The Ego Machine

by Henry Kuttner

tonight, Mammoth-Slayer." He attempted to climb a palmtree, changed his mind, and shambled on, carrying the now pensive Erika.But it was not until a police car drove past that Erika screamed....

  * * * * *

  "I'll bail you out tomorrow," Erika told Mammoth-Slayer, strugglingbetween two large patrolmen.

  Her words were drowned in an infuriated bellow.

  Thereafter events blurred, to solidify again for the irateMammoth-Slayer only when he was thrown in a cell, where he pickedhimself up with a threatening roar. "I kill!" he announced, seizing thebars.

  "_Arrrgh!_"

  "Two in one night," said a bored voice, moving away outside. "Both inBel-Air, too. Think they're hopped up? We couldn't get a coherent storyout of either one."

  The bars shook. An annoyed voice from one of the bunks said to shut up,and added that there had been already enough trouble from nincompoopswithout--here it paused, hesitated, and uttered a shrill, sharp,piercing cry.

  Silence prevailed, momentarily, in the cell-block as Mammoth-Slayer, sonof the Great Hairy One, turned slowly to face Raoul St. Cyr.