by S. T. Joshi
“My father!” murmured Gerande, recovering consciousness.
“If you knew what I have suffered, far away from this principle of my existence!” resumed the old man. “Perhaps no one looked after this timepiece. Perhaps its springs were left to wear out, its wheels to get clogged. But now, in my own hands, I can nourish this health so dear, for I must not die, – I, the great watchmaker of Geneva. Look, my daughter, how these hands advance with certain step. See, five o’clock is about to strike. Listen well, and look at the maxim which is about to be revealed.”
Five o’clock struck with a noise which resounded sadly in Gerande’s soul, and these words appeared in red letters: ‘You Must Eat of the Fruits of the Tree Of Science.’
Aubert and Gerande looked at each other stupefied. These were no longer the pious sayings of the Catholic watchmaker. The breath of Satan must have passed over it. But Zacharius paid no attention to this, and resumed –
“Dost thou hear, my Gerande? I live, I still live! Listen to my breathing, – see the blood circulating in my veins! No, thou wouldst not kill thy father, and thou wilt accept this man for thy husband, so that I may become immortal, and at last attain the power of God!”
At these blasphemous words old Scholastique crossed herself, and Pittonaccio laughed aloud with joy.
“And then, Gerande, thou wilt be happy with him. See this man, – he is Time! Thy existence will be regulated with absolute precision. Gerande, since I gave thee life, give life to thy father!”
“Gerande,” murmured Aubert, “I am thy betrothed.”
“He is my father!” replied Gerande, fainting.
“She is thine!” said Master Zacharius. “Pittonaccio, them wilt keep thy promise!”
“Here is the key of the clock,” replied the horrible man.
Master Zacharius seized the long key, which resembled an uncoiled snake, and ran to the clock, which he hastened to wind up with fantastic rapidity. The creaking of the spring jarred upon the nerves. The old watchmaker wound and wound the key, without stopping a moment, and it seemed as if the movement were beyond his control. He wound more and more quickly, with strange contortions, until he fell from sheer weariness.
“There, it is wound up for a century!” he cried.
Aubert rushed from the hall as if he were mad. After long wandering, he found the outlet of the hateful château, and hastened into the open air. He returned to the hermitage of Notre-Dame-du-Sex, and talked so despairingly to the holy recluse, that the latter consented to return with him to the château of Andernatt.
If, during these hours of anguish, Gerande had not wept, it was because her tears were exhausted.
Master Zacharius had not left the hall. He ran every moment to listen to the regular beating of the old clock.
Meanwhile the clock had struck, and to Scholastique’s great terror, these words had appeared on the silver face: – ‘Man Ought To Become The Equal Of God.’
The old man had not only not been shocked by these impious maxims, but read them deliriously, and flattered himself with thoughts of pride, whilst Pittonaccio kept close by him.
The marriage-contract was to be signed at midnight. Gerande, almost unconscious, saw or heard nothing. The silence was only broken by the old man’s words, and the chuckling of Pittonaccio.
Eleven o’clock struck. Master Zacharius shuddered, and read in a loud voice: “MAN SHOULD BE THE SLAVE OF SCIENCE, AND SACRIFICE TO IT RELATIVES AND FAMILY.”
“Yes!” he cried, “there is nothing but science in this world!”
The hands slipped over the face of the clock with the hiss of a serpent, and the pendulum beat with accelerated strokes.
Master Zacharius no longer spoke. He had fallen to the floor, his throat rattled, and from his oppressed bosom came only these half-broken words: “Life – science!”
The scene had now two new witnesses, the hermit and Aubert. Master Zacharius lay upon the floor; Gerande was praying beside him, more dead than alive.
Of a sudden a dry, hard noise was heard, which preceded the strike.
Master Zacharius sprang up.
“Midnight!” he cried.
The hermit stretched out his hand towards the old clock, – and midnight did not sound.
Master Zacharius uttered a terrible cry, which must have been heard in hell, when these words appeared: ‘Who Ever Shall Attempt to Make Himself the Equal of God, Shall be For Ever Damned!’
The old clock burst with a noise like thunder, and the spring, escaping, leaped across the hall with a thousand fantastic contortions; the old man rose, ran after it, trying in vain to seize it, and exclaiming, “My soul, – my soul!”
The spring bounded before him, first on one side, then on the other, and he could not reach it.
At last Pittonaccio seized it, and, uttering a horrible blasphemy, ingulfed himself in the earth.
Master Zacharius fell backwards. He was dead.
The old watchmaker was buried in the midst of the peaks of Andernatt.
Then Aubert and Gerande returned to Geneva, and during the long life which God accorded to them, they made it a duty to redeem by prayer the soul of the castaway of science.
Biographies & Sources
Andrew Bourelle
Little Healers
(First Publication)
American author Andrew Bourelle has published science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and literary short stories in a variety of journals, including Hobart, Isthmus, Kestrel, Jabberwock Review, Prime Number Magazine, Thin Air, Weave and Whitefish Review, as well as fiction anthologies, such as The Best American Mystery Stories, Corrupts Absolutely: Dark Metahuman Fiction and Law and Disorder: Stories of Conflict and Crime. He is the co-author, with James Patterson, of the novella The Pretender, which is featured in the collection Triple Threat. Bourelle lives in New Mexico with his wife and two children.
John Buchan
The Grove of Ashtaroth
(Originally published in Blackwood’s Magazine, 1910)
John Buchan (1875–1940) was born in Perth, Scotland. He trained as a barrister, though his working life went on to span several sectors, including publishing, politics and war correspondence. He wrote solidly during this time, producing a number of short stories and novels, as well as historical and biographical works. He is perhaps best known for his thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps. Most of his horror stories are influenced by the wild and strange places he experienced during his time as a government administrator in South Africa. In 1935, Buchan was made Governor-General of Canada, and lived there until his death.
Beth Cato
Moon Skin
(First Publication)
Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham. Beth is the author of the steampunk fantasy Clockwork Dagger series from Harper Voyager, which includes her Nebula-nominated novella Wings of Sorrow and Bone. Her newest novel, Breath of Earth, is set in a steampunk alternate history 1906 San Francisco. Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato
Robert W. Chambers
The Demoiselle d’Ys
(Originally published in The King in Yellow, F. Tennyson Neely, 1895)
Robert William Chambers (1865–1933) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He started his career publishing illustrations in magazines like Life, Truth and Vogue before abruptly turning his attention strictly to fiction. He produced works in numerous genres including historical, romance, fantasy, science fiction and horror. Everett Franklin Bleiler, a respected scholar of science fiction and fantasy literature, described The King in Yellow as one of the most important works of American supernatural fiction.
L. Maria Child
Hilda Silfverling: A Fantasy
(Originally published in The Columbian Magazine, 1845)
Lydia Maria Child (1802–80) was born in Medford, Massachusetts. She received her education first at home, then a local dame school and later a women’s seminary. She established herself as a social reformer – advocating abolition, women’s rights and Native American rights. These themes were explored through much of her writing as she published novels, journals and domestic advice books. She spent the 1840s and 1850s writing for numerous periodicals and newspapers as well as producing a variety of short stories addressing the issues of slavery and promoting the emancipation of slaves and their incorporation into American society.
Amanda C. Davis
Dear George, Love Margaret
(Originally Published in Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly, 2015)
Amanda C. Davis lives in Pennsylvania, where she writes dark fantasy, light horror and the very softest science fiction. Her work has appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, and was collected in 2013 along with her sister Megan Engelhardt’s work in Wolves and Witches: A Fairy Tale Collection from World Weaver Press. She has an engineering degree and an obsession with baking the perfect macaron. She tweets enthusiastically as @davisac1. You can find out more about her and read more of her work at www.amandacdavis.com
Daniel J. Davis
Pax Mechanica
(First Publication)
Daniel J. Davis is a longtime lover of the heroic fantasy and steampunk genres. He attributes the former to his discovery of David Gemmell in his late teens, and he blames the latter on the children’s editions of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne in the elementary school library. He lives in North Carolina, USA, where his wife listens to him ramble about alternate histories and make-believe worlds. Daniel’s other stories have appeared in Writers of the Future Volume 31, Urban Fantasy Magazine and Unidentified Funny Objects 5. He also blogs at danieljdavisblogs.wordpress.com
Jennifer Dornan-Fish
Fire to Set the Blood
(First Publication)
Jennifer Dornan-Fish has a Ph.D. in anthropology and is a professor by day, writer by night. She has also been a private investigator, K9 Wilderness Search and Rescue unit, dog walker, ditch digger, photographer, social justice activist and video game writer. Her short fiction has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Interzone and elsewhere. A dual Irish/American citizen, she has also lived in Senegal, Belize, the UK and Micronesia. She now lives in the Bay Area with her husband and son. You can follow her writing at dornan-fish.com
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Horror of the Heights
(Originally Published in The Strand Magazine, 1913)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and became a well-known writer, poet and physician. As a medical student he was so impressed by his professor’s powers of deduction that he was inspired to create the illustrious and much-loved figure Sherlock Holmes. In contrast to this scientific background, however, Doyle became increasingly interested in spiritualism, leaving him keen to explore fantastical elements in his stories. Paired with his talent for storytelling he wrote great tales of terror, such as ‘The Horror of the Heights’ and ‘The Leather Funnel’. Doyle’s vibrant and remarkable characters have breathed life into all of his stories, engaging readers throughout the decades.
Spencer Ellsworth
The Fires of Mercy
(Originally Published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 2015)
Spencer Ellsworth has been writing since he learned how. His work has been published in and is forthcoming at Tor.com, Lightspeed Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Michael Moorcock’s New Worlds Magazine and many other places. His space opera trilogy Starfire will be released by Tor.com in 2017. Spencer lives in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and three children. He works as a teacher and administrator at a tribal college on a Native American reservation, and also blogs and posts homemade punk rock at spencerellsworth.com and twitters @spencimus
David Jón Fuller
Sisters
(First Publication)
David Jón Fuller was born and raised in Winnipeg, MB and has also lived in Edmonton, AB and Reykjavík, Iceland. His short stories have appeared in Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History; Tesseracts 18: Wrestling With Gods; Kneeling in the Silver Light: Stories From The Great War; Insignia: Chinese Fantasy Stories; No Shit, There I Was; and On Spec. He studied theatre at the University of Winnipeg, and Icelandic language and literature at the University of Iceland. He speaks French and Icelandic as second languages, and has also studied Latin and Anishinaabemowin.
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
Undine
(Originally published by Hitzig, 1811)
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1777–1843) was a German novelist and playwright born in Brandenburg an der Havel to a family of aristocratic descent. In 1794 he joined the army to participate in the Rhine campaign but dedicated the rest of his life to his literature after he met scholar and critic August Wilhelm Schlegel, who influenced much of his poetry. Many of his works were influenced by Scandinavian myths and he often promoted the ideals of chivalry through them. Undine is perhaps his best-known work, a fairy tale like story that acts as his most enduring success.
George Griffith
The Raid of Le Vengeur
(Originally published in Pearson’s Magazine, 1901)
George Griffith (1857–1906) was a British science fiction writer, journalist and explorer, also occasionally writing under the pseudonym of Levin Carmac. He frequently published works in pulp and pre-science fiction magazines including Pearson’s Weekly and Pearson’s Magazine. His works often featured prescient elements of aerial battleships, themes focused on utopia, world domination, apocalyptic visions, parallel worlds, lost worlds, and immortality. Despite being overshadowed in success by H.G. Wells, it was ultimately Griffith’s work that provided the model for what became the steampunk genre.
Edward Everett Hale
The Man Without a Country
(Originally published in The Atlantic Monthly, 1863)
Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) was born in Boston, Massachusetts and worked as a writer, historian and Unitarian minister. He entered Harvard at age 13, graduating second in his class and teaching at Boston Latin School for two years. He embarked on a career in journalism for a few years at his father’s Boston Daily Advertiser and held multiple teaching positions while studying theology to prepare for the ministry. During this time he wrote several short stories and addressed various social issues through his writing tracts, such as slavery and educational reform. Through this Hale garnered much respect for his tolerant views.
Kelly A. Harmon
Advantage on the Kingdom of the Shore
(First Publication)
Kelly A. Harmon is an award-winning journalist and author, and a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. A Baltimore native, she writes the Charm City Darkness series, which includes the novels Stoned in Charm City, A Favor for a Fiend and A Blue Collar Proposition. Her stories can be found in many anthologies, including Triangulation: Dark Glass, Hellebore and Rue and Deep Cuts: Mayhem, Menace and Misery. Kelly is a former newspaper reporter and editor, and now edits for Pole to Pole Publishing. For more information, visit her at kellyaharmon.com, facebook.com/Kelly-A-Harmon1 or twitter.com/kellyaharmon
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Artist of the Beautiful
(Originally Published in United States Magazine and Democratic Review, 1844)
P.’s Correspondence
(Originally Published in United States Magazine and Democratic Review, 1845)
The prominent American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His most famous novel The Scarlet Letter helped him to become established as a writer in the 1850s. Most of his works were influenced by his friends Ralph Waldo Emer
son and Herman Melville, as well as by his extended financial struggles. Hawthorne’s works often incorporated a dark romanticism that focused on the evil and sin of humanity. Some of his most famous stories detailed supernatural presences or occurrences, as in his The House of the Seven Gables and the short story collection Twice Told Tales.
E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Sandman
(First Published in Nachtstücke, Aufbau-Verlag, 1816)
E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776–1822) was a musician and a painter as well as a successful writer. Born in Germany and raised by his uncle, Hoffmann followed a legal career until his interests drew him to composing operas and ballets. He began to write richly imaginative stories that helped secure his reputation as an influential figure during the German Romantic movement, with many of his tales inspiring stage adaptations, such as The Nutcracker and Coppélia. Hoffmann’s chilling tale ‘The Sandman’ has influenced many, including Neil Gaiman, whose popular graphic novel series Sandman also features a character who steals people’s eyes.
Liam Hogan
Spectrum
(First Publication)
Liam Hogan was abandoned in a library at the tender age of three, only to emerge blinking into the sunlight many years later, with a head full of words and an aversion to loud noises. He’s the host of the award-winning monthly literary event, Liars’ League, and the winner of Quantum Shorts 2015 and Sci-Fest LA’s Roswell Award 2016. His steampunk stories appear in Leap Books’ Beware the Little White Rabbit #Alice150 anthology, in Steampunk Trails II and in Witty Bard’s Of Airships & Automatons. He lives in London, tweets at @LiamJHogan and dreams in Dewey Decimals. Find out more at: happyendingnotguaranteed.blogspot.co.uk
Robert E. Howard
Skulls in the Stars
(Originally Published in Weird Tales, 1929)
Robert Ervin Howard (1906–36) was born in Peaster, Texas. An intellectual and athletic man, Howard wrote within the genres of westerns, historical and horror fiction, and is credited with having formed the subgenre within fantasy known as ‘Sword and Sorcery’. His novella Pigeons from Hell, which Stephen King quotes as the one of the finest horror stories of the century, exemplifies his dark yet realistic style. Howard’s work is strongly associated with the pulp magazine Weird Tales, in which he published many horror and fantasy stories, including those featuring the character Conan the Cimmerian and Solomon Kane.
