by Various
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ASTOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER-SCIENCE
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VOL. IV, No. 3 CONTENTS DECEMBER, 1930
COVER DESIGN H. W. WESSOLOWSKI
_Painted in Oils from a Scene in "The Ape-Men of Xlotli."_
SLAVES OF THE DUST SOPHIE WENZEL ELLIS 295
_Fate's Retribution Was Adequate. There Emerged a Rat with a Man's Head and Face._
THE PIRATE PLANET CHARLES W. DIFFIN 310
_It is War. Interplanetary War. And on Far-Distant Venus Two Fighting Earthlings Stand Up Against a Whole Planet Run Amuck._ (Part Two of a Four-Part Novel.)
THE SEA TERROR CAPTAIN S. P. MEEK 336
_The Trail of Mystery Gold Leads Carnes and Dr. Bird to a Tremendous Monster of the Deep._
GRAY DENIM HARL VINCENT 354
_The Blood of the Van Dorn's Ran in Karl's Veins. He Rode the Skies Like an Avenging God._
THE APE-MEN OF XLOTLI DAVID R. SPARKS 370
_A Beautiful Face in the Depths of a Geyser--and Kirby Plunges into a Desperate Mid-Earth Conflict with the Dreadful Feathered Serpent._ (A Complete Novelette.)
THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 421
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* * * * *
Slaves of the Dust
_By Sophie Wenzel Ellis_
Fate's retribution was adequate. There emerged a rat with a man's head and face.
_It's a poor science that would hide from us the great, deep, sacred infinitude of Nescience, whither we can never penetrate, on which all science swims as mere superficial film._
--_Carlyle_.
_Sir Basil showed his teeth in his ugly smile. "A creatoris never merciful."_]
The two _bataloes_ turned from the open waters of the lower TapajosRiver into the _igarape_, the lily-smothered shallows that often mark anIndian settlement in the jungles of Brazil. One of the two half-breedrubber-gatherers suddenly stopped his _bataloe_ by thrusting a paddleagainst a giant clump of lilies. In a corruption of the Tupi dialect, hecalled over to the white man occupying the other frail craft.
"We dare go no farther, master. The country of the Ungapuks isbewitched. It is too dangerous."
Fearfully he stared over his shoulder toward a spot in the slimy waterwhere a dim bulk moved, which was only an alligator hunting for hisbreakfast.
Hale Oakham, as long and lanky and level-eyed as Charles Lindbergh, randespairing fingers through his damp hair and groaned.
"But how can I find this jungle village without a guide?"
The _caboclo_ shrugged. "The village will find you. It is bewitched,master. But you will soon see the path through the _matto_."
"Can't you stay by me until time to land? I don't like the looks ofthese alligators."
"It is better for a white man to face an alligator than for a _caboclo_to face an Ungapuk. Once they used to kill and eat us for our strength.Now--" Again his shrug was eloquent.
"Now?" Hale prompted impatiently.
"The white god who put a spell on these one-time cannibals will bewitchus and make us wash and rejoice when it is time to die."
* * * * *
He shuddered and spat at a cayman that was lumbering away from his_bataloe._
Hale Oakham laughed, a hearty boyish laugh for a rather learned youngprofessor.
"Is that all they do to you?" he asked.
"No. All who enter this magic _matto_ die soon, rejoicing. Before thelast breath comes, it is said their bodies turn into a handful of silverdust--poof!--like that." He snapped his dirty fingers. "Then the lifethat leaves them goes into rocks that walk."
Hale sighed resignedly. There wasn't any use to argue.
"Unload your _bataloe_," he ordered testily, "and get your filthycarcasses away."
The half-breeds obeyed readily. As the departing _bataloe_ turned fromthe _igarape_ into the open water of the river, the young man represseda sudden lifting of his scalp. He was in for it now!
His long body sprawled out in the _bataloe_, he paddled about aimlesslyfor several minutes until he found an aisle through the jungle--the paththat led to the jungle village which he was visiting in the name ofscience, and for a certain award.
Before plunging into that waiting tangle where life and death carried ona visible, unceasing struggle, he hesitated. Instinctively he shrankfrom losing himself in that mad green world.
* * * * *
He had first heard of the Ungapuks at the convention of the NescienceClub in New York, that body of scientists, near-scientists andadventurers linked together for the purpose of awarding the yearlyWoolman prizes for the most spectacular addition of empiric facts tovarious branches of science. One of the members of the club, anexplorer, had told a wild yarn about a tribe of Brazilian Indians,headed by Sir Basil Addington, an English scientist, who was conductingsecret experiments in biochemistry in his jungle laboratory. Theexplorer had said that the scientist, half-crazed by a powerfulnarcotic, had seemingly discovered some secret of life which enabled himto produce monsters in his laboratory and to change the physicalcharacteristics of the Ungapuk Indians, who, in five years, had beentransformed from cannibals into cultured men and women.
And now Hale Oakham, hoping to win one of the Woolman prizes, was herein the country of the Ungapuks, entering the jungle path that lead tothe unknown.
Fifty feet from the _igarape_, the path curved sharply away from a gianttree. Hale approached the bend with his hand on his gun. Just before hereached it, he stopped suddenly to listen.
A woman's voice had suddenly broken forth in a wild, incredibly sweetsong. Hale stood entranced, drinking in the heady sounds that stirredhis emotions like _masata_, the jungle intoxicant. The singerapproached the bend in the path, while the young man waited eagerly
.
The first sight of her made him gasp. He had expected to see an Indiangirl. No sane traveler would imagine a white woman in the Amazon jungle,with skin as amazingly pale as the great, fleshy victoria regia liliesin the _igarape_.
When she saw Hale, she stopped instantly. With a quick, practiced twist,she reached for the bow flung across her shoulders and fitted a barbedarrow to the string.
* * * * *
She was a beautiful barbarian, standing quivering before him. In thethick dull gold braids hanging over her bare shoulders flamed twoenormous scarlet flowers, no redder than her own lips pouted in alarm.There was a savage brevity to her clothing, which consisted only of ashort skirt of rough native grass and breastplates of beaten gold, heldin place by strings of colored seeds.
The girl held out an imperious hand and, in perfect English, said:
"Go back!"
Hale drew his long body up to its slim height, folded his arms, and gaveher his most winning smile. His insolence added to his wholesome goodlooks.
"Why?" he exclaimed. "I've come a couple of thousand miles to call onyou."
He saw that the eyes which held his levelly were pure and limpid, and ofan astonishing orchid-blue.
"Who are you?" Her throaty, vibrant voice was a thing of the flesh,whipping Hale's senses to sudden madness.
"I'm Hale Oakham," he said, a little tremulously, "a lone, would-bescientist knocking about the jungle. Won't you tell me your name?"
She nodded gravely. "I am Ana. I, too, am white." Her rich voice wasquietly proud. "Come; I'll see if Aimu will receive you."
With surprising, childlike trust, she held out her little hand to him.The gesture was so delightfully natural that Hale, grinning boyishly,took her hand and held it as they walked down the jungle path.
"Sing for me," he demanded abruptly. "Sing the song you sang just now."
"That?" asked the girl, turning the virgin-blue fire of her eyes on him."That was my death-song that I practice each day. Perhaps soon I shallbe released from this." She passed her hands over her beautiful,half-clothed body.
* * * * *
Hale's warm glance swept over her. "Do you want to die?"
"Yes; don't you? But you do not, or you would not have retreated from mypoisoned arrow."
"No, Ana; I want to live."
"To live--and be a slave of _this_?" Again her hand went over her slimbody. "A slave of a pile of flesh that you must feed and protect fromthe agonies that attack it on every side? Bah! But I am hoping that myturn will come next."
"Your turn for what, Ana?"
"To enter the Room of Release. Perhaps, if Aimu approves of you, you,too, may taste of death." Her gentle smile was beatific.
"Do you speak of Sir Basil Addington?"
"He was called that once, before he came to us. Now he has no name. Wecan find none holy enough for him; and so we call him Aimu, which meansgood friend." Her beautiful face was sweet with reverence.
And now, in the distance, Hale saw that the path led into a largeclearing. He slowed his pace, for he wanted to know this lovely girlbetter before he joined the Ungapuks.
"Who are you, Ana?" he asked suddenly, bending closer to the crinkled,dull-gold hair.
"I am Ana, a white woman." She looked at him frankly.
"But who are your parents, and how did you get among the Ungapuks?"
Ana's red lips curved into a dewy smile. "I thought all white men werewise, like Aimu. But you are stupid. How do you think a white womancould appear in a tribe of Indians who live in the jungle, many weeks'journey from what you call civilization?"
Hale looked a little blank and more than a little disconcerted.
"I suppose I am stupid," he said dryly. "But tell me, Ana, how did youget here?"
"Why," she exclaimed, "he made me!"
"Made you? Good Lord! What do you mean?"
"Just what I said, Hale Oakham. If he can take a few grains of dust andmake a shoot that will grow into a giant tree like yonder monsteritauba, don't you think he can create a small white girl like me?" Herorchid-blue eyes glowed innocently into his.
* * * * *
The eager questions that he would have asked froze upon his lips, for aparty of Indians approached.
The six nearly naked red men came close and surveyed him, toyingnervously with their primitive, feather-decorated weapons.
A tall, handsome young fellow who possessed something of the picturesqueperfection of the North American plains' Indian stepped forward and, inperfect English, said:
"Good morning, white stranger. What is it you wish of the Ungapuks?"
"I came to see your white _cacique_," said Hale.
"Aimu? What is it you wish of Aimu? He is ours, white stranger."
"Yes, he is yours. I come as a friend, perhaps to help him in his greatwork."
"Perhaps!" The young Indian folded his bronze, muscular arms over hisbroad chest and continued his cool survey of Hale. "White men before youhave come: spies and thieves. Some we poisoned with curari. Others Aimutook into the Room of Release."
He turned to Ana, who was still standing by Hale, and his expressionsoftened.
"What shall we do with him, Ana?" he asked the question, a fleeting lookof hunger swept his fine, flashing eyes.
Ana flushed beautifully, and, moving closer to Hale, with an impulsive,almost childish gesture, slipped her arm through his.
"Let us take him to our village, Unani Assu!" she suggested. "I likehim."
It was Hale's turn to flush, which he did like a schoolboy.
* * * * *
Unani Assu's brows drew together in a scowl. The hand holding hisblow-pipe jerked convulsively.
"Ana! Come away!" he growled. "You mustn't touch a stranger!"
Ana's blue eyes stretched with astonishment. "But I like to touch him,Unani Assu!"
The tall Indian, with a half comical gesture of despair, said:
"Don't misunderstand her, stranger. She is young, very young, ah! Andshe has known only the reborn men of the Ungapuks."
He stepped firmly over to Ana, and, taking the girl by the arm, drew heraway.
"Run ahead," he commanded, "and tell Aimu that we come."
Ana, her feathered bamboo anklets clicking together, sped away.
Unani Assu bowed courteously to Hale.
"Come, stranger. If you are an enemy, it is you who must fear." Hemotioned for him to proceed down the jungle path.
The path ended at a clearing studded with _moloccas_, the Indian grasshuts made of plaited straw. Altogether the scene was peaceful and saneand far removed from the strange tales that Hale had heard concerningthe Ungapuks.
Hale was conducted to a long, low stone building, where, in thedoorway, stood a tall and emaciated white man.
"Aimu!" said the Indians reverently, and bowed themselves.
Over the bare, brown backs, the white man looked at Hale.
"Sir Basil Addington?" asked the young man.
"Yes. You are welcome. Come in."
Hale entered the building.
* * * * *
He was in a book-filled study, furnished with hand-made chairs and adesk. Sir Basil asked him to be seated. He offered the young man long,brown native cigarettes and a very good drink made from yucca.
After several minutes of conversation, Sir Basil suddenly changed hismanner.
"And now," he shot out, eyeing the young man through narrowed lids,"will you please state the purpose of this visit?"
Hale looked squarely at his questioner. "Frankly, Sir Basil, I havecalled on you because I am so intensely interested in your work amongthe Ungapuks that I wish to offer my services."
He gave in detail his family history, his education, and his experienceas a teacher and a scientist.
Sir Basil tapped his teeth thoughtfully with a pencil.
"But why do you think you can be of
assistance to me?"
"That, of course, is for you to decide."
Hale thought that the scientist looked like a huge, starved crow in hisloose-fitting coat. He was so fleshless that, when the light fellstrongly on his face as it now did, the bones of his head and handsshowed through the skin with horrible clearness.
Hale, under Sir Basil's scrutiny, decided instantly that he did not likehim.
"I need a helper," the scientist went on, with the air of talking tohimself. "A white assistant who neither loves nor fears me. Unani Assuis good enough in his way, but I need a helper who has had technicaltraining." Suddenly he wheeled on Hale and asked sharply, "How are yournerves, young man?"
* * * * *
Hale started, but managed to answer calmly. "Excellent. My war recordisn't half bad, and that was surely backed with good nerves."
"And you say you have no close relatives, no ties of any sort tointerfere with work that is dangerous--and something else?"
"Not a soul would care if I passed out to-day, Sir Basil."
"Good! And now tell me this: are you one of those scientists whose mindsare so mechanical, so mathematically made, as it were, that your entireoutlook on science is based on old, established beliefs, or do youbelong to that rare but modern type of trained thinker and dreamer whorefuse to permit yesterday's convictions to influence to-day'svisions?"
Hale smiled quietly. "I recently lost my chair in a famous universitybecause of my so-called unscientific teachings regarding ether-drift."
Expressing himself in purely scientific terms, he went into anelaboration of his revolutionary theory. When he had finished, Sir Basilreached out his clawlike hand to him.
"Good!" he approved. "You have dared to think originally. Now listen tomy theory of mind-electrons which has grown into the established factthat I have discovered the secret of life and death."
The long, thin hands reached into a pocket for a box of pills. Heswallowed one greedily, and immediately his emaciated face seemedcharged with new virility.
He spoke out suddenly. "Our world, you know, is made up of three powers:matter, energy and what you call life. I might really say that there arebut two powers, for matter, in its last analysis, is a form of energy.And what is life? You can't call it a form of energy, for everyinorganic atom has energy without having life. Life, Mr. Oakham, ismind or consciousness."
He began pacing the floor restlessly. "Everything that lives has thisconsciousness, and I say this in defiance of some fixed scientificviews. The amoeba in a stagnant pool, a thallophyte on a bit of oldbread, any of the myriads of trees and plants that you see in the jungleall have consciousness as well as you. And why?"
* * * * *
He brought his fist down upon the table. "Because they issue from thesame source as you and I, the almighty mind, eternal, indestructible,which has permitted itself to be enslaved by matter. You are HaleOakham. I am Basil Addington, yet we are one and the same. Let meillustrate."
He seized a glass and poured it full of _masata_. "Look! Two portions of_masata_. But I pour what is in the glass back into the bottle. Themolecules cohere and the two portions become one again. Some day you andI--our individual consciousnesses--will flow back to the Whole. Thatsounds mystical, but listen.
"We scientists hold that the electron explains nearly all the physicaland chemical phenomena. I go further and say that it explains _all_.Matter, electricity, light, heat, magnetism--all can be reduced to theultimate unit. So, Mr. Oakham, I am going to make clear to you how lifeitself is electronic."
His long finger touched Hale's arm. "You, I, yonder mosquito on yoursleeve, even one of the germs that is causing my malaria, all beingindividual living things, are the ultimate units of what I shallpersonify as the Mind. When I say _you_ I do not speak of that mound offlesh in which you exist, and which can be reduced to the same familiarbasic elements and compounds as make up inorganic structures; I speak ofyour mind, your consciousness--for that is the real you. Are youfollowing me?"
"Perfectly, Sir Basil." Hale reached for another drink. "But do youmean to say that you and I are no more than a mosquito, a malariaprotozoan, or even one of those trees in the jungle?"
Sir Basil's dry skin slipped back into a long smile. "Startling,isn't it? You, I, and all other living organisms are nothing butmatter, energy and consciousness. You and I have a larger share ofconsciousness, because our organic structure permits the mind-electronsgreater freedom over the matter than composes our bodies. We are moreacutely aware of the universe about us, have a greater facility forenjoyment and suffering, a more intricate brain and nervous system.Yet when our bodies die and our consciousness is released, themind-electrons enslaved by our atoms go back to the elemental Whole.This holds good for the protozoan, the tree, the man--for all thingsthat live."
* * * * *
Hale was drinking again. "You mean, Sir Basil, that there is a sort ofwar waged against what you personify as the Mind by matter; that matteris constantly seeking to enslave mind-electrons, so that it may becomean organism which, for awhile, may enjoy what we call life?"
Sir Basil pushed back his tufted hair and looked happy. "Yes! And it'sNature's supreme blunder! In the end, the Mind always conquers and gainsits release, yet the eternal chain of enslavement goes on and on, andwill continue to go on as long as there is a living organism in theworld to bind mind to matter."
Hale was excited now, as much from the fiery intoxicant as from thescientist's weird revelation. "I get you," he said, rather inelegantlyfor a professor. "You mean that if every living thing in the worldshould pass out, every man, every plant, every animal, even down tomicroscopic infusoria, the Mind would collect all its electrons, andthrough some more jealous law of, er, cohesion hold these electronsinviolate from matter and energy?"
"Right! And again, as in the beginning, the Mind would rule supreme. Bywhat I have proved, you and I and all other creatures that now have lifemay, as separate unfleshed electrons, enjoy eternal consciousness as apart of the Mind." A new passion leaped to his dark eyes. "When I havefinished my mission, no more need we be slaves of the dust, subject toall the frightful sufferings of this dunghill of flesh."
He brought his fist down upon his skinny leg with a resounding blow.
"But you cannot reduce your theory to fact, Sir Basil!"
"No?" Again came that frightful grin to his cadaverous face. "Can youwithstand shock?"
"If you mean shock to the eye, let me remind you that I served two yearsin the big fight."
"Then come to my laboratory. Better take another drink."
While Hale helped himself again from the _masata_ bottle, Sir Basilswallowed another pellet.
Then the two went into the adjoining apartment.
* * * * *
Sir Basil, his hand over the doorknob, paused.
"Before we go in," he said, "I want you to remember that we call naturalthat which is characteristic of the physical world. Everything alive inthis laboratory was produced by nature. I merely made available thematerials, or, rather, I made the conditions under which matter was ableto enslave mind-electrons."
He opened the door, slipped his body through, and, with his ugly,teeth-revealing grin, gestured for Hale to follow him.
Hale steeled himself and looked around half fearfully. The first glancetook in a large and well-equipped laboratory, somewhat fetid with animalodors. The second lingered here and there on cages, aquariums,incubators, and other containers where creatures moved.
Suddenly, as something scuttled across the floor and disappeared into ahole in the wall, Hale cried out and covered his eyes with a hand.
Sir Basil laughed aloud. "Why didn't you examine it closer?"
Hale looked nauseated. "My God, Sir Basil! A rat with a man's head andface!"
Sir Basil's voice was sharp, decisive. "Before you leave thislaboratory, you're going to come out of your foolish belief
that man isa creature apart from other living organisms. You--the conscious you--isno greater, no more important in the final balance than the spark ofconsciousness in that rat. When your body and the rat's body give uptheir atoms to nature's laboratory, the little enslaved mind-electronthat is you and the one that is the rat will be identical."
Again Hale shivered and turned away from that cold, too-thin face.
The scientist was speaking. "Step around to all those cages and pens. Iwant you to see all my slaves of the dust."
* * * * *
But long before Hale had encircled the room, he was so disturbed at whathe saw that he could scarcely complete his frightful inspection. Inevery enclosure he viewed a monstrosity that in some way resembled ahuman. Every reptile, every insect, every queer, misshapen animal notonly looked human in some shocking manner, but also seemed to possesshuman characteristics. It seemed as though some demented creator with aperverted sense of humor had attempted to mock man by calling forthmonsters in his image.
At last the young man cried out: "How did you breed these freaks?"
"They are not freaks, and I did not breed them. They are nature'sparentless products whose basic elements were brought together inthis laboratory, and, by a scientific reproduction of the functionsof creation, endowed with the life principle, which is merelymind-electrons." He smoothed his long tuft of hair nervously. "Wouldyou like to see how life springs from a wedding of matter, energy,and consciousness?"
"I suspect I can stand anything now," Hale admitted.
"Then come and peep into a very remarkable group of apparatus I havedeveloped, where you can watch atoms building molecules and moleculesbuilding living organisms."
"You say I can see atoms?"
"Not directly, of course. The light waves will forever prevent us fromactually seeing the atom. But I have perfected a system of photographywhich magnifies particles smaller than light waves, and, separatingtheir images from the light waves, renders detail clear in the movingpictures."
* * * * *
He went to a huge machine or series of machines which took up all thecenter floor space of the laboratory, where he busied himself in anintricate network of wires, mirrors, electrodes, ray projectors, andtraveling metal compartments. Presently he called out to Hale.
"Let me remind you, Oakham, that while any scientist can break up any ofthe various proteid molecules which are the basis of all living cells,animal and vegetable, no scientist before me has been able to compoundthe atoms and build them into a proteid molecule."
He bared his teeth in the smile that Hale hated.
"I am proud to tell you that the proteid molecule can be built up onlywhen the third element of nature's trinity is added--the mind-electron.I have found a means of capturing the mind-electron and of bringing itin contact with proteid elements. And now it is possible to bring forthlife in the laboratory. Come closer and watch proteid formingprotoplasm, protoplasm forming a cell, and the cell evolving into--well,what do you want, an animal, plant, or an insect?"
Hale had fallen under the scientist's spell. He did not feel foolishwhen he said:
"Let's have a rat!"
* * * * *
Hale became so absorbed in the wonders of the laboratory that when lunchtime came, Sir Basil had food brought to them. While they were eating avery good vegetable stew, farina, and luscious tropical fruits, asudden, agonized scream rang out, followed by other screams and wails.
Sir Basil opened the door and looked out. Ana came running forward. Herblue eyes were flooded with tears.
"Oh, Aimu!" she moaned. "A tree fell on Unani Assu."
She buried her beautiful face in her hands and sobbed aloud.
Sir Basil frowned heavily.
"I can't lose Unani Assu yet," he declared. "He is a wonderful helparound the laboratory. Is he dead?"
"No. We should rejoice if his time of release had come. But his legs,Aimu! No one wants to suffer and be crippled."
Even in her distress, the girl's voice was rich and vibrant, and everytone moved Hale curiously.
"Hurry!" cried the scientist. "Have them bring him here before hedies."
The girl leaped to her feet and sped away.
"Come, Oakham," continued Sir Basil. "Here is a rare opportunity for youto see how completely I have mastered the laws that govern organicmatter. Help me prepare."
* * * * *
For several minutes, Hale worked under the scientist's sharply spokendirections. By the time the injured man was brought to the laboratory,Sir Basil was ready for him.
Unani Assu was still conscious, but his pale face indicated that he hadlost much blood. When the improvised stretcher was lowered to the floor,Sir Basil sent all the Indians away.
Unani Assu opened his eyes and called feebly, "Ana!"
"Be still!" ordered Sir Basil. "Ana is not here."
"Please!" gasped the dying man. "I want her--my Ana!"
Sir Basil sucked in his breath sharply. "What's this? Have you beenmaking love to Ana again, after my warning to you?"
The sufferer stirred uneasily. "No!" he panted. "But perhaps my hour ofrelease has come, and I want to look at her--once more."
The scientist smiled unpleasantly as he eyed the magnificent body whichlooked like a broken statue in bronze.
"Some human characteristics are strange," he muttered. "In spite ofeverything I do, this fellow continues to love Ana: Ana whom I intendfor myself."
He stepped to the apparatus and swiftly changed one of the adjustments.
"Perhaps," he resumed, with a gleam in his eyes that chilled Hale, "thiswill forever cure him."
* * * * *
In another moment, the still, half-dead body was lifted and gentlyslipped into a compartment.
Before Hale's horrified gaze fastened on the eye-piece which revealedmoving pictures of every process that went on within, Unani Assu's bodywas reduced almost instantly to a fine, silvery dust.
"Good God!" he cried. "You have killed him."
The scientist's teeth showed in his wide smile. "Think so? Does a womandestroy a dress when she rips it up to make it over?"
"Do you mean me to understand that you can reduce a living body to itsbasic elements and then rebuild these elements into a remade man?"
"Watch!" warned the scientist.
Hale looked again and saw the silver dust that was once a living bodybeing whirled into a tiny, grublike thing. He saw the grub expand intoan embryo, and the embryo develop into a foetus. From now on thedevelopment was slower, and he often stopped to talk with Sir Basil.
Once he asked: "If this man had died naturally, could you have broughthim back to life?"
Sir Basil shook his head. "No. When once the mind-electron is completelyfreed from its enslavement by matter, it is forever beyond recall by thebody it has just vacated. Like atomic electrons, whose equilibriumdisturbed break away from their planetary system and go dashing off intospace, only to be drawn into another planetary system, the mind-electronmay be enslaved almost immediately by extraneous matter. Had Unani Assudied, his liberated mind-electron might at once have been captured by ajungle flower going to seed. Immediately a new seed would be started.And now the former Unani Assu would be a seed of a jungle flower, laterto find new life as a plant."
Suddenly the scientist threw up his hand and cried: "You see? The Mindwill be eternally enslaved as long as there is life! Oh, for the time ofdeliverance!" He gazed fanatically into space, as though he dreamedmagnificently.
Hale observed him thoughtfully. When that great brain weakened, theconsequences would be frightful.
* * * * *
Sir Basil, as though he had made a sudden decision, went over to thatpart of his machine which he called the molecule-disintegrator.
"Oakham!" he called out. "I have taken you partly into my confidence.Now I want to sh
ow you something. Come here."
Hale obeyed with misgivings. The scientist pointed out the window to agroup of Indians, anxious relatives of Unani Assu.
"Watch!" he ordered.
Turning one of the projectors on the machine toward the window, hesighted carefully and pressed a button.
Immediately one of the Indians fell to the ground and struggled. Hiscompanions began dancing around him in evident joy. Faintly to thelaboratory came a familiar chant, which Hale recognized as Ana's deathsong.
Dust to dust Mind to Mind-- He will shed his body As the green snake sheds his skin.
As Hale watched, the struggling Indian's body seemed to shrink, andthen, instantly, it disappeared.
"Watch them scatter the dust!" said the scientist.
One of the Indians stooped and blew upon the grass.
"What have you done!" Hale gasped. "You've killed this one. Oh, I seenow! These poor devils are totally ignorant that you are killing themfor practice. They worship you while you turn them to--silver dust!" Heturned angrily on the scientist as though he longed to strike him.
"Keep cool, young man!" Sir Basil held up his fleshless hand. "There isno death! Change, yes; but no permanent blotting out of consciousness.Can't you see the horror of it as nature works? When your time forrelease comes, as it inevitably will, your mind-electron might find newenslavement in a worm!"
* * * * *
Hale's reply came hotly. "If that is true, why do you murder these poordevils deliberately!"
"My dear Oakham, perhaps you are not so brilliant as I had hoped! Allthat I have done thus far is only child's play, in preparation for myreal work. Haven't you guessed by now what I am getting ready to do?"
"No; I'm a poor guesser."
The scientist made a gesture of mock despair. "Then let me tell you. Themolecule-disintegrator is active only on organic structures. When Iconcentrate it so"--he reached out again, sighted the projector on somepoint beyond the window and pressed a button--"one single livingorganism passes out. See that jupati tree by the rock disappear?"
Before Hale's eyes, the tall, slender tree melted into air.
"But," continued Sir Basil, "if I should _broadcast_ mymolecule-disintegrator on electron magnetic waves, destruction wouldpass out in all directions, following the curve of the earth's surface,penetrating earth, air, water." He wet his lips carefully. "Youunderstand?"
Hale stiffened suddenly. "I understand. No life could survive thesevibrations of destruction? Through every corner of the earth where lifelurks, they would reach?"
"Yes!" cried Sir Basil. "There would be not a blade of grass, not aliving spore, not a hidden egg! Think of it, Oakham! No more would theclean air and the sweet earth reek with life, and at last the ultimatemind-electron would be released forever."
He was breathing fast, and his emaciated face burned with two redspots.
Hale thought rapidly. He was convinced now that the fate of all life laywithin that diabolical network of chemical apparatus.
At last he said: "And what of you and I, Sir Basil? Shall we, too, becaught in this wholesale destruction?"
"Not immediately," replied the scientist. "Of course, I want toremain in the flesh long enough to be sure that my purpose has beenaccomplished. I have provided a way for my own safety. If you desire,you may remain with me." He smiled craftily. "I have planned to keepAna also, the woman whom I called into life and made as I wished."
* * * * *
His words pounded against Hale's tortured ears with almost physicalforce. With a supreme effort, the young man controlled his rage anddespair. Ana needed him too much now for him to risk defeat by showinghis emotions.
To Sir Basil he said: "But if all life disappears from the earth, whatshall we do for food--you, Ana, and I?"
Sir Basil lifted his brows. "You don't think I overlooked that, do you?What is food? Various combinations of the basic elements. I who haveconquered the atom need never worry about starving to death."
All this time, the machinery had been humming, and now the hummingchanged its note to a shrill whistle. Sir Basil went to the eye-pieceand looked into it. Opening a door in the machinery, he disappearedinside. He came out soon, flushed and evidently elated.
"Bring the stretcher, Oakham," he ordered.
Hale brought the stretcher, placing it close to the machine. Then SirBasil opened a metal door and gently eased out a human body.
It was Unani Assu, unconscious but alive and breathing. Hale, helpingthe scientist to get the man on the stretcher, noticed that the crushedlegs were perfectly healed. Together they bore him to a long seat. TheIndian's eyes were still closed, but his even breathing indicated thathe was only sleeping.
Suddenly Hale pointed a finger and cried out. "My God, Sir Basil, lookat his hands and feet!"
* * * * *
Unani Assu, still lying like a recumbent bronze statue sculptured by amaster, was perfect from shoulder to wrist, from thigh to ankle. But,somewhere in that diabolical machine through which he had passed, hishands and feet had undergone a hideous metamorphism which hadtransformed them from the well-formed extremities of a splendid youngIndian into the hairy paws of a giant rat!
Hale turned away his head, sick with disgust.
Sir Basil cut the silence triumphantly:
"Now he'll never again face Ana with love in his eyes!"
"What!" broke in Hale. "Did you plan this monstrous thing?"
"Of course! I told you I should forever cure him of his madinfatuation."
"But why didn't you kill him, as you killed the others? It would havebeen the most merciful way."
Sir Basil showed his teeth in his ugly smile. "A creator is nevermerciful."
A quiver passed through the Indian's body and presently, he sigheddeeply and opened his eyes. He seemed dazed, puzzled. He looked fromHale to the scientist, and turned seeking eyes to other parts of thelaboratory.
"Ana!" he called weakly. "Where is Ana?"
He pulled himself a little unsteadily to his feet--to the spatulated,hairy _rodent_ feet that had come out of the life-machine. Staggering,he would have fallen, had he not thrown out his arm to steady himself.Instinctively he tried to grasp something for support, and then, for thefirst time, he discovered his deformity.
* * * * *
Hale was never to forget that expression of horror and disgust thatswept over the Indian's face as he spread open his revolting extremitiesand stared at them.
A sudden, wild roar of despair rang through the room. "Aimu! My hands!"
The scientist smiled with evident amusement. "You are a grotesque sight,Unani Assu. Do you want to see Ana now?"
The fright and horror faded from the Indian's face, for now he glaredwith hate into the mad, mocking eyes.
"You did it!" the Indian ground out. "You've made me into a thing fromwhich Ana will run screaming."
Through the quiet rage of the perfectly spoken English ran a thread ofsorrow. "Aimu, whom we considered too holy to name!"
Choking, he hobbled away to the door, which he unbolted. As he passedout into the open, Sir Basil went over to the machine and began sightingthe projector which cast forth the ray of destruction.
"No!" cried Hale. "You've done enough murder for to-day."
The scientist paused. "I was trying to be merciful. And then, I wonderif it is safe to let him go, hating me? Oh, well!" He shrugged hisnarrow shoulders. "I seldom leave the laboratory, and certainly nothingcan harm me here." He touched the death-projector significantly.
Hale made a mental decision. "I must find out how the damned thing worksand put it out of commission."
* * * * *
With this determination uppermost in his mind, he assumed a more intenseinterest in the strange laboratory. For the next two days, he assistedSir Basil so assiduously that he learned much about the operation of thelife-machine.
And gradually he stopped being horrified as thefascination of producing life in the laboratory grew upon him.
After he had assisted the scientist in building living organisms frombasic elements, he ceased to cringe when he remembered that perhaps itwas true that Ana was created in the mysterious life-machine.
Once the scientist declared, "She is untainted with inheritance. She isthe perfect mate that I called into life so that before I pass from theflesh I may taste that one human emotion I've never experienced--love."
That very night Hale kept a secret tryst with Ana after the villageslept. Sweet, virginal Ana, who knew less of the world than a civilizedchild of twelve--what a sensation she would create in New York with herbeauty, her culture, her natural fascination! With her in his arms andan orange tropical moon hanging low in the hot, black sky, he ceased tocare that she had no ancestors, for now his one passionate desire was tosave her from Sir Basil and to hold her forever for himself.
He might have been content to go on like this for months, tampering withcreation in the day time, courting Ana in secret at night, had not UnaniAssu come back for revenge.
* * * * *
On the fourth night after Unani Assu had disappeared into the jungle,Hale went to the _igarape_ to meet Ana. He had gone only half thedistance when he encountered her, running frantically up the path towardhim.
"Hale!" she gasped, falling into his opened arms, where she lay pantingand exhausted.
Hale gently patted the long braids, shimmering in silver tangles underthe moonlight, and, crushing the soft little trembling body close, hemurmured:
"What's the matter, darling?"
She dug her face deeper into the bend of his arm. "Oh, Hale! I saw UnaniAssu a few minutes ago." For several moments she was unable to go on,for sudden sobs cut off her breath. "It's terrible, Hale, what Aimu didto his hands and feet, but what Unani's going to do to Aimu is stillmore terrible."
Hale placed his hand gently under her chin and tilted up her small,pale, tear-drenched face.
"Be calm, Ana, and tell me plainly."
Still clinging to him, she went on. "He told me that Aimu is a devil,Hale. He showed me his hands and asked me if I could ever get used tothem and be--his squaw." The round gold breastplates and the necklace ofpainted seeds clinked together over her panting bosom. "I told him aboutyou, Hale. And then he seemed to go mad. He said he'd kill Aimuto-night."
"But, Ana! Why did he let you go, knowing that you would give thealarm?"
"He didn't let me go." Her petaled lips parted in a faint smile. "Iescaped. Unani Assu tied me to a tree by the _igarape_. Because hedoesn't ... hate me, he could not bear to tie me too tightly."
"Then he must be close to the laboratory now. If he breaks in uponAimu--oh, my God!"
Hale remembered the death-projector. If Sir Basil were in danger ofattack, he would not hesitate to touch the waiting button that wouldbroadcast death throughout the world.
He seized Ana's little hand and cried out: "Run, Ana! The only safeplace now is Aimu's laboratory. Run!"
* * * * *
As they dashed on madly, Hale opened wide his nostrils to scent theheavy, flower-laden air of the jungle. Any moment all this sweet, richlife might vanish instantly. He had a horrible vision of a world devoidof life, a world of bare rocks, dry sand, odorless, dead waters. For itwas life that greened the landscape, roughened the stones with moss andlichen, thickened the ocean with ooze, and turned the dry sand intoloam--life that swarmed underfoot, overhead, all around!
And now, just as they reached the laboratory door, panting and frantic,a hoarse shriek broke forth. Dragging Ana after him, Hale dashedforward, conscious of two masculine voices raised in passion.
The door to the room where the life-machine performed its vile work waslocked. Hale pounded against it and called out to Sir Basil, but onlycurses and the sound of tumbling bodies came from beyond the door.Although originally the door had been thick and strong, the destructiveforces of the tropics had pitted and rotted the wood. A few blows ofHale's shoulder broke it down.
Under the brilliant electric light, Sir Basil and Unani Assu werefighting upon the blood-spattered floor. The struggle was uneven: thescientist's emaciated body was no match for the splendid strength of theyoung Indian.
"Help Aimu!" cried Ana, pushing Hale forward.
Aimu was being choked to death.
Hale acted fantastically but efficiently. Catching up a bottle ofammonia, he moistened a handkerchief and clapped it against Unani Assu'snose. Instantly the Indian choked, released Sir Basil, and fell back,gasping for breath.
Hale thrust the handkerchief into his pocket.
"Get out!" he ordered Unani Assu. "Quick!" He threatened him with theammonia bottle.
But Unani Assu was not looking at the bottle. "Aimu!" he screamed,pointing.
* * * * *
When Hale saw and understood, he leaped across the room to plant hisbody in front of Ana; for Sir Basil was behind the life-machine,reaching for the controls of the ray projector.
Suddenly, from behind Hale, a silver streak shot across the room. SirBasil groaned and sank to the floor of the laboratory.
A keen-bladed dissecting knife, thrown by Ana, stuck out from his leftbreast.
Ana ran forward, sobbing wildly. "Oh, Aimu! I'm sorry! I didn't mean forit to strike you there. Only your hand, Aimu! I didn't want Hale to die,Aimu. I didn't--oh!"
She was on her knees by the scientist's side, his head held in herslender arms.
"He's breathing!" she rejoiced. "Some _masata_, Hale, quick!"
Hale found a bottle of good brandy which he had contributed from his ownsupplies. Soon Sir Basil gasped and opened his eyes. He stared about himwildly, then gasped:
"I'm dying, Hale Oakham! Quick, the life-machine, before my mind-electronescapes."
He tried to pull his body up, but fell back, weak and panting.
Hale hesitated, looking doubtfully at Ana.
"For God's sake, quick!" screamed Sir Basil. "I'm dying, I say! I musthave--rebirth. Lift me to the disintegrator. Hurry!..." His voicetrailed off faintly.
"He is dying," snapped Hale. "We might as well try it." He jerked openthe door to the disintegrator. "Here, Unani Assu! Lend a hand!"
* * * * *
Instantly the Indian came forward, a peculiar, pleased expression on hishandsome face. In a moment, Sir Basil's body was inside, and the machinebegan its weird humming, the humming that indicated the transformationof a human body into dust.
"Now!" cried Unani Assu exultingly, going behind the machine. "I havehelped him enough to understand that if one changes this--and this--andthis"--he made some rapid adjustments on the machine--"something that isnot pleasant will happen."
"Stop!" cried Hale. "What did you change?"
The Indian laughed mockingly. "Wouldn't you like to know? But, yet, youshould not worry. You have no cause to love him, have you?"
"I can't be a traitor, Unani Assu! Arrange the machine as it wasoriginally, and I give you my word of honor than when Sir Basil comesout, I'll wreck the damned thing beyond repair. See, Unani Assu? You andI together will smash it."
The Indian folded his arms so that the repulsive things that should havebeen hands were hidden.
"It's too late now," he admitted, shaking his head. "Yet I've done nomore to him than he did to me."
Hale went to the eye-piece in the machine and started to look inside.Unani Assu stepped forward, tapped him on the shoulder, and, fingeringsignificantly the dissecting knife which he had picked up, said:
"I am operating the machine. Will you sit over there by Ana and wait? Itwon't be long. And, white stranger, remember this: I am your friend. Iam turned against none but our common enemy." He pointed significantlyto the machine.
* * * * *
Two hours passed, long, silent hours for the watchers in the laboratory.A
na fell asleep, in a sweet, childish bundle upon the piled cushions,her golden hair, still decorated with the red flowers which she alwayswore, crushed and withered now. Several times Hale caught Unani Assugazing at her sadly, and his own look saddened when it rested on theIndian's strong, outraged body.
The humming of the machine changed to a whistle. Placing his fingers onhis lips in a signal of quiet, Unani Assu whispered:
"Let Ana sleep. She mustn't see this."
Opening a door in the machine, his handsome face lighted with a grimsmile, he whispered exultingly:
"Watch!"
A scuttling sound issued forth and then, half drunkenly, an enormous rattumbled out--one of those horrible rats with the hairless, humanlikefaces that had so frequently come from the life-machine.
Hale could not crush back the cry that issued from his throat.
"Where is Sir Basil?" he gasped.
"There!" cried the Indian, pointing to the kicking rat, which was fastgaining strength.
* * * * *
Hale staggered back. "No! You don't mean it, do you?"
Unani Assu turned the rat over with a contemptuous toe. "Yes, I mean it.Behold Aimu, the man who thought himself creator and destroyer--the manwho said that a human being was no higher than a rat! Perhaps he wasright, for see this thing that was once a man!"
Hale buried his face in his hands. "Kill it, Unani Assu! Kill it!"
Unani Assu's low laugh was metallic. "You kill it."
Hale uncovered his face. "Open the disintegrator." Gingerly he reachedfor the rat's tail.
But his hand never touched the animal. The hairless face turned for asecond, and the little, beady eyes blinked up at Hale with an expressionthat his fevered imagination thought almost human. Then, like a darkshadow, the rat dashed away. Once around the room it scampered, huntingfor an exit. Hale started in pursuit. He was almost upon the animalagain, when, leaping up from his grasp, it landed on a low shelf wherechemicals were stored. Several bottles fell, filling the room withfumes.
Another bottle fell, and, suddenly, amid a thunderous roar, the ceilingand walls began falling. Some highly explosive chemical had been storedin one of the bottles.
Hale was thrown violently against the couch. His hand touched Ana'sbody. One last shred of consciousness enabled him to pick her up anddrag her out. In the open, he fell, aware, before blackness descended,that flames leaped high over the laboratory building and that Unani Assulay dead within.
* * * * *
Hale and Ana, leaning over the deck-rail of a small steam launch, gazedinto the dark waters of the Amazon.
"We ought to reach Para by morning," said Hale, "and then, dearest,we're off for New York!"
Ana, wearing one of the first civilized dresses she had ever donned, andlooking as smart as any debutante, slipped her little hand into herhusband's.
"Isn't it a shame, Hale," she moaned, "that the fire burned all theanimals and insects, the machinery, and even your notes?" Her beautifulface saddened. "Just one or two specimens might have been proof enoughfor your What-You-Call-It Club!"
"The Nescience Club, darling. No, I can't expect to win the Woolmanprize, but I've won a prize worth far more." He squeezed her little handand looked devotedly into her blue eyes. "And, Ana, I've reasoned outsomething concerning mind-electrons which even Sir Basil overlooked."
"What is it, Hale?"
"He maintained that matter seeks always to enslave mind-electrons, but Iam convinced that mind-electrons seek to enslave matter. Understand?It's creation, Ana! Had Sir Basil succeeded in broadcasting deaththroughout the world, the freed mind-electrons, as in the beginning,would have started again to vitalize inorganic atoms. And, in a fewmillion years, which is no time to the Mind, the world would be hummingwith a new civilization. Large thought, eh, sweetheart?"
