.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: He was describing peculiar motions in the air with his pencil, circles, whirls, angles,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: abrupt jabs forward. He bent over the paper on the desk,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: made a few sweeps of the pencil, then the pencil
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: rose again into the air to describe more erratic motions.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Harper himself seemed in a trance. Suddenly, Pilbot gave us gasp.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: It seemed to him that Harper's arm vanished at the
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: elbow as it stabbed forward, then reappeared once again. The
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: phenomenon happened. Pilbot blinked rapidly rubbed his eyes. It must
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: have been an illusion, he decided it was too unlikely.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Harper Gault's voice was like the snapping of a steel trap. Startled.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Harper came to with a jerk. Seeing he was being watched,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: He flushed redly, then bent over his charts again, and
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: apologetic murmur floated from his desk. What was he doing,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Pilbot asked, puzzledly, doodling Gault spat out the word disgustedly.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Doodling echoed the psychiatrist. Why that is a slang term
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: we use in psychiatry to describe the absent minded scrawls
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and designs people make while their attention is elsewhere occupied,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: an overflow of the unconscious mind, we call it. Many
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: famous people are doodlers. Their doodles often are a sign
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: of special ability. Exactly Snapped called it shows a special
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: ability to waste time. And Harper has become worse since
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I hired him to do some of my mathematical work.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Some influence in this laboratory, I blush to confess seems
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: to bring it on. Four dimensional doodling. We call it because,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: as you saw, he doesn't confine it to the surface
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: of the paper. Pilbot looked startled by jove, He cried,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: I believe you've hit on something new to psychiatry. This
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: young man may have some unknown faculty of mind and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: instinctive perception of the fourth dimension, just as some people
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: have an unerring sense of direction. So perhaps Harper has
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a sense of a fourth direction, the fourth dimension. I
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: should like to examine some of his doodles. Harper looked
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: up in alarm as his crusty tempered employer appeared followed
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: by the stout figure of Pilbot. He rose and stood
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: aside unassumingly. As Pilbot bent over the scrawls on his charts,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: clucking interestedly. Harper flicked a worried glance over to the corner.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: He hoped they wouldn't notice his stress analyzing clay model
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: standing there. It looked like a futurists nightmare, with angles, curves,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: and knobs stuck out at all angles. Professor Kault might
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: not understand. For one of his retiring temperament, Harper was
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: aiming high. There was a standing award of fifty thousand
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: dollars for the lucky mathematician who would solve the mystery
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of the stress barrier encountered by skyscrapers as they were
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: built up toward the one hundred and fifty story mark.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: At this height, they encountered stress and strains which mathematical
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: computations and engineering designs had been unable to solve. Harper
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: believed the stress barrier was due to an undetected space
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: bending close to the Earth's surface, a bending of space
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: greater than ever provided for in the prediction of Einstein,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and if he was right and could win that award,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: then there might be wedding bells and a little bungalow
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: with Judith. Harper's greatest fear was that he would do
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: something to annoy Gault into firing him, thus depriving him
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: of the privilege of using the mathematical charts and computing
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: machines available in the laboratory. Right now, he hoped Gault
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: wouldn't notice that statue in the corner. What's that, Harper's
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: heart leaped. The professor was glaring at the statue as
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: though it were something the cat brought in. Pilbot looked
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: up from examination of the doodles and followed Gault over
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: to the futuristic statuary. As Gault made strangled noises, Pilbot
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: stared interestingly. Why it's like some of the designs in
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: his doodling, he exclaimed, And made with some of my
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: best modeling clay for reproducing geometric solids, rasped Gault. He
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: wheeled upon Harper, get that thing out of here. I
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: won't stand for such rot in this laboratory. Throw it
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: into the hall for the janitor, Yes, Sir, said Harper, gulping.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: He took hold of the statue, pulled at it, it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: It won't bud, he exclaimed, amazedly. Ey won't move. It's
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: not that heavy, is it? Demanded the professor. No, about
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: thirty pounds, but it won't move. Gault took hold of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: one of the angles of the thing, jerked at it savagely.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: He gave it up with an oath, returned to Harper's desk, muttering.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Harper suddenly noticed the top portion of the statue. It
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: didn't seem to be all there. He was positive there
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: had been another section on top shooting off at an angle,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: representing a problem in tangential stress. What had happened to
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: that top section He would figure that out later when
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the occasion was more propitious. Right now, he realized that
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: only the presence of doctor Pilbot prevented Gault from firing him.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: He cast an apprehensive glance toward his employer with trepidation.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: He saw Gault reach for something projecting from behind a bench.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Gault pulled it out, held it dangling before him. A
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: strangled exclamation of wrath came from him. His law long
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: nose pointed accusingly toward Harper, like a finger pointing out
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a criminal. I was afraid of that, he grated cutting
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: paper dolls. Gault was holding up a large paper cutout
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: of a human figure, a long rangy man. This is
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the last straw, Gault went on his voice, rising, I
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: have stood enough. It wasn't me, Sir. Harper cried quickly,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: with visions of his job and fifty thousand dollars vanishing.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: It was your ten year old nephew, Rudolph, when he
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: was here yesterday. He cut it out, said it looked
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: like like his uncle. Harper stopped as Gault seemed about
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: to explode. Then the mathematician subsided. A malicious expression crept
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: over his face. HM, he said, might be just what
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I need to explain things to doctor Pilbot. I shall
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: take this matter before the Psychiatric Society. Pilbot was saying excitedly,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Undoubtedly you have some strange faculty and instinctive perception of
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: four dimensional laws. What was that, professor? I said, If
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: you will step over to this desk, I will explain
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: to you in elementary terms, very elementary and easy to understand,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: why you will never be able to study four dimensional beings,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: if any exist. Gault's voice was tinged with sarcasm. Pilbot
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: came over followed by Harper, who was interested in any
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: explanations about the fourth dimension, even elementary ones. Gault, with
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a glint in his eye, pressed the paper figure flatly
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: on the surface of Harper's desk. This paper man, we
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: will say, represents a two dimensional creature. We lay him
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: flatly against the desk, which represents his world flat land,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: we mathematicians call it. Mister flatlander can't see into our world.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: He can see only along the flat plane of his
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: own world. To see us, For instance, he would have
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to look up, which is the third dimension, a direction
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: inconceivable to him. Now, doctor, are you beginning to understand
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: why we can never see four dimensional beings? Pilbot frowned thoughtfully,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: then looked up. And what about the viewpoint of the
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: four dimensioners themselves? What would prevent them from seeing us?
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Harper hardly heard the professor's snort of disgust. This two
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: dimensional cutout and flatland fascinated him. An idea occurred to him. Now,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: just supposing the as Gault and Pilbot argued, Harper grasped
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the paper cutout and bent it jackknifed it, creasing it
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: firmly in the middle. Then he raised the upper half,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: so that it rose vertically from the desk, while the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: lower half was still pressed flatly against the desk surface. Now,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: he murmured to himself, the flat lander would appear to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: his fellows to have vanished from the waist up, because
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: from the waist up he is bent into the third dimension,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: so far as they are concerned. At the wavering scream,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Harper looked up quickly. Pilbot was staring frozenly in front
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: of him, towards the floor. Harper followed his glance and
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: saw it. Professor Gault had vanished from the waist up.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: His lower body still stood before Pilbot, swaying slightly, but
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the upper body was unconditionally missing. From the large feet
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: planted solidly on the floor, long legs rose majestically, terminating
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: in slim angular hips, and from thence vanished abruptly into nothingness.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: It was as though the upper body had been sheared
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: away neatly and precisely at the waist. Pilbot stared from
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the visible portion of Gault to a slack jawed Harper,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and back again, sweat splashing from his puffy face. Why why, really,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: my dear fellow, he quavered, addressing the half figure. This,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: this is a bit root of you vanishing in the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: midst of my sentence. I trust you will er return
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: at once. Then, as the full import of the phenomenon
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: penetrated to his understanding, his eyes became glazed and he
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: backed away. The portion of Professor gault A dressed, failed
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to give any indication it had heard the remonstrance. Slowly,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the legs began to feel their way like a blind
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: man about the floor. Harper stared wildly white, showing around
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: his pale blue irises. No, he bleeded, the professor didn't
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: do it himself. I caused it to happen. I bent
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the paper cut out, and something saw me do it
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: and imitated me by bending the professor into the fourth dimension.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Harper moaned, faintly, wringing his hands. Pilbod at the moment
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: got little satisfaction from this demonstration of his point about
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: four dimensional life. He glanced fearfully at the half figure.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: You you mean to say, he quailed, that we are
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: under scrutiny by some being of the fourth dimension. That's it,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: replied Harper, with a whinnie. I know it, I can
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: feel it. It became aware of our three dimensional life
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in some way, and its attention is now concentrated on
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the laboratory. He wrung his hands. I just know something
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: else terrible is going to happen. He backed away quickly
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: as the occupied pair of pants moved toward him. His
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: retreat was halted by his desk, upon which reposed two
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: large California oranges, an inevitable accompaniment to Harper's lunch. To him,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: orange juice was a potent, revivifying drink. Now, he automatically
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: reached for one of the oranges, as a more hearty
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: individual might reach for a whiskey and soda. In a
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: moment of mental shock, his eyes wide on the shuffling
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: approach of Gault's underpinnings, Harper nervously dug sharp finger nails
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: into the orange, tore off large chunks of skin. A
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: sudden blur seen from the corner of his eyes pulled
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: his gaze back to the desk. The other orange had vanished.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: It dropped to the floor before Harper, but now it
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: was a squashy mess, the inside standing out like petals,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the juice running from it. The other orange slipped from
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Harper's nerveless fingers rolled along the desk top. Harper pounced
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: on the squashy thing on the floor, feverishly pushed back
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the projecting insides closely examined it. He looked up, wide
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: eyed at Pilbot, turned inside out. He gasped hoarsely without
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: breaking its skin. Pilbot's expression indicated that the scientific attitude
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: was slowly replacing his former fright. He snapped his fingers.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Imitation again, he said, half to himself. He looked at Harper.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: When you bent the paper, figure this, this fourth dimensional entity,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: imitated your action by bending the professor. Now as you
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: started to peel the orange, your action was again imitated
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: in a four dimensional manner by this entity turning the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: other orange inside out. His voice dropped as he muttered imitativeness,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the mark of a mind of low evolutionary order, or
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: of his words faded off. His expression thoughtful. More white
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: showed around Harper's eyes. You mean I'm being specially watched
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: by this being that he it imitates everything I do.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: That's it, clipped Pilbot. Because you possess this strange perception
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: of its realm, the being has been especially attracted to you.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Imitates whatever you do, but in a four dimensional manner,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: a being of inexplicable powers and prerogatives, with weird power
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: over matter, but with a mentality that is either very
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: primitive or Harper leaped into the air with a yell
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: as Professor Galt's abbreviated body sidled up to him from behind.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: As he leaped, the inside out orange flew out of
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: his grasp. I just know, he quavered, that Professor Galt
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: wants me to do something. Is probably barking orders at
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: me from the other dimension. Oh dear, I've dropped the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: orange on the Professor's where his stomach should be. The
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: squashy orange had landed on the area of Gault that
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: was the line of demarcation between his visible and invisible portions,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the area that his stomach would occupy normally. It rested
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: there in plain sight of the two startled men. I
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I'd better remove it, said Harper weakly. He moved with
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a dreadful compulsion toward the swaying half figure, one slender
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: hand extended tremblingly toward the inverted orange. Abruptly, the orange vanished.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Harper halted like he'd run into a brick wall. Staring
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: blankly ahead, he put his hands to his stomach, moaning faintly.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: What's the matter, cried Pilbot. The orange It's in my stomach.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: See what did I tell you, exalted Pilbot, another act
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: of imitativeness. It saw you drop the orange on gaults
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: where his stomach should be, and imitated by putting the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: orange in your stomach. It proves I'm right about the being.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: With a loud belch, Pilbot broke off. He stared blankly
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: at Harper. Then his hand slowly came up to clutch
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: at his stomach. Harper looked quickly at the desktop the
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: other orange. He gasped. It's gone into my stomach, groaned Pillbod.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Be be careful what you do, my God, don't do anything.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Don't even think this. This four dimensional creature will surely
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: imitate whatever you do in some weird manner. Rubbing his stomach,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Pilbod glanced about at the various articles of furniture. He blanched.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't want any of that stuff inside me, he aamorred.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Harper flicked a despairing glance at the half body now
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: gliding along in the vicinity of the paper cut out.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: We we must do something to get the professor back,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: he said worriedly. He thought incongruously of a restaurant where
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: he used to order lemon pie and invariably get apple.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Finally he found that he could get lemon by ordering peach.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Now the problem was, what did he have to order
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to get his employer extricated from being stuck between dimensions
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: like a pig under a fence. Anything he did would
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: be imitated in a manner that might prove tragic. The
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: upright portion of the cutout was leaning over backward, the
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: head drooping down like a wilted flower, as the tension
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: at the crease slowly lessened. Gathering together what resolution he could,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Harper determined to take the bull by the horns. He
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: would get the professor returned by pressing the upper portion
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: of the cutout flatly onto the desk's surface. With trembling hands,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: he pressed down on it, then sprang back with a
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: muffled yell. Three feet above the half body. The Professor's
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: head had flashed into visibility. You only pressed the head
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: onto the desk, said Pilbot, disgustedly. So the being only
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: impressed Gault's head back into the laboratory. Now, press down
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the rest of the body. The Professor's head suspended above
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the body, glared about a fixed Harper with a smoldering glance.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: The mouth moved rapidly, but no words came out. Professor,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I can't hear you, whimpered Harper. Your lungs and vocal
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: cords are in the other dimension. Here, I'll have you
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: completely returned. He reached a hand towards the cutout, the
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: torso of which still bulged upward from the desk. Golt's
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: headgged in vigorous negation of Harper's contemplated act. His mouth
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: moved in what if audible would have been clipped burning accents.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Harper drew back his hand as if he had touched
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: a red hot poker. The Professor doesn't want me to touch
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the cutout, he said helplessly. Galt's head hovered over the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: cutout like a gaunt moon. It swooped down toward the
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: paper figure, seeming to be studying its position on the desk. Closely.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Pilbot watched him for a sign of his intention or wishes.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Harper wandered distractedly over toward the high wall bench. He
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: had it he would distract the attention of the entity
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: from Gault by making another cut out. He would then
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: experiment with that second one without endangering Gault. He'd be
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: careful not to make this one thin and tall, so
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: as not to resemble the professor in outline. Perhaps with
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: it he could trick the entity into releasing the missing
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: part of Gault's body. He scraped in the bench drawer
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: for the scissors and started to shear through a large
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: stiff piece of paper. A moment later, he looked up
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: as Pilbot walked over. Golf has some reason for not
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: wanting his silhouette touched, he said. Can't quite make out
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: his lip movements, but he seems afraid some permanent mark
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: may be left on him by his return. He wants
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: time to figure out. Why what are you doing? I've
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: made another cutout for experiment, explained Harper. And this one
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: doesn't look like the Professor isn't tall and thin. See.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: He lifted the second cutout from the flat surface of
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the bench, held it suspended before him. This one is
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: short and fat. Harper halted abruptly, the breath whushing from
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: his lungs. There was no use talking to thin air.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Pilbot had been whisked into nothingness. Where the portly figure
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: of the eminent psychiatrist had stood was now nothing, not
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: even a half man. Too late, Harper realized that when
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: he had lifted the paper figure from the surface of
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the bench, the entity had imitated him by lifting Pilbot
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: into the fourth dimension. Belatedly, he knew that the cutout
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: which he held dangling resemble Pilbot in outline. Harper dashed
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: back and forth in little rushes, carrying the paper figure.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: He dared not put it down for fear of seeing
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: some segment of Pilbot flash back. He did not know
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: what to do with it. Finally, he compromised by suspending
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: it to a low hanging chandelier, where it dangled, swaying
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: in the slight air currents. Gault was watching his assistant's
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: antics with a bleak expression that changed to sardonic satisfaction
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: as he realized Pilbot was in a predicament like his,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: only more so. Abruptly, he frowned staring ahead, and Harper
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: guessed that Pilbot had located Gault's torso in the other
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: realm was nudging him to indicate the fact. Suddenly, Harper
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: knew that he himself must enter this fourth dimensional realm.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: That strange instinct told him the solution to everything was there,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: somewhat as a woman's intuition impels her to act in
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: a certain way without knowing why, how to get there?
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Another paper cut out. He glanced toward the professor, the
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: occupied trousers, and swimming above it the man's head. The
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: head was watching him, the expression savage. No, there must
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: be no more cutouts, Harper decided. While the four dimensional
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: entity distinguished between the outlines of a thin silhouette and
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a fat one, something in between, like Harper's form, would
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: be testing it too far. He Harper would take the
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: place of his own cutout. Gault's head reared up, glared
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: fixedly at his assistant as the young man swung his
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: legs onto the desk, then lay down flat. A moment later,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: he lay there in flat land, then leaped to his feet.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: It was as though he had leaped into a different world.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: He was no longer in the laboratory. He wasn't on
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: any floor at all, As far as he could make out,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: His feet rested on nothing, And yet there was some
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: sort of tension under him, like the surface tension of
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: water he was, he suddenly knew it. Standing on a
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: segment of warped space, there was a spatial strain here
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: that acted as a solid beneath him. Harper looked up,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: that is, overhead, There was nothing there but vast stretches
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of emptiness. At first, then he saw that this emptiness
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: was lined and laced with filmy striations like cellophane. They
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: bore a strange resemblance to his doodlings, as though that
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: strange faculty of his enabled him to somehow perceive this
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: place of the fourth dimension. And instinctively, Harper knew that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: these lacings were the boundaries of a vast enclosure, a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: four dimensional enclosure, the walls of which consisted of joined
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and meshed spacewarps. Abruptly he became aware of movement. He
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: became aware of solidity there above him, and the solidity
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: was in motion. Harper knew he was gazing upon a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: being of the fourth dimension, doubtless the entity that had
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: caused the phenomena in the laboratory, which had snatched him
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: into the fourth dimension, and was even now observing him
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: with its four dimensional sun. There was a shape above
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: him that strained his eyes gave hint of form just
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: beyond his comprehension. Harper hardly noticed that Pilbot was beside him,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: shaking him. He had suddenly grasped a fundamental law of
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: spatial stresses, and he whipped out a pad and pencil
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: began scribbling down the mathematical formula of these laws. He
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: began to see now why skyscrapers encountered the stress barrier
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: at a certain height. He understood it, just as a
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: person of any musical ability hearing music for the first
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: time would understand the laws of that music. Look out,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: it's moving descending. Pilbot was yelling into his ear. It's
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: about to act. Became act of the moment you got here.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: How did you induce it to bring you here? Huh?
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Harper looked up from his scribbling. Oh, Harper explained quickly
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: how he had induced the being to act on himself.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: That's it, cried Pilbot hoarsely. You switched the pattern of
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: imitation on it, tricked it into bringing you here. That's
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: what made it angry. Angry. Harper almost dropped his pad,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: clutched at Pilbot, as there was a sudden upheaval of
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the invisible tension surface on which they stood. A violent
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: shake sprawled them on the ground. And now Harper saw
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the torso of Gault a few feet away, apparently hovering
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: above the surface. Yes, angry, Pilbot was pale. As long
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: as you merely gave it something to imitate, it was pacified.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: But now it recognizes opposition, an effort to outwit it.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Due to your switching the pattern of imitation, its condition
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: is dangerous. Its boundary act violently. We have to get
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: out of here. You must know some way. Harper again
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: scribbled some figures on his pad. As soon as I've
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: worked out this formula, Pilbot shook him frantically. Can't you
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: understand this creature is a mental patient of a violent type.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: We're in a fourth dimensional insane asylum. Pilbot gazed upward
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: fearfully at the descending mass. The pattern of its action
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: fits perfectly, he went on, some violent type of insanity
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: combined with delusions of grandeur. Any slightest opposition will cause
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: a spasm of fury. It recognizes such opposition in the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: way you tricked it into bringing you here. At first
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: I thought it was a primitive mentality, but now I
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: know it is a highly evolved but insane creature. Thinks
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: it's Napoleon. Wants to conquer the three dimensional plane which
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: its attention has been attracted to in some way. Harper
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: looked up in surprise. Does it know about Napoleon? Of
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: course not, you fool, screamed Pilbot. It has the Napoleonic complex,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: identifies itself with some greater conqueror of its own realm.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: And now it's on the rampage. We have to get
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: out of here. He clutched at Harper as another upheaval
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: of the surface threw them down. Rising, Harper put away
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: his pad. His calculations were complete. He could now show
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: engineers how to build high buildings taking advantage of space stress,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: instead of trying to fight the stress. For the first time,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the danger of their positions seemed to penetrate to his consciousness.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: He looked about, and his eyes rested on a strange,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: familiar projection rising from the invisible floor a few feet away.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: It was the section of his clay statue that had vanished,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: vanished because its peculiar shape had somehow caused it to
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: be warped into the fourth dimension. Why hadn't he been
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: able to move it. Professor Gault moved about freely. He
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and Pilbot went over to it, tried to move it.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: A slight filmy webwork around the projection caught Harper's eye.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Now he knew the being had somehow affixed it to
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: the spot as a landmark so it could locate the laboratory.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: It must have been this projection that had first attracted
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the being's attention to the three dimensional world, since ordinarily
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: it would never have noticed the presence of three dimensional
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: life any more than cumans would notice the presence of
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: two dimensional life if such existed. Harper looked up at
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: a bleat from Pilbot. Above them was a sudden, furious
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: play of lights and shades, vast masses seen shifting in
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: crazy juxtapositions, now descending rapidly toward them. Quick Harper, now
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: fully aroused, gasped to Pilbot, climb down this projection. Climb
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: down it. Yes, there is a fluid condition of space
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: where it penetrates between the two planes. By hugging its contours,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: you will emerge into the laboratory. I hope. Pilbod glanced
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: over head nervously, then experimentally slid a foot down the projection.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: The foot vanished with a cry of relief. Pilbot lowered
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: himself until only head and shoulders were visible, Then that
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: too vanished. Harper looked up. Some monstrous suggestion of form
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: was almost upon him. He grasped the projection, and just
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: as his head sank out of sight, the form seemed
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: to smash down on him. Pilbot helped Harper to his
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: feet from where he had sprawled at the base of
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the statue on the laboratory floor. Quick he gasped, the
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: creature will be infuriated now by our escape from its realm.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: A maniacal spasm is sure to follow. We must get
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Gult back in some way, then leave the laboratory. Even
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: as they dashed over toward the abbreviated form of Gault,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the laboratory shook. Invisible strains seemed to be bulging the
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: walls inward. Harper rushed to the desk, upon which still
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: reposed the cutout. The section between neck and waist still
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: arched off the surface. As Harper reached toward the cutout
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to press it flat, Gault's eyes widened, his mouth opened
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: in a soundless shout of opposition. Harper hesitated. Never mind him,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: yammered Pilbot. Pressed the figure flat. Harper pressed it flat.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: For an instant the laboratory stopped its ominous vibration. Then
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: the figure of Gault flew through the air, came up
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: against a wall, but it was his complete figure. More
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: signs of violence, cried Pilbot. But that action won't appease it.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: We must get out of here. Even as he spoke,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: there was a thunderous crackling and roaring. Harper felt himself
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: flying about, and for an instant of awful vertigo he
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: did not know up from down forces seemed to be
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: tearing at him. He felt as though he were a
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: piece of iron being attracted simultaneously in several directions by
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: powerful electro magnets. There was a flare of colored lights,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: a deafening detonation, and he felt himself knocked breathless against
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: a wall. He picked himself up, looked around. On one
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: side of him was the familiar south wall of the laboratory.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: To the northeast and west was open air. He was
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: standing on a section of laboratory flooring that jutted out
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: over empty space from the wall. His desk was a
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: few feet away. Right at the edge of the jutting floor,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Gult and Pilbot were picking themselves up to one side
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: of the desk. The pair looked over the edge of
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: the floor, then recoiled frenziedly, hugging the flooring under them.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Harper crawled over, looked over the edge, quickly backed away.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Several hundred feet below. The traffic of the city roared.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Gault went over to the door in one wall, opened it,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: then stepped back quickly, his face pale. The laboratory has
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: been turned inside out, he shouted. We are on the outside.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: We must get away from here, squalled Pilbot. Another spasm
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: of this creature will precipitate us into the street. Gault
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: forgot his apprehensions long enough to freeze Harper with a glance.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: This is all your doing, he bawled, you, with your
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: absurd doodling, which attracted the attention of some being of
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the fourth dimension. In his anger, he overlooked the fact
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: that he was contradicting his formerly held opinion. The laboratory wrecked,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: he continued, and that isn't all. He stalked up to
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the cringing Harper thrust his face toward him, do you know,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: he yelled, why I didn't want to be returned hastily?
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Why I didn't want you to bring me back by
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: flattening out the paper cut out? You dolt, Did you
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: ever try to get a crease out of a piece
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: of paper? I don't understand, murmured Harper. That paper doll
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: was creased, wasn't it, shouted Gault. Once a piece of
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: paper is creased, he resumed, heatedly, it can't be perfectly
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: flattened out again. At the crease, a thin cross section
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: continues to bulge into the third dimension in the case
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: of that paper cut out, into the fourth dimension. In
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: my case, I'm creased too, at the line where I
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: was bent into the fourth dimension. Surely you aren't blind,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Harper staggered back as he saw it, a thin horizontal
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: line of light shining through Gault's body, across his waistline,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: through clothes and all. I shall have to go through
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: life this way, Gault snarled, due to your imbecilic doodling.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: You're meddling with what you don't understand, go about constantly
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: with that slit of daylight showing through me. You're fired, gentlemen,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: cried Pilbot the entity. We must get away. Another spasm
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: will surely follow. Harper didn't think so. A few feet away,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: he had noticed something, his statue lying on its side.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: It was all there, including the portion that had been
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: in the fourth dimension. The entity's landmark was gone. Harper
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: didn't believe it would low this particular area of the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: third dimension again. The scream of a fire siren rose
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: up to them as a latter scraped over the projecting floor.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Harper fondly felt the pad in his pocket with the
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: formula on it. He wasn't worried now about having been fired.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: He was seeing visions of a small cottage with Judith.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Of course, he would have to be careful in the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: future with his doodling. He could not again risk attracting
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: the attention of some four dimensional being. Not with Judith
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: to think about and of the four D doodler by
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Graf Waldyer.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: The Carnival. This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by tabathat the Carnival
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: by Catherine mc lean a K A. G. A. Morris.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: The being stood around my bed in air suits like
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: ski suits, with globes over their heads like upside down
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: fish bowls. It was all like a masquerade, with odd
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: costumes and funny masks. I know that the masks are
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: their faces, but I argue with them and find I
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: think as if I'm arguing with humans behind the masks.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: They're people. I recognize people and whether I'm going to
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: like this person or that person by something in the
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: way they move and how they get excited when they talk.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: And I know that I like these people in a
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: motherly sort of way. You have to feel motherly toward them.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I guess they all remind me of Ronnie, a medical
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: student I knew once. He was small and round and eager.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: You had to like him, but you couldn't take him
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: very seriously. He was a pacifist. He wrote poetry and
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: pulled it out to read aloud at ill timed moments,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: and he stuttered when he talked too fast. They're like that,
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: all frightened gentleness. I am not the only survivor. They
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: have explained that, but I am the first they found
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: and the least damaged, the one they have chosen to
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: represent the human race to them. They stand around my
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: bed and answer questions and are nice to me when
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: I argue with them. All in a group, they look
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: half way between a delegation of nations and an ark
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: one of each big and small, thick and thin forearms
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: or wings, all shapes and colors in fur and skin
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: and feathers. I can picture them in their un of
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: the universe, making speeches in their different languages, listening patiently
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: without understanding each other's different problems, boring each other, and
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: being too polite to yawn. They are polite, so polite,
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: I almost feel they're afraid of me, and I want
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: to reassure them, but I talk as if I were angry.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: I can't help it, because if things had only been
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: a little different, why couldn't you have come sooner, Why
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: couldn't you have tried to stop it before it happened,
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: or at least come sooner afterward. If they had come
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: sooner where the workers of the Nevada power pile starved
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: slowly behind their protecting walls of lead, if they had
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: looked sooner for survivors of the dust with which the
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: nations of the world had slain each other, George Craig
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: would be alive. He died before they came. He was
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: my co worker and I loved him. We had gone
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: down together, passing door by door the automatic safeguards of
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: the plant, which were supposed to protect the people on
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: the outside from the radioactive danger from the inside. But
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: the danger of a failure of politics was far more
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: real than the danger of failure in the science of
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: the power pile, and that had not been calculated by
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: the builders. We were far underground when the first radioactivity
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: in the air outside had shut all the heavy lead
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: shielded automatic doors between us and the outside. We were safe,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: and we starved there. Why didn't you come sooner? I
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: wonder if they know or guess how I feel. My
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: questions are not questions, but I have to ask them.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: He is dead. I don't mean to reproach them. They
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: look well meaning and kindly, but I feel as if somehow,
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: knowing why it happened, could make it stop, could let
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: me turn the clock back and make it happen differently,
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: If I could have signaled them so that they would
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: have come just a little sooner. They look at one another,
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: turning their funny face heads uneasily moving back and forth,
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: but no one will answer. The world is dead. George
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: is dead, that thin, pathetic creature with the bones showing
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: through his skin that he was. When we sat still
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: at the last with our hands touching, thinking there were
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: people outside who had forgotten us, hoping they would remember.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: We didn't guess that the world was dead, blanketed in
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: radiating dust outside politics had killed it. These beings around
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: me there had been watching, seeing what was going to
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: happen to our world, listening to our radios. From their
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: small settlements on the other planets of the Solar System,
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: they had seen the doom of war coming. They represented
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: stella civilizations of great power and technology, and with populations
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: that would have made ours seem a small village. They
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: were stronger than we were, and yet they have done nothing.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Why didn't you stop us? You could have stopped us.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: A rapity one who is closer than the others backs away,
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: gesturing politely that he is giving room for some one
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: else to speak. But he looks guilty and will not
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: look at me with his big round eyes. I still
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: feel weak and dizzy. It's hard to think, but I
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: feel as if they are hiding a secret, a dole
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: like one hesitates and comes closer to my bed. We
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: discussed it, we voted. It talks through a microphone in
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: its helmet, with a soft lisping accent that I think
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: comes from the shape of its mouth. It has a
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: muzzle and very soft, dainty, long nibbling lips, like a
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: deer that nibbles on twigs and buds. We were afraid,
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: as one who looks like a bear to us, the
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: future was very terrible, says one who looks as if
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: it might have descended from some sort of large bird,
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: like a penguin. So much your weapons were very terrible.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Now they all talk at once, crowding about my bed,
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: apologizing so much killing it hurt to know about. But
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: your people didn't seem to mind. We were afraid, and
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: in your fiction, the dough like one lisped. I saw
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: plays from your amusement machines which said that the discovery
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: of beings in space would save you from war, not
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: because you would let us bring friendship and teach peace,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: but because the human race would unite in hatred of
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: the outsiders. They would forget their hatred of each other
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: only in a new and terrible war with us. His
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: voice breaks in a squeak, and it turns its face
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: away from me. You were about to come out into space.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: We were wondering how to hide. That is a quick
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: talking one, as small as a child. He looks as
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: if he might have descended from a bat. Gray silken
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: fur on his pointed face, big night seeing eyes, and
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: big sensitive ears, with a hump shape on the back
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: of his air suit which my be folded wings. We
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: were trying to conceal where we had built so that
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: humans would not guess we were near and look for us.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: They are ashamed of their fear, for because of it
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: they broke all the kindly laws of their civilizations, restrained
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: all the pity and gentleness I see in them, and
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: let us destroy ourselves. I am beginning to feel more
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: awake and to see more clearly, and I am beginning
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: to feel sorry for them, for I can see why
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: they are afraid. They are herbivores. I remember the meaning
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: of shapes. In the paths of evolution. There are grass
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: eaters and bury eaters and root diggers. Each has its
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: functional shape of face and neck, and its wide, startled
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: looking eyes to see and run away from the hunters.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: In all their racial history. They have never killed to eat.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: They have been killed and eaten or run away, and
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: they evolved to intelligence by selection those lived who succeeded
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: in running away from carnivores, like lions, hawks, and men.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I look up, and they turn their eyes and heads
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: in quick, embarrassed motion, not meeting my eye. The rapidy
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: one is nearest, and I reach out to touch him,
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: pleased because I am growing strong enough now to move
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: my arms. He looks at me, and I ask the question,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: are there any carnivores flesh eaters among you? He hesitates,
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: moving his lips as if searching for tactful words. We
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: have never found any that are civilized. We have frequently
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: found them in caves and tents fighting each other. Sometimes
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: we find them fighting each other with the ruins of
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: cities around them, But they are always savages. The bear
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: like one said heavily. It might be that carnivores evolve
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: more rapidly and tender ward intelligence more often. For we
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: find radioactive planets without life, and places like the place
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: you call your asteroid belt where a planet should be,
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: but there are only scattered fragments of planet, places that
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: look as if a planet had been blown apart. We
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: think that usually he looked at me uncertainly, beginning to
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: fumble the words. We think yours is the only carnivorous
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: race we have found that was civilized, that had a science,
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: and was going to come out into space. The dough
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: like one interrupted softly. We were afraid they seemed to
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: be apologizing the rapiity. One who seems to be chosen
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: as the leader in speaking to me, says, we will
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: give you anything you want, anything we're able to give you.
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: They mean it.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: We survivors will be privileged people, with a key to
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: all the cities, everything free. Their sincerity is wonderful, but puzzling.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Are they trying to atone for the thing they feel
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: was a crime that they allowed humanity to murder itself
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: and lost to the galaxy The richness of a race.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Is this why they're so generous? Perhaps then they will
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: help the race to get started again. The records are
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: not lost. The few survivors can eventually repopulate Earth under
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: the tutelage of these peaceful races, without the stress of
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: division into nations. We will flower as a race, no
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: children of mine to the furthest descendant will ever make
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: war again. This much of a lesson we have learned.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: These timid beings do not realize how much humanity has
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: wanted peace. They do not know how reluctantly we were
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: forced and trapped by old institutions and walked tangles of
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: politics to which we could see no answer. We're not
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: naturally savage. We're not savage when approached as individuals. Perhaps
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: they know this, but are afraid anyhow, instinctive fear rising
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: up from the blood of their hunted, frightened forbears. The
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: human race will be a good partner to these races.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: Even recovering from starvation as I am, I can feel
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: in myself an energy they do not have. The savage
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: in me in my race is a creative thing for
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: in those who have been educated as I was. It
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: is a controlled savagery which attacks and destroys only problems
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: and obstacles, never people. Any human raised outside of the
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: political tries additions at the race inherited from its blood
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: stained childhood, would be as friendly and ready for friendship
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: as I am toward these beings. I could never hurt
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: these pleasant, overgrown bunnies and squirrels. We will do everything
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: we can to make up for. We will try to help,
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: says the bunny, stumbling over the English. But civilized and
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: cordial and kind. I sit up, suddenly, reaching out impulsively
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: to shake his hand. Suddenly frightened, he leaps back. All
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: of them step back, glancing behind them, as though making
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: sure of the avenue of escape. Their big luminous eyes
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: widen and glance rapidly from me to the doors. Frightened,
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: they must think I am about to leap out of
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: bed and pounce on them and eat them. I am
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: about to laugh and reassure them, about to say that
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: all I want from them is friendship. When I feel
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: a twinge in my abdomen from the sudden motion, I
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: touch it with one hand. Under the bedclothes. There is
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: the scar of an incision there, almost healed an operation.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: The weakness I am recovering from is more than the
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: weakness of starvation. For only half a second, I do
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: not understand. Then I see why they looked ashamed. They
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: voted the murder of a race. All the human survivors
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: found have been made sterile. There will be no more
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: humans after we die. I am frozen, one hand still
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: extended to grasp the hand of the rabbity one, my
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: eyes still searching his expression, reassuring words still half formed.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: There will be time for anger or grief later. For now,
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: in this instant I can understand they are probably quite right.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: We were carnivores. I know because at this moment of
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: hatred I could kill them all. End of the Carnivore Homesick.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: visit at LibriVox dot org. Recording by tapithat Homesick by
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Lynn Venable. Frankston pushed listlessly at a red checker with
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: his right forefinger. He knew the move would cost him
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: a man, but he lacked enough interest in the game
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: to plot out a safe move. His opponent, James, jumped
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: the red disc with a black king and removed it
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: from the board. Gregory, across the room, flicked rapidly through
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: the pages of a magazine, too rapidly to be reading
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: anything or even looking at the pictures. Ross lay quietly
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: on his bunk, staring out of the viewport. The four
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: were strangely alike in appearance, nearly the same age, the
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: age where gray hairs finally outnumbered black or baldness takes
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: over the age when the expanding waistline has begun to
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: sag tiredly, when robust middle age begins the slow accelerating
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: decline towards enility. A strange group to find a boarder spaceship.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: But then the Columbus was a very strange ship. Bolted
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: to its outer hull. Just under the viewport were wooden
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: boxes full of red geraniums and ivy wound tenuous green
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: fronds over the gleaming hull that had withstood the bombardment
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: of pin Point Metea's and turned away the deadly power
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: of naked cosmic rays. Frankston glanced at his wristchrono. It
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: was one minute to six. In about a minute, he thought,
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Ross will say something about going out to water his geraniums.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: The wrist crono ticked fifty nine times. I think I'll
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: go out and water my geraniums, said Ross. No one
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: glanced up. Then Gregory threw his magazine on the floor.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Ross got up and walked, limping slightly to a wall locker.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: He pulled out the heavy, ungainly spacesuit and the big
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: metal bulb of a head piece. He carried them to
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: his bunk and laid them carefully down. Will somebody please
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: help me on with my suit, he asked. For one
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: more long moment, No one moved. Then James got up
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: and began to help Ross fit his legs into the suit.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: Ross had arthritis, not badly, but enough so that he
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: needed a little help climbing into a spacesuit. James pulled
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: the heavy folds of the suit up around Ross's body
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: and held it while Ross extended his arms into the
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: sleeve sections. His hands in the heavy gauntlets were too
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: unwieldy to do the front fastenings, and he stood silently
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: while James stead it for him. Ross lifted the helmet,
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: staring at it as a cripple might regard a wheel chair,
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: which he loathed but was wholly dependent upon. Then he
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: fitted the helmet over his head and James fastened it
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: down and lifted the oxygen tank to his back. Ready,
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: asked James, the bulbous head piece inclined in a nod.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: James walked to a panel and threw a switch marked
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: inner lock. A round aperture slid silently open. Ross stepped
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: through it and the door shut behind him. As James
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: threw the switch back to its original position, opposite the
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: switch marked outer lock, A signal glowed redly, and James
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: threw another switch. A moment later, the signal flickered out. Frankston,
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: with a violent gesture, swept the checkerboard clean red and
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: black men clattered to the floor, rolling and spinning. Nobody
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: picked them up. What does he do it for, demanded
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: Frankston in a tight voice. What does he get out
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: of those stinking geraniums he can't touch or smell? Shut up,
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: said Gregory. James looked up sharply. Curtness was unusual for Gregory,
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: a bad sign. Frankston was the one he'd been watching,
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: the one who'd showned signs of cracking. But after so long,
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: even a psycho expert's opinion might be Haywire, who was
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: the yardstick, who was normal. Geraniums don't smell much anyway,
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: added Gregory in a more conciliatory tone. Yeah, agreed Frankston.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: I'd forgotten that. But why does he torture himself like
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: this and us too? Because that's what he wanted to do,
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: answered James. Sure, agreed Gregory. The whole trip, the last
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: twenty years of it. Anyhow, all he could talk about
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: was how when he got back to Earth he was
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: going to buy a little place in the country and
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: raise flowers. Well, we're back, muttered Frankston, with a terrible bitterness.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: He's raising flowers, but not in any little place in
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: the country, Gregory continued, almost dreamily. Remember the last night out.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: We were all gathered around the viewscreen, and there was
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: Earth getting bigger and greener and closer all the time.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Remember what it felt like to be going back after
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: thirty years, thirty years cooped up in this ship, grumbled Frankston.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: All our twenties and thirties and forties, but we were
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: coming home. There was a rapt expression on Gregory's lined
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: and weathered face. We were looking forward to the twenty
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: or maybe thirty good years we had left, talking about
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: what we'd do, where we'd live, wondering what had changed
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: on Earth. At least we had that last night out.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: All the data was stashed away in the micro files,
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: all the data about planets with air we couldn't breathe,
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: and food we couldn't eat. We were going home home
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: to big, friendly, green Earth. Frankston's face suddenly crumpled as
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: though he were about to weep, and he cradled his
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: head against his arms. God, do we have to go
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: over it all again? Not again to night? Leave him alone,
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: ordered James, with an inflection of command in his voice.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: Go to the other section of the ship. If you
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: don't want to listen. He has to keep going over it,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: just like Ross has to keep watering his geraniums. Frankston
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: remained motionless, and Gregory looked gratefully at James. James was
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: the steady one. It was easier for him because he understood.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: Gregory's face became more and more animated as he lost himself,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: living again his recollections. The day we blasted in the crowds,
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: thousands of people all there to see us come in.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: We were proud, of course, We thought we were the
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: first to land, just like we'd been the first to
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: go out, those cheers coming from thousands of people at
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: once for us. Ross, Lieutenant Ross was the first one
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: out of the loch. We'd decided on that. He'd been
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: in command for almost ten years, ever since Commander Stephens died.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: You remember Stevens, don't you. He took over when we
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: lost Captain Willers. Well, anyway, Ross out first, and then you, James,
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: and New Frankston, and then Trippet and me last, because
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: you were all specialists and I was just a crewman.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: The crewman, i should say, the only one left. Ross
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: hesitated and almost stumbled when he stepped out, and tears
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: began pouring from his eyes. But I thought, well, you know,
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: coming home after thirty years and all that. But when
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: I stepped out of the lock, my eyes stung like fire,
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: and a thousand needles seemed to jab at my skin.
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: And then the President himself stepped forward with the flowers.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: That's where the real trouble began. With the flowers. I
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: remember Ross stretching out his arms to take the bouquet,
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: like a mother reaching for a baby, and suddenly he
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: dropped them, sneezing and coughing and sobbing for breath, and
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: the President reached out to help him, asking him over
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: and over what was wrong. It was the same with
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: all of us, and we turned and staggered back to
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: the ship, closing the lock behind him. It was bad, then, God,
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget it. The five of us moaning in agony,
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: gasping for breath, our eyes all swollen shut, and the itching,
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: that itching. Gregory shuddered. Even the emotionally disciplined James set
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: his teeth and felt his scalp crawl at the memory
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: of that horror. He glanced toward the viewport, as though
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: to cleanse his mind of the memory. He could see
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: Ross out there among the geraniums, moving slowly and painfully
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: in his heavy spacesuit occupational therapy. Ross watered flowers, and
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: Gregory talked, and Frankston was bitter, and himself observation. Maybe
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: Gregory's voice began again, And then they were pounding on
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: the lock, begging us to let the doctor in. But
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: we were all rolling and thrashing with the itching, burning, sneezing,
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: And finally James got himself under control enough to open
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: the locks and let them in. Then came the tests,
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: allergy tests, remember those. They'd cut a little row of
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: scratches in your arm each man, and instinctively glanced at
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: his forearm, saw neat rows of tiny pink scars row
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: on row. Then they'd put a little powder in each cut,
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: and each kind of powder was an extract of some
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: common substance. We might be allergic to the charts they
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: made were full of peas, pea for positive, long columns
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: of big red peas, all pollen, dust, wool, nilon, cotton, fish, meat, fruit, vegetables, grain, milk, whisky, cigarettes, dogs, cats, everything.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: And wasn't it funny about us being allergic to women's
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: face powder? Ha, We were allergic to women from their
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: nilon hose to their face powder. Thirty years of breathing purified, sterilized,
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: filtered air, thirty years of drinking distilled water and swallowing
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: synthetic food tablets had changed us. The only things we
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: weren't allergic to were the metal and plastics and synthetics
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: of our ship. This ship, we're allergic to earth. That's funny,
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: isn't it. Gregory began to rock back and forth, laughing
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: the thin high laugh of hysteria. James silently walked our
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: water hydrant and filled a plastic cup. He brought Gregory
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: a small white pill. You wouldn't take this with the
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: rest of us at supper. You'd better take it now
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: you need it. Gregory nodded, bleakly, sobering at once, and
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: swallowed the pellet. He made a face. After the water distilled,
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: he spat distilled, no flavor, no life like us distilled.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: If only we could have blasted off again, Frankston's voice
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: came muffled through his hands. It wouldn't have made any
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: difference where, anywhere or nowhere. No, our fine ship is obsolete,
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: and we're old, much too old. They have the space drive.
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: Men don't make thirty year junkets into space and come
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: back allergic to Earth. They go out and in a
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: month or two their back with their hair still black
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: and their eyes still bright, and their uniforms still fit.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: A month or two is all those crowds that cheered us.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: They were proud of us and sorry for us because
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: we'd been out thirty years and they never expected us
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: back at all. But it was inconvenient for Spaceport. Bitter
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: sarcasm tinged his voice. They actually had to postpone the
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: regular monthly transgalactic run to let us in with this big,
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: clumsy hulk. Why didn't we ever see any of the
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: new ships, either going out or coming back, asked Gregory.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: Frankston shook his head. You don't see a ship when
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: it's in space drive. It's out of normal space time dimensions.
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: We had a smattering of the theory at Cadet School. Anyway,
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: if one did flash into normal space time, say for instance,
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: coming in for a landing, the probability of us being
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: at the same place at the same time was almost nil.
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: Two ships passing in the night, as the old saying goes,
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: Gregory nodded. I guess Trippet was the lucky one. You
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: didn't see Trippet die, replied James. What was it? Asked Frankston.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: What kill Trippet so quickly?
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: Too?
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: He was only outside a few minutes like the rest
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: of us, and eight hours later he was dead. We
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: couldn't be sure, answered James. Some virus. There are countless varieties.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: People live in a contaminated atmosphere all their lives build
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: up resistance to them. Sometimes a particularly virulent strain will
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: produce an epidemic, but most people, if they're affected, will
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: have a mild case of whatever it is and recover.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: But after thirty years in space, thirty years of breathing
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: perfectly pure, uncontaminated air, Trippett had no antibodies in his
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: blood stream. The virus hit and he died. But why
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: didn't the rest of us get it? Asked Gregory, we
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: were lucky. Viruses are like that. Most people talked about
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: building our home for us, muttered Frankston. Why didn't they.
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: It wouldn't have been any different, answered James gently. It
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: would have been the same, almost an exact duplicate of
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: the ship, everything but the rockets, same metal and plastic
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: and filtered air and synthetic food. It couldn't have had
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: wall rugs or down pillows, or smiling wives, or fresh
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: air or eggs for breakfast. It would have been just
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: like this. So since the ship was obsolete, they gave
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: it to us and a plot of ground to anger
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: it to, and we're home. They did the best they
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: could for us, the very best they could. But I
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: feel stifled shut in. The ship is large, Frankston. We
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: all crowd into this section because without each other we'd
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: go mad. James kicked the edge of the magazine on
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: the floor. Thank God, we're not allergic to decontaminated paper.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: They're still reading. We're getting old, said Gregory. Some day
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: one of us will be here alone. God help him,
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: then answered James, with more emotion than was usual for him.
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: During the latter part of the conversation, The little red
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: signal had been flashing persistently. Finally James saw it. Ross
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: was in the outer lock. James threw the decontaminator switch
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: and the signal winked out. Every trace of dust and
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: pollen would have to be removed from Ross's suit before
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: he could come inside the ship, just like on an
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: alien planet, commented Gregory. Isn't that what this is to us?
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: An alien planet? Asked Frankston, and neither of the other
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: men dared answer his bitter question. A few minutes later,
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Ross was back in the cabin and James helped him
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: out of his spacesuit. Aw the geraniums, Ross, asked Gregory, fine,
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: said Ross enthusiastically. They're doing just fine. He walked over
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: to his bunk and lay down on his side so
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: he could see out of the viewport. There would be
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: an hour left before darkness fell, an hour to watch
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: the geraniums. They were tall and red and swayed slightly
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: in the evening breeze. End of Homesick by Lynn Venable.
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: Longevity. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: please visit LibriVox dot org Reading by Bologna Times Longevity
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: by Teres wendsor a morality tale nineteen sixty style. Legend
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: had it that many thousands of years ago, right after
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: the Great Horror, the whole continent of the West had
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: slowly sunk beneath the West water, and that once every
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: century it arose during a full moon. Still, Captain Henrik
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: clung to the hope that the legend would not be
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: borne out of truth. Perhaps the West Continent still existed,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: perhaps dary hope with civilization. The crew of the Semilunis
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: thought him quite mad. After all, hadn't the East and
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: South continents been completely annihilated from the Great Sky fires?
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: And wasn't it said that they had suffered but a
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: fraction of what the West Continent had endured. The Semilunies
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: anchored at the mouth of a great river, the months
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: of fear and doubt wered end. Here at last was
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: the West Continent. A small party of scouts was sent ashore,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: with many cautions to be alert for luminescent areas, which
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: meant certain death for those who remained too long in
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: its vicinity. Armed with bow and arrow, the party made
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: its way slowly up the Great river. Nowhere was to
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: be seen, the color green, only dull browns and grays,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 3: and no signs of life save for an occasional patch
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: of lichen on a rock. After several days of rowing,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: the food and water supply was almost half depleted, and
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: still no evidence of either past or present habitation. It
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: was time to turn back to travel all the weary
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: months across the west Water, the journey all in vain.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: What a small reward for such an arduous trip, just
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: proof of the existence of a barren land mass, ugly
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: and useless. On the second day of the return to
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: the Semilunies, the scouting party decided to stop and investigate
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: a huge opening in the rocky mountain side. How suspiciously
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: regular and even it looked, particularly in comparison to the
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: rest of the countryside, which was jagged and chaotic. They
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: entered the cave apprehensively, torches of flare and weapons in hand,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: but all was darkness and quiet. Still, the regularity of
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: the cave walls led them on. Some creature, man or
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: otherwise must have planned and built this, But to what end?
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: Now the cave divided into three forks. The torches gave
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: only a hint of the immensity of the chambers that
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: lay at the end of each They selected the center chamber,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: approaching cautiously, breath caught in awe and excitement. The torches
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: reflected on a dull, black surface which was divided into many,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: many little squares. The sameness of them stretched for uncountable
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: yards and all directions. What were these ungodly looking edifices.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: The black surface was cold and smooth to the touch,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: and quite regular, except for a strained little hole at
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: the bottom of each square, and a curious row of
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: pictures along the top. They would copy these strange pictures.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: Perhaps back home there would be a scholar who would
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 3: understand the meaning behind these last remains of the people
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: of the West Continent. The leader took out his slate
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: and painstakingly copied Safeguard Your Valuables at Allegheny Mountain Vaults,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 3: Box number four five four, four, three, five, six, seven
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: eight two and of Longevity by Terse Windsor.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 5: Lost in the Future. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 5: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 5: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Lost in
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 5: the Future by John Victor Peterson. They had discovered a
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 5: new planet, but its people did not see them until
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 5: after they had traveled on. Albrecht and I went down
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 5: in a shuttle ship, leaving the Stele Atomic orbited poll
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 5: to poll two thousand miles above Alpha Centauri's second planet.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 5: While we took an atmosphere brushing approach which wouldn't burn
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 5: off the shuttle's skin. We went as swiftly as we could.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 5: A week before we had completed man's first trip through hyperspace,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 5: we were now making the first landing on an inhabited
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 5: planet of another Sun. All the preliminary investigations had been
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 5: made via electron spectroscopes and electron telescopes from the Stele
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 5: Atomic We knew that the atmosphere was breathable, and were
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 5: reasonably certain that the peoples of the world into whose
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 5: atmosphere we were dropping were at peace. We went unarmed,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 5: just the two of us. It might not be wise
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 5: to go in force. We were silent, and I know
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 5: that Harry Albrecht was as perplexed as I was over
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 5: the fact that our all wave receivers failed to pick
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 5: up any signs of radio communication. Whatever we had assumed
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 5: that we would pick up signals of some type. As
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 5: soon as we had passed down through the unfamiliar planets ionisphere.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 5: The scattered arrangement of the towering cities appeared to call
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 5: for radio communications. The hundreds of atmosphere ships flashing along
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 5: a system of airways between the cities seemed to indicate
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 5: the existence of electronic navigational and landing aids. But perhaps
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 5: the signals were all tightly beamed. We would know when
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 5: we came lower. We dropped into the airway levels, and
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 5: still our receivers failed to pick up a signal of
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 5: any sort, not even a whisper of static. And strangely,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 5: our radar scopes failed to record even a blip from
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 5: their atmosphere ships. I guess it's our equipment, Harry, I said,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 5: it just doesn't seem to function in this atmosphere. We'll
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 5: have to put edwards to work on it when we
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 5: get back upstairs. We spotted an airport on the outskirts
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 5: of a large city. The runways were laid out with
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 5: the precision of Earth's finest I put our ships in
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 5: nets eastward on a runway and took it down fast
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 5: through a lull in the atmosphere. Ship traffic. As we
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 5: went down, I saw a tiny building spotted on the
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 5: field which surely housed electronic equipment, but our receivers remained silent.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 5: I taxied the shuttle up to an unloading ramp before
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 5: the airport's terminal building, and I killed the drive. Harry,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 5: I said, if it weren't that their ships are so
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 5: outlandishly stubby and their buildings so outflung, we might well
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 5: be on earth. I agree, Captain. Strange though, that they're
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 5: not mobbing us. They couldn't take this delta wing job
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 5: for one of their ships. It was strange. I looked
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 5: up at the observation ramps occupants, people who, except for
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 5: their bizarre dress, might well be of Earth, and saw
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 5: no curiosity in the eyes that sometimes swept across our position.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 5: Be that as it may, Harry, we certainly should cause
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 5: a stir in these pressure suits. Let's go. We walked
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 5: up to a dour looking individual at a counter at
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 5: the ramp's end. Clearing my throat, I said, rather inanely, Hello,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 5: But what does one say to an extra solarian? I
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 5: realized then that my voice seemed thunderous, that the only
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 5: other sounds came from a distance the city's noise, the
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 5: atmosphere ship's engines on the horizon. The centaurion ignored us.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 5: I looked at the atmosphere ships in the clear blue sky,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 5: at the Centurions on the ramp, who appeared to be conversing,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 5: and there was no sound from those plains, no sound
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 5: from the people. It's impossible, Harry said. The atmosphere is
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 5: nearly Earth normal. It should be. Well, damn it it is.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 5: It is as sound conductive. We're talking, aren't we. I
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 5: looked up at the centurions again. They were looking excitedly westward.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 5: Some turned to companions. Mouths opened and closed to form
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 5: words we could not hear. Wide eyes lowered, following something
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 5: I could not see. Sick inside, I turned to Albrecht
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 5: and read confirmation in his drawn, blanched face. Captain, he said,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 5: I suspected that we might find something like this. When
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 5: we first came out of hyperspace and the Big Sleep,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 5: the recorders showed we'd exceeded light speed in normal space time.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 5: Just after the transition. Einstein theorized that time would not
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 5: pass us swiftly. To those approaching light speed, we could
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 5: safely exceed that speed in hyperspace, but should never have
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 5: done so in normal space time beyond light speed. Time
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 5: must conversely excel. These people haven't seen us yet. They
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 5: certainly just observed our landing as we suspected. They probably
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 5: do have speech and radio, but we can't pick up either.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 5: We're seconds ahead of them in time, and we can't
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 5: pick up from the past sounds of nearby origin or
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 5: nearby signals radiated at light speed. They'll see and hear
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 5: us soon, but we'll never receive an answer from them.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 5: Our questions will come to them in their future, but
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 5: we can never pick answers from their past. Let's go, Harry,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 5: I said quickly where he asked, where can we ever go?
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 5: That will be an improvement over this? He was resigned
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 5: Back into space, I said, back to circle the system
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 5: at near light speed. The computer should be able to
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 5: determine how long and how slow we'll have to fly
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 5: to cancel this out. If not, we are truly and
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 5: forever lost, and of lost in the future. By John
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 5: Victor Peterson.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 3: Man made. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 3: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 3: please visit LibriVox dot org. Reading by balloona times Man
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: made by Albert R. Teitner, A story that comes to
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 3: grips with an age old question what is soul and where?
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 3: And postulates an aged new answer. If I listed every
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 3: trouble I've accumulated in a mere two hundred odd years,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 3: you might be inclined to laugh. When a tale of
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 3: woe miles up too many details, it looks ridiculous, unreal.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 3: So here at the outset, I want to say my
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 3: life has not been a tragic one whose life is
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 3: in this day of advanced techniques and universal good will,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: but that on the contrary, I have enjoyed this Earth
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 3: and Solar system and all the abundant interests that it
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 3: has offered me. If lying here beneath these great lights,
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 3: I could only be as sure of joy in the future.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 3: My name is Treb Hawley. As far back as I
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 3: can remember, in my childhood, I was always interested in astronautics.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: From the age of ten I specialized in that subject,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: never for a moment regretting the choice. When I was
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 3: still a child of twenty four, I took part in
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 3: the ninth Jupiter Expedition, and after that there were many more.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 3: I had a precocious marriage at thirty, and my boys,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: Robert and Neil, were born within a few years after
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 3: Marla and I wed. It was fortunate that I fought
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 3: for government permission that early after the accident. Despite my
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 3: high rating, I would have been denied the rare privilege
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 3: of parenthood. That accident, the first one, took place when
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 3: I was fifty on planet twelve of the Centauri system.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 3: I was attacked by a six limb primate and was
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 3: badly mangled on the left side before breaking list to
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 3: destroy it. Surgical corps operated within an hour. Although they
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 3: did an excellent prosthetic job after removing my left leg
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 3: and arm, the substituted limbs had their limitations. While they
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: permitted me to do all my jobs, phantom pain was
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 3: a constant problem. There were new methods of processes to
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 3: eliminate this weird effect, but these were only available back
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 3: on the home planets. I had to wait one year
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 3: for this release. Meanwhile, I had plenty of time to
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 3: contemplate my mysterious affliction. The mystery of it was so
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 3: great that I had little chance to notice how painful
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 3: it actually was. There is enough strangeness in feeling with
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 3: absolute certainty that a limb exists where actually there is nothing.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 3: But the strangeness is compounded when you look down and
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: discover that not only is the leg gone, but that
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: another mechanical one has taken its place. Doctor Erics, who
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 3: had performed the operation, said this difficulty would ultimately prove
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 3: a blessing, but I often had my doubts. He was right.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: Upon my return to Earth, these serious operations took place,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: those giving me plastic limbs that would become living parts
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 3: of my organic structure. The same outward push of the
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 3: brain and nervous system that had created phantom pain now
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: made what was artificial seem real. Not only did my
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: own blood course through the protoplastic, but I could feel
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 3: it doing so. The adjustment took less than a week,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 3: and it was a complete one. Fortunately, the time was
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: already passed when protoplast patients were looked upon as something
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 3: mildly freakish and to be pitied. Artificial noses, ears, and
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 3: limbs were becoming quite common. Whether there was some justification
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 3: for the earlier reaction of pity, however, still remains to
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 3: be seen. My career resumed and I was accepted for
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 3: the next Centaury expedition without any questions being asked. As
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: a matter of fact, planning Center preferred people in my condition.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 3: Protoplast limbs were more durable than the real No, let
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 3: us say the original thing. At home and at the beach,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 3: no one bothered to notice my reconstructed arm and leg.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 3: They looked too natural for the idea to occur to
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 3: people who did not know me, and Marla treated the
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: whole thing like a big joke. You're better than new,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 3: she used to tell me, and the kids wanted to
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: know when they could have second matter limbs of their own.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 3: Life was good to me. The one year periods away
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 3: from home passed quickly, and the five year layoffs on
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 3: Earth permitted me to devote myself to my hobbies, music
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 3: and mathematics without taking any time away from my family. Eventually,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 3: of course, my condition became an extremely common one. Who
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 3: is there to day among my readers who has all
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 3: the parts with which he was born? If any such
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: person passed the childhood sixty years did, he would be
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 3: the freak. Then at ninety new difficulties arose. A new
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 3: Centaurian sub virus attacked my chest marrow, as is still true.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 3: In this infection, the virus proved to be ineradicable. My
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 3: ribs weren't, though, and a protoplastic casing exactly like the
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 3: thoracic cavity was substituted. It was discovered that the infection
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 3: had spread to my right radius and una, so hereto
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 3: a simple substitution was made. Of course, such a radical
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 3: infection meant my circulatory system was contaminated, and synthetically created
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 3: living hemoplast was pumped in as soon as all the
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 3: blood was removed. This did attract attention at the time.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 3: The procedure was still new, and some medical people warned
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 3: it would not take They were right only to this extent.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 3: The old cardio arterial organs occasionally hunted into defective feedback
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 3: that required cystal diastole adjustments. Protoplastic circulatory substitutes corrected the deficiency,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 3: and just to avoid the slight possibility of further complications,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 3: the venous system was also replaced. Since the changeover, there
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 3: hasn't been the least trouble in that sector. By then,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 3: Marla had a perfect artificial air and both of my
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 3: sons had lost their congenitively diseased livers. There was nothing
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 3: extraordinary about our family, only in my case were replacements
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 3: somewhat about the world average. I am proud to say
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 3: that I was among the first thousand who made the
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 3: pioneer voyage on hyperdrive to the star group beyond Centauris.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 3: We returned in triumph with our fantastic but true tales
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 3: of the organic planet Vida and the contemplative humanoids of
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 3: Nerva who will consciousness into subjectively grasping the life and
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 3: beauty of the subatomic space. The knowledge we brought back
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 3: assured that the fatal disease of Anui could never again
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 3: attack man, though they lived to alaph knull. On the
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 3: second voyage, Marla, Robert and Neil went with me. This
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 3: took a little political wrangling, but it was worth throwing
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 3: my merit around to see them benefit from Nrvan discoveries.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 3: Even before the rest of humanity Planetary Council agreed my
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 3: services entitled me to this special consideration. Truly I could
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 3: feel among the blessed. Then I volunteered for the small
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 3: expeditionary force to the thirty eighth Moon that the Nervans
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 3: themselves refused to visit. They tried to dissuade us, but
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 3: being of a much younger species, we were less plagued
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 3: by caution and went anyway. The mountains of this little
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 3: moon are up to fifteen miles high, causing a state
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 3: of instability that is chronic. Walking down those alabaster valleys
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 3: was a more awesome experience than any galactic vista I
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: have ever encountered. Our esthetic sense proves stronger than common
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 3: sense alertness, and seven of us were buried in a
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 3: rock slide. Fortunately, the great rocks formed a cavern above us.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 3: After two days we were rescued. The others suffered such
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 3: minor injuries that they were repaired before a craft landed
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: on NRVA. I, though unconscious and feverish, was in serious
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 3: condition from skin abrasions and a commenuded cranium. Doctor Eric's
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 3: made the only possible prognosis. My skull had to be
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 3: removed and a completely new proto skin had to be supplied. Also,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 3: when I came out of coma, Marla was standing at
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 3: my bedside, smiling down at me. Do you feel? She stumbled, darling,
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, do you feel the way you did? I
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 3: was puzzled. Sure, I'm Treub Holly, I'm your husband, and
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 3: I remember an awful fall of rocks, But now I
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 3: feel exactly the way I always have. I did not
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 3: even realize that further substitutions had been made, and did
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 3: not believe them when they told me about it. Now
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 3: I was an object of curiosity. Upon our return to Earth.
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 3: The news plastics held me as one of the most
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 3: highly reintegrated individuals anywhere. In all the teeming domain of men.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 3: There were only seven hundred who had gone through as
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 3: many substitutions as I add where they philosophized in passing,
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 3: would a man cease to be a man in the
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 3: sequence of substitutions? Philosophy had never been an important preoccupation
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 3: of mine. It was the only discipline no further ahead
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 3: in its really essential questions than the Greeks of four
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 3: thousand years ago. Oh, certainly there had been lots of
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 3: technical improvements that were fascinating, but these were peripheral points.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 3: The basic issues could not be experimentally tested, so they
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 3: had to remain on the level of accepted or rejected axioms.
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 3: I wasn't about to devote much time to them when
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 3: the whole fascinating field of subatomic mirror numbers was just
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: opening up. Certainly, not because a few sensational journalists were
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 3: toying with dead end notions. For that matter, the news
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 3: plastics weren't either, and quickly went back to the regular
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 3: mathematical reportage they do so well. A few decades later, however,
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 3: I wasn't so cock sure. The old Centaurian virus had
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 3: reappeared in my brain, of all places, and I started
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 3: to have a peculiar feeling about where the endpoint in
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 3: all this reintegrating routine would lie. Not that the rain
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 3: operation was a risk. Thousands of people had already gone
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 3: through it, and the substitute organisms had made no fundamental
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 3: change in them. It didn't in my case either, But
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 3: now I was more second matter than in history. It's
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 3: the old question of Achilles ship. Doctor Ers told me,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 3: never heard of it. I said, it's a parable trap
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 3: about concretised forms of continuum in its discreete aspects. I
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 3: see the theoretical question, But what has Achilles ship to
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 3: do with it? He furrowed his protoplast brow that looked
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 3: as youthful as it had a century ago. This ship
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 3: consisted of several hundred planks, most of them forming the hull,
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 3: some in the form of benches and oars and a
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 3: main mast. It served its primitive purpose well, but eventually
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 3: sprang a leak. Some of the hull planks had to
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 3: be replaced, after which it was as good as new.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 3: Another year of hard use brought further hull troubles, and
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 3: some more planks were removed for new ones. Then the
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 3: mass collapsed and a new one was put in. After that,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 3: the ship was in such good shape that it could
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 3: outrace most of those just off the ways. I had
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 3: an uneasy feeling about where this parable was leading us,
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 3: but my mind shied away from the essential point, and
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 3: Erics went relentlessly on. As the years passed, more repairs
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 3: were made, first a new set of oars, then some
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 3: more planks, still newer ores, still more planks. Eventually, Achilles,
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 3: an unthinking man of action who still tried to be
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 3: aware of what happened to the instruments of action he
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 3: needed most, realized that not one splinter of the original
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 3: ship remained. Was this then a new ship? At first
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 3: he was inclined to say yes, but this only evoked
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 3: the further question, when had it become the new ship.
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 3: Was it when the last plank was replaced or when
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 3: half had been His confidently stated answer collapsed. Yet how
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 3: could he say it was the old ship when everything
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 3: about it was a substitution. The question was too much
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 3: for him. When he came to Athens, he turned the
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 3: problem over to the wiseman of that city, refusing ever
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: to think about it again. My mind was now in turmoil.
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 3: What I demanded? What did they decide? Eric's frowned nothing.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 3: They could not answer the question. Every available answer was
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 3: equally right and proved every other right answer wrong. As
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 3: you know, philosophy does not progress in its essentials. It
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 3: merely continues to clarify what the problems are. I prefer
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 3: to die next time, I shouted. I want to be
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 3: a live human being or a dead one, not a machine.
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 3: Maybe you won't be a machine. Nothing exactly like this
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 3: has happened before to a living, organic being. I knew
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 3: I had to be on my guard. What peculiar scheme
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 3: was afoot? You're trying to say something's still wrong with me.
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 3: It isn't true. I feel as well as I ever have.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 3: Your feeling is a dangerous illusion. His face was space
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 3: dusk gray, and I realized with horror that he meant
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 3: all of it. I had to tell you the parable
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 3: and show the possible alternatives. Clearly, Treb, you're riddled with
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 3: centurion z virus. Unless we remove almost all the remaining
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 3: first growth organisms, you will be dead within six months.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 3: I didn't care any more whether he meant it or not.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 3: The idea was too ridiculous. Death is too rare and
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 3: anachronistic a phenomenon to day, You're the one who needs treatment.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 3: Doctor overwork, too much study, one idea on the brain
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 3: too much. Resigned, He shrugged his shoulders. All the first
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 3: matter should be removed, except for the spinal chord and
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 3: the vertebrae. You'd still have that. Very kind of you,
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 3: I said, and walked away, determined to have no more
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 3: of his lectures, now or in the future. Marlaw wanted
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 3: to know why I seem so jumpy. Seems is just
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 3: the word I snapped. Never felt better in my life,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 3: That's just what I mean, she said, jumpy. I let
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 3: her have the last word, but determined to be calmer.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 3: From then on, I was, and as the weeks passed,
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 3: the mask I put on sank deeper and deeper, until
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 3: That was the way I really felt. When you can
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 3: face deaths serenely, you will not have to face it.
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 3: That is what Sulphialus, one of our leading philosophers, has said.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 3: I was living this truth. My work on infinite series
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 3: went more smoothly and swiftly than any mathematical research I
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 3: had engaged in before, and my senses responded to living
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 3: with greater zest than ever. Five months later, while walking
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 3: through a hydroponic park, I felt the first awful tremor
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 3: through my body. It was as if the earth beneath
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 3: my feet were shaking, like that awful afternoon on Nerva's moon.
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 3: But no rocks fell from the sky, and other strollers
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 3: moved across my vision, as if the world of five
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 3: minutes ago had not collapsed. The horror was only inside me.
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 3: I went to another doctor and asked for stabilezine. Perhaps
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 3: you need a check up. He suggested that was the
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: last thing I wanted, and I said so. He too,
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: shrugged resignedly, and made out my prescription for the harmless drug.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 3: After that, the hammer of pain did not strike again,
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 3: but often I could feel it brushed by me each
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 3: time my self administered dosage had to be increased. Eventually,
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 3: my equations stopped tying together. In my mind. I would
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 3: stare at the calculation sheets for hours at a time,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 3: asking myself why X should be here or integral operation there.
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 3: The truth could not be avoided. My mind could no
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 3: longer grasp truth. I went in grudging defeat to Eiriks.
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 3: You have to win, I said, and describe my experiences.
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 3: Some things are inevitable, he nodded solemnly, and some or not.
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 3: This may solve all your problems, not all, I hoped aloud.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 3: Marla went with me to hospital. She realized the danger
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 3: I was in, but put the best possible face on it.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 3: Her courage and support made all the difference, and I
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 3: went into the second matter chamber, ready for whatever fate
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 3: awaited me. Nothing happened. I came out of the chamber
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 3: all protoplast except for the spinal zone. Yet I was
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 3: still treb hawlly. As the coma faded away, the last
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 3: equation faded in, completely meaningful, and soon followed by all
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 3: the leads I could handle. For the next few years,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 3: psychophysiology was in an uproar over my success. Man can
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 3: now be all protoplast, some said, others as vehemently insisted
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 3: some tiny but tangible chromosome organ link to the past
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 3: must remain. For my part, it all sounded very academic.
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 3: I was well again. There was one unhappy moment when
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 3: I applied for the new Centaury expedition. Too much of
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 3: a risk. The consulting board told me, not that you
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 3: aren't in perfect condition, but there are unknown, untested factors,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 3: and out in space they might mind you. We just say,
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 3: might disadvantageous. They all looked embarrassed and kept their eyes
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 3: off me, preferring to concentrate on the metals lined up
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 3: across the table that were to be my consolation prize.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 3: I was disconsolate at first, and would look longingly up
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 3: at the stars which were now perhaps forever beyond my reach.
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 3: But my sons were going out there, and for some
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 3: inexplicable reason that gave me great solace. Then too. Earth
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 3: was still young and beautiful, and so was Marla. I
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 3: still had the full capacity to enjoy these blessings, not
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 3: for long. When we saw the boys off to Centauri,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 3: I had a dizzy spell, and only with the greatest
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 3: effort hid my distress until the long train of ships
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 3: had risen out of sight. Then I lay down in
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 3: the visitor's lounge, from where I could not be moved
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 3: for several hours. Great waves of pain flashed up and
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 3: down my spine, as if massive voltages were being released
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 3: within me. The rest of my body stood up well
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 3: to this assault, but every few seconds I had the
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 3: eery sensation that I was back in my old body,
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 3: a ghostly superimposition on the living protoplast as the spinal
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 3: cord projected its agony outward. Finally, the pain subsided, succeeded
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 3: by a blank numbness. I was carried on gravital cushions
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 3: to Eric's office. It had to be, he sighed, I
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 3: didn't have the heart to tell you after the last operation.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 3: The subvirus is attacking the internuncial nerons. I knew what
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 3: that meant, but was past caring. We're not immortal, not yet,
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 3: I said, I'm ready for the end. We can still try,
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 3: he said. I struggled to laugh, but even gave up
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 3: that little gesture. Another operation. No, it can't make any difference.
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 3: It might, we don't know, how could it suppose treb
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 3: Just suppose you do come out of it all right,
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 3: you'd be the first man to be completely of second
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 3: matter erics. It can't work. Forget it. I won't forget it.
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 3: You said, we're not immortal, but Treub your survival would
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 3: be another step in that direction. The soul's immortality has
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 3: to be taken on faith. Now, if it's taken at all,
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 3: you could be the first scientific proof that the developing
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 3: soul has the momentum to carry past the body in
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 3: which it grows. At the least, you would represent a
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 3: step in the direction of soul freed from matter. I
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 3: could take no more of such talk. Go ahead, I said,
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 3: do what you want. I give my consent. The last
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 3: few days have been the most hectic of my life.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 3: Dozens of great physicians, flown in from every sector of
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 3: the Solar system, have examined me. I am leaving my
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 3: body to science, I told one particularly prodding group. But
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 3: you are not giving it a chance to die. It
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 3: is easy for me to die now. When you have
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 3: truly resigned yourself to death, nothing in life can disturb you.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 3: I have at long last reached that completely stoical moment.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 3: That is why I have recorded this history with as
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 3: much objectivity as continuing vitality can permit. The operating theater
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 3: was crowded for my final performance, and several tride video
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 3: cameras stared down at me. Pupils, lights and lenses all
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 3: came to a glittering focus on me. I slowly closed
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 3: my eyes to blot the hypnotic horror out, but when
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 3: I opened them, everything was still there as before. Then
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 3: Eric's head growing as he inspected my face more closely
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 3: covered everything else up. When are you going to be in?
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 3: I demanded, We have finished. He answered in awe that
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 3: verged upon reverence. You are the new atom. There was
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 3: a mounting burst of applause as the viewers learned what
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 3: I had said. My mind was working more clearly than
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 3: it had in a long time, and with all the
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 3: wisdom of hindsight, I wondered how any one could have
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 3: ever doubted the outcome. We had known all along that
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 3: every bit of atomic matter in each cell is replaced
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 3: many times in one lifetime electron by electron, without the
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 3: cell's overall form disappearing. Now by equally gradual steps it
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 3: had happened in the vaster arena of Newtonian living matter.
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 3: I sat up slowly, looking with renewed wonder on everything
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 3: from the magnetic screw in the light above my head
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 3: to the nail on the wriggling toe of my left foot.
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 3: I was more than a Kelly's ship. I was a
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 3: living being at whose center lay a still yet turning
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 3: point that could neither be new nor old, but only
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 3: immortal and of man. Made by Albert R.
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 6: Teitner, The Mathematicians. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 6: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 6: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Mathematicians by
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 6: Arthur Feldman. We gave this story to a very competent
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 6: and very.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 4: Pretty gal artist.
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 6: We said, read this carefully, dream on it, and come
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 6: up with an illustration. A week later, she returned with
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 6: a finished drawing the hero. She said, we did a
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 6: double take. Hey, that's not the hero. She looked us
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 6: straight in the eye.
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 4: Can you prove it?
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 6: She had us. We couldn't, And she left hardly to
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 6: go home and cook dinner for her family.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 4: And what were they having? Frog legs? What else they
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 4: were in the garden? Now?
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 6: Soe said Xenia Hawkins to her nine year old daughter.
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 6: Quit fluttering around, and Papa will tell you a story.
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 6: Zoe settled down in the hammock A true story, Papa,
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 6: It all happened exactly like I'm going to tell you,
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 6: said Drake Hawkins, pinching Zoe rosy Cheek. Now two and
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 6: eleven years ago, in nineteen eighty five, figuring by the
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 6: earthly calendar of that time, tribe of beans from the
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 6: dog star Sirius invaded the Earth. What did these beans
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 6: look like? Father? Like humans and many many respects. They
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 6: each had two arms, two legs, and all the other
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 6: organs and humans are endowed with. Wasn't there any difference
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 6: at all between the star beans and the humans, Papa?
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 4: There was.
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 6: The newcomers each and all had a pair of wings
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 6: covered with green feathers growing from their shoulders, and long
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 6: purple tails. How many of these beans were their father
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 6: exactly three million and forty one male adults and three
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 6: female adults. These creatures first appeared on Earth on the
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 6: island of Sardinia in five weeks time. They were the
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 6: masters of the entire globe. Didn't their earthlanes fight back, Papa?
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 6: The humans warred against the invaders using bullets, ordinary bombs,
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 6: super atom bombs.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 4: And gases.
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 6: What were those things like, Father, Oh, they've passed out
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 6: of existence long ago.
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 4: Ammunition they were called.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 6: The humans fought each other with such things, and not
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 6: with ideas like we do now. Father, No, with guns,
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 6: just like I told you. But the invaders were immune
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 6: to the ammunition. What does it immune mean?
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 4: Proof against harm?
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 6: Then the humans tried germs and bacteria against the star beings?
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 6: What were those things? Tiny tiny bugs that the humans
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 6: tried to inject into the bodies of the invaders to
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 6: make them sicken and die. But the bugs had no
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 6: effect all in the star beings. Go on, Papa, these
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 6: beans overran all Earth.
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 4: Go on from there. You must know.
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 6: These newcomers were vastly more intelligent than the earthlanes.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 4: In fact, the.
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 6: Invaders were the greatest mathematicians in the system. What's the system?
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 6: What does mathematician mean?
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 4: The Milky way?
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 6: A mathematician is one who is good at figuring, weighing, measuring,
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 6: clever with numbers. Well, then, Father, the invaders killed off
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 6: all their earthlanes.
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 3: Not all.
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 6: They killed many, but many others were enslaved. Just as
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 6: the humans had used horses and cattle, the newcomers so
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 6: used the humans they made workers out of some others
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 6: they slaughtered for food, Papa, What sort of language did
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 6: these star beings talk? Very simple language, but the humans
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 6: were never able to master it. So the invaders, being
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 6: so much smarter, mastered all the languages of the globe.
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 6: What did the earthlanes call the invader's father.
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 4: And bills?
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 6: Half angels half devils? Then, Papa, everything was peaceful on
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 6: Earth until after the anvils enslaved the humans for a
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 6: little while. Then some of the most daring of the humans,
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 6: led by a man named no All, escaped into the
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 6: interior of Greenland. This know All was a psychiatrist, the
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 6: foremost on earth. What's a psychiatrist? A dealer in ideas?
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 4: Then he was very rich.
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 6: He'd been the richest human on Earth. After some profound thought,
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 6: no All figured a way to rid the earth of
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 6: the ape anvils. How, Papa, he perfected a method called
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 6: the Noah hughes Ilinski of imbuing these a bit above
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 6: the child's understanding dreams. What does imbuing mean? No, Mama said,
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 6: So you filled them?
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 4: I understand what interrupt?
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 6: So know All continued, Drake filled the anvils with human
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 6: feelings such as love, hate, ambition, jealousy, malice, envy, despair, hope, fear.
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 4: Shame, and so on.
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 6: Very soon the Anvils were acting like humans, and in
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 6: ten days, terrible civil wars wiped out the Anvil's population
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 6: by two thirds. Then Papa, the Anvils finally killed off
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 6: each other, almost until among them a being named Zalibar,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 6: full of saintliness and persuasion, preached the Brotherhood of all Anvils.
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 6: The invaders quickly converted, quit their quarrels, and Earthlings were
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 6: even more enslaved. Oh Papa, weren't Noah and his followers
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 6: in Greenland awfully sad the way things had turned out?
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 6: For a while, then Noah came up with the final payoff.
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 6: Is that slang Papa payoff? Yes, the coup de grasse,
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 6: the ace in a hole that he'd saved if all
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 6: else failed. I understand, Papa, the idea that would out
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 6: trump anything the other side had to offer. What was it, father?
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 6: What did they have? Huh? Noell imbued the Anvils with nostalgia?
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 6: What is nostalgia? Homesickness? Oh Papa, wasn't no all smart?
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 6: That meant the Anvils were all filled with desire to
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 6: fly back to the star from where they had started exactly. So,
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 6: one day all the anvils, an immense army, flapping their
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 6: great green wings, assembled into black hills of North America,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 6: and at a given signal, they all rose up from Earth,
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 6: and all the humans chanted glory, glory, the day of
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 6: our deliverance. So, then, Father, all the anvils flew away
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 6: from Earth.
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 4: Not all. There were two child anvils, one male and
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 4: one female, aged two years, who had been.
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 6: Born on Earth, and they started off with all the
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 6: other anvils and flew up into the sky. But when
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 6: they reached the upper limits of the stratosphere, they hesitated,
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 6: turned tail, and fluttered back to Earth where they'd been born.
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 4: Their names were Zizzo and Zizza.
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 6: What happened is Sisso and Siza. Papa, well, like all
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 6: the anvils, they were great mathematicians, so they multiplied. Oh,
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 6: Papa laughed, Zoe flapping her wings excitedly. That was a
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 6: very nice story. End of the Mathematician by Arthur Feldman.
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: Mikelvain's Star by August Darleth. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Reading by
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: Greg Marguerite. Mikelvain's Star by August darleth Old. Thaddeus Micklvain
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: discovered a dark star and took it for his own.
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: Thus he inherited a dark destiny? Or did he call them?
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: What you like? Said Tex Harragan, lost people or strayed
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: crackpots or warped geniuses. I know enough of them to
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: fill an entire department of queer people. I've been a
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: reporter long enough to have run into quite a few
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: of them, for example, I said, recognizing Harrigan's mellowness. Take
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: Thaddeus Mickkelvean, said Harrogan. I never heard of him, I
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: suppose not, said Harragan, but I knew him. He was
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: an eccentric old fellow who had a modest income enough
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: to keep up his hobbies, which were three. He played
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: cards in chess at a tavern called Bixby's on North
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: Clark Street. He was an amateur astronomer, and he had
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: the fixed idea that there was life somewhere outside this planet,
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: and that it was possible to communicate with other beings.
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: But unlike most others. He tried it constantly with the
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: queer machinery he had rigged up. Well. Now, this old
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: fellow had a trio of cronies with whom he played
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: on occasion down at Bixby's. He had no one else
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: to confide in. He kept them up with his progress
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: among the stars and his communication with other life in
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: the cosmos beyond our own. And they made a great
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: joke out of it from all I could gather, I suppose,
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: because he had no one else to talk to, Micklvain
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: took it without complaint. Well, as I said, I never
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: heard of him until one morning the city editor, it was,
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: old Bill Henderson, then called me in and said, Hirigan,
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: we just got a lead on a fellow named Thaddeus
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: Micklvain who claims to have discovered a new star. Amateur
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: astronomer up north Clark find him and get the story.
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: So I set out to track him down. It was
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: a great moment for Thaddeus Micklevein. He sat down among
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: his friends, almost portentously, adjusted his spectacles and peered over
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: them in his usual manner, half way between a querulous
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: oldster and a reproachful schoolmaster. I've done it, he said quietly. Aye,
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: and what, asked Alexander testily. I've discovered a new star, oh,
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: said Leopold flatly, A cinder in your eye. It lies
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: just off Octoris, Micklvain went on, and it would appear
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: to be coming closer. Give it my love, said Richardson,
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: with a wry smile. Have you named it yet? Or
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: don't the discoverers of new stars name them anymore? Mikelvain's star,
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: that's a good name for it, hard a port of
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: Octurus with special displays on windy nights. Micklvain only smiled.
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: It's a dark star, he said, presently, it doesn't have light.
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: He spoke, almost apologetically, as if somehow he had disappointed
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: his friends. I'm going to try and communicate with it.
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: That's the ticket, said Alexander. Cut for deal, said Leopold.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: That was how the news about Micklvein's star was received
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: by his cronies. Afterward, after Micklvain had dutifully played several
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: games of Yuker, Richardson conceived the idea of telephoning the
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: Globe to announce Micklvein's discovery. The old old Fellow took
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: himself seriously. Harrogan went on, and yet he was so
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: damned mousey about it. I mean, you got the impression
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: that he had been trying for so long that now
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: he hardly believed in his star himself any longer. But
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: there it was. He had a long, detailed story of
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: its discovery, which was an accident. As those things usually are,
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: they happen all the time. And his story sounded convincing
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: enough just the same, you didn't feel that he really
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: had anything. I took down notes, of course, that was routine.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: I got a picture of the old man with never
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: an idea we'd be using it to tell the truth.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: I carried my notes around with me for a day
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: or so before it occurred to me that it wouldn't
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: do any harm to put a call into Yerkey's observatory
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: up in Wisconsin. So I did, and they confirmed Micklvain's star.
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: The Globe had the story, did it up in fine style.
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: It was two weeks before we heard from Micklvain again.
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: That night, Micklvain was more than usually diffident. He was
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: not like a man bearing a message of considerable importance
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: to himself. He slipped into Bixby's, got a glass of
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: beer and approached the table where his friend sat, almost
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: with trepidation. It's a nice evening for May, he said quietly.
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: Richardson grunted. Leopold said, by the way, mag whatever became
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: of that star of yours, the one the papers wrote up?
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: I think, said Mickelain cautiously. I'm quite sure I have
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: got in touch with them, only his brow wrinkled and farrowed.
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: I can't understand their language, ah, said Richardson, with an
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: edge to his voice. The thing for you to do
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: is to tell them that's your star, and they'll have
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: to speak English from now on so you can understand them. Why,
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: next thing, we know, you'll be getting yourself a rocket
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: or a spaceship and going over to that star to
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: set yourself up as king or something. King Thaddeus the First,
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: said Alexander Loftily, star dwellers may kiss the royal foot.
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: That would be unsanitary, I think, said Micklvein, frowning. Poor Micklvein.
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: They made him the butt of their jests for over
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: an hour before he took himself off to his quarters,
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: where he sat himself down before his telescope and found
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: his star once more, almost huge enough to blot out Octurus,
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: but not quite, since it was moving away from that
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: amber star. Now Micklvein's star was certainly much closer to
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: Earth than it had been. He tried once again to
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: contact it with his home made radio, and once again
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: he received a succession of strange rhythmic noises, which he
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: could not doubt where a speech of some kind or other,
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: a rasping, grating speech, to be sure, utterly unlike the
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: speech of Micklevein's own kind. It rose and fell, became impatient, urgent, despairing.
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: Micklvein sensed all this and strove mightily to understand. He
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: sat there for perhaps two hours when he received the
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: distant impression that someone was talking to him in his
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: own language, but there was no longer any sound on
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: the radio. He could not understand what had taken place,
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: But in a few moments he received the clear conviction
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: that the inhabitants of his star had managed to discover
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: the basic elements of his language by the simple process
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: of reading his mind, and were now prepared to talk
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: with him. What manner of creatures inhabited Earth they wished
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: to know. Mickelvein told them he visualized one of his
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: own kind, and tried to put him into words. It
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: was difficult, since he could not rid himself of the
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: conviction that his interlocutors might be utterly alien. They had
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: no conception of man, and doubted man's existence on any
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: other star. There were plant people on Venus, and people
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: on Andromeda, six legged and four armed beings which were
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: equal parts mineral and vegetable on beetlejuice, but nothing resembling man.
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: You are evidently alone of your kind in the cosmos,
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: said his interstellar correspondent. And what about you, cried Mickelvein,
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: with unaccustomed heat. Silence was his only answer, But presently
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: he conceived a mental image which was remarkable for its vividness.
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: But the image was of nothing he had ever seen before,
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: of thousands upon thousands of miniature beings utterly alien to man.
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: They resembled amphibious insects with thin, elongated heads, large eyes
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: and antennae, set upon a scaled, four legged body with
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: rudimentary beetle like wings. Curiously, they seemed ageless. He could
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: detect no difference among them. They all appeared to be
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: the same age. We are not, but we rejuvenate regularly,
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: said the creature with whom he corresponded in this strange manner.
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: Did they have names, Micklvein wondered, I am guru, said
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: the star's inhabitants. You are, Micklvein, and the civilization of
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: their star. Instantly he saw in his mind's eye vast
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: cities which rose from beneath a surface which appeared to
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: bear no vegetation recognizable to any human eye, in a
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: terrain which seemed to be desert, of monolithic buildings which
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: were windowless and had openings only of sufficient size to
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: permit the free passage of its dwarfed dwellers within the buildings.
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: Was evidence of a great and old civilization. You see,
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: Micklvein really believed all this. What an imagination the man had.
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: Of course, the boys at Bixby's gave him a bad time.
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know how he stood it, but he did,
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: and he always came back. Richardson called the story in.
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: He took a special delight in deviling Micklvein, and I
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: was sent out to see the old fellow again. You
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't doubt his sincerity, and yet he didn't sound touched.
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: But of course that part about the insect like dwellers
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: of the star comes straight out of Wells, doesn't it.
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: I put in Wells, and scores of others agreed Harrigan.
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: Wells was probably the first writer to suggest insectivorous inhabitants
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: on Mars. His were considerably larger, though, go on, well
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: I talked with Micklvein for quite a while. He told
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: me all about their civilization and about his friend Guru.
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: You might have thought he was talking about a neighbor
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: of his. I had only two step outside to meet.
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: Later on, I dropped around at Bixby's and had a
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: talk with the boys there. Richardson let me in on
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: a secret. He had decided to rig up a connection
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: to Micklvein's machine and do a little talking to the
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: old fellow, making him believe Gurdu was coming through in English.
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: He meant to give micklvain a harder time than ever,
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: and once he had him believing everything he planned to say,
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: they would wait for him at Bixby's and let him
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: make a fool of himself. It didn't work out quite
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: that way, however, Micklvain, can you hear me? Micklvain started
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: with astonishment. His mental impression of Guru became confused. The
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: voice speaking English came clear as a bell, as if
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: from no distance at all. Yes, he said hesitantly. Well,
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: then listen to me. Listen to Guru. We have now
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: had enough information from you to suit our ends. Within
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours, we the inhabitants of Ali, will begin
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: a war of extermination against Earth. But why, cried Micklvein,
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: astounded The image before his mind's eye cleared, the cold,
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: precise features of Guru betrayed anger. There is interference. The
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: thought image informed him leave the machine for a few
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: moments while we use the disintegrators. Before he left the machine,
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: Micklvein had the impression of a greater machine being attached
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: to the means of communication which the inhabitants of his
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: star were using to communicate with him. Micklvein's story was
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: that a few moments later, there was a blinding flash
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: just outside his window, continued Harrigan. There was also a
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: run of instantaneous fire from the wind window to his machine.
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: When he had collected his wits sufficiently, he ran outside
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: to look. There was nothing there but a kind of
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: grayish dust in a little mound, as if, as he
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: put it, somebody had cleaned out a vacuum bag. He
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: went back in and examined the space from the window
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: to the machine. There were two thin lines of dust there,
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: hardly perceptible, just as if something had been attached to
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: the machine and led outside. Now the obvious supposition is
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: naturally that it was Richardson out there, and that the
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: lines of dust from the window to the machine represented
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: the wires he had attached to his microphone while Mickelvain
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: was at Bixby's entertaining his other two cronies. But this
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: is fact, not fiction, and the point of the episode
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: is that Richardson disappeared from that night on. You investigated,
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: of course, I asked Harrogan nodded. Quite a lot of
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: us investigated. The police might have done better. There was
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: a gang war on in Chicago just at that time.
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: Richardson was nobody with any connections. His nearest relatives weren't
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: anxious about anything but what they might inherit to tell
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: the truth. His cronies at Bixby's were the only people
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: who worried about him, Micklvein as much as the rest
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: of them. Oh, they gave the old man a hard time,
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: all right. They went through his house with a fine
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: toothed comb. They dug up his yard, his cellar, and
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: generally put him through it, figuring he was unnatural to
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: hang a murder rap on. But there was just nothing
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: to be found, and they couldn't manufacture evidence when there
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: was nothing to show that. Micklvein ever knew that Richardson
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: planned to have a little fun with him, and no
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: one had seen Richardson there. There was nothing but Micklvein's
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: word that he had heard what he said he heard.
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: He needn't have volunteered that, but he did. After the
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: police had finished with him, they wrote him off as
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: a harmless nut. But the question of what happened to
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: Richardson wasn't solved from that day to this. People had
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: been known to walk out of their lives, I said,
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: and never come back. Uh, sometimes they do. Richardson didn't. Besides,
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: if he walked out of his life here, he did
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: so without more than the clothing he had on. So
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 1: much was missing from his effects, nothing more, And micklvain
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: arrogan smiled thinly. He carried on, You couldn't expect him
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: to do anything less. After all, he had worked most
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: of his life trying to communicate with the worlds outside,
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: and he had no intention of resigning his contact, no
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: matter how much Richardson's disappearance upset him. For a while,
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: he believed that Guru had actually disintegrated Richardson. He offered
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: that explanation, but by the time the dust had vanished
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: and he was laughed out of face. So he went
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: back to the machine and Guru and the little excursions
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: to Bixby's. What's the latest word from that star of yours,
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: asked Leopold, when Micklvain came in. They want to rejuvenate me,
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: said Micklvain, with a certain shy pleasure. What's that, asked
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: Alexander sourly. They say they can make me young again.
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: Like them up there, they never die, They just live
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: so long and then they rejuvenate, they begin all over.
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: It's some kind of process they have. And I suppose
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: they're planning to come down and fetch you up there
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: and give you the works, Is that, it, asked Alexander. Well, no,
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: answered Michelvan Guru says, there is no need for that.
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: It can be done through the machine. They can work
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: it like the disintegrators. It puts you back to thirty
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: or twenty or wherever you like. Well, I'd like to
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: be twenty five again myself, admitted Leopold. I'll tell you
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: what Mac said, Alexander. You go ahead and try it,
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: then come back and let us know how it works.
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: If it does, we'll all sit in. Better make your
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: will first, though, just in case, oh I did this afternoon,
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: Leopold choked back a snicker. Don't take this thing too seriously, Mac,
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: after all, we're short one of us now to lose
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: you too. Micklvein was touched. Oh I wouldn't change, he
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: hastened to assure his friends. I'd just be younger, that's all.
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: They'll just work on me through the machine, and overnight
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: I'll be rejuvenated. That's certainly a little trick that's got
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 1: it all over Monkey Glands, conceded Alexander, grinning. Those little
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: bugs on that star of yours have made scientific progress,
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: i'd say, said Leopold. They're not bugs, said Micklvein, with
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: faint indignation. They're people. Maybe not just like you and me.
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: But they're people just the same. He went home that
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: night filled with anticipation. He had done just what he
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: had promised himself he would do, arranging everything for his rejuvenation.
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: Guru had been astonished to learn that people on Earth
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: simply died when there was no necessity of doing so.
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: He had made the offer to rejuvenate Micklvein himself. Micklvein
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: sat down to his machine and turned the complex knobs
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: until he was out rapport with his dark Star. He
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: waited for a long time, it seemed, before he knew
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: his contact had been closed. Guru came through. Are you ready, Micklvein?
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: He asked soundlessly. Yes, already, said micklven trembling with eagerness.
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: Don't be alarmed now, it will take several hours, said Guru.
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not alarmed, answered Micklvein, and indeed he was not.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: He was filled with an exhilaration akin to mysticism, and
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: he sat waiting for what he was certain must be
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: the experience above all others in his prosaic existence. Micklvein's disappearance,
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: coming so close on Richardson's gave us a beautiful story,
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: said Harrigan. The only trouble was it wasn't new when
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: the Globe got around to it. We had lost our
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: informant in Richardson. It never occurred to Alexander or Leopold
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: to telephone us or any one about Micklvein's unaccountable absence
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: from Bixby's. Finally, Leopold went over to Micklvein's house to
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: find out whether the old fellow was sick. A young
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: fellow opened up, where's Micklvain? Leopold asked, I'm Micklvain. The
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: young fellow answered Thatteus Micklvein. Leopold explained, that's my name,
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: was the only answer he got. I mean the Thatteus
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: Micklevein who used to play cards with us over at Bixby's,
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: said Leopold. He shook his head. Sorry, you must be
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: looking for some one else. What are you doing here?
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: Leopold asked? Then, why I inherited what my uncle left,
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: said the young fellow. And sure enough, when Leopold talked
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: to me and persuaded me to go around with him
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: to Micklvein's lawyer, we found that the old fellow had
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: made a will and left everything to his nephew, a namesake.
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: The stipulations were clear enough. Among them was the express
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: wish that if anything happened to him, the elder Thaddeus Micklvein,
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: of no matter what nature, but particularly something allowing a
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: reasonable doubt of his death, the nephew was still to
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: be permitted to take immediate possession of the property and effects.
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: Of course, you called on the nephew, I said, harrogant nodded. Sure,
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: that was the indicated course. In any event, it was
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: routine for both the press and the police. There was
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: nothing suspicious about his story. It was straightforward enough, except
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: for one or two little details. He never did give
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: us any precise address, just mentioned Detroit. Once. I called
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: up a friend on one of the papers there and
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: put him up to looking up Thatteus mcklevein, the only
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: young man of that name he could find, appeared to
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: be the same man as the present inhabitant's uncle. Though
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: the description fit pretty well. There was a resemblance then,
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: Oh sure, one could have imagined that old Thatteus Micklevein
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 1: had looked somewhat like his nephew, and he himself was
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: a young man. But don't let the old man's rigmarole
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: about rejuvenation make too deep an impression on you. The
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: first thing the young fellow did was to get rid
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: of that machine of his uncle's. Can you imagine his
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: uncle having done something like that? I shook my head,
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: but I could not help thinking what an ironic thing
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: it would have been if there had been something to
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: Micklvein's story, and in the process to which he had
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: been subjected from out of space, he had not been
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: rejuvenated so much as just sent back in time, in
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: which case he would have no memory of the machine
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: nor of the use to which it had been put.
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: It would have been as ironic for the inhabitants of
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: Micklvein's star too, that doubtless have looked forward to keeping
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: this contact with Earth open and failed to realize that
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: Ncklvein's construction differed appreciably from theirs. He virtually junked it,
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: said he had no idea what it could be used for,
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: and didn't know how to operate it. And the telescope, oh,
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: he kept that. He said he had some interest in
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: astronomy and meant to develop that if time permitted so
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: much ran in the family, then, yes, more than that.
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: Old Ncklvein had a trick of seeming shy and self conscious,
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: so did this nephew of his. Wherever he came from,
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: his origins must have been backward. I suspect that he
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: was ashamed of them, and if I had to guess,
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: I'd put him in the Kentucky Hill Country or the Ozarks.
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: Modern concepts seemed to be pretty well too much for him,
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: and his thinking would have been considerably more natural at
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: the turn of the century. I had to see him
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: several times. The police chived him a little, but not much.
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: He was so obviously innocent of everything that there was
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: nothing for them in him. And the search for the
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: old man didn't last long. No one had seen him
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: after that last night at Bixby's, and since every one
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: had already long since concluded that he was mentally a
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: little off center, it was easy to conclude that he
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: had wandered away somewhere, probably an amnesiac that he might
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: have anticipated that is indicated in the hasty preparation of
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: his will, which came out of the blue, said Barneval,
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: who drew it up for him. I felt sorry for him,
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: for whom the nephew. He seemed so lost, you know,
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: like a man who wants to remember something, but could
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: I noticed that several times when I tried to talk
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: to him, I had the feeling each time that there
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: was something he wanted desperately to say. It hovered always
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: on the rim of his awareness, but somehow there was
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: no bridge to it, no clue to put it into words.
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: He tried so hard for something he couldn't put his
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: finger on. What became of him. Oh he's still around.
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: I think he found a job somewhere. As a matter
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: of fact, I saw him just the other evening. He
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: had apparently just come from work, and he was standing
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: in front of Bixby's with his face pressed to the window,
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: looking in. I came up near by and watched him.
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: Leopold and Alexander were sitting inside, a couple of lonely
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: old men looking out, and a lonely young man looking in.
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: There was something in Mickelvain's face, that same thing I
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: had noticed so often before, a kind of expression that
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: seemed to say there was something he ought to know,
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: something he ought to remember to do, to say, But
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: there was no way in which he could reach back
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: to it or forward, I said, with a wry smile,
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: as you like, said Arrogan, pour me another, will you?
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: I did, and he took it. That poor devil, he muttered.
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: He'd be happier if he could only go back where
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: he came from, wouldn't we all? I asked? But nobody
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: ever goes home again. Perhaps Micklvein never had a home
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: like that. You'd have thought so if you could have
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: seen his face looking in at Leopold and Alexander. Oh,
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: it may have been a trick of the street light there.
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: It may have been my imagination, but it sticks to
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 1: my memory, and I keep thinking, how alike the two were,
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: Old Micklvain trying so desperately to find someone who could
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: believe him, and his nephew now trying just as hard
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: to find someone to accept him, or a place he
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: could accept on the only terms he knows. And of
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: Micklvain's Star by August Drleth.
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 7: Stop over Planet. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 7: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 7: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Barry Eads,
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 7: Stop over Planet by Robert E. Gilbert. At two thirty four,
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 7: a m patrolman, Louis Whedby left the zip cab station
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 7: with arch support squeaking and night stick swinging. We'd bey
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 7: walked east to the call box at the corner of
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 7: Sullivan and Cherokee. The traffic signal suspended above the intersection
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 7: blinked a cautionary amber. Not a car moved on the
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 7: silent streets. We'd be reached for the box. Then he
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 7: swore softly and stepped off the curb. Pardon me, he said,
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 7: for he believed that a patrolman should be courteous at
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 7: all times, even when arresting a school zone speedster. This, however,
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 7: was not a speedster. It seemed to be a huge
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 7: man standing on top of a truck and cutting down
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 7: the stoplight. What's going on here, We'd be asked. Honey,
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 7: Chilly Bakery was advertised on the side of the truck. Instinctively,
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 7: we'd Be jammed his whistle in his mouth when he
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 7: realized that the man on the truck wore something like
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 7: a suit of long underwear made of improbable black fur
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 7: sprinkled with tiny red spots. What are you doing to
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 7: the stoplight, we'd be demanded. The amber light quit blinking
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 7: without the expected electrical display. Sinuous as beheaded snakes, The
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 7: wires and cables supporting the traffic signal fell into the street.
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 7: The unusual man pocketed his cutting tool, a long, thin tube,
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 7: and lowered the stoplight to the truck. He looked at we'dby.
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 7: The corner street lamp reacted upon his eyes like a
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 7: flashlight thrown on a tom cat in an alley. The
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 7: eyes gleamed green. Weedby's whistle arked to the end of
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 7: the chain and clanked against his metal buttons. A block away,
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 7: on Center Street, a heavy truck roared through the business section.
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 7: The bell of a switch engine tolled near the freight depot,
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 7: and a small dog barked suddenly at the obscured sky.
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 7: I am promoting you to captain. You will replace Hanks,
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 7: whom I am demoting. The figure on the truck announced
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 7: Chief Grindstaff. We'd be wondered. The chief of police glared
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 7: down the patrolman. He hooked a bright metal globe to
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 7: the stoplight, lifted it in one hand, and jumped, landing
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 7: lightly on the pavement. Put this in the mobile unit.
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 7: He said the truck. I evil. Huh, sure, Chief, we'd
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 7: be said. He tucked his nightstick under his arm and
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 7: prepared to accept a heavy load. Tense muscles almost felled him.
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 7: When the signal proved a weigh not more than one pound.
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 7: Chief Grindstaff opened the doors in the rear of the truck,
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 7: releasing a faint odor of stale bread. The truck was empty.
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 7: We'd be deposited the almost weightless burden. The Chief looked
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 7: him in the eye. I am promoting you to captain,
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 7: he repeated. You will replace Hanks, who I am demoting. Thanks, Chief,
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 7: we'd be exalted. You know Hanks didn't treat me fair
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 7: that time. I yes, I know all about that. The
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 7: Chief interposed, go bring the postage box and place it
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 7: in the truck. The witch, oh you mean the mail box.
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 7: We'd be walked across the street to the square green
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 7: box with the rounded metal top. Another of the globes
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 7: had been attached to the mail box, and the legs
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 7: had been burned loose from the concrete sidewalk. Confidently, we'dby
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 7: lifted the like object, carried it to the truck, and
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 7: deposited it inside Bleacher's there, said Chief Grindstaff. What you say,
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 7: Chief stands there? No stand there. Patrolman Weedby stood by
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 7: the back of the truck. Chief Grindstaff placed a device
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 7: like an atomizer under Weeedby's nose and released the spray.
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 7: Miss Betsy Tap awoke after not more than one hour
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 7: of fitful sleep. The door to the garage apartment shook
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 7: under the tattoo of a heavy fist. Miss TAP's heart
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 7: thudded somewhere inside her thirty eight inch bosom. She lay
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 7: rigid in darkness, penetrated only by the glimmer of a
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 7: distant street light. The knocking ceased. Boards creaked on the
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 7: platform outside the door. A face appeared at the window,
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 7: a face in complete shadow except for two eyes that
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 7: glowed with greenish light. Miss Tap, unaware of the disarray
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 7: of her night gown, sat upright. The alarm clock on
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 7: the floor by the bed, clacked in the stillness. The
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 7: tap in the kitchen cubicle dripped. Timbers contracting in the
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 7: cool of early morning, popped faintly. I need to marry you,
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 7: the face said, I was wrong to night. Forgive me. Fred.
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 7: Miss Tap gasped in sudden joy, opened the portal. Fred
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 7: said wrenching metal curlers from her permanently waved hair. Miss
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 7: Tap bounded to the door. She released the catch and
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 7: threw herself at the figure on the landing. Fred purred,
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 7: I want to marry you. I was wrong tonight. Forgive me,
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 7: Oh Fred, Miss Tap sighed, I knew you'd come back.
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 7: You just had too much to drink. I forgive you. Fred. Well, yes,
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 7: bring your ray on crape with tall tucking. What Fred,
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 7: bring your garb, your clothing? Hurry, Miss Tap skillfully fought
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 7: a blush. Oh Fred, I'm sorry. I'll be dressed in
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 7: a minute. Fred slowly stated, I want to marry you.
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 7: I was wrong to night. Forgive me. He walked into
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 7: the apartment and rapidly gathered and rolled together the dress
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 7: and undergarments scattered on and about the chair. He stuffed
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 7: the spike heeled shoes into pockets on his black furs suit,
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 7: and lifted Miss Tap in his arms. We're eloping, Miss
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 7: Tap sighed, as Fred carrid her down the outside stairs.
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 7: A Honey Chilly Bakery truck with th rear doors open
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 7: waited in the driveway. Fred tossed the roll of clothing
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 7: and the slippers into the truck and swiftly sprayed mistap.
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 7: An unearthly glow permeated the bedroom and cast the black
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 7: shadows of heavy furniture against the faded paper walls. Within
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 7: the glow, two dots of green flickered. The Reverend Enus
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 7: Shackleford dropped on creaking knees and bowed his grizzled head.
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 7: A voice said, well done, good and faithful servant, Arise
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 7: and follow me, Lord, said Reverend Shackleford, I have served
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 7: THEE faithfully all the days of my life. Remember me
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 7: when thou comest into thy kingdom. Remember also, yes, well done,
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 7: good and faithful servant, Arise and follow me. Shackleford stood
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 7: on tottering old legs, His night shirt hung below his knees. Horrified,
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 7: shock blanched his lined face. Blasphemer, he cried, false prophet,
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 7: get THEE behind me, Satan. The glow danced and faded.
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 7: A towering black shape pointed a bent rod. The rod hissed.
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 7: The Reverend Shackleford staggered against a small table, dragging it
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 7: with him to the floor. He lay still with one
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 7: gnarled old hand on a large golden edged book that
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 7: had fallen from the table. You're fired, The man in
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 7: the dream said, over and over. Calvin s Kerr rolled
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 7: off the half bed, struck the floor, and awoke. First
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 7: time I've fallen out of bed in years. He groaned.
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 7: His shaking hand, fumbled with the switch and succeeded in
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 7: turning on the lamp. Missus Calvin see Kerr sprawled on
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 7: her back and the other bed and snored. You and
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 7: your fifteen thousand dollar house, Kerr muttered. He combed his
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 7: thinning hair with his fingers. You and your sterling silver,
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 7: You and your chosen pattern, your service for eight How
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 7: far do you think fifty four dollars a week will go?
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 7: With twelve gage shells three and a quarter of box
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 7: green eyes glittered beside the frilly dressing table. The man
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 7: standing there said, I'm not igniting you. I'm giving you
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 7: a bonus for your fine work, enough currency to pay
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 7: the loan on this house. You'll be making two hundred
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 7: per week this fall. I'll take you hunting at my
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 7: place in the country. Boss Kerr mumbled, I mean, mister Darmond.
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 7: Put on your clothing. The boss said, I'll show you
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 7: your new office. You may have a secretary. Also, I'm
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 7: not firing you. I'm giving you a bonus. Kerr sat
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 7: gasping on the floor. That's great, boss, he exclaimed, I
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 7: thought I did an extra special job on the plastic's
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 7: mill design. It'll mean a lot to the company. We
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 7: yes dress quickly. Kerr threw off his pajamas and started
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 7: stuffing arms and legs into his clothes. Missus Kerr opened
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 7: her eyes and squeaked like a dying rabbit. The bent
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 7: rod in the Boss's hand hissed, and Missus Kerr stopped squeaking.
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 7: With tie flapping shirt, unbuttoned, shoes unlaced, Kerr followed the
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 7: Boss through the living room and down the flagstone walked
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 7: to the street. The Boss opened the doors on the
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 7: Honey Chilly Bakery truck and said, in here, Missus Jane
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 7: Hupwrick dropped her mop. Her vericose legs trotted across the
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 7: wet lobby of the Jordan Building, and her flabby, fat
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 7: arms reached for the tall man with bright eyes who
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 7: stood near the elevators. It's me, mam, the man cried, Matt.
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 7: Missus Huprick cried, Matt, Baby, I got a full pardon, ma'am,
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 7: Matt said, stroking her tangled white hair right from the
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 7: ruling state official. You won't have to scrub floors any more.
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 7: I'm going straight, mom. I'm a good mechanic now. They
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 7: learned me a lot in the enclosure. Come on, I
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 7: gotta use truck outside. I bought cheap. Missus Hupwrick and
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 7: Son walked through the oddly twisted doors of the Jordan
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 7: Building and into the gray twilight that awaited dawn. The
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 7: Honey Chilly Bakery truck waited too. Gary Absten pedaled his
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 7: bicycle against the flow of cars carrying day shift workers
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 7: through the half light. He whirled into Walnut Street, twisted
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 7: a fresh copy of The Morning Herald into a fiendishly
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 7: clever knot, and hurled it in the general direction of
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 7: a front porch that flashed past on his right. Never slowing,
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 7: Gary threw the next paper entirely across the street. He
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 7: chuckled as it cleared a picket fence. Bang bang. He
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 7: blurted his red shirt with a picture of a mounted
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 7: cowboy on the back, ballooned in the early morning breeze. Whoa,
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 7: Gary roared. He stopped, held the bicycle upright with one
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 7: foot on the pavement. A tall lanky, slightly bow legged
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 7: man with squinting, luminous green eyes stood on the sidewalk.
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 7: Gary looked at the man. The newspapers fluttered to the parkway.
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 7: The bicycle clattered in the street. Howdy Pardner, the tall
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 7: man said, the rustlers are heading for the plateau. We'll
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 7: take the short gash and head em off at the canyon,
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 7: Ramrod Jones. Gary chirped, here's the truck I haul. Quiz
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 7: Kid the IQ horse in. Let's get after the rustlers.
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 7: Jones said, Gee, I've seen all your pictures. Ramrod. Gary said,
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 7: silver City Raiders. Rustlers of Silver City, Silver City Rustlers.
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 7: The Great Cowboy lifted the newsboy into the Honey Chili truck.
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 7: Pink and rose clouds drifted through a brightening sky as
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 7: the Honey Chilly Bakery truck careened along the narrow road.
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 7: Badly in need of rock and grating from the road,
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 7: the truck rattled into a rutted track through dewy woods
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 7: and skidded, swaying to a stop at the side of
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 7: a long, low, grassy hill. The tall creature, dressed in black,
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 7: red spotted fir stepped from the cab and opening appeared
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 7: in the hillside. Four machines dull metal eggs, balancing on
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 7: single tractor treads, rolled silently through the opening. Jointed steel
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 7: arms darted from recesses in the eggs. One machine opened
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 7: the truck doors. The creature walked up a ramp inside
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 7: the hill and entered a shimmering metallic compartment. Geting, ZEO,
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 7: I have returned, EO, who wore a suit of white fur, hummed,
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 7: none too, zoon Zah, we miscalculated dawn. What success an
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 7: excellent group, Za said. He stretched and reclined on a
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 7: transparent slab. The servants are unloading the vehicle. I captured
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 7: a young male, a mature male, an aged male, some
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 7: sort of official or guardian male, a mature female, and
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 7: an aged female. Let's view them, EO said, you can
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 7: rest after we're away. The tall creatures entered a second compartment,
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 7: furnished with a large table upon which the silent machines
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 7: deposited inanimate bodies. Extraordinary, said EO, staring at miss Betsey's tap.
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 7: These things have reached a peak of mammally and development.
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 7: Her correct garments are in this bundle, Za explained. The
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 7: servants are bringing the properties. Now, I secured a signaling
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 7: device and a box used in an extremely primitive system
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 7: of communication. Also, I brought the quaint muscle powered vehicle
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 7: ridden by the young male. The photograph should be sufficient
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 7: for other details. Any difficulty, Eo asked, as the machines
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 7: dumped patrol when we'd be on the table. The language
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 7: was the greatest obstacle, Za said, the same word has
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 7: many different meanings, or many different words have the same meaning.
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 7: Rather crude, did you use bait or force bait? Za said,
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 7: It's much simpler. This is a completely selfish, ecocentric breed.
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 7: Most of them have one thing in mind which they
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 7: want solely for themselves. Their sending power is weak, but
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 7: that one selfish desire is powerful enough to be received.
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 7: I merely dangled it before their minds, and they or hooked.
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 7: He tapped the foot of Calvin C. Kerr. I killed
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 7: this one's female companion. She awoke and screamed. The males
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 7: and females pare off and lived together for years. Strange
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 7: custom breeding seems to be only one reason for the
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 7: mutual bondage. Zo pointed to missus Jane Hupprick. The old
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 7: female may be an exception to the selfishness. I couldn't
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 7: decide whether she most wanted to be relieved of cleaning
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 7: floors by primitive methods or wanted her male offspring to
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 7: be released from some structure where he had been secured
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 7: for reasons I couldn't determine. The machines deposited the Reverend
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 7: Enus Shackelford and then lined up in a precise row.
• 2:23:43
  Speaker 7: This thing is dead, EO, buzzed, ZA shook his head.
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 7: That was the only genuine exception. He confused me till
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 7: I forgot his proper clothing. But some can be devised
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 7: from the other samples. He seems to have been a
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 7: witch doctor. His mind was cluttered with myths and superstitions
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 7: from an ancient text. I don't understand him, EO, and
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 7: I wish I had time to study the phenomena. He
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 7: was different from the others. He believed in something and
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 7: considered himself lowly and humble. The minds of the others
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 7: were in constant confusion. They believed actually in nothing. Somehow
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 7: he saw me, EO, I was forced to kill him.
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 7: No harm done. EO decided. He faced the machines and
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 7: said destroy the vehicle, drawing the camouflage net prepare for
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 7: take off. The machines rolled from the compartment and the
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 7: two creatures followed seal it. EO said, I'll plasticize them
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 7: when we're in space. Fine work, Za. I can see
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 7: the plaque now mounted by EO. Collected by ZA typical
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 7: street corner on planet Earth Star Soul. The directors will
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 7: surely give the group a prominent place in the Galactic
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 7: Museum of Natural History. Yes, Za agreed, glancing back at
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 7: the Reverend Enus Shackelford, this planet was a fortunate stop
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 7: over the end end of stopover planet. Trees are where
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 7: you find them. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 7: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 7: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Barry Eads.
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 7: Trees Are where you find them by Arthur Decker Savage.
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 7: You might say the trouble started at the IVY, which
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 7: is a moving picture house in Cave Junction, being built
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 7: like a big quantset. It's the only show in these parts,
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 7: and most of us old timers up here in the
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 7: timber country of Southwest Oregon have got into the habit
• 2:25:48
  Speaker 7: of going to see a picture on Saturday nights before
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 7: we head for a tavern. But I don't think old
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 7: Doc Yoris, who was there with Lew and Rusty in me,
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 7: had been to more than two or three shows in
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 7: his life. Doc is kind of sensitive about his appearance
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 7: on account of his small eyes and big nose and ears.
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 7: And since gold mining gave way to logging and lumber
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 7: mills with outsiders drifting into the country, Doc has taken
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 7: to staying on his homestead away back up along Deer
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 7: Creek near the boundary of the Siskayu National Forest. It's
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 7: gotten so he'll come to Cave Junction only after dark,
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 7: and even then he wears dark glasses so strangers won't
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 7: notice him too much. I couldn't see anything funny about
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 7: the picture when Doc started laughing, but I figure it's
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 7: a man's own business one he wants to laugh, so
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 7: I didn't say anything. The show was one of these
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 7: scientific things, and when Doc began to cackle, it was
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 7: showing some men getting out of a rocket ship on
• 2:26:45
  Speaker 7: Mars and running over to look at some trees. Rusty,
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 7: whose top choker setter in our logging outfit, was trying
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 7: to see Doc's point. He can snare logs with a
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 7: hunk of steel cable faster than any one I know,
• 2:26:59
  Speaker 7: but he's never had had much schooling. He turned to Doc.
• 2:27:02
  Speaker 7: I don't get it, Doc, he said, what's the deal?
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 7: Doc kept chuckling. It's them trees, He said, there's no
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 7: trees like that on Mars. Oh, said, Rusty. I suppose
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 7: it was just chance that Bert Holden was sitting behind
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 7: us and heard the talk. Bert is one of the newcomers.
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 7: He'd come down from Grant's Pass and started a big
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 7: lumber mill and logging outfit and was trying to freeze
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 7: out the little operators. He growled something about keeping quiet.
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 7: That got Rusty and Lou kind of mad. And Lou
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 7: turned around and looked at Bert. Lou is even bigger
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 7: than Bert, and things might have got interesting, but I
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 7: wanted to see the rest of the picture. I nudged
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 7: him and asked him if he had a chew. They
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 7: won't let you smoke in the show, but it's ok
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 7: to chew, and most of us were in the habit anyway,
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 7: because there's too much danger of forest fire when you
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 7: smoke on the job. Doc laughed every time the screen
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 7: showed trees, and I could hear Bert humping round in
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 7: his seat like he was irritated. At the end of
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 7: the show, we drifted over to the Owl Tavern and
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 7: took a table against the north wall, behind the pool
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 7: tables and across from the bar. Doc had put his
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 7: dark glasses back on and he sat facing the wall.
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 7: Not that many people apart from the insiders, knew Doc.
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 7: He hadn't been very active since the young medical doctor
• 2:28:22
  Speaker 7: had come to Cape Junction in nineteen forty eight, although
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 7: he never turned down anyone who came for help, and
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 7: as far as I knew, he'd never lost a patient
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 7: unless he was already dead. When Doc got there, we
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 7: were kidding Lou because he was still wearing his tin
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 7: hat and calked, boots from work you figurin on starting
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 7: early in the mornin. I asked him, Rusty, and Doc
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 7: laughed it was a good joke because we rode out
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 7: to the job in my jeep and so we'd naturally
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 7: get there at the same time. Then Rusty sat up
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 7: straighter and looked over at the bar. Hey, he said,
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 7: Pop's talkin' to Bert Holdin. Pop Johnson owns our outfit
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 7: He's one of the small operators that guys like Burt
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 7: are trying to squeeze out. Hope. He don't try to
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 7: rope Pop in an old deals, said Lou. Doc tipped
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 7: up his bottle of beer. In Oregon, they don't sell
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 7: anything but beer in the taverns. Time's change, he said.
• 2:29:17
  Speaker 7: Back in nineteen hundred, all they wanted was gold. Now
• 2:29:20
  Speaker 7: they're trying to take all the trees. It's the big
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 7: operators like Burt, I said. Little guys like Pop can't
• 2:29:27
  Speaker 7: cut em as fast as they grow. The companies don't
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 7: have to receive either, except on national forest land. That
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 7: Bert Holden was up to my place a couple weeks ago,
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 7: said Doc. Darn near caught me skinnin' out a deer.
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 7: He'd better not yap to the game, Warden said, rusty.
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 7: Them laws is for sports and outsiders, not us guys
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 7: who need the meat. He wanted to buy all my timbers, said,
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 7: Doc offered me ten dollars a thousand board feet on
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 7: the stump. Don't sell, I advised him. If Bert offers
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 7: that much, almost anyone else will pay twelve. Doc looked
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 7: at me. I'd never sell my trees, not at any price.
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 7: I got a hundred and sixty acres of virgin stand
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 7: and that's the way it's gonna stay. I cut up
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 7: the windfalls and snags for firewood, and that's all. Here comes, Pop,
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 7: said Lou. Pop sat down with us and had a beer.
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 7: He looked worried. We didn't ask him any questions because
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 7: we figure a man will talk if he wants to,
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 7: and if he doesn't, it's his own business. He finally unlimbered.
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 7: Bert Holden wants to buy the mill, he said, wiping
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 7: his mouth on the back of his hand. Buy your mill,
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 7: said Lou. Hell. His mill is five times as big,
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 7: and he's even got a burner to take care of
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 7: slashings so he don't have to shut down in the
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 7: fire season. He just wants the land, said Pop, because
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 7: it's near the highway. He wants to tear down my
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 7: set up and build a pulp mill, a pulp mill.
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 7: If we could have seen Doc's eyes through the glasses,
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 7: I imagined they'd have been popped open a full half inch.
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 7: Why then they'll be cutting down everything but the brush.
• 2:31:03
  Speaker 7: Pop nodded, Yeah, size of a log don't matter when
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 7: you make paper, Just so it's wood. It seemed as
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 7: though Doc was talking to himself. They'll strip the land
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 7: down bare, he mumbled, and the hills will wash away,
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 7: and the chemicals they use in the mill will kill
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 7: the fish in the creeks and the Illinois River. That's
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 7: why they won't let anyone start a poultmere near Grant's Pass,
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 7: said Pop. Most of the town's money comes from sports
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 7: who come up to the Rouge River to fish. Rusty
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 7: set his jaw in the winter. We need them fish,
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 7: he said. He was right too. The woods closed down
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 7: in the winter on account of the snow. And if
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 7: a man can't hunt and fish, he's liable to get
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 7: kind of hungry. That rockin' chair money doesn't stretch very far.
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 7: I ain't gonna sell, said Pop. But that won't stop
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 7: Bert Holden, and any place he builds the mill around
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 7: here will drain into the Illinois. Doc pushed back his
• 2:31:56
  Speaker 7: chair and stood up to his full height of five
• 2:31:59
  Speaker 7: foot four. I'm going to talk to Bert Holden, he said.
• 2:32:03
  Speaker 7: Rusty stood up to his six foot three. I'll bring
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 7: him over here, Doc, he said, we're handy to the
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 7: cue rack here and Liu and Simmons can keep them
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 7: guys he's with off my back. I stood up and
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 7: shoved Rusty back down. I'm no taller than he is,
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 7: but I outweigh him about twenty pounds. I started working
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 7: in the woods when we still felled trees with axes
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 7: and misery whips, crosscut saws to the outsiders. I'll go
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 7: get him, I said, you're still mad about the show,
• 2:32:30
  Speaker 7: and you wouldn't be able to get him this far
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 7: without mussin him up. There won't be no trouble, said Doc.
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 7: I just want to make him an offer. I went
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 7: over and told Bert that Doc wanted to talk to him.
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 7: The three guys with him followed us back to the table.
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 7: Bert figured he knew what it was all about, and
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 7: he just stood over Doc and looked down on him.
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 7: If it's about your timber yours, he said, I'll take it,
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 7: but I can't pay you more than nine dollars now.
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 7: Lumber's coming down, and I'm taking a chance. Even at that,
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 7: he rocked back and forth on his heels and looked
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 7: at Pop as though daring him to say different. I
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 7: still don't want to sell, mister Holden, said Doc. But
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 7: I've got better than three million feet on my place
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 7: and I'll give it to you if you won't put
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 7: a pulp mill anywhere in the Illinois Valley. We were
• 2:33:17
  Speaker 7: all floored at that, but Bert recovered first. He gave
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 7: a nasty laugh. Not interested, yours. If you want to sell,
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 7: look me up, wait, said Doc. A pulp mill will
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 7: take every tree in the valley in a few years.
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 7: It'll make money, too, said Bert flatly. Money ain't everything
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 7: by a long shot. It won't buy trees and creeks
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 7: and rain. It'll buy trees to make lumber. Bert was
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 7: getting mad. I don't want any opposition from you, yours.
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 7: I've had enough trouble from people who try to hold
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 7: back progress. If you don't like the way we run
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 7: things here, you can hell, you can go back to Mars.
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 7: It seemed to me that it was just about time
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 7: to start in. I could have taken Bert easy, but
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 7: I knew Rusty would probably swing on him first and
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 7: get in my way. So I planned to work on
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 7: the two guys on Burt's right, leaving the one on
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 7: his left for Lou. I didn't want Pop to get
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 7: tangled up in it. I don't generally wait too long
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 7: after I make up my mind, but then I noticed
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 7: Rusty reaching out slowly for acoustic and I thought maybe
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 7: I'd better take Burt first while Rusty got set. I
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 7: never did see a guy so one way about having
• 2:34:26
  Speaker 7: something in his hands. But Doc didn't drop out. There
• 2:34:30
  Speaker 7: ain't nothing but a few scrub trees on Mars, he
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 7: said to Bert, looking him square in the eye. And
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 7: no creaks and no rain. Bert curled his lip sarcastically.
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 7: The hell you say? Is that why you didn't like it?
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 6: There?
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 7: You could see he was just trying to egg Doc
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 7: into saying he'd come from Mars so he could give
• 2:34:49
  Speaker 7: him the horse laugh. The guys he was with were
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 7: getting set for a fracas, but they were waiting for
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 7: Bert to lead off. Doc didn't get caught. But there's gold,
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 7: he said, like he hadn't heard Bert at all, tons
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 7: of it laying all over the ground. I guess Bert
• 2:35:06
  Speaker 7: decided to ride along O k yours, He said, tell
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 7: you what I'll do for only one ton of Martian gold.
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 7: I'll agree to drop all plans for a pulp mill
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 7: here or anywhere else. In fact, I'll get out of
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 7: business altogether. Doc moved in like a log falling out
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 7: of the loading tongs that's a deal, he said, you
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 7: ready to go. Bert started to look disgusted, then he smiled. Sure,
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 7: Mars must be quite a place if you came from there, Ok,
• 2:35:36
  Speaker 7: said Doc. You just stand up against the wall, mister Holden.
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 7: Bert's smile faded. He figured Doc was trying to maneuver
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 7: him into a likely position for us. But Doc cleared
• 2:35:46
  Speaker 7: that up quick. You boys get up and stand aside,
• 2:35:49
  Speaker 7: he ordered, get back aways and give mister Holden plenty
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 7: of room. We didn't like it, but we cleared out
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 7: from around the table. A bunch from the bar and
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 7: pool tables, sensing something was up, came drifting over to watch.
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 7: I could feel tension building up now, said Doc, pointing.
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 7: You just stand right over there, mister Holden and fold
• 2:36:10
  Speaker 7: your arms. Bert didn't like the audience, and I guess
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 7: he figured his plans were backfiring. When Doc didn't bluff you,
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 7: he'll happy old coot, He snarled, you'd better go home
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 7: and sleep it off. I grabbed hold of Loo's arm
• 2:36:25
  Speaker 7: and shook my head at rusty. I wasn't going to
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 7: interfere with Doc. Now you're not scared, are you, mister Holden?
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 7: Said Doc quietly. Just you stand against the wall and
• 2:36:35
  Speaker 7: take it easy. It won't hurt a bit. Bert Holden
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 7: was plenty tough for an outsider and a hard headed
• 2:36:41
  Speaker 7: business man to boot, but he'd never run into a
• 2:36:44
  Speaker 7: customer like Doc before. You could see him trying to
• 2:36:47
  Speaker 7: make up his mind on how to handle this thing.
• 2:36:50
  Speaker 7: He glanced around quick at the crowd, and I could
• 2:36:52
  Speaker 7: tell he decided to play it out to where Doc
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 7: would have to draw in his horns. He actually grinned
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 7: for the effect it would have on everybody watching. All right, yours,
• 2:37:02
  Speaker 7: he said. He backed up against the wall and folded
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 7: his arms. But hadn't you better stand up here with me?
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 7: I ain't goin, said Doc. I don't like Mars, but
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 7: you won't have no trouble gettin your gold. There's nuggets
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 7: the size of your fist layin all over the dry
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 7: river beds. I hate to be nosey, said Bert, playing
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 7: to the crowd, But how are you going to get
• 2:37:23
  Speaker 7: me there? With his head? Of course, blurted Rusty before
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 7: I could stop him, just like he cures you when
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 7: you're sick. Doc had pulled Rusty through two or three
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 7: bad kids sicknesses, and a lot of the rest of
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 7: us too, Yep, said Doc. A man don't need one
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 7: of them rocket things to get between here and Mars.
• 2:37:43
  Speaker 7: Fact is I never seen one. Bert looked at the
• 2:37:46
  Speaker 7: ceiling like he was a martyr, then back at Doc. Well, yourus,
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 7: he said, in a tone that mean he was just
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 7: about through humoring him. I'm waiting, can you send me there?
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 7: Or can't you? The start of a nasty smile was
• 2:37:59
  Speaker 7: beginning to show at the corners of his mouth. Sure,
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 7: said Doc. He slumped down in his chair and cupped
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 7: his hands lightly around his dark glasses. I noticed his
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 7: fingers trembling a little against his forehead. The lights dimmed, flickered,
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 7: and went out, and we waited for the bartender to
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 7: put in a new fuse. The power round here doesn't
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 7: go haywire, except in the winter when trees fall across
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 7: the lines. A small fight started over in a corner.
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 7: When the lights came back on, Doc and Pop started
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 7: for the door, and Lou and Rusty and I followed.
• 2:38:32
  Speaker 7: Bert's buddies were looking kind of puzzled, and a few
• 2:38:35
  Speaker 7: old timers were moving over to watch the fight. The
• 2:38:38
  Speaker 7: rest were heading back to the bar. Rusty piled into
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 7: the jeep with Doc and me. When you're going to
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 7: bring him back, doc, he asked. When we started moving, don'no,
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 7: said Doc. He took off his glasses to watch me
• 2:38:51
  Speaker 7: shift gears. He's been after me for a long time
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 7: to teach him how to drive. It only works on
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 7: a man once the end ends of trees are where
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 7: you find them