Astounding Science Fiction v40n2

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"\ou remember him . » , He was the lucky feSlow who found a ffla^ii; tamp, Tt gave him everything he wished for — From diamond-crusted pal- aces to a sultan's daughter as his bride, You*ve probably wished a lot of times for a miracle like ihis to happen t j you. Maybe not for out-or-tliis-worJd treas- ures, but for something that will take car* Of the things that are bound to come upr Like medical expenses, or coUcgc for the kids. Or maybe just for the nice, safe feeling Jt gives ye-U to have Some extra money put aside for the future. Though no magic is involved, there is a way to give you this security. The Pay- roll Savings Plan. Or, if you're not eligi- ble for the Payroll Ptati but h;*ve a check- ing account, the new Bond-i-Momh Plan* Either way* iVs almost unbelievable how quickly your money accumulates. Where else can you get such a safe, generous return on your money (S4 for every 53)7 It's SO simple— SO easy, you hardly miss the money that you're saving. And don/t forget — it the same time, you're making more/ Nest to a magic lamp N there's no better way than this to make sure your future is secure, Save Hie easy, automatic way v . w?th U.S. Savings Bonds Contributed by this magazine in c&wper&tfciui with the Magazine Publishers of America &s a pubtic service,.

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CONTENTS OCTOBER, 1947 VOL, XL, NO+ 2 - NOVELETTES pJVE DOC METllUSlSI- AH. hp fifrif Lafattcftc , . PROBLEM IN £OT,]I>, Bp C>orfj^ C, Pmtth \ \ 33 SHORT STORIES TAitOf?TT 6lf JVifffr fnrf«v (TO COLr,KCTO&/ ft ITEM. 6j/ JVo^i Jif/^np Jjf?>Pjj . 06 ARTICLE WJEAT'S IVHON'G IN Tttt: PiTLNT SYSTEM, Ify Or S. CtilTlf K7 ■ - SERIAL THE KN1> IS NOT TE1\ frjr J„ ff6n tfubfrimt , , I0V READERS' DEPARTMEMS THE EDITOR'S PAGK ♦ . , , BOOK REVIEW . . . . . , , IN TIMES TO COME ♦ , . . , 104 .106 COVER BV BONESTELL I Uust rations by Cart I or, 0rhar>, flojfm and Tlmifllni 1 K ■ ftp- in Etali «t|*ffJnt w PrilCB, N* ptrwaa desasnitwi fly m» «r tfcinrttr. Art UnUirilj b hriadJrntli, JCd^T n^LLrsirnn Hr-vurrl by ftrrrt A fl=SlH PtfMaLtlan^ fnc 17-2 J^ul 4Sn*J NT C>r£fta pi bA±rtjb 3, IBM. HMtdtu t» C^ntri™ IB Fid, Attnfrin L'slw, JXTfi [JT 7**tZ 13.00 Jd CkJLhd*; *\£«w\}tftr fi.2H j*r Wt -cmukh — * — - xpoH^UJltf for MnrtUdiPd aiDiKripli m «n*:L Anf Bitrrlftt SH.SO wm VHP )■ 0. L PrliM id NEXT OS SAT R OCTOBF,^ 21. 1IH7 AST— tW

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FLYING SOMETHINGS As we have remarked before. Science Fiction is no news maga- zine ; these comments uncut rlying saucers or what-not are a few months late, but ^unfeni things of, even longer range interest to sci- enee-fictionCers. Whatever tbey ^vereT if real, and as d escribed hy those who believed they i Ilea n, a few conclusions are fairly clear, They weren't product* oi a foreign terrestrial power. Anybody having a plane that good would darned well keep it to himself — until he meant to use it ! The same applies to a United States Government device: they'd have been test- flown off some small Pa- cific island, where none but a few selected personnel, plus a few thou- sand fish, would have been around to report. Thai would mean a fair chance that they were being piloted by visitors from outside. Latest astronomical theory indi- cates Venus is a waterless dust bo^wl — its clouds a mantle of dust storms. (See R. S. Richardson's •■■ir article ">Jew Paths To New Plan- ets" in the September ia47 Air 7Yf«£r!) Mars has so thin an atinos- pherc that only slow-moving, lower animal forms could operate. Jupi- ter has too deep an utim sphere, and the other planets are either too violently cold* or too violently hot. Visitors from outside would be from way outsirle — interstellar. Skip, for the moment, ike prob- lem of how they made the trip; consider how we would plan a re- connaissance of an ali^n, inhabited planet if we inane the trip. If we landed on an alien planet that displayed marked signs of tech- nically civilized life, there would be considerable point in landing un- noticed. We'd want to make a first landing in some backwoods, unin- habited forest areaT where there would |je pientJy of natural cover for our ship, and then conduct re- CDnnaissance by atmospheric type planes of small size, but the fastest jobs available. For this reason, we'd want to ASJTOUKD1SQ acrKNCE-FICTION

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17 land in an uninhabited pa tell reason- ably near centers of civilization* We'd take considerable care that ourr scouts weren't trailed bade to the ship, and that they weren't spotted on the way out. Knowing all about radar -and probably six or a dozen other detection schemes based on other spectrum possibil- ities— we VI see to it tliat the ships weren't easily tracked. Make "cm out of plastic, which more nearly matches the preterites of air than any other type of solid matter. Some metal would be essentia I N nat- ural ly\ but it would be minimized. Preliminary Jong;- range scouting would have assured us that the piajief. to be invalidated did not yet have space travel : an easy way to enter and leave die areas to be in- vest i gated without back trail the in- vestigatees could follow then would he to approach from almost straight up- — say two hundred miles above — and take a similar hop fining liyme. After all* if we're doing the ex- ploring, we do have space travel; such a hop would be peanuts to tis. For several months, our investi- gation would be conducted by non- contact observation; until we know much more about the people, we'll do we] I to stay clear of them. After seme weeks though, a stealthy raid might kfolnap a few inhabitants for general questioning and investiga- tion, Tn this, we'd be very smart not to damage the kidnaped parties ; the resentment of a technically civ- ilized race can be distinctly unwel- come, even to a more powerfully technical people. Investigation of local animals can give all the neces- sary basic bioloftical science lor pre- liminary understanding of the local race. After several months of watch- ing, listening, and picking; up radio broadcasts, plus investigation of kidnapecs, there would be a lol of material to digest. Captured books, particularly children's books, would give adequate keys to the languages* At that point, we would be smart to clear out for at least a year of concentrated study of the male rial at hand. The captives could be fairly safely released unharmed ; tn any race, anywhere, the weird tale of three or four individuals about an improbable and melodrama Jdc capture by alien intelligence;; — par- ticularly if the race hasn't yet de- veloped space travel themselves — is going to he laughed at, The first visit could then be made without serious indication of its happening at all- in the May 1045 issue of As- tounding Science Fiction wc carried Murray Leinster's yarn "First Con- tact" that explained the necessity of considerable caution arid study of any alien race before making for- mal, all-out contact. Similar con- siderations will apply to the race first investigating an alien planet ; they'd be very wise to learn all they could before making their interest apparent. It might be a year or five years before any further steps were taken. At various times in our stories, we've discussed a galactic empire. tCmiimted &agc 103)

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OLD DOC METHUSELAH BY RENE LAFAYETTE 1 1 lust rated Ly Cartler Ole Doc Methuselah wasn't think- ing what he was doing or he never would havrj landed on Spico that tempestuous afternoon. He had been working out some new formu- las for cellular radiation — in his head as usual, lie never could find his log tables — and the act of also navigating hb rocket ship must have been too much for him. He saw the a lit ro id -planet, de-translated his speed and landed. 11c jiat there for some time at the controls, gazing out into the rjJeas- ant meadow ami at the brook which The Soldiers of Light teere bouaid btf oath to deal only trith medicine* and never with polities. But politics be bad medieinc for human health emd welfare* ABTOUNUIWG E CI ENC3E-P LOT ION

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i w^idered so invitingly upon it, and finishing up his tabulations. When he had written down the answer on his gauntlet cuff — his filing; system was full of torn scraps of cuff — he felt very pleased with himself. He had mostly forgotten where lie had been going* but he was going to pour the pile to her when his eye focused upon the brook. Ole Doc took his finger off the booster switch and grinned. *'That " sure is green grass/' he said with a pleased sigh. And then he looked up over the control panels where he hung1 his fisllitag rod. yVho knows what would have happened to Junction City if Ole Doc hadn't decided to go fishing that day, Seated on the lower step of the port ladder, Hippocrates patiently watched his god toss Hies into the water with a deft and expert hand. Hippocrates was a sort of cross be- tween several thing's, Ole Doc had / picked him up cheap at an auction on Zeno just after the Trans- Sys- tem War, At the time he had meant to discover some things about his purchase such as metabolism and why he dieted solely on gypsum, but that had been thirty years ago and Hippocrates had been an easy habit to acquire. Unpigmentcd, four-handed and silent as space it- self, Hippocrates had set himself the scattered task of remembering all the tilings Ole Doc always forgot. He sat now, remembering partic- ularly that Ole Due had some of his own medicine to take at thirty- six o'clock — and he might have sat there that way for hours and hours, OLD DQC 34 E T II 7s ft RXi A R phonograph-record -wise j if a ra- diating pellet hadn't come with a sharp zip past his left antenna to land with a clang; on the Morgue's thick hull. ZIP I CLANG/ Page forty-nine of "Talcs of the Early Space Pioneers" went smoothly mto operation in Hippoc- rates' gifted unimaginative skull, which page translated itself into unruffled action. He went inside and threw on 11 Force Field Beta" minus the Nine Hundred and Sixtieth Degree Arc, that being where Ole Doc was. Seeing that his worshiped master went on fishing, cither unwitting or uncaring, Hippocrates then served out blasters and twenty rounds td himself and went back to sit on the bottom step of the port ladder. The big spaceship — dented a bit but lovely — simmered quietly in Procyon*s inviting light and the brook rippled and Ole Doc kepi casting for whatever outrageous kind of fish he might find in that stream. This went on for an hour and then two things happened. Ole Due, unaware of the Force Field, cast into it and got his fly back into his hat and a young woman eamc stumbling | panic-stricken t across the meadow toward the Morgue. From amongst the stalk's of flowers some forty feet high emerged an Earth man t thick and dark, wearing the remains of a uniform to which had -been added civil space garb, T-3 e rushed for- ward a dozen meters before he paused in stride at the apparition i

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of the huge golden ship with its emblazoned crossed ray rods of pharmacy. Then he saw Ole Doc nshing and the pursuer thrust a helmet up from a, contemptuous grin. It was nearer to Oie Doc than to the ship arid the girl, exhausted and disarrayed, stumbled toward him* The Earth tram swept wide and put Ole Doc exactly between himself and the ladder before he came in. Hippocrates turned from page forty-time to page one hundred and fifteen. He leaped nimbly up to the top of the ship in the hope of shooting the Earth man on an angle which would miss Ole Doc, But he had no snore tlian arrived and sighted be lore it became apparent to him that he would also now shoot the girl. This puzzled him, Ob- viously ihe girl was not an enemy who would harm Ole Doc. But the Earthman was. Still it was better to blast girl anfl Earthman than to see Ole Doc harmed in any cause. The effort at recalling an exact in- stance made Hippocrates tremble and in that tremble Ole Doc also came into his tire tieJd, Having no warnings whatever, Ole Doc had just looked up from disentangling his hook from first his shirt and then his thumb and beheld two humans cannonading down upon him. The adrenal *»ndition of the woman was due to the Earthman, that was clear. The Earthman was obviously a blast- lor-hire from some tough astral slum and he had re- cently had a right tor two knuckles bied. The girl threw herself in a collapse at Ole Doc's .feet and-tbe Earthman came within a fatal fif- teen feet. Ole Doc twitched his wrist and put his big- hooked fly into tlie upper lip of the Earth ma n. This disap- pointed Ole Doc a little for he liad been trying for the no*c+ The beg- gar was less hypo-thyroid rban he had first estimated. Pulling his game-fish beslowin^ into the stream, Ole Doc disarmed him and let him have a ray barrel just back of the medulla oblongata — -which took cure oi the lei low nicely. Hippocrates lowered hjmVcf with disappointed grunts down to the ladder. At bis master's hand dgnal he fame forth with 'wo ticcdies, filled, sterilized and a wailing only a touch to break their ^raK and be- come useful. Into the gluteal nms-i'le — through clothes and all because Oi sterilizing radiation of the point — Doc gave the Earthman the contents of needle one. At the jab the fellow had squirmed a little and the doctor lifted one eyelid. "You are a stone!1* saiH Ole Doc, "You can't move." The Earthmrkii lay motionless, wide-eyed1 being a stone. Hippoc- rates carefully noted the time with the fact in order to remind his master to let the fellow ^top being a stone some time. Hut hi noting the time, Hippocrates found that It was six minutes :n rhirjy-six o'clock and there u>rr nine for a much more important thing — Ole Doc's own medicine. Brusquely, Hippocrates grabbed !9TOTJ»DlN(J &CtKNCE-J?_rCTIOH

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V > Up the unconscious girl and waded back across the stream with her* The girl could wait. Thirty-six o'clock was thirty-six o 'clock* "Hold up l" said Ole Doc, needle po iaed . Hippoc rates grunted and kept on walking. He went directly into the main operating room of the Morgue '- and there amidst the cleverly jam tiied hodgepodge of trays and ray tubes, drawers, m;isks, retorts and reflccTors. htr iniccrrmoniously dropped the girl. Monoiuiuded now, for this concerned his master — - and where the rest of the world could go if it interfered with his master was a thing best expressed in silence — Hippocrates laid out the serum and the proper rays. Humbly enough the master bared his arm and ihen exposed himself — does he fore a fireplace on a -cold day — to the pouring out of life from the ftscd tubes. It took only five minutes. It had to * he done every five days. Satisfied now, Hippocrates boosted the jjirl into a propar po- sition for medication on the center table and adjusted a lamp or two fussily, meanwhile admiring his master's touch with the needle. Ole Doc was smiling smiling with a strange poignancy. She was a very pretty girl, neatly made, small wristedj hi^h h resisted. Her tumbling crown of liair was like an avalanche of fire in the operating lights. Her lips were very soft, ttkely to be yielding; to — "Father!" she screamed in sudden consciousness "Father !" OLI> r>or MUTHl'SELAE Ole Doc looked perplexed, of-" fended. But then he saw that she did not know where she was. Her wild glare speared both master and thing. "'Where is my father "TP "We don't rightly know, imam" said Ole Doc. * You just—" "He's out there. They shot ou?" ship down. He's dying" or dead! Help him!" Hippocrates looked at master and master nodded. And when the ser- vant left the ship it was with a hound 30 swift that it rocked the Mor&iie a little. He was only a meter talk was 1 Tippoe rates, but he weighed nearly five hundred ktlos. Uehind him came Ole Doe. hut their speeds were so much at vari- ance that he to re the physician could reach the tall flowers, Hippocrates was back through them carrying a man stretched out on a Compartment door wrench ed from its strong hinges for the purpose. That was pajje ei^ht of "First Aid in Spaced not to wrestle people around but to put them on flat things, Man and door weighed nearly as much as Hippocrates but he wanted no help. " 'Lung burns," said Hippocrates, "are very difficult; to heal and most usually result in death. When the heart is also damaged, particular care should he taken to move the patient as little as possible since exertion — Ote Doc listened to, without heeding the high, squeaky singsong Walking beside the girl's father. Ole Hoc was not so sure. He felt a twinge of pity for the old man. He was proud of facc^ 9

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her father, gray of hair and very high and noble of brow. He was a big man, the kind of a man who would think big thoughts and fight and die for ideals. The doctor beheld the seared Stains, the charred fabric, the blasted flesh which now composed the all of the man's chest. The bloody and gruesome scene was not a thing; for a young girl's eyes* even under disinterested circumstances— -and a hypo would only do so much. He stepped to the port and waved a hand back to the main salon, There was a professional imperii ousiiGss about it which thrust her along wtth invisible force. Out of her sight now, Ole Doc allowed Hippocrates to place the body on the multi Grayed operating table, Under the gruesome flicker of ultraviolet, the wounded man looked even nearer death. The meters on the wall counted respiration and pulse and hemoglobin and all needles hovered in red while the big dial, whh exaggerated and inexorable calm, swept solemnly down toward black. "HeTfl be dead in ten minutes/' said Ole Doc. He looked at the face, the high forehead, the brave contours, "He'll be dead and Adam's breed is E^one enough to seed." At the panel , the doctor threw six switches and a great arc be^arl to glow and snap like a hungry beast amid the batteries of tubes. A dynamo wl lined to a mined scream and then another began to growl Ozone and brimstone bit 3* the nostrils. The table was pooled in smoky light. The injured man's clothing van- ished and with small tinks bits of metal dropped against the floor — coins, buckles, shoe nails. Hoc tripped another line of switches and a third motor com- menced to yell. The light about the table graduated from blue up to unseen black. The great hole in the charred el i est be^an to ^low white]y. The beating heart which had been laid liare by the original weapon slowed, sin wed d slowed^ With a final twitch of his wrist, Doc cut out the first stages and made bis gesttsre to Hippocrates. That one lifted off the top tray which bote the man and, holding it balanced with one hand, opened a gravelike vault. There were lon^, green tubes glowing in the vault and the feel of swirling gases. Hippocrates slid the tray along the grooves and clanged the door upon it. Doc stood at the board for a little while, leaning a little against the force held which protected him from stray or glancing ray*, and then sighing a weary sigh, evened the glittering line. Normal light and air came back into the operating room and the salon door slid auto- matically open. The girl stood there, lense ques- tion in her every line, fear digging naita into palms. Doc put on a professional smile. "There is a very fair chance that we may save him. Miss — " .^Elston." A ST O lj K D I NO ?f:iENCE-PICTION

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'*A \c.t fair chance. Fifty- fifty." "But what are you doing now?" she demanded. Doc would ordinarily have given a rough time 10 anyone else: who had dared to ask him that. But lie fell somehow summery as he; gazed at her. "All ] tan. Miss Ebtoii/1 "Then he'll soon he well?11 "Why . . . ah , , , that depends, Yon see. well — " ] Low was he going to i ell her that what he vir- tually- needed was a whole new man. And how cot J Id he explain that professional ethics required one to forego the expedience of kidnaping and murder, no matter how vital it might seem. For what does one do with a heart split in two and & lung torn open wide when they are filled with foreign matter and ever- burning rays unless it is to get a new chest entire ? "We'll have to try/1 he said, 1 He'll he all right for now . , , for •a months or more perhaps. He is in no pain, will have no memory of this and if he is ever cured, will be c u red entirely. The devil of it is , Miss El t ton, ineti always advance their weapons aljout a thousand rears ahead of medical science, tlnx then, we'll try. We'll try." Ann die way she looked at him then made it really summer. "Even . , /* she said hesitantly, "evei=. i: yon are so young, 1 have all the confidence in the universe in you. doctor/' That startled Qte Doc. He hadnJt been patronized that . way for a long, long time. But mote impor- tant — he glanced into the mirror, over the iahTe. He looked more closely. WelL he did look voting. Thirty, maybe. And a glow began to creep up over him. and as he looked hack to her and i saw her cascading glory of hair and the sweetness of her )~ace — ' ' M a si er tb, ict o r 1 " int er rupted the unwelcome Hippocrates. +lThe Earth man is gone/' '. >1o Doc i?t;tTL.id out t he ] 'Or I and saw thin twirls of smoke arising from the charred and hi as led grass. The Earth man was gone all right, and very much gone for good. But one boot remained, "Looks/' said Ole Doc, "like we've got some opposition/' "We were proceeding to Junc- tion City" said the girl, "when a group of men shot down our ship and attacked 11s/ Doc picked a thoughtful tooth for the fish he had caught had been excellent - — ■ deep-fried. Southern style. He felt benign, chivalrous. Summer was in full bloom. He was thinking harder about her hair than about her narrative. Robbery and banditry on the space ways were not new* particularly on such a little inhabited planet as Spico, hut the thoughts which v 5 sited him had not been found in his rntnd for a long long tlme^ She made a throne room ■ of the tiny dining salon and Doc harked back to lonely days in cold space, on hostile and uninviting planets, and the woman-hunger which comes. "Did you tee any of them ?" he asked only to hear bei voice again. 11

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I ,+l didn't need to/* she said. The tone she took startled Ole Doc. Had he been regarding this from the viewpoint of Volume 16 of Klote's standard work on human psychology he would have realized tilt predicament into which with those words he liad launched him- self. Tbirleen hundred years ago a chap named Mai lory had written a hook about knight errantry, it had unhappily faded from Ok Doc's mind, '-Miss Elston," he said, "i£ you' know the identity ot the band then perhaps something can be doneT al- though I do not see what you could possibly gam merely by bringing tli em to the Bar ot Hie Space Council." Hippocrates was lumbering back and forth a? the buffet clearing away the remains of the meaL He was quoting singsong; under his breath trie code oi the Soldiers of Light, " It shall he unlawful for any medical official to engage in politi- cal activities ot any kind, to in- volve lit nine If with law, nr in short aid or abet the causes, petty feuds, personal vengeances . . / " Ole Doc did not hear hitu. The music of venu s was in Miss Klston's voice. "Why T told you about the box, doctor: it contains the deed to this planet and more important than that it has the letter which my father was bringing here to restrain his partner from selling off parcels of land at Junction City. Oh doctor, can't you understand how cruel it is to these people. More than ten thousand of theni have come here with all the savings they have in the universe to buy land in the - hope that they can profit by its re- sale to the Procy on-Sir in s 55 pace- ways. "When my lather. Judge Alston, first became interested in this scheme it was because h had Ijeen brought to his a tt en lion hy a Cap- tain Biauchard wing livmc to us at our home near New York and told us that he had nrhau in forn union that Spico was completely neces- sary to the J'rocyon-Sirius S pace- ways as a slop-over point and that it would be oi immense value. No- body kuewT except some officials in the company , according to Captain Blanchard. and my father was led to believe that Oiptam lllancbard had an excellent reputation and that the in formation was entirely cor- rect. "Blanc hard came to £]jico *ome time ago and laid out the necessary landing fields and subdivided Junc- tion City using my father's name and money. lie circulated illus- trated folders everywhere setting forth the opportunities of business and making the statement ihat the Space ways would shortly begin their own installation. Thousands and thousands of people came here in the hope either of settling and beginning a new life or ot" prod ting in the boom which would result. Blanchard sold them land still u&ing my father's name. "A short while ago my father learned from officials of the com- pany that a landing field was rot necessary here due to a new type ASTOUNDING SC 1 O tf-FI Cf I ON

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of propulsion motor which made a stop-over unnecessary. He learned also that Captain Blanchard had been involved in blue skys specu- lations on Alpha Cemauri. He visio-graphed ftlanehard and told him to eea,se all operations imme- diate Jy and to refund all money, saying that he, Judge Alston, would absorb any loss occasioned ifi the matter, Elanchard told him that it was a good scheme and was making money and that he didn't intend to refund a dime of it. He also said that if my father didn't want himself exposed as a crook he would have to stay out of it. Blanchard reminded him that only the name of Elston appeared on all literature and deeds and that the entire scheme had obviously been conceived by my father. Then he threatened to kill my father and we have been unable to gel in enntact with him since, "I begged my father to expose Blanchaxd to the Upper Council but he said he would have to wash his own dirty linen. Immediately afterwards we came up here. He tried to leave me behind but X was terrified that something would hap- pen to him and so I would not stay home, "My father had the proof that the Procyon-Sirius Space ways would not build their field here It was in that box. Bbnchard has kept good his threat. He attacked us, he stole the evidence,, and now — " she began to sob suddenly at the thought of her father lying there in that harshly glittering rOgin so dose to death. Hippocrates 14 phoisograph-recoixl-wi^e was be- ginning the code all over again, ** "It shall be unlawful for any medical officer to engage in political activities of any kind, to involve himself with law, or in short aid or abet the causes, petty feuds, persona! vengeances . . .* ** Hut Ole Dors eyes were on her hair and his mind wa^ roaming' back to other days. Almost ab- sently he dropped a minute capsule in her water glass and told her to drink it. Soon she was more com- posed, "Even, if you could save my father's life, doctor," she. said, "it wouldn't do any good. The shock of this scandal would kilt hi in," Ole Doc hummed absently and put his hands behind his head. Hi 3 black silk dressing gown rustled. His youthful^ eyes drifted inwards. He thrust his furred hoots Out he- fore him. The humming slopped. He sat up. His fine surgeon's hands doubled into fists and with twin ■ blows upon the table he propelled himself to his feet. "Why j there is nothing more simple than this. All we have to do is. find this Blanch a rd, t ake I lie evidence away from him, tell the" people that they've been swindled, give them back their money, put your father on his feet and every- thing will "be all right The entire mess will be straightened Out in jig time." He beamed fondly upon her. And then, with an air of aplomb began to pour fresh wine, lie had half -filled the second glass when abrupt realization startled ASTOUNDING SC I 3BN0 >: ■ F I C T 1 0 N

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him so that he spilled a great gout of wine where it lay like a puddle; of blood on the snowy doth. But across from him sat his ladye faire and now that he had couched his lance and found himself face to face with an enemy, even the thought of the shattered and black- ened remains of the Earthman did not drive him back. He smiled re- assuringly and patted her hand. Her eyes were jewels in the amber light. Junction City was all turmoil, dust and hope, There were men there who had made a thousand dollars yesterday, who had made two thousand dollars this morning, and who avidly dreamed of making five thousand before night. Lots were being bought and sold with such giddy rapidity that no one could keep trace of their value. Several battered tramp spaceships which had brought pioneers and their effects lay about the space- port. Rumors, all of them, confi- dent, all of them concerning profit banged about the streets like bullets. Smug, hard and ruthless, Ed- ouard Elanchard sat under the awning- of the Comet Saloon. Hia agate eyes were fixed upon a newly arrived ship, a gold-colored ship with crossed ray rods upon her nose. He looked up and down the crowded dusty street where space hoot trod on leather hrogan and pkuce-silk rustled on denim* Men and women from a hundred planets were there. Men of hundreds of races and creeds were there with past? as checkerboard as history OXn TifK- M l:Tlir PET, AB itself, yet bound together by a common anxiety to profit and build a world anew. It mattered nothing to Edouard Blanchard that bubbles left human wreckage in their wake, that on his departure all available buying power for this planet would go as well, Ten thousand per.-oiit. whose only crime had been hope, would be consigned to grubbing without fi- nance, tools, or imported food for a questionable living on a small orb bound on a forgotten ir;:ck in space. Such concerns rarely trouble the consciences of the Edouard Blanch - ardsn The agate eyes fastened upon an ambling; Martian named lJ>aru who with his mask to take out forty pcrccnt of trie oxygen from this atmosphere and so permit him to breathe, looked hkc some badly con- ceived and infinitely evil gnome "Dart," said tflancbard, ;take a run over to that medical ship and find out what a Soldier of Light is doing in a place like this." The Martian fumbled with his mask and then uneasily hefted his blaster belt. He squirmed and wriggled as though some commu- nication of great importance had met a dam halfway up to the sur- face. Blan chard stared at him. "Well? Go! What are vou waiting for?" Dart squirmed until a small red haze of dust stood about his boots. "I've always been faithful to you, captain, I ain't never sold you out to nobody. I'm honest, that's what I am." His dishonest eyes wriggled IK

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upwards until they reached the level of Elanchard's collar. ISlanehard came upright. There was a sadistic stir in his hands* Under ibis compulsion Dart wilted and his voice from a \ icious whine t hanked to a monotonous wail : '"That was rhe ship Miss Elston ran to. I'm an holiest Mian and I ain't going to teH you no different." . f*But you said she escaped and I've had twelve men searching for her, Dart, why couldn't you have (old me Ellis?" "'I just rhought she'd rly away and i hat would he ah there was to it. I didn't think she'd come back. Rut you ain't got nothing to be feared of. Captain El an chard. No Soldier ol~ Light am monkey with politics. The Universal Medical Council won t interfere." Captain Blanch ard's handst long, thin, twisted anew as though they were wrapping themselves around the sinews in Dart's body and snap- ping them out one by one. He restrained the motion and sank hack, ' You know I'm your Iriend, Dart, You know T wouldn't do anything ro hurt you. You know it's only those who oppose my will whom I . . . shall I say, remove. You know that you are safe enough." "Oh yes, Captain Blanchard, I know you are my friend. I ap- preciate it. You don't know how 1 appreciate it, I'm an honest man and I don't mind saying so." "And you'll always be honest, won't you, Dart i1" said Blanc.hard, white 1 lands twitching;. He smiled. From a deep pocket he extracted first a long knife with which he regularly pared his nails, then a thick sheaf of money t and finally amongst several deeds, a commu- nication which Mr. I Alston had been attempting to bring to Spico. Re read it through in all its ilanumig certainty, It said lhal vhe IVucy Oil- Si rius Space ways would not use thi* planet. Then, striking a match to li^ht a cigar he touched it to the document and idly watched it hum. The last flaming fragment was suddenly hurled at ihe A Ionian. ,l1rjm UV >u»d Blanrhard. "'and (hid out what you can. Tf JVIiss Klsion chines away from thai ship nn:. it c ended, si e that she never goes hack to ir. And uiakt' wry certain, my honest friend, th:d the Soldier r,n chat ship doesn't fmd om anything.1' Hut before Dart had m. mvc rhan beaten out the fire on the <kirt of his coat a youthful pleasant voice addressed thcnL I Hahc hard hastily smoothed out his hands, veiled his eyes, and with js smile which he supposed to he wi tilling faced the speaker. Ole Docf having given them his "good morning, continued guile- lessly as though he had nor heard a thing, "My, what a beau li in J prospect you have here. If I could only Bud the man who sells the lots—" l'ilanchard stood up instantly and grasped Doc Methuselah by the hand which he pumped with enor- mous enthusiasm, "Well you've come to the right place, stranger, I am Captain isianchard and very ASTOUNDING ACTFSCK-P) l?T 1UN *

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pleased to make vour aquaintance Mrt— " **Oh3 Captain Bl&nchard, I have heard a great deal about you,-' said Olc Doc. his blue eyes very inno- rent, "It is a wonderful thing you d^ing heiv. Making alf ihcse people rich and happy/' "Oh, not my doing' 1 assure. yOuK" said Captain Ulan chard, "This project wits stiirttid by a Mr. Els ton of Xew York City, Karth. T am but bis ay cue trying in my smalt way to carry out his orders." He freed his liafid and swept it to take it) the dreary, dusty, and be i ra- chitic; red prospect. '* Happy* happy people." he said, HfQhT you don't know what pleasure it gives me lo see little homes bein^ created and small families being placed in the way of great riches. You don't know." Very affectedly he ga*cd down at the dirt as though to. let tears of happiness splash into it undetected. However, no tears splashed. After a little he recovered him- self enough to say, "We have only- two lots left and they are a thousand dollars apiece," Olc; Doc promptly dragged two bills from bis breast pocket and banded them <h'cv. If he was sur- prised at this swift method of doing business. Captain BlrmeEiard man- aged to again master his emotion, lie quickly escorted Ole Doc to the clapboard shack which served as the city hall so that the deeds could he properly recorded. As they entered the flimsy struc- ture u tall prepossessing; individual stopped Blanch a rd and held him in momentary converse concerning a program to put schools into effect. Ole DocT eying the man estimated him as idealistic but stupid. He waa not particularly surprised wh(-i« Blanchard introduced him as Mi: Zoran. the mayor of Junction City. TTcre± thought Ole IJoc. is the 1 fall £uy when Blanch [ird clears out. "I'm very glad to make your acquaintance Mr.—" said Mayor Zoran. "And I vours,"' said Ole Hoc. "It must be quite an honor to have ten thousand people so completely dependent upon your judgment/* Mayor Zuran swelled slightly, "[ find it a heavy but honorable trust, sir. There is nothing I would not do for our good citizens. You may tall? of empire builders, sir, but in the future you cannot nmh mention of these tine beings who make up our population in Junction City, We have kept the riffraff to a minimum, sir. We are families, husbands, wives, small children. We are deter mi ned, sirt to make this an Rden/' He nodded at this happy thought, smiled. "To make this an Edc:n wherein we all mav prosper, for with the revenue of the Space ways flooding through our town, and with our Own work in the fields to raise its supplies, and with (he payroll of the atomic plant which Captain 7-JMancbard assures us wilt begin to be buih within a mouth wc may look forward tc? long, happy and prosperous lives/1" Ole Doc looked across the bleak plain. A two-year winter would come to Spico soon, a winter In which no food could be raised. He 17

Page 18

looked at Mayor Zoraiu "I trust, sir, that you have reserved some of your capital against possible emergen cies, emergencies such as food, or the cost of relief expedi- tions coming here*" Captain Rlanchard masked a * Startled gleam which had leaped into his agate eyes. "T am sure that there is no need for that/' he said. Mayor Zoran's head shook away any thought of such a need, "If land and building materials have been expensive,1' he said, "I am sure there will be more money in the community as soon as the Space- ways representatives arrive, and there is enough food now for three weeks. By the way," he said, turn- ing to B Ian chard, "didn't you tell me that today was the day the officials would come here?*' Blanchard caught and hid his hands, "Why; my dear mayor," he said, "there are always shght delays, These bi^ companies, you know, officials with many things on their minds, today, tomorrow, un- _ doubted! y sometime this week." Mayor Zoran was reassured and shaking hands with Ole Doc and Captain Blanchard strode off into the street where he made a small profession of his progress. People stopped him here and there and asked him eagerly for news. Inside at the desk a small sleepy clerk woke up long enough to get out' his records book, but, before the transaction could be begun, Ole Doc took back the two one thousand dollar bills. "There are two or three things ■ is which I would [ike to know/' said Ole Doc innocently. "I wonder if there are going to be schools?" "Oh yes, of course*" said Blanch- ard. "1 didn't know that you were a family man." "And will there be medical facili- ties?" said Ole Doc, "Why yes, just this morning a ship of the Universal Medical Society landed here... It won't be long before they stare work on the hospitals." ' But," said Ole Doc smoothly, *'the Universal Medical Society does only research and major planning. Certainly they would not take cog- nizance of Spico." . "Well now, I wouldn't he too sure," said Captain Blanchard. "And besides we have the usual common run of physicians here, three of them." Ole Doc repressed his **hiunphv at this and smiled, 111 Well, I sup- pose you know more about it than J do*" he said. "Hut what about your water supply? Ts it adequate ?hJ Here Captain blanchard began to assume his most expansive and guileless pose and would have car- ried on for tiome time a!) out the excellence of the water supply if Ole Doc had not interrupted him. "You say you have three reser- ^ voirs already. Now, are these community owned or would it be possible to buy them?" Captain H lane hard had not ex- petted that mortrimj that his stars would arise so luckily. His thin white hands bejjan io twitch as though al ready plucking gold from the pockets of his victim, "But ASTOUNDING fcCmNCl? l ICTlOt*

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this would require/' said Captain Blanchard, "a great deal of money. Yea indeed, a great deal of money." Ole Doc smiled as though this were an easy matter. "For the. water company/' he said, "I would lxj willing to pay a very reasonable amount.1' The sleepy clerk: was sleepy no longer,- His eyes widened. Here he was observing; the captains of industry at work. "For, let us say± twenty thousand dollars," said Ole Doc, +'l would be willing — " "My dear felluw/' said HI an eh - ardf "Twenty thousand dollars would not be enough to buy tbe piping system which we have in- stalled.1" Ole Doc shrugged. "Theft I suppose that's all there is to it/' he said. Captain Blanchard's hands did a particularly spasdomk bit of twitch- ing. "Oh no it isn't," he said, "oh no indeed. I'm ail re I hat we might be ahle to conic tu some sort of an understanding on this. Ah . . t perhaps forty thousand dollars — MNo, twenty thousand dollars Is all the cash J have," said Ole Doch "Why then this is very simple ; if you give us your note of band for, let us say. twenty thousand1 dollars at proper interest and cash to the sum of twenty thousand dollars, we can arrange the matter right here., I have the ]>ower of attorney you know to sign for all these things for Mr. Elston." "Done/ said Ole Doc, and felt himself seized immediately by the eager Blan chard who pumped his DOC MJSTnUSF5L.ATJ hand so hard that be nearly broke the wrist bones. The clerk was now thoroughly pop-eyed. And he whs all thumbs and blots as he attempted to make out the papers for the transaction. But finally his difficulties were dispensed with and Ole Doc, signing tbe name of William Jones and paying across the proper sums and notes found himself the possessor proud owner and manager of the water works of Junction City, BlatH-bard seamed to be anxious to depart immediately and left Ole Doe to his own devices. For some hours tbe doctor wandered through the city looking in at the temporary dwellings^ watching men Struggle to raise out of second- baud materials livable "or usable establishments. Ho patted children on the head, diagnosed to himself various dis- eases and deformities, and was generally a Haroun al ftachid, Hope was the prevailing emotion and there was not a man there who did not consider himself a potential millionaire lo such a degree that they were giving each other notes of hand payable thirty days hence to .enormous sums. But so far as actual cash was concerned, from what Ole Doc could glean, there remained but a few dollars in tbe whole town. The rest, he correctly judged was safely drowned in the depths of Edouard I > lan chard's safe. The town was restricted be- tween a river and a ridge and every inch of ground between these natu- ral boundaries was deeded to some- one other than Kdotiard Blanchard ID

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■ as OJe Doc, later in the afterriLvon, ascertained after a short session yvitji the clerk. He was forced to waken the cleric several times during his inspection of the hooks. That ^entJeinan waii happily asleep when some of the ledger a riot £cnc rally opened were closely inspected. Ok Doc stood in the sunlight for a while, thoughtful, barely avoiding a blaster rii^hi which broke out in a swill pavlor+ Finally lie understood that Edouard Blancbard probably intended to leave the area for good before another dawn came, Ole Doc liad for some time been aware of shadowing o f the Morgue. But before he went back to hi? ship he decided to take an unutua! step. This did not c our lime many mi n uteri for there wdn or.ty Eivc space vessels in the crude vitjl't anrt

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all oi these bad come from niort: or less regular runs amongst known systems. His business transacted he went bade to the golden vessel. That evening, rH ier a pleasant tl inner over which Miss Elstou graciously presided, 0]e Doc and Hippocrates lest ihe -diip on an expedition. They hurl reached ihe bottom of the ladder when Ole Doc turned to his slave. ■'Hippocrates, over :hei-e on the left you iH'hnlr! some trees, Under ill cm yon will ft ml a Martian. \ ou wMl make a wide circuit and i-mw up upon hi jit while 1 detract his attention from in trow. Whhout injury to the fellow y.m will hold him and matte- mm pri-mt^r. We will then put him aw;iy -aiHy hi the Morgue and ^o ;i1j-jih *mr busmen." Dart, squirming anil ^milrii'riiij* n little hit ici vhe cold, and jjerhnps with a prennnsilion tluit lie should not expect the evening 10 deliver anything S>nt evil, suddenly ielt Slims elf struck sulidly and expertly from behind. As he went down he half drew a hi aster hut There was no chance to use h. Dreaming peacefully of hi* beloved canals be was carried kick to ihe ship arid consigned to an escape- proof com- partnicnt. In a businesslike way ^hen Hippo- Crates picked .ip his burden and trudged after Ok Hoc around rhe outskirts of jthe rown loward The higher level of groin i where the river had keen diverted nito three reservoirs which provider! the water supply, Hippocrates was under a double burden, the sack which he carried on his back and the burden which lay in his mind. As they made their way through the night, the heavy little being shaking the solid ground of Spico with every step nn matter how light he intended it and Ole Doc regarding ihe stars with a musing eye, Hipjxicrates rattled oft the code from start to finish. Then he began again. Soon, newer arguments for sanity oc- curred to him and and he started to uuote at length : On Woman The stronger the woman 'The safer the man As he ventures afar On the Spares that span For love may be lovely ftt summer's soft haze And days may be ssweter When fond passions blaze tint far out on Astri With light frying hot Adventure can't live IV hen there's naught in the pot tier sweet curling ringlets Can't warm you at night And the dew tn her eyes May but tend you to fight Not Take woman stronger Then Vega's bright blare For then yon live longer Yea, hve to get there} (Tales of ihe Space Rangers) Hippocrates finished this quota- tion with considerable satisfaction

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it hidi lasted only long enough to see that Ole Doc hadn't even heard it. He glumly subsided, despairing for there was no mistaking the elasticity of Ole Doc's step, nor the softness of his eye. It was a beautiful night* Spico's several moons matte the ground iridescent and played in triangular patterns upon the reservoirs. Ole Doc was very cheerful. "Now there/' he said* "dump a third of that sack in each one of these and back- we'll £o." It was not until now that Hippo- crates gave way to the most gloomy forebodings. He had seen Ole Doc busy with his tubes. He had seen this white powder gushing out into the sacks but he had not associated it with the population of junction City. Even if his reasoning powers might be feeble it took no great effort on his part to see that Ole Doc fully intended to poison every per- son there, Hippocrates hesitated* He was trembling, so great was the effort to disobey Ole Doc. He had no conversation to match his feelings about this. He could only look mutely r appeal ingly, and stand still. "Go ahead." said Ole Doc. And then, focusing more closely upon his slave he suddenly realized that that being was considerably afraid. Hippocrates tried to begin the Universal Medical Code once more hut failed. *■ Although it greatly taxed his strength Ole Doc picked up the bag and began the task himself. The white powder went instantly into solution and one could see it spread- ing far oat across the reset voir in the moonlight. When he. bad treated alJ three of the repositories he gave the empty sack back to Hippocrates/ Such was the manner of the giving that Ole Doc's an^er was clearly demonstrated in it. All the way hack to the Morgue Hippocrates lagged behind t head heavy against his harrel chest T gyp- sum tear* dripping slowly onto hi* doublet. It wa> the first time Ole Doc had ever been angry with him. The strains of various instru- ments and occasional shouts came on the night wind from the more lawless quarter of Junction City. Closer ax hand camp fire burned and about it clustered the flame- bathed >"a<;cs of piuiK^rs. Thuv ustened to a faint and plaintive Magri song which hung rwer them like some sad ghost of ui^ht, Ole Doc passed close to the group but paused to listen to the woman who ?ang. In his present mood ht could understand the notes if not the words oi the melody. . They called before his eyes the cascades of bright hair which he supposed waited for him over at the Morgue. A wind was blowing softly from Spico's white plains but there was a chili in it and those about the fire huddled closer. They listened in deeper silence. An eager- faced voting Earth man noticed Doc and made way for him in the circle. Doc stumbled against the hydrant which studded this as well as every other lot in Junction City. These people had no home he observed nor lumber with which APTOrS'mNfl SCIFHCK-PICTION

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to build one. They were living instead on the bare ground using r blanket screens to protect their dressing. There were several child- ren sprawled even now outside the ring; and one of them whimpered and a woman went to h. The son^ was done and the young man offering his tobacco to Qle Doc said with a smile ot earner ad- erie, "Where's your lot strati ger? Close by?" "Pretty close," said Ole Doc. "Bow many in your party?" said the young man. "Just myself and a slave." A woman near by leaned over with a laugh, "Wetl> a young fellow like you," she said, "is goin^ to need help when it comes to putting his house together. Why don't you come and help us and then when you get ready we'll help you?'' The young man laughed, several flf the others joining in. "That's a fair bargain," he said, doc met *r> r* ah joined in. "Well, according to Captain Blanch a rdT that atomic power plant should be going up any day now and then we'll all have work, H we don*t build a palace first oft, why I guess that can wait for a while. A solid roof is all I ask. This one we got now leaks/' He looked up at the. stars. They all laughed and the old man who had just suoken, finding the strain loo much for him began to cough. He did so alarmingly, as though at any moment he would spray his sou) out on the ground before him. Ole Doc watched7 eyes narrowed, suddenly professional. He stood up. r+You watit to watch these cold nights old man," said Doc. He fumbled through his jwekets hut it was Hippocrates behind him who found what he sought. The small black kit had been stowed in his boot pocket. Ole Doc took it out now and selected from it a very small but extremely potent pitL He skirted the fire and gave it to the old mam "Take this and youTl feel better/1 There was some question in the eyes about him and consider able reluctance on the part of the oEd . man. For all beware the unhappy human frailty of trying to adminis- ter to everyone else's diseases, "Go ahead," said Ole Doc, "Via a physician/1 ' The old man took the pill then and swallowed it, "That -ought to cute you in ati hour or so," said Ole DocN "And if you keep yourself dry and warm

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year asthma shouldn't be coming back o« you very soon/1 There was renewed attention ahoui the circle. "Well, by Saturn," said the old man, ant{ry with En himself tu The realisation that it was he himsel f who was at fault for he ha* I never attempted to educate I-IippuerriLt?s into ill— trigue. Tie duuhttri lIlsil anyone, eouki possibly impiv.^ upuji the fellow that Ole Doc c+niM r-r \yoiild do anything which could run be published on every visio-^cretn in the ^alaMy, True, there had been Some peccadillos ii; the pat-t but this was before the time oE Hippo- cratesT However, for all his good intentions, he could not bring him- se ll to address the slave in friendly tciiu^ and so walked on harshly ahead of him. Hippocrates, disconsolate, out- cast the second time dropped far behi nd and finally sat down on a stuue beside the path to try to exude his misery into the night and so be rid of it. Ey himself Ole Doc reached the shin. He was all the way into the. dining salon before he Fully recog- nized the fact tliat it was empty. Miss Klstoti was gone. f At first lie thought she might have gone out. to take a turn In the night but then the piece of paper* VST ou n 01 x g , ar: i ?: is'f : k- v i o^ 10 k

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icy white on the salon tableT told Jiim this was rot the case. It was in Miss Els ton's handwriting. 1*1 ease not try to tind m<? rOf conse for Hie, T am doing tins of niy own accord and 1 have no wish to f^t you into trouble knowing very TvtL)l that you ^qiiM be cast om of your society tor engaging in political att"airs- Ajicia Elston Qle Doc read it tli rough twice, trembling. Then throwing if sav- agely into the comer be dashed to the cabinet where he had en closed Dart. Thai worthy was gone, be- latedly he beihoti£ln himself that the Martian mi-ht well have had his pocket radin jilionei concealed about him* The cabinet containing; EJston, being unknown, was. of course, undisturbed. From a locker Ole Doc grabbed a blaster, fifty rounds and a medical case. Still buckling it on he tan across the field where the Morgue stood. He headed straight "or The building where he had that day seen Etlanchard, Blanc hard's white hands fluttered in the night gesticulating before the face of the tramp rocketship cap- tain. Now they threatened, now they pleaded* now they nibbed thumb against fi tigers m 1 ne uioney sign but whatever tlicy did The hard bitten old master of the spaceship remained adamant. ! Jart squirmed arid wriggled nerv- ously as he regarded the odds in ibe form of five armed spacemen which they* faced. ^ old »oc MErnrjiTJT. »n The captain stood sturdily on the lower step of the air lock and grimly shook his head. "Nof Mr. Blanch- ard, T Can't do anything like that. J £0.tta yella ticket, I tell ye. 1 can't clear until jTs turned white by him that wrote it." "But I tell you again and again," cried Blanchard, "that I can get a ■ physician here in Junction City who'll give you a white ticket that will get you through any planetary quarantine you face." "Naw sir t you ainNt no regular port and if there's disease to he carried 1 ain*t carryin' it. Na&tth- 4B(7 can make me go up against a yella ticket signed by a Soldier of Light." Sudden intelligence shot through Blanc hard7s face. His hands stiff- ened, clenched. "How can this be? When did it happen?" +iju#t afore sundown, Mr. Blanch- ard. He come here and he give me the ticket and he give everybody else the same yella ticket. And while he didu+t say wp/ disease, and while he didn't even say there <zvas disease a yella- ticket from a Soldier of Light is good enough for me. I don't go nowhere and I don't take you nowhere, and there*s no use askin* it cause ITd make myself and my crew an outlaw for all the rest o f my days i f I was to do it, There ain't no planetary port anywhere in the galaxy that'd receive us with a yella ticket from him." Anger displayed the extent of Blanch ardTs defeat, "I can show you there is no disease," he cried wildly. Then, bethinking him sell that a more proper frame of mind

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would bettor suit his ends he calmed. "How could yon get rid of such a tiling as a yellow ticket ? Sup- posing the Soldier of Light him- self were to be stricken by the disease? Supposing he were to die r Then what ? Supposing any number of things happened? Supposing Junction City burned down? Sup- posing, well, yotl can't stand there and leli me that van would then refuse to leave-" "Oh, that would he different, Mr. BEanchard, But them conditions ain't nowise appeared. While there's a Soldier of Light alive and well and as Icing as I holds his yella ticket I don't go no place, There's no use offering bribes and there's no use using threats. / ain't going!** The space door shut with a clang. If Elfin chard's eyes had been acetelvne torches they would have cut it neatly through but they were not. He and Dart followed by three outlaws, who carried amongst them a quantity of baggage and a peculiarly i^lsy chest, made their way back towards the Comet Saloon. They bad not gone nearer than the outskirts o£ the town when they encountered two pioneers at one of the innumerable water hydrants which Wan chard bad used as props to give stability to 1 is swindle. They had just drunk when one of I hem said, in a sour voice, "Look at that sky. Coin' to rain, all right." T>1 an chard glanced up. The fine brilliance of the stars was rot marred by a single cloud anywhere. 3* *"KanV" said the other pioneer, 1 'it'll probably hail or sleet . I never saw a worse tookm* night 1" "My old woman/* said the first, ^'she'll prc-hably die if it turns cold. She's dt'ir" aivful poor*" "And yen never saw ground." said rhe -ecourL "'barrier to dig a grave in,-" This jf] t nit ny dissertation caused n km chard to ^alk faster. The soft turf yielded, rhf night was fine. But there was chii] in the wind which vraiv nor tempc ratltre. A lot depended upon the state of insnd of thefc people. Near the river he paused and let the three carriers come up. They jostled to a halt in the starlight. "Men." said Elan chard, 'T ex- pect there's fjoing to be a little trouble.*' This dkl not amaze the three or bother them, They had been spawned in trouble. Their mental reaction iva? that Blanchard could be shaken down for a little more nnw. Not so Dart. He shifted his mask uneasily and mopped be- hind it with a silk cloth and squirmed. He felt rivulets of per- spiration running inside bis mailed jacket find yet he was chilly. "DaiT and .[." said Blanchard, "have a task to perform, after which we will get a white ticket for the captain hack there. The three of you leave your baggage at this point an d go to the saloon. We wiEl Join you." "What*!: we do with this chest ?*' said one. He looked at the river. There were muffled h eatings

Page 27

coming from within it now. It was true that someone might come near ft and investigate. Blancliard wave*! a careless hand. "Make sure she"s silent and then throw her in. Things are too com- plicated naw for any part of that.-1* lie motioned to Dart and went on. The three opened the chcaL and stood for a moment looking down At Alicia Elston, Dart feU the chill deepening into his brittle bones as he slithered after his" master, lie looked out at the stars which winked and glared and saw, suddenlyd that all this im- mensity was small indeed. Hardly a livable planet in this galaxy ru- ninmed where a Soldier of Light had not trod. A thin, luminous wheel faintly beckoned — hut it was 1 difficult to get passage on an inter- OLD DOC MJiTJIIlSBLAH

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galactic ship. Passports, money, time* And a man with a slave pass- port such as his would not get far, The very stars seemed to be crowd- ing: against him, pressing into his skull. He clawed suddenly at his mask for bis breath was quick,, and the abrupt flood of oxygen into his lun^s made his pointed ears shrink and ring and the path before him blurred. Elfin chard cursed him as lie st u nib Jed and would have said more except for the hum of voices, hive- like> which came from the main section of the town. Uncertainly, Blanchard paused- He hesitated for some time at the edge of the Held where stood the Morgue, rub- 3 irrg his sweating palm against the butt oi his blaster. The hum in- creased and there were atigry shouts. Pointing at the crude landing tower beside them* Elanthard Or- dered Dart up, watching his slave intently, From the top, Dart viewed the town square and held on hard, "Well;" yelled BJanch&rd. "It's a big mob!11 Dart shouted back- There was hysteria in his voice. "That Soldier is up there on a platform talking to theml He's got a portable speaker but I can't hear — " A renc%vcd and savage howl came from the town, blotting Dart's words. Elanchard started across the field to the Morgue. He scouted the big ship for a moment and then boldly, with past familiarity, wrenched open the port and went* into the m a i n control section* His eyes scanned the walls until they found the long-range weapon rack. He wrenched a mis- sile thrower from its clamps and fitted its telescopic sight upon it, A moment later lie was hack at the landing tower and climbing. His white fingers trembled as they gripped the he^vn crossbars, for he was well aware of the crime he contemplated and all that it might involve. Tiut his fingers dtd not tremble when lie leveled the missile thrower and there was only bitter calculation in his eye as he gaze<i tli rough the scope, into the lighted square. Ole Doc's i en age wavered in the glass and then steadied. The finder against height regis itrrcd six hun- dred and eighty meters. The sight whined for an instant and then flashed green. As the sight opened again, the entire square leaped into the widened, spotter field and the black light of the sight itself came back with all images clear and close. There was a crash of fire against the pillar on Doc's right and he reeled. Sprays, like orange plumes, radiated down into the crowd and slammed men and women to earth, The material of the platform began to burn and at its base small green puffs bloomed where the dust was burning. With considerable pride, glowing with the pleasure of good marks- manshipT Bian chard looked long at the motionless figure of the doctor about whom fire shoots began to sprout, first from the planking and then from his clothes.

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Dart's hysterical tugging brought BJatichard away from the sight. The slave was gesturing at the river which lay on their right. Bright starlight showed on two bodied which bobbed ihere. travel- ing evenly in the 'juict current. A moment later a third crushed the light path ot an ennrnirnis star. The grisly trio hoveivd LO^ei^ier in an eddy as though holding a i/bo^tly conference and lhen,.!iav\ng decided nothings drifted visually apart and traveled on. H'A drunken bmw:," said Blan- chard. And he would have gaxcd again at the square excepi thai he was almost dislodged by Dart's flee- ing down the tower with such vio- lence that even his slight weight shook it. He was ser earning shrilly. Blatichard's nerves were grating already T Mis anger flashed alter the running slave. It was all too clear that Dart had broken before this crime's importance. And a broken slave — Throwing1 the missile weapon to his hip, filanehard shot at the run- ning Martian. He tossed flame be- fore the slave but Dart bolted on. Clicking the action over us auco> matic* Elan chard sprayed gouts of fire around and about the escaping man. But the recoil of the weajjon was such that t)ie last blast was directed more nearly at the zenith than at the runner. Dart± however, had been bit. He was running still hut his course was erratic and shortly brought hfni back into a pattern ot tires the weapon ODD DOC MBTntSRLAi! had made, . He stumbled out of this but now his clothing burned. He stopped, tore in agony at his mask. Ilia screams were punctuated by the slaps of the tenacious mouthpiece against his lips. He turned once more and fell heavily into a nreh sending green drops hurtling, up i i ho lit hia li- The flames flared, smoke rose, and. then no longer ted, the nre gutted down and went out- lilanehard's hands were trembling as he reached (or the crossbars to swing down from the landing tower. Mi was not without a sense oj" loss, and for a moment be was appalled at the maimer he had handed death io one who, while he might have been cowardly^ bad at least been loyal. More than this he was shocked by bis own Jack of self- control, a shock which was doubled by a sickness he felt at being so far thrown out of orbit with his plans* He. reached the ground and, for a moment t hesitated; But the heavi- ness of his cash- lined pockets and the knowledge that so far he had triumphed gave him courage. He took a deep breath of the cold night and then, with renewed assurance, reloaded bis missile weapon ami looked about him. It was not until then that an idea struck him. He crouched a little as though buffeted by the renewed yells coming from the center of town. His gaze swept across the Held to the Morgue. A white ticket ? What did he need of a white ticket? He laughed in a sharp bark. There were guns on the Morgue. Ray disintegrators. And while the ship would have been bested iti a. ■

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battle with a major naval vessel, lew transports would be so well armed. And even if the ship had no guns, one could stand her on her tail above this town and the other ves- sels in the port and leave not one scrap of any thi ng to tell the systems other than that space pirates had evidently been at work. The yells seemed louder. But without a glance back, lilanchard sprinted to the Morgue A Soldier of Light Well, few would question ^he occupant of the ship and many were the dismal pSanets where one could jettison such as she and buy another for half the currency that would be aboard her. It was for an instant only that Blan chard regretted the way in which he had been forced into doin^ thtngs for which a man could be en staved and sent to the hells for- ever. Elston had been his scape- goat. And a good one, for Klston was dead. Cut even then Blanchard doubted that any blame would be attached to anyone now except the inevitable space pirates to which the System Police always assigned blame for those crimes which otherwise were never solved. And in ten minutes this corner of Spico would be subject to certain chain reactions caused by either guns or tubes. He ran past Dart — or the charred thing which had been Dart — and, so vividly was B Ian chard seeing everything, he noted that the Mar- tian's saiametal tag was glittering: brightly. B lan chard paused and tore off his own, There could as easily be two tnen in that ash pile as out. Mis identification tag clinked against Dart*sH Starting up again he ran. on to- ward the door of the Morgue. gj earning palely golden in the star- light. "Blnnchard ! p Despite himself he whirled, mis- sile weapon at rcsidy. lie fro^c:. Halfway between the landing tower and himself a man came running. "Blandiard!" He k.iew that voice. He now saw Lite man. It was Olc Doc' His clothing was charred, his left arm was bold up by a belt. But it was Ole Doc. And behind him swarmed a dark cloud of people. Willi a hasty shot. Blanchard made his pursuer dodge. Tn an instant Rlanchartl had gained the port. Cursing he brought it to and then raced into the control section. Somewhere a door clanged - Th vowing the gun down Blan- ch ard grabbed for tiie panel .where the starting lever* and throttles stood waicjnrr. One set was marked chemical for departure and landing on a port. The other set was marked atomic. It was the second that he thrust full ahead to "start." In about ten seconds there would be the beginning Q[ t^e fission. "Blanchard!" About the ship the mob swung, many of them passing by the tubes. Mayor Zoran yelled to some of the men tc force ports of the ship and two Centatiri nien launched their heavy bulks into the task. Somebody- in the crowd yelled to t

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keep clear or the tubes and there was an immediate Swing to give them berth. Several pocket torches appeared and turned ship and lit: E d. into blaz- it\L: daylight. People gaped up at the golden ship or yelled encourage- ment to the two Ceil ta u s i men who were still working at the spaceport. A., little hoy managed to climb up to the top of the vessel and with great initiative went to wurk with a slingshot handle prying up the emergency entrance hatch. People noticed him an<l howled encourage- ment at hi in. His father hello we rl at him for a moment trying to get 111 e 1 1 to conic down and then, real- izing he had a hero on his hands, began to point and tell people it was his son. The boy vanished into the ship and there was an immedi- ate scream from several women who had just realized that B lan- chard might be in there r still alive^ after killing Ole Doc. At this the CentauH men re- newed their efforts and bent several Jton bars mto pretzels working on the door. Suddenly it gave way. but not through their efforts. The little hoy had opened it Lrom the inside, lint when a horde, would have bounded through it, the child barred their way with a shrill yell of pro- test, A moment later the effort withdrew hastily. But it was not the boy who had tun led theuu CI Laired ami battered and breathing hard alter ^reat exer- tion, Ole Doc filled the spaceport, lie was holding a small blaster in his ri^ht hand and smoke idled up from its muzzle. He became con- k Otn DOC MICTITUS BL-i U. scious of it and thrust it into his holster. The startled silence suddenly burst. Kroin three thousand throats volleyed a spontaneous cheer, a cheer which heat in great waves, against the ship, almoss rocking it. The enthusiasm fled out from the field and smote against the sur- rounding hiils to come back re- doubled and meet the new, louder bursts which sprang up amid tossed hats* Ole Doc was trying to say some- thing but each attempt was battered back and drowned in the tumult. Finally, when he had for the fifth time raised his hand for silence, they let him speak. "I want to tell Mayor Zoran — " There were new cheers for Mayor Zoran and he came forward. "*Tell your people," said Ole Doc, *Jtlia,t their money is safe J' There was bedlam in answer to this, "You had better," said Ole Doc when he could again speak, 'drain your water systems, all the reser- voirs. 1 , . . well — Just drain them and don't drink any more water until you do," They cheered this, for they would have cheered anything. When he could talk,, Ole Doc called for Hippocrates, But no Hippocrates answered. People Vent oft eagerly looking for the doctor's slave but there was no instant result. Final Ey Ole Doe thanked them and put the little boy outside and, de- spite many yeJIs for reappearance, kept the spaceport firmly closed.

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Still, there was much to talk about and the crowd, half hopeful that Ole Doc would come back, Hung about the ship. Some space rangers found the ashes and the two identi- fication tags and rumors began to fly around that it hadnTt been Elan- chard who had gone into the ship. New waves of pessimism went through the crowd. Tf that was Blanchard there, in the ashes, then wlias had happened to the money. Maybe it had been burned with Blauchard. People began to drift bach to the ship and scream for Ole Doc to come out again. Several lost interest, and recall- mg the doctor's admonition to drain the reservoirs, followed the lead of a iocft1; common physician wbo sought some reflected glory and went ofr to do what they were tokh Hut those who remained were suddenly stricken in their tracks by the sound, peculiarly fiendish and hi^h-pitched, of a dynamo within the ship. They first mistook it for some wail of a savage beast and then identified it. Shortly after- wards lights began to arc m the mirf&hip ports and so brilliant was their flare that they sent grefen, yellow and red tongues licking across the field and lighted up the rows of attentive faces near at hand. Oilier dynamos began to cut in and the golden ship vibrated from how to t lilies. There were some who held that she was about to take olT and so went well back from her I mi others., more intelligent, found in these weird manifestations no such message— nor any message at *2 ah— and so hung aboiu iti fascina- tion. It was the little boy, hero of the earlier episode, who agah? adven- tured. He climbed up to the emer- gency entrance hatch which was still open find started to climb down. Within the insiant lie shot forth again 1 his face ghastly in the torches. He came stumbling down the hull ladder and collapsed at its foot. One It and on the ia^c rung kept bin] from sinking to the pronnd and in this position he was ill. .Raster people crowded about him and lifted him up, volleying ques- tions at hi in. But the child only ? creamed and heat at them to be let gty. When he was finally re- Jeasdl lie sped nimbly past the crowd and sought snhhing comfort in his n] other's arms. Rumors began to double, then. There wore those in the crowd who Held that some devi|*< work was afoot inside that snip. Others hazarded the wild theory that it had not been the doctor at all who had come to the spaceport, hut Ti Ian- chard in the doctor's clothe*. Others began to retell mysterious and aw- ful things they had heard about the Soldiers of I night, doctors whom no one knew, who were too powerful to he under any government. Some- body began to say that the System patrol cruisers should be informed and shortly an authoritative youth, a radioman on one of the space- ships in the other port, walked away to send the message, prom- ising a patrol ship there before morning. A RTO U MM NO ftfT i T<!?s C? K - FT CI I ON

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I With this new sthmilous reach- ing out, people of the town be shall Iiave all your money returned lo you or shall he given work on certain projects T envision here — and will finance — as you yourselves may elect. I have the money with me, I need the records and I am sure morning will do wotid erf oily well. However, if any of you doubt and can show me your re- ceipts I shall begin now — " They knew him then. They knew him and their relief was so great after all their suspicions and worries that the cheers they sent forth reached twice as far as those they had given Olc Doc. The roil- ing thunderbolts of sound made' the ship and town shiver. Men beg;* to join hands and dance in crazy circles. Hats went skyward. They cheered and cheered until there was nothing to their voices but harsh croaks. And this called for wetness and so they flooded into the town. They carried Elston on their shoulders and hundreds fought with one another to clasp his hand and promise him devotion forever. In a very short while they would let him- speak again. And he would speak and they would speak and the available supply of liquors would run low indeed in Junction City. Back aboard the Morgue, had they not been so loud, had sounded a strange series of thumps and rat- tles which betokened the disposal in the garbage disintegrator of cer- tain superfluous mass which had

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been, at the last* in the doctor's road* And now, quietly, palely, the real and only hero of the affair, utterly forgotten, worked feebly on himself, trying; to take away the burn scars and the weariness. He gave it up. His heart was too ill with worry. He stumbled tired ly toward jria cabin where he hoped to get new clothes. Near the spaceport he stopped „ struck numb. Hippocrates was standing there and in the little being's four arms Jay cradled a burden which was very precious to Ole Doc. Alicia Ebton's bare throat stretched out whitcly, her lips were partly opened t her bright hair fell in a 'long, drip- ping; waterfall. About Hippocrates* feet spread drop$ of water. Doc's alarm received a welcome check. "She is well/* said Hippocrates. "When I walked along the river bank I Found three men taking her from a chest, I killed two but the third thrciv her in the river. I killed the third and threw them in hut walked for many minutes on the river bot- tom he fore I found her. I ran with her to the nearest spaceship and there we gave her the pul motor and oxygen. I made her lie warmly in blankets until she slept and then f brought her here. What was this crowd, master? What was all the cheering rT* "How did you come to find her?" cried Ole Doc, hastily guiding his slave into a cabin where Alicia could be laid In a bed and covered again, "I . . , T was sad, I walked 94 along1 ti|e river; i see better at night and so saw them/" But this, obviously, was not what interested Hippocrates. Pie saw no reason tn dwell upon the small radar tube he had put in her pocket so he would not have to go over two square miles of junction City at some fu- ture date when Ole Doc wanted a message sent to her. There were many things he did which he saw no reason to discuss with an impor- tant minrj like Die One's. Disregarding the joy and reliet and thankfulness which was. flood- ing from his master, Hippocrates stood sturdily in the cabin cloov until Ole Doc started to leave. "I don't know how I can ever — * Hippocrates interrupted hi^ thanks "Yoii have Miss lilston, master. The apaceways are wide. We can go far. Ey tomorrow morning it will be known that a Soldier of Light has entered suciaL relation?; and poijt1c& Liy tomorrow night the System Patrols will be looking for us. Pry the next day your So- ciety will have banished us or called us to a hearing to banish us. It" as little time. We have provisions to leave this galaxy. Somewhere, maybe Andromeda, we can find out- laws and join them — ** Ole Doc looked severely at him. Hippocrates stepped humbly aside. He cast a glance at ^the woman he had saved and af his master* He saw that things would be different now. It was a bright morning. Dawn came and bathed the Morgue until

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every y olden plate of her gleamed iridescentty. The grass of the field sparkled with dew And a host of birds swooped ant J played noisily in the tdsl' and a?.ure sky. Junction City stirred groggaly. It scrubbed its eyes, tried to hide from die liffhtT scrubbed again and with aching heads and thick tongues arose. No comments were made on the revel. The Comet Saloon was shut tightly, Blancbard a house swung: its doors idly in the wind. But no one commented. Everyone stum- bled about and said nothing to any- one about anything. So passed jthe first few hours of morning. People began to take an interest in existence when a System Patrol cruiser Swung in and with a chemical rocket blast settled in the main spaceport. Hippocrates, sweep"1^ the £tcps of the port ladder, looked "worriedly at the newcomer and then threw down his broom. He rolled into the main salon where he knew Qle Doc was. Opening his mouth to speak thret: successive times s Hippocrates still did not. Ole Doc: was sitting in an altitude of thought from which no mere worldly noise ever roused him. Presently he rose and paced about the table* He paid no heed whatever to Hippocrates. Finally the small being1 broke through all codes. "Master* they are corning ! We still have time. We still have time ! I do not want you to he taken!" But he mifrht as well tiave ad- dressed the clouds which drifted smoothly overhead, With long paces the doctor was walking out a AST — 2N 36

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problem. His appearand was much improve rl over last night lor all burns had vanished the night before and the arm was scatheless. How- ever, it lacked Hays until treatment time" and the rule never varied- Ote Doc looked a little gray, a In tie worn. and there were lines about hiswiouth and tn the roniers of his eyes. Once lie walked to a cabinet where he kept paper* and threw back a plast-lcaf and looked at a certificate ihere. He stood for a long time (litis and finally broke of! to stand in the doorway of Alicia*s cabin where the £irl still slept, lovely, vital and young. Hippocrates tried to speak again, "We cau take tier at id the ship still lias time. They have not yet come into the town to get re- ports—" Ole Doc stood looking sadly at the girl. His slave went hack to the spaceport and stared at the town, A little wind rippled the tops oE the grass. The silver-plated river flowed smoothly on. But Hippoc- rates saw no beauty in this day. His sharp attention was only for the group of System ofrtcers who went into the town, stayed a space and then came out towards the ship, followed by several idlers and two dogs and a small boy* Rushing back to the salunh Hip- pocrates started to speak. His en- trance was abrupt and star Lied Alicia* who now, dressed and twice as lovely as before, stood beside Ole Doc at the file cabinet. "Mas Lex 1" plead ed H ippocra Les. » But Ole Doc had no ears for his slave. He saw only Alicia. And Alicia had but scant attention for Hippocrates : she was entirety ab- sorbed in what Ole Doc had been saying. It seemed to die little slave That there wa> a kind of hor- ror ah' mt her press ion as ?he lonkcd at the doctor. 'then Ole Doe opened up the pJast-t<?a f acid shewed her some- thing there. She looked , She. turned whirr and Trembled. Her gu^c on ( He l^v was that of a hypnotized hut terrified bird. With an unconseirms mnvemeflt she drew back her skirt From hi in and then steadied herself against the table "And so, my dear,"" said Uk* Due "No w you kno w , I "a n km v lc ft it what I proposed, for niislfaditij; you." She drew farther back and bewail to stammer soinedusm about und\- ing gratitude and her father's thanks and her own hopes for his tutu re and many other things that all tn nihled together into an urgent request to fret awavr Ole Doc sujiled sadly/ He bowed to her and his golden silk shirt rustled against his jeweled belt. **GwJ-ljy, my dear." llastily, hurriedly she said good- by and then, hand to throat, ran past the slave and down the ladder and across the spaceport to town. Hippocrates watched her looked at her as she skirted the on- coming officers and started toward a crowd in the square which seemed to be listening to an address by her father. The eheers were faint only by distance. Hippocrates scratched ASTO UNDISO fct IFrNOTU-FIOT ION

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his antenna thoughtfully for a, mo- incut and ili en turned all attention to the oncoming officers. lie bristled and cast a glance at the blaster rack. "Hello up tin ere !" said a .smooth , elegant y* Ji.:ng man in the scarlet uniform of the System PatroL *■ Nobody here t*p stated Hippoc- rates. "He quiet/* said Ole. Doe behind htm. "C ome aboard, gentlemen." The idlers and the small boy and the dogs stayed out, held by Hip- pocrates' glare. The salon was shortly full of starlet. "Sir," said the officer languidly, "we have audacity I know in com- ing here, tHit as yon are senior to anyone else . . . well, could you tell us anything about ft strange call from this locale? We hate to trouble you, J Snt we heart! a call and we came. Wc had no details. Five ]>cojWe> fellow named 13 lan- dlord and his friends, ran away into the country or some place. But no riot. Conic! you possibly inform ns of anything, sir?" Ole Doc smiled. "I hear there was a not amon^ the Jive/1 lie said. "Ihit I have no details. Just rumor/' "Somebody is jolly well pulling somebody's toe/* sriid the languid young (nan, L'Dull. Five men van- ishing is nothing to col] tact us about- Hut a riot now." He sighed at the prospect and then slumped in boredom. "No radioman aboard ;inv ship here seEit SUilh it message, tliey say, arid yet we have three monitors who heard it. Hoax, what?" Ol.tJ TJO-- M IT 'P Tt TT ft V. I, A .FT "Quite," smiled Ole Doc, "A hoax I" "Well, better be g^ttin^ on." And they left, courteously and rather humbly refusing; refreshment. It was a very staggered little slave who watched them go. The small boy lingered and gazed at the ship as though trying to put a fin- ger on something in his mind. He was a very adventurous boy. He frowned, puzzled, "Man child," Raid Hippocrates, "do you recall a ricj;?" The littte boy sliook his heart. "1 . . . I kind of forget, Kvery- body seesns to think maybe there should have been one — *r '*Do yon remember anybody rained Hlanchard getting killed ?" thrust H Eppoc rates d producing a cake mystically from the pantry be- hind him, "Oh. he did i i t get killed, Every- body knows that. Pie ran away when Mr. Elston came," "Von remember a Soldier of Light addressing a crowd last night ?" "What? Did he?" "No/1 sakl Hippocrates, firmly. "He was not out of this ship all day yesterday nor last night either." And. he tossed down the cake which was avidly seized. Hippocrates stomped back into the salon. He did not know what he expec- ted to Ond, buc certainly not such normality, Ole Doc was playing a record about a tiddler of Suphi who fiddled for a crown and, whil^ hum- ming the air, was contentedly fill- air

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mg up a cuff with a number of, cal- culations, - With a gruff voice, Hippocrates said, "You poured powder in the water to make everyone forget, to be angry and then forget. And its worn off. Nobody remembers any- thing. Ah, TCIstou and Alicia hatre promised not to speak. I see it. But yon should have told me, I worried for you. You should have told me! Nobody will ever know and T was sick with what would, happen!" Ole Doc, between hums, was say- ings "Now with the twenty thou- sand that I got back, and with what is in the safe, I have just enough to rrutse to . . . da, dumP de da . . - yes, Yes, by Georgette, I shatl !" He threw down the pen- cil and got up, smiling, "Hello Hippocrates, old friend/* said Doc, just noticing him. "And how are you this wonderful noon? What will you fix me for lunch? Make it goon", now, and no wine. We're taking off right away for Saphi, We're going to buy us a complete new set of radiotronic equipment there and get rid of all this worn out junk." Tie stopped, staring: "Why you're crying V* FJippoerates bellowed, f+I am notT* and hurriedly began to clear the table to spread out the finest lunch ever set before the finest master of the happiest and mnst won -hack stave in the galaxy, In THE a moment or two, exactly imitating the record which had stopped, he was singing the "Fiddler of Saphi/' the happiest lie had been in a very, very long time. During lunch, while he shoved new dishes about on their golden plates, Hippocrates took a moment to glance., as a well informed slave should, at tike certificate which had made that horrible, detestable wo- man so grati fymgly beared. The aged, carefully coated and preserved parchment — brown und spot feci with mildew from some ancient time even so — surrendered very little information to Hippoc- rates., It merely said that the Uni- versity of Jnlnis Ilopkin* on some planet named Baltimore in a System called Maryland — wherever that might be — did hereby graduate with full honors one Stephen, Thomas Meth ridge as a physician in the year of Our I-ord Nineteen Hundred and Forty- Six Anno Domino, Kven if this iwj set- en bund red years ago that Ole Doe first learned his trade, what of that? He knew more than any doctor graduated in the best school they had today, Well, gixxl riddance, t bough just why she should so disapprove of tbat school was more than Hippoc- rates could figure ont. He safifj about the "Fiddler of SaphT* and forgot it in the happy scramble of depar r i t re . END,

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PROBLEM IN SOLID Thre ^-dimensional mows wight be more interesting titan at first expected — particularly to the police force. And -achat Grade A prime headache for a law court* Illustrated b> Oman Martin Hammer should have heen prepared for anything. As the world's fort-most producer of motion pictures > he should have taken any .situation from 'earth- quake to fatherhood without a qualm or a turned eyebrow. But Hammer had not seen everything- —yet, K A noise presented itself at Ham- mer's office door. Not the noise of knocking or tapping H nor even the racket made by attempts to breach the portal with a heavy blunt in- strument. It was. more like the sound of a dentist's drill working on wood, or perhaps one of those light by r ring tools, or maybe even a light scroll saw. Then j with all the assurance in the world, a man's hand came through the doort the fingers clenched about an imaginary door- knob. The hand swung an imagi- nary door aside and as it moved, the wood of the real door fell lo

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the floor m a pile of finely-ground ■aw dust. Once the imaginary door was thrust aside, the rest of the intruder entered, leaving; the exact outline of his silhouette in the door. He smiled affably and said, "I trust I'm not intruding'!' - ?fe wei s still holding the imagi- nary door open with his right hand. As he finished speaking, he stepped forward a step, turned, pulled the imaginary door shut a few inches, transferred it to take the inside knob in 1 lis left hand, and then stepping carefully forward, he thrust the imaginary door dosed. Ens hand clenched around the imagi- nary knoh, The act ended as his hand entered the rea! doorknob and there was the high -pitch whine of metal against metal like culling a fin can with a handsaw. Tine intruder turned, walked across tine oliiee, and stood there in front of Martin llanmierH From a pocket he took a cigarette and a match and lit up, blowing ^ do ad of flagrant s.nioke into the air. ifT am delighted to meet you/' he said. At which point, Martin Hammer blew up. He had been patient. Be had been astounded. He had been sit- ting1 there with his chin getting lower anul lower and lower as this . . . this character walked through his door with all the assurance in the world. Then the bird had the afTtontery to behave as though lie had not invaded Hammer's office; had not ruined a fine oak door; 40 and as though Hammer should have been glad to see him. What added fuel to Hammer's explosion was the fact Lhat die intruder seemed absolutely un- aware of the ruination ot the door. "What the — ?' yelled Hammer. He leaped to his feet, ran around his desk, and faced the intruder angrily tor only an instanr.. I LainiLK'r launched himself at the intruder with intent to do bodilv harm, mayhem., ami perhaps a little bit of seeond-degree murder thai mi^ht he juried into justifiable homicide. He did not connect. 'L'iic stran- ger disappeared at that insiant. and Hammers well directed blow fell upon lhin air. Hammer, finding no resistance lie fore him, ]Vll flat on his face, winch mashed tile cigar into his mouth and burned a hole in his fine I'ersian carpet. He turned over and sat up. spitting out bits of tobacco mixed with equal pans of very bad language- Blankly he ran his hand through the s[jot w lie re the .stranger had been, " \"o^ ."' he said ul puv.y.lement, "what in the name of—" "May I a polngi *<.■;" came a voice at the door. Hammer whirled and saw the intruder again, standing there with a rather dum founded expression on his fare. Hammer grunted. At Eeast he is now cognizant of s ruin-pro- duction, he thought. This was Lrue. The intruder no longer had that fatuous expression ibat ignored the damage. "Apologize V* exploded Hammer.

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The intruder stepped through the ruined door. "I got the focus wrong/* he said, "otherwise the image could have — " "Image?1* yelled Hammer. The stranger nodded. "Image/* he said , " f -ook , ] i an ii t i er , youUcdT and as he pointed, across his face there came a change over his features. Xor- maJW handsome* Harry Foster's — ■ "bad" face was thrice as had for the distortion into hatred. It was excellent acting. The man beside the camera nod- ded. It was not only excel lent act- ing but it was rather emotionally troublesome to be confronted by a PRPTiLBM IN SOLIT> living, breathing image ai yourself. You, watching you do something thnt you had done previously. ] Tarry Fos1er*s hand stole up alongside of the cutoff button and he thrust it down viciously. The scene slopped msrantly and disappeared. Foster, remaining: beside the camera, swore. He vereeled man- ually a few yards and restarted the camera. He caught a previous scene's ending: a beau ti fid woman smiling shyly at another man. The scene's ending was brief, to a flash- over of Harry Fosner standing in the cento of the stage, and going through the same motions of smil- ing offstage, with the features changing from smile tn scowl of bale. Again Foster's hand Hipped the switch and the image of Foster disappeared as did the settings on the stage. Foster swore again. **Therc must be some way— How does he do this anyway?" Foster opened the cabinet-like side of the solid camera and looked at She circuits. They were enigma to Foster, but there was some logic to it— there must be. Von create an image and then wipe it away to make place for the next image — just as in common cinema. But in normal cinema it is possible to halt I he film and project a still. Thai's what J Tarry Foster wanted — He pulled a single tube from one circuit and snapped the camera on. The stage was blank. He replaced the tube and tried another tube removed by some distance From the 41

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first. He started the camera, and the stage flashed into being once and then went blank again. There was a tiny flash from the bottom panel of the machine and Foster looked down to see the indicator of a blown I use. Foster nodded. Obvious. To stop the wipe -away would mean that the next frame would be placed on top of the first. A double exposure would not work in :he solids. Not without repealing that law of nature that states that two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. What he had to do was to stop the projector at the same time he stopped the wipe-away. Tim Woodart had fixed the machine so that the wipe-away completed the scene after stopping ihe works. Just a matter of safety. Foster puzzled over the machine and restarted it again. He waited until the image of Harry Foster stared off stage and then he grabbed two tubes and jerked them out . simultaneously, The projector stopped ; the scene remained. The image of Harry Foster stood there dumbly. Then it turned vaguely and looked at the camera and the man beside it. "Hello, hero/* sneered Foster, The image blinked. "IVe won- dered what might happen/7 said the spurious Foster. "Yes," chuckled the real Foster, Mwe have, haven't we?'1 "I—" started the image, but he stopped and looked wildly around. **What do you want?" "You know" "I'll not do it! You ... we . , . ah . . . well, it*s no go." The real Harry Foster sat down in the director's chair. "I've had more time to plan/7 he said. "You're just an image — ** Foster snarled bai-k, "Not now I*tn not. I*m just as real as you are!" "I'm the Original; you came out of that camera," ''Someone is going to have a time proving it/' replied the image Foster, "Yeah," drawled the real Foster, "that's what I'm counting on [" From within his coat, Foster took a revolver. Holding it on his image, Foster replaced the tube and watched the scene resume, with a third Foster going through its paces. He snapped ofT the camera and the set disappeared, leaving the bare stage- He wiped his Singer- prints from the place and then nudged the image Foster with the revolver, "Out/* he snapped t pointing with the gun barrel. They went — in a death march. A half hour later, the real Foster handed his image a drink, "Drink deeply," he said sarcastically, "You needn't be afraid to die — you never livcd+ you know/' The image Foster shook his head, "I've been alive as you have!" The real Foster lifted his re- volver and snarled 2 *" We can put a stop io thatl" He fired thrice and each shot slammed into Foster** stomach driving the man back against the wall. He crumpled, finally. A STOt'WDJNO ?Cl ENT1S- FICTION

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Then Harry Foster took a look Around the living room of his apart- ment, shrugged, and left, tossing the pistol into a comer. Lieutenant Miller looked down at the corpse. "Someone aure hated him/* he said. The man in the business suie nodded. ''They had reason to/1 he said. He was Jacobson of the F,RL "Too bad. I'd rather he were legailv punished/* -Me, too!" "What a both his wiie?" "She's in ihc nc^t room. Winch reminds me-— " Lieutenant Zsl iller went lo the door and looked in quietly. "Look, fellows, just establish . her. Don't bother grilling; her," Sergeant Muflancy looked up in surprise. Miller nodded. 'This is one case I'm not going to kill my- self solving," he *aid. **l just want to be certain that the murderer of Harry Foster isn't as obvious as a stone pillar on Lbe earner of Holly- wood and Vine. Is Mrs. Fooler dear?'* M id I a ncy nodded. 1 ' Spendi ng tl ie whole evening with a friend/' *' Friend corroborate it?" Mrs, Foster smiled wanly. "She will if asked/1 she said. Miller nodded. "My only regret, ifrs, Foster, is that his insurance will just about cover his embezzle- ments. The rest—" "I wouldn't touch it — or him — with a ten -toot pole/' she blazed, jacobson met Milier at the door. He got around/' he said, "Black- . embezzlement, and outright FEOTILEM IS SGI,II>

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larceny. There's been talk of dm*- peddlmg and white slave traffic. Wliy or how the bird managed to be such a thorough stinker and still mint] tain his position here I'll never telt yon " ]MMJer looked at the* coroner, who was just polishing up Ins jo*>. Mii- ler said, 11 Whoever did it did Faster ■ a favor. I'etiveen you and uk.\ we'd have bad hiin between nutcrackers ill another week," Jacobsnn nodded. "CouUln't have been suicide ?" Miller shook liiij head> After filling liimseEt that full of lead, he was Too dead to toss that gun. Furthermore, he was shot from greater than arm's distance. No/' said Miller, "someone 'done him in' and should possibly be commended. Plain case of: 'Too bad, thank God V " Martha levers watched her image on the sta^e in the studio theater. Reside her w;is Martin Hammer who ivas watching the performance with interest, Martha was watch- ing with wonder;, Hammer had seen this tiling at work before and was more concerned with the tech- nical portions of the opus than the wonder of watching a life- sized, living, breathing, talking; image per- form. On the other side of Martha Evers was Tim Woodarr, who was just watching. He was more or less out of a job since professional photographers had taken over the job of making the performance. "But how is it done!"" she asked hi mk 44 "Same like any other of its kind/' smiled Tim, "But there isn't any other." "Television is, sort of," he said. "Anyway,. these i* a three-way scan taking in the volume to be repro- duced. JKaeh atom in the* original has its own characteristic iIsjl c^t- and mass : this* charge rmd mass registered. W hen the reproducer replaces the real people with the innate, the same yean fornix i eat atoms where the real at urn was in ll ic original. The f chI3i>m-h[ * scan wipes the nloui clear to make room for the ne^t fr;tme." "Ilou- jilxscit I his building atoms:-" [lulled tlie "irl, H<J)oesn"i that make for radioaeiivit v Yf "Uh-huh." he said, "but the rad inactivity is really energy that we use to ope tate the machine/1 The scene on the sla^e switched to a close-up of Martha and the pictured vulainh one Jack Van tiers whose lect was known iicth^ the continent. The woman on the nther side of Tin* Woodart stood up and called "Cut it!"' in a low contralto. The stage cleared in -a twinkle and the lights went tip. Martin Hammer leaned across the seals and spoLe to the standing woman. "What's wrong;, Mrs. Fos- ter t" "That won t do/' she sakl. "IU shot r Hammer thought Tor a moment, "There's nothing wrong with a close-up/' he said. "It's done daily." Jenny Foster smiled. " Yes," she agreed, "the screen tills up from' A ST 0 IS N E J t * O 53 C I fi S C ll - V I CT T ON

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tup to bottom with the face, and the eves look softly into the camera leu s as the ^irl murmurs, *I love yon' and it \s effective because in the two-dimensional cinema, the trick of looking into the camera lens n uikes it appear as though the sjirl were sra?.inij s-oftlv hitu vour owei eyes— no matter win? in you are in the theater, Hm this is solid, Ilarn- ntar, YV'htn ihv ^al looks at you, I can fell that she's ! nuking at you from here," "So?" "So I'm resent fill of the guy who has tbc preferred scat," she said, Martin Hammer smiled. "You can't have all the seats in the theater within a two- foot circle/' he said. "But there must hit ^iic way to lick it," "You'll remember what J had to say?" she asked. Hammer nodded. M We'll work on it," he said. +'Likc all other media, solid performances require their own techniques. Hut until we locate the techniques, people will take to solids for their novelty .** They all sal down. Mrs. Foster turned to Tim Wood art and asked him how it was done, "You mean the whole thing?" "No± the job of making enlarge- ments." "Easy/* he said. "We just have a repeat-scan that repeats the same atom in between true signals. Same; like cramming a whole twelve- Story building on a busy street. We cut out certain patterns -sometimes every other signal, sometimes every third, sometimes four out of fiv^ are eliminated in the recording. The number cut is a definite statement of the 4 times- size' of ihe reproduc- tion.^ "Sounds simple when you say it fast/' she smiled. "I'll tell you about it later— ?" he suggested. "I'd. like that." lie was too silent for a moment, and jenny Foster knew it. "Tim/' she said, **if you're worrying about the . . . the—" "Well," he admitted slowly, "I was. Not that I care, hut you- ■?" She smiled bitterly, "It's often said that no one knows another per- son m nil you've lived with them for some tunc. It was between our first meeting and three rears after 1 mar- rictl Marry Jester tbat T was his wife. That was when 1 found out about him. 1 — " "Look/" said Tim. worriedly, "there's been something worrying trie ever -since we took these shots yesterday. Now I know what it is. Let's get out of hcue and trH buy you a drink;" "Shkhkhhr insisted Hammer. "Stop it/* returned Woodart, "Make notes/* said Hammer. "I want to see these rushes to the close/' "But— " "But nothing, .Veil me later/' "Let's go/* said Tim plaintively. -* It'll only be a minute. What are you worrying about ?" Tim looked at the stage. This was a comic shot. In it, the head of the butler filled the stage and looked out at the audience through half-closed eyes, A middle dis- tance shot previously had shown 4ft

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the butler taking a. sniff of pepper, tlii* was the aftermath — MNoT yelled Wood art, He was too late* His yell was covered by the explosive sneeze. A hurricane of wind blasted at the tiny theater . A window went nut ia back, and Martin Hammer's toupee left for Kansas. As the echoes died, Tim Woodart said, 'That's what 1 meant." H;i miner blinked, "I'd hate to pull an -Alfred Hitchcock and have a .45 pointed at the audience— close- up," Back of him, the photographer looked at the stage and made a quick estimate. "That," he said, "would hurl a nine-foot slug of Eead at the audience!" Tim Woodart left quietly, Tim Woodart led Jenny Foster to a. small table and ordered Martinis, Jenny smiled at him and said: "Tell me bow you came to invent this thin;*?" H "Easy," he grinned. "I'm an avid reader of science-fiction and there was a yarn in one of the lead- ing magazines some time ago that dealt with a master transmitter. Written by a Crackpot electron ics engineer by the name of C.jeorgc O. Smith. He was rather explicit in a vague sort of way, but it gave me the initial idea, and here we are with it r She laughed. HiTs this character going to get any ro3Falty?" "Oh," said Tim Woodart expan- sively "I offered him some, but he refused, saying that his idea was nothing but a fiction idea and that 44 any bright engineer would know how to send matter by radio." "Oh." "Resides, he's in Philadelphia, now, and the men in the white coats wouldn't let him write with any- thing hut a blunt cr;iyuji/h "Well, could you send things by wire wilh it?" Tim smiled. "Not at present," he said. "There isn't a transmission line with a broad enough band -pass to accent the signal frequencies necessary," "Kow," said j tinny, taking a sip of her Martini, "you* re getting in way over my head." Tim Woodart pulled out pencil and paper j but Jenny stopped him by laying a gentle hand on his. "Don't," she said plaintively. "I don't even know what happens when I snap fin the light switch, let Eil mi e n tu! ct\<ta tul i ng transmission lines." EJucei tEiinly he replaced the pen- cil and paper in his pocket. Then he laughed, "Shall wc dancer" " That," she told him, "1 under- stand." They danced — and they danced wet] together. And while they were getting better acquaimed, a hundred miles to the south a man was stopped by a motorcycle policeman lot traveling too fast. f'Name?" snapped the policeman. "Harold Farman." "Driver's license?" "Why . . . or . . . I—" "No license?" "Well, it's here. But—" T h e po I i ceinan nod c! e-d, "Gimme/* he snapped. ASTOUNDING BCTRKCE-FICTIOJt

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Harry Foster cursed himself for forgetting. For even trying to run under an assumed name without changing every bit of evidence, iiut the policeman looked rather rough, and Harry handed over the license, "This says 'Harry Foster1," grunted the cop, "I'm Harry Foster." d+That wasn't the name you gave me," said the cop pointedly. "Look, officer , I'm about to meet a, young lady — we Ye meeting at the Border to marry in Mexico. Her father objects, and he^s influential enough to scud out word that I'm to be picked up on some pretext and held: Hint's why** The officer nodded sensibly, "Sounds reasonable/* be said, "and logical, and just about as silly as the usual guv who tried to elope/' "Well — thanks, orlicer. And may I bet you fifty that today is Sun- "Today's I ticsday," replied the officer. "My goodness/* said Foster in surprise. "1 lose, don't I?*' He handed the officer a folded fifty. The officer took it and smiled dryly, "You lose," he told Foster h "be- cause so far as I know , there's a Lieutenant Miller of the Los An- geles police that has a dragnet out for Hairy Foster— the motion pic- ture hero !" "Now look—" "I've looked/* said the cop, "and you're it. Will you come quietly or will you come horizontal ?" Harry Foster laughed. "I'm not that Harry Foster/' hq said. "No?" " PfeOBI-KM IN SOLID "No." "And how am I going to tell?" "Call Miller. I happen to know that the moving picture star died not more than a few days ago," "That/* said the policeman, clos- ing his book, "is something that we can check but quickly. You 11 come along while we check it^ though." "I'll come/1 said Foster cheer- fully. He went. The policeman called. Miller gave him the right answer, that the wanted man, Harry Foster, had been buried within the week. NoT there was no mistake. The' dead man's identity bad been es- tabtfshed to the satisfaction of every interested agency. The lH~.n.L and the local police had seen to it that the dental work checked, finger- prints, everything including visual i dentin cati on by friends, enemies, wife, and business associates. Harry Foster left a short time later with an internal grin, He — was dead. Ergo — he could not be punished E He laughed wildly a-s he; resumed his driving, but his driving was less wild. There was a thoughtful qual- ity about it. At the Mexican Border, Harry Foster stopped for rest and while resting he read the newspaper. It carried the usual run of gossip col- umns, and in one of them Harry Foster saw — and read with growing interest : s The widow of I-jArty Foster, whose body \va& foumd Oti the evening before ibe authorities were to have closed hi on his nefarious activities, is finding solace in the company of Tim WooUartj who is 45

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■ the inventor of Hammer Productions' new p\ay technique. No one w^uld deny Jenny Foster her Heht t& happiness, aflti we'll, cliccr litr on — Foster trump let! the: paper craft- ily. Woodart was about ready to start Its liking checks in six or seven figures, and — Harry hosier left the re.slaurant and headed back toward Holly- wood* The locomotive tl mndcred across the statue ill a forty- five degree angle, filling the theater with a wave of heat and a putt ot smoke and steam. Then tt was past and gone, and its string of cars rumbled out of "offstage" to the right rear to the "offstage" at the te ft- front cor- ner. It slowed and stopped, and the porter and passengers emerged; the principal players of the scene ap- peared and went through their ac- tion. "Wow that,'* sri id Hammer, pleased, "is a right good scene," **Y'know/* smiled Jenny Foster, "people are going to he so sur- prised to see the rent tiling eonie roaring across I he staj^e lhal they're going to forget a couple of rather irrelevant items like having their heroine's head nineteen feet in di- ameter," "Yeah/" drawled Hammer, "and tell the eruok to *haye closer, A close-up of Jack Vanders looks like a pincushion with telephone poles shoved in. Didn't know hair could be so big !" +fWhat bothers me," smiled Mar- tha Evers, *fis where I drink that Manhattan in the close-up. Darned 46 drink must he all of twenty-three gallons/* "That isn't the main trouble with that scene," objected Van tiers cheer- fully. His saturnine faee was; only for selling purposes : a nun c pleas- ant villain was seldom to he found. "What hot hers everybody is. that yon can smell the odrM" of that drink, it's so hi ^. Half of the won Id-be sots in die audience are guiis^; to he as dry as the Sahara, by the time Evers ^t-ts it down." Martha km- bed. "Hammer i> a great one for realism/' she said, "hut 1 hope he doesn't insist en ,j real slug of cyan k Le in ike poisoning scene, 1 hate to think of twenty gallons of cyanide I'1 "No doubt/" laughed I hammer, "Liut what we ought to do is to have Woodart lis tip some way of stopping that thine; during close-up* We could start with a normal Mar- tini and end op with li fly gallons." Woodart shook his hear I. "Lost twenty times as much Liquor itself," he said with a good-natured smile. "You see, the energy that keeps diis tiling in balance comes from the wipe-out of the previous scene. Stop it that way and your light bill heads for the ceiling. " "O. IC — it was just an idea/1 YanderS faced the group. "Look," he said. "I'm a profes- sional villain, and all villains are supposed to want snineihing for nothing and finding out that it can't be did," Woodart agreed. Then -the scene changed to an overhead shot of Cincinnati* Taken by helicopter, the scene was an ASTOUNDIMp aCllCNCH -FICTION

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angle shot down across Fountain Square towards the river. In the cinema such shots do not seem bi- zarre, but in solid, the street with its teeming curs and pedestrians was tilted an anjjle ; the angle between street in id camera remained as it was, mid the camera* of course, became the projector which was in the back of the theater. The "eye>T zoomed down and the street grew in size until the foun- tain thiit gave the Square its name was in plain view. It seemed in- vongiuous that the water in the fountain came out at an odd angle to gravity and fell back at another odd angle, yet this was nor a run- ning reproduction ni Fountain Square but a swift teries of instan- taneous reproductions and the drop- lets of water like everything else was replaced in whatever relative position it was, regardless of the facta of true gravity. The scene tilted flat, finally, and traveled along the street on the level until the principal character was approached, whereupon the action began. The camera followed Jack Vanders into a bar where he met Martha Ever* and ordered the Man- hattan that was to become Gargan- tuan in size- Jenny Foster put her face tip for a good night kiss, and then shoved her apartment door open as Tim turned 10 leave. Inside, the living room light was ouH and Jenny in- stantly called Tim back. "Someone/' she said, pointing to the lights. "O K." he said, entering before her. Sprawled in jenny's easy- chair was — "Foster'" "Who— in c ?" asked Foster in surprise. *' Foster's dead/' "Can it," snapped Woodart. "And talk!4' "Or else?" draw Jed Foster in- dokntlv, "Or else/* snarled Woodart, "Or else what?" Tim went to the telephone and dialed the number of the police force. ** Don't bother/' said Harry Fos- ter. "I'm . , , Foster, that is, is dead/* Tim replaced the telephone, ' 'What's the gag?TI he demanded. '%» said Foster hollowly, l>m a ghost returned to plague mine un- faithful wife." "The hereafter is going to have a moaning ghost with a shanty on its eye/* said Woodart ominously. "Unfaithful wife my loot. It ever she—" "Now that's been the big bon* of contention/* smiled Foster, "Foster gave her no grounds, and she was too good to give me any. And Foster gave her none because it is still impossible to have a wife testify against her husband." "Very sly ot you/' "Of Foster." "You're Foster]" "Me? No. Foster's dead/' Jenny gave a weak cry of des- pair. "What do you want?** she asked, "How much have you got?" asked Foster pointedly. "Blackmail," snarled Woodart. ;

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riWhy no. Not at all." "You name it." "It need have no name. You see^ Wood art, I've learned that J no longer need the protection of the legality that prevents a wife from testifying against her husband. Her husband is dead**' MSo?,f f'Wel], it isn't blackmail to per- form a service for someone/* "Meaning?" ^'Divorce monies high/' explained Foster pointedly. "After which — if done — you could continue to ask, far more/* said Woodart angrily. "Vou could threaten to prove that you were paid to get the divorce, a mere mat- ter of blackening the character of a woman whose only error was be- ing blind enough to take a second look at you/J "Your ingenious mind is too complex/' said Foster quietly. c"May 1" point oot that if you are dead, you are dead, and there- fore—" ■

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Tester Laughed nastily. "Le- gally and physically, Harry Foster died and was buried. Legally there is nothing that could possibly pre- vent yon from marrying her i f you wanted to. tttit you see, Wood -at. my wife is a completely moral woman, to say nolhing o{ ethical. Though it is legal, there is still the gnawing doubt m her that she is compounding a felony — bigamy," Jenny made a plaintive gesture, "Til wait until he asks me—" Hut. she was not heard, Tim Wood art snorted. "*So you think they'll be hesitant about punishing a dead man *** "What do you :lunk?N> Woodart strode tor ward and took Foster by the lapels of his coatT gathered them into one hand, and lifted the crook out of the easy- chair with an angry shake. fiThcn they can*t book me tor assault an "I^iRlip" leered Foster. "You can't bring suit for divorce against a dead man, either I" Harry Foster opened the door to his apartment and nodded quite genially. "Come in, gentlemen/' he said overpolitcly. State attorney Jones was less cordial, and Lieutenant Miller was harsh. "You're Harry Foster." "I am. Strange coincidence, isn+t it?" "Coin eid enc e my- — " "Ue careful/* warned Foster. "You wouldn't want to insult a citi- zen, would you? It might go hard with you." "You're Harrv hotter." "1 am." "Then who was the man that was buried?1' "That is the coincidence/* said Foster sorrowfully, "He was an- other Hnrry Foster, I understand that he was a rascal and definitely needed killing." "Where were yon when that deed was done ;>r "Me? Look, f^ir, am I under slis- piciou ? "Could he " "Then produce your warrant! I shall take no gult from you nor any of your ilk." "Take it easy/' said Jones. "An innocent man has nothing to tear." MAn innocent man/' said Foster, "has plenty to fear, Scheming poli- ticians and courts who like to sec convictions. Also there is the pro- tection of the Cuustttmiou of the United States that grants me the m

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right to do as 1 please so long as 1 am lawful about it." "It also grants us the right to protect other people, lf said Lieu- tenant Miller, "As for a warrant, we have a search warrant — plus the tact thai we know that murder was done in this apartment not more than two weeks ago," "You're in," said Foster. "And you may leave as soon as you can, I'll not detain you,11 "Yon know/' said State attorney Jones, "this mat] answers the de- scription 01 the man who is wanted for any number of assorted crimes from forgery to grand larceny. In every way he fills the bill. T think we will arrest you, Mr, Foster." ' 4 You'll be sorry. This is false arrest." "Indeed, In thus country, ;dl ar- rests are false arrests because it is a statement of intent that all men are innocent until proven guilty by a court of justice E Er^o, we take you into custody whether innocent or guilty and we will pen nit the judgment of the court lo decide your status. Coming quietly— or would you prefer to resist arrest T* Lieutenant Miller looked eager, "Please resist/1 he said clenching his fist. "Unclench it," snapped Foster. "You touch me and I'll prove that you wantonly and brutally attacked an innocent victim without provoca- tion/' "I've provocation enough/' snarled Miller, "My sister—" "Your sister suffered deeply at the hands of this blackguard Harry Foster," said Foster oilily. "But S3 because he resembled me and wore my name is no logical nor lsiwful reason for identifying your hatred of him against me. Tliat is a psy- ch o pat ic failing, 1 -ieu te n an t M i 1 ler/* "I'd like to make el )>arh illogical in ess out of you/' snapped Miller. "Mr. Jones, yon will vo member that threat/' said l-N^ter. "As .State attorney H it \& yiHir duly tti prntect the innocent/' Junes closed his lips over hard tee tli and said nothing. J le would have enjoyed i he j*ib of protecting Foster against a hungry hyena, Foster went with lhem+ but. his manner was not I hat of a dangerous* criminal who h:it\ been apprehended. It was that of a man who kium's all the answers, "The defendant, 1 larry Foster, is charged with Murder in fhc First Degree," said Slate attorney Jones. "This is a strange case, gentlemen of the jury. It is without prece- dent, and? therefore your action will establish a precedent. T charge you to consider not only the case at hand and lo try it with the utmost regard to justice, hut lo remember, as you arc consider! rag die evidence to fie presented, that this is but the first of many eases that will cer- tainly follow, I — +> "I object! The defendant is on i:ialT not the judicial System of the United Stated V* shouted Defense attorney Craushaw. Judge Carver said, "The objec- tion is sustained. Strike that from the record." Jones turned to the Court, "Your Honor, I request that my statements

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about, ihc establishment of prece- dent be retained/' Carver nodded. "It is true that this case will establish a precedent, Yet the trial at hand is the Only lliing of importance." **I accept/" replied .buses, and Re- turned to the juryi "I will attempt to show that the defendant did product a living duplicate of himself after which, he killed the duplicate. T call lor my first witness the inventor of the device, Timothy Wnodart." Tim came to the slant! and was sworn. There was considerable questioning to establish the quali- fications of the witness, during which C.'ransliaw said to Foster - **Thia will be ;t thin, case, Foster. Yet, i£ we can establish a reason-' able doubt, the result will be an acquittal." "Thin not lung;' laughed Foster. ^Just tie *em up as I told you!" "AlJ rijjht/' replied Craushaw un- certainly. "But it will be like argu- ing on one side for part of the time and then switching sides in the mid- die." "What do you cure so long as wc win f" "I don't/' grinned Cranshaw. "listen-- Woodmt is starting to give pertinent testimony," "Mr. Wood art/1 asked Jones, "is il possihle for your device to be stopped at such a Lime as to leave a complete set ?" "Yes," said Woodarc. "And youVe known this all along ?" "Naturally. I invented it/' r aouIj^m in solid "Then the device is essentially a du pi i eating de vice?" Woodart nodded. "It is. but like all such devices, it requires power, The laws of conservation of matter and energy make it impractical to produce a myriad of devices from a recording." "And why is the device practical for the production of panoramic en- tertainment ?" " The burial power is expended in producing The C:rst replica of the original .scene/' said Woodart, "after which, the scene is obliter- ated, which returns the power to the equipment for the construe tin n of the next frame. Aside from, the conversion losses and ha^ic mefJL- eieneies, the thing is then sell -sup- porting." li In other words, if it takes a kilo- watt to establish one frame, that kiln watt is returned to the equip- ment ?" "Yes/J said Woodart, "though the power is more on the order of a hundred thousand kilowatts/1 "As the main party involved with . the -equipment, it is your duty to sec tli at it is kept in operating con- dition?" "Yes." "Then tell us, Mr. Woodart, at any time since the device was initi- ated has there been any expenditure of great power thru v^as unac- counted for?" "There was." "And your analysis?" "On the night of M"ay ISth the power demand meter showed the expenditure of seventy thousand kilowatts. It is my opinion that — ,J lift

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"1 object!. That is nn opinion, not a fact!1' exploded Cransbaw. Jones smiled. "CounseJ will ad- mit that it is the opinion of a very qualified man." "1 want it understood that this testimony is but an opinion I" "Objection noted/1 aaid lud^ Carver. "Proceed, Mr. Jones tones nodded at Woodart Wo^d* an' continued — HlMy opinion is thai durtn« the night, someone established - single frame of the opus we were woiktn^ on Once this single irame wai; established, the person removed from the set one object, after which he wiped the stage clean, returning that to the equipment as powet bu* without the object which accounts for seventy thousand kilowatts t energy." "Mr. Woodart, is there any cor- relation between this power and the Einstein Formula?11 "No. The matter is not made — manufactured. It ia converted. The energy represents the power re- quired to carry the matter from a storage place to the stage. It is somewhat like lifting a weight to a certain height. There is HO correla- tion between the foot-pounds of energy expended ttt such and the mass-energy of the stone. How- ever, in lifting a stone, the energy expended in lift will be returned when the stone is let #own — ex- cepting thai part which is removed from the lota! while the stone i* held in midair." "Then it might be difficult for yon to determine Just what was re- moved from the *et?" "ft might be," said WWIart* booking hard a* Harry Foxier. +*That is aU Mr. Woodart. fo the jury, janes said: '1 think you will find that the testimony just given wilf prove that duplication is possible. My next witness will show just who was duplicated, 1 now call Lieutenant Miller to the stand.' ^Lieutenant Miller, when you came to the apartment of Harry Foster* what did you rind?" "1 found Harry Foster, dead of gunshot wounds." "And what else?" **A revolver." "And r "The revolver was in a far cor- ner of the room," said Miller. "The dead man could not have used it upon himself for numerous rea- sons, even though the only finger- prints on the weapon were unmis- takably those of Harry Foster. One reason is the distance between the body and the weapon ; the wounds produced instant death. Another reason is that the dead man's right hand was in his coat pocket — clenched around a duplicate of the revolver/1 "Yen can establish the authen- ticity of this?" "Both weapons had the same serial number. Both bore the same scars from nse. Both weapons produced the same landmarks upon test bullets. Yet at that time only one weapon had been fired; the fine tossed in the corner, *T "Your Honor, I enter as Exhibit A these weapons, duplicates of one

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another. They are definite proof that chip] tcattcm of objects did take plane. " "Evidence accepted." "It will he noted that the serial mi nib cr on these guns is registered in the name of Harry Foster. I will suggest no indictment at this time for the criminal act of having two weapons with the same serial number but I do suggest that it be remembered He turned to Miller and said, "That is all." Cransbaw arose to rross-qucs&ion. 'Mr. Miller," he asked, "is there any way of telling which of those guns is the original and which is the duplicate, I assume that they are not both duplicates/' "Only the marking on the weapon that was tired after the killing." "Hut t Licuicnanr Miller, this is not conclusive. Which weapon was used to kill the dead man — the origi- nal or the duplicate?" "I object. That is irrelevant, im- material, and incompetent t" Cranshaw smiled deeply. "It is all three,. Counsel.* I want to know at this time who was the killer and who was the duplicate?" Miller shoo* bis head. "Only he can answer that." "That is all/* smiled Granshaw. Jones called the defendant to the stand. "Mr. Foster „ did you or did you not. make a duplicate of your- self?" ■ PROBLEM IN SOLID

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'"Objection. The question is an obvious attempt 'to incriminate the witness !" "Sustained!" "T merely wish to establish the identity of the witness." "Then do it without asking bun leading was wanted for crimes of various nature?" "1 object!" exploded Jones, "IT any duplication was made, then iht duplicate 3s equally guilty!" ,HAll right/1 said L.ranstiaw. "4l-et jt pass/' lie facet! the jury with a persecuted air. "Anything to make life dinicultj'' he laughed, "Now/ he said, '*tnay I enter as evidence the suit that the slain man was wearing? It is— or was — iden- tical to that which my client is wear- ing now. At the present time,1' he Siiid with a smde, "the. client's suit is a little more worn* though in Let- ter condition due to the holes in this one. Now, for my first witness T call Dr. Lewis/* "Dr. Fewts, have yuu e^er con- sidered the being of a duplicate?" "Xot until recently/' smiled the doctor. "You are a competent: psychia- trist* Can you tell us the res^Jon- a 3to un i>[*t<s net MNrR-pim-mN

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«btlity-(juoticnt of a man kept ill a state of suspended animation until he tvas thirty-three years old?' "He won hi have little Or no sense of responsibility at all." "Would you say then that a dupli- cate of iiuy lumirm hfinyf was re- sponsible for the nets of tin.- misji- nal?" CiI won hi hate to ponder the <nteft- tion," replied the psydriatrist. "It would depend entirely upon the tic- £rec of (Inclination. Vet it seems to run against the ^raiu to make a duplicate responsible for ihe acts of the original when up to this time, the duplicate had no true identity." "You assume the duplicate would nave an identity ?" "If the duplicate; is capahle of original thought, l*e has." "Yet* Dr. Lewis, what com prises identity ?" "The ego is a rather deep sub- ject/' replied the doctor thought- fully. "The question What is this that am If' is one pondered for many thousand!! of years! Ji is still without answer — though it is gen- erally accepted that a man is what he is because nf his litcltme of experiences," ■'Will vots expand upon that, doe- tor?'' The doctor uoddctl. "A new- born ha he has little true identity or individnsdily. That is heeause his unlv experience is almost congruent with all other new-born hahes. As he lives. Ins experiences will differ because of environment and hered- ity from others —hi the case of twins this is true despite the idea This low-priced blade has lots of stuff — Works wonders for a beard that's tough I And Thin Gillette lasts long as well — Saves money, time; your face looks swell! wivm «hi«rirr« uniformity u Prorfv reef By The Maker Of The Famous Gilkm Blue Blade r-liOELKJf IN SOf.1I*

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that the environment and heredity is identical. It is not. The environ- ment of Twin A includes the life of Twin 13 , and vice .versa. Therefore each twin must evolve & different identity. As a man grows iind en- joys experience, each factor changes his personality in some way major or minor, and he emerges a true identity, which, however, is differ- ent in some minor way from day to day as his experiences accumulate," *'Then at the instant o£ duplica- tion, the two persons have approxi- mately the same identity?" "Yes save for the single fact that one has just been in the process of formation whilst the other was in the process of being recorded. I assume that the two processes are not identical." "Then/* said Cranshawh facing the jury, "may I point out that no identity was really remuved from the face of this earth by this so- called killing. But one birth certi^ cate was issued for Harry Foster. But one Harry Foster lived and grew and became the Harry Foster that many people knew as a motion picture starr A duplicate Harry Foster was made, and then elimi- nated. Harry Foster was killed — and yet Harry Foster remains! If the law states a life for a life, we have it in the person of the living Harry Foster! He — killed him- ■elf," Cranshaw smiled indulgently. "There are laws concerning sui- cide/' he said. "These laws make ■ suicide a felony. Because of this there have been many jokes made ft* about the penalty for suicide, hut there is good reason for such laws. Yon see, Gentlemen of the Jury, it is not necessary to wait until the burglar emerges from the bank with his coat pockets bulging to arrest him. You may apprehend him while he is d rilling his way into Ihe brink for ihe crime of Attempting To Compound A Felony, An attempt at suicide is. then, an attempt to compound a felony and the would- be suicide may be apprehended for his own protection. Since the pennllies for al tempted suicide usu- ally consist of com pelting; the mis- creant to undergo psychiatric treat- ment to remove ihe obvious mental unrest that gave him the will to self-destruction, I suggest th^t my client be given the siitiie tre-itinent for the crime oi suicide/1 He sat down* "Now" he said with a smile, 'chat should hang that jury higher than a kite. What is the penalty for successful suicide? Not execution—" "Shut up," snapped Foster. j The jury relumed a Her many hours, and the foreman arose. "Your Honor f we have deliberated this case and find that our decision requires explanation. Suicide we reason, is self-murder. Since sui- cide ret mires a certain amount oi planning and contemplation, wc find the defendant guilty on all charges including; Murder in the First De- gree I** The1 roar of the spectators cov- ered up the judge's words, but Harry Foster heard him pronounce the fatal words. ASTOUSPISG fsfillONflK-DCTION

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Tim Wood a re turned the key in Jenny Foster's apart ment, shoved the door open and stood aside to let her enter. Once in the dim liv- ■ ing ion mr she turned and buried her head in Tim's shoulder. He held her close find slroked her Tieafl with one hand. Over her head he saw the dock on the wall, it registered midnight. *fEas}\" he said softly. "It's all— over." She nodded t tod filled with emo- tion and relief to speak Then, as the sweep-hand crept THE PHOELhRSI in rolid past the instant of mid nighty a sar- donic voice came from the easy- chair. "A very pretty scene," Jenny whirled, her face white. "Harry !" she said with a quavering voice. As Tim faced Foster he asked Jenny to call Lieutenant Miller. Foster laughed again. "Call him," he jeered. And rememher that the Law of the J .and makes it impossible for me to he placed in double jeopardy!" f* What's been done before can be dune again," said Tim. l,Uh-huh," laughed Foster. "But not punishment. The J.-aw, yer know. "You see/1 jeered Foster, "know- ing that I am going on and on and onT I merely bad Cranshaw make another duplicate of me. >io\v no one can touch me!" Jenny turned from the telephone and Tim put an arm about her and led her from the apartment. He left the door open — i+There lie is," said Tim, outside, "And you know what he has in mind." Harry Foster nodded, took out his revolver, and charged inr The quiet apartment was filled with the sudden racket of ^uurire, nuk-.kiy there : quickly flopped. "Let JVTiller dean up" said Tim harshly. "But— r "They're equally fast and they're equally forewarned. Tough guy — - it took futir ot him to get rid of him." END.

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TARGET BY PETER CARTUR S&riietimofj quite accidentally a -peaceful ut~o#nian or trader can come might y jiea>r to starting a major mar* A wtivior misunderstanding of something n native $ay$ or doe*. * . + It's happened here on Karth mote than once — Illustrated hy Orban JJtade lifted his hat several inches above his head, fell a brief respite from the heat, as though some gust of ivtnd had bloton. He let the hat davn s!o?olyt so that it barely rested cn the top of his head, th&n made fanning motions with his hand in front Pf an impudent young face. He stood for oij instant, squinting in the glare r then walked along the ■wooden platform rawed above the ivhite desert sandr By nature and training he had cotnc into a bra ill- ness that eve ft those -zvha disliked him found disconcerting and hard to cope -with. Yet it ivas -vith con-

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siderabte respect that he approached the -white-haired man who stood at the end of the platform. He waited, unspe&kiftgy until the older man no- ticed him, rTf» Bhlde, of Mmlern Press. They told we who you ate. sir." The older man smiled easily. "*Just another I eg i uti n like yourself, Blade. Trvint/ to r:am his daily bread." ^Yes. But you re , . . you a cre the 'reporter who made himself kino*." The old reporter s easy1 senile faded. C'I zcas/'" he admitted, "/sat that %vas a long time uf/u, and didn't .amount to -much. It nsx$ j\tst a small island, ami I was trying to briny a little ciiitizatU>n to the no- tices." "You almost star fed a tear.'* The old reporter looked cross, UVCOta f nrfahlc, **Thnt wasnyt jny fault. There Was t7 cab hi station there, l^heit we had the tut sit nd e r- standing zotth the Germ an warship I put it on the cable . The operator at the at her end atoned stock in the cable company, lie ions the one who built up the story and sent it on to the papers/' /J lade bithhed his head sympa- thetically, "I remember. The last I heard yon -ivere in a rowboat head- ing for the open sea. Maybe a hundred warships from a docen 'diffident countries were all heading for the island. They were all ready to blaze azwiy. not even kmtwiny who the enemy was" The old reporter looked sad and tired t as old as he was. "That 7x*as a long time ago, Blade. Let's for- T ARC ET get it^ Tin a lot more interested in whether or not this army rocket is going to hit the Moon" "You haven't e*t]v ri.ybt to keep lis here, " Kerm insisted, '"We ought to be carrying out otir trifling; as- signment instead of fitting here on. t h i s f Or S; l ken U lOOtl . p 1 Ttcm looked up from die navi- gators table. He shook his head just a little, clearing it o£ certain dreams of wealth that had come to him. His large violet eyes glanced briefly nt KrJ"in'*> at rained fare, then went to the \"is-ion screen through which Kerin had been staving. PI is pupils contracted swiftly against the glare. He shook his head again, turned hack to Kct'in. ''If you won I tin' t spend so much time luokin^r at that 'forsaken mooir you wouldn't mind it so much. That'£ enough to give any one nerves/'' Attlt, forward in the flight oration, twisted around so that he> too, was looking at. Kerin, PEls nattish. good- Eimuoreri face changed just enough to show some of the contempt Etc felt, "Nerves is what Trem can call it, KlHh. Anyhow, you're a fine one to he comphiiuing;, Tt's not Tteni"s fault we're this far oST r course. If you hadn't bungled, we'd be where we could carry out that assignment you're so anxious about now.*' Kerns cleared his throat for reoly. then saw something in An It's face and thought hettcr of It, He dropped his eyes and turned back to the vision screen showing- the brilliantly

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lighted, fantastically carved surface of Earth's moon. Ault turned further in the flight station scat, so he could sec Trem clearly. "How Is it?" '*Good. I've got the primary co- ordinates established. I think I know about where we arc* Night Vi ill hit us in a few hours, then we can rough check against star sights/' Auk grunted H ilThat won't gives us closer figures." *'No. But it will confirm the ones I've got. I think I know within a few parsecs." Ault nodded, "That's close enough, all right. This section o£ the galaxy is so empty that a par- see's as good as in the grid/' Trem sh rugged < 11 We can't be too sure, of course, I've got the three, space co-ordinates established, And I've got the provisional time set-up. You know how it is, iVe got to keep jockeying time and space co-ordinates back and forth until everything lines up. "Now I've got to project every- thing back along the basic time lines. If the star sights agree, then we'll know where we are/1 "Suppose they don't agree?** *rI start over. Tt would give me two possible space positions. I'd have to get the sure time intersection to determine our true position. It's always time and the speed of Hght that throws the work*. Tf we didn*t travel so much faster than light, there wouldn't be that time co. ordination problem." Ault grinned widely. "If you say so, Trem. I*m just a driver who got knocked out oi Xavigation. I just couldn't soak it in/* He turned so he could sec Keriit, still booking at the vision screen. "Some men that get through don't seem sn bright, though/' Trem grit 1 tied with him, followed the ga^e. "Some's got relatives/1 Kerin turned quickly, angrily, looking first a: Navigator-captain Trem, then l'iloi Ault. then looking between the two of thenir "That wasn't called for." His thin, bitter face worked back into a pleading expression. "I've got rela- tives, yes. Eut getting through Navigation was on my own. Just because I made a stight tni ^calcu- lation—" Ault let out a whoop of pure joy- It was a moment 1 before he spoke* and then the nords came slowly, not emphasized at all. "If the mis- calculation had been a. slight less slight, we*d have beeu a beau ii ml ISO° off course/* Trem smiled* shook his head at Ault in disagreement, "Kerin's right, Ault. He's a competent- enough junior navi^a;or. just inex- perienced. It was a stiff hi miscal- culation. A serious error would have thrown us out of normal space time entirely, It's happened/' Ivcrin's lace showed gratitude for the unexpected support. He left his place afc the vision screen and came forward to be rinse io Trem. Ault left the night station and joined the two at the navigation table. "Finished checking the planet, Ault ?" "Might as well* Trem. Every-

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hing just confirms our early look** Dominant life form is human, about he same as our own race. They've . [Oi nations, airplanes, wars, money, Liseases. taxes, electronics — Trem broke in. "In other words, hey're in the final stage of Class £T1 civil is-ation before pkmeiary es- "That's it," Kerin looked from An It to Trem. PI don't set it," he admitted. "What S this Chiss Xll ":" Trem looked up, surprised, 'What did y<*u learn in Indoctri- tation ?*■ Kerin flushed, then grinned shecp- shly, "You said I had relatives* [ skipped T ndn ct ri tiat ion "Lucky." i A ult looked at Kerin A-ith new respeCt. "NoT it's worthwhile, Auit/* Trem urned back to Kerin* "A Class XII World is like the planet whose moon wcVe resting on. Or like our own atanct of Omin, "It has an intelligent human life, iominant. The climate is warm, there's at least on** moon and a dear atmosphere. Its physical and chemi- cal make-up. of course. wiU support human life," Kerin shook his bend a^ain. "Al! ri^hL But does that mean you can lutnp them together into a class and expect certain things of them "Naturally. The very general course of progress will he almost parallel. Which makes this planet . almost on the verge of discovering methods of spate travel. J dockets first, of conrsf." "Tlut — suppose there wasn't a. moon ? Or they didn't have a clear atmosphere." *<Thcn they wouldn't he Class XII and we could expect different things of them. If they didn't have a clear atmosphere, they might ruii ihe course of their race life without ever knowing of the stars, arid think- in£ themselves aLonc in the universe. "Without a moon, hut with elettr atmosphere, spaee travel might be delayed for the invention of a better drive than the rocket. Which would mean that their civilization would be at a higher level at the time of planetary escape. In the latter case there would probably be only one government, and a higher level of knowledge and culture. Rockets are almost invariably the by-product of war." "They're barbar]ansH then," Kerin said, "Another good reason for us to be leaving. There's no telling-^-" Trem laughed. "Ault, our friend Kerin apparently doesn't want his share of wealth. Also* he seems to want to be skinned alive by the directors of Omin Trading Coin- bine." tCerin showed alarm. "What do you mean ?*J " Where arc your wits, man ? Here's a new. unknown planet with about two billion people, Also, a number of possibly valuable planets to which I hey will have sole rights. Don't you think that would be of interest to the Trading Combine?*' Kerin jerked his head* "Some day, eertainly. But we're not al- lowed to have any contact with them until they've developed space travel. I know the law." TARGET

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■ "Sure, and we'll observe the law* Bui that navigating error o£ yours. K>rin} has given us the opportunity to put the Combine in on the first ieveh These people are ready tar fc-iscape." "Hut thev don't have it j" etore we could make the i rip hack to Orriiu/1 "And that, my friends," A nit ob- served, '*is the bind." "Yeskue.d for Keriu, "there'll he thousands of trading ships around waiting fur the flower to open. We won't be able to set an exclusive, am], as touchy as things are in ilnj galaxy jus; now--" Trem uudded. "If wc just sit around vvitl inn l snindin^ om a me^- >age of some Hon. <-Joti« will list us as unreported. They might even accuse Jarnin, There's a lot of bad blood between them now. The Federation would gel us by tracers, but that would be another end to a possible CM'Fusivr." "Suppusi- we . . , :ih . . . aided the planet in — " "No, Kerb). Kecleraiinii agents always ^jet around to checking the evolution «]" indention leading to space travel in any opened system. We'd be caught sure. And more trouble between systems. ' Ault turned t rum i lie vision screen where lie d been watching the Lunar horizon for tile firrii tra™ os night- fall, " Trem, wc Send a message to Omin. Every government will get the message 3 but, if it seemed rou- tine enough t they wouldn't pay much attention, would they ?** "Guess not, Why?" "Suppose we give Omin our po- sition. Tell them we are staying with the Inner Gal aerie Colony here — without say jug where r under- stand ? Just here — and that we need more trading supplies and a repre- sentative. "Other governments wouldn't check. They'd assume it to be a iSTOUNDTNfi sf:ii;tt<;i: fiction

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system they knew about and wouldn't bother with the co-ordi- nates. Especially since wc mention an Inner Galactic Colon v, "Oniin will l;iiuiv something is ofT when we ask for a representa- tive. They'll check the co-ordinates against the Opens Systems Cata- logue and guess what s up." ■ Treni smiled, "Anlt. thill ought to work.' Trem came down the Unifier from Observation and nodded to Attlt. A full eyelid dropped momentarily over a vioiet eye in a satisfied wink. '"Star fights check. Atilt. We know where wc arc." Ault iiirned to Kerin and grinned unpleasantly. "We know where we aret Kerin/' Then he followed" Trem to the communications panel and watched while the master switch was flicked on, listened to the slowly rising hum of power. There wa^ a short hjt&p ux'in the speaker when Trem pushed the netting stud- Trem turned in annoyance, "Kerin ! Lower that screen !" *T was waning — The meteors — " "We're sat Fe enough. Lower the screen so I can get through.*' " Right. Screen down." 'Trem pushed the netting stud again, turned the crank slowly, then twisted the quench adjustment until the low whistle disappeared. He flicked the netting stud several times and was satisfied with the silence. Then he touched the presset "Carrier requested." he said into the microphone. "Communication to Omiii" Tt»e reply was immediate, i Traffic accepted. Communication to Omin, Sender waives security." 1 'Sender waives security/1 Trem rcj icated . " M essage f ol 16 ws ; "Omin Trading Combine from Trem, Primary Trader EG-S572- OTC As d Erected I am disposing of cargo* laying over in Inner G lac- tic Colony of planet. Forward additional goods and representative immediatel v. Co-ordinates follow ; 1157,2278, 6— " Trem pve the rest of the co- ordinates, signed off and waited for cot) £"] filiation, "TraEnV complete and relayed/* came the ioicc froin the pa lie I. ■ OmiTi Trad- The voice ended ah r aptly, as though choked off. Trem turned angrily. *T thought Td hetter get the screen hack upTJJ Kerin said de- fensively. "Yott were through, weren't you ?Hi Trem didn't answer. The night was ten hours old at their place on the Moon. A sleep- * ing period found them sleeping little, thinking and half -dreaming of being ex -traders with millions and hill ions to their accounts, L^ach had hisbOWll golden thought that needed only time and luck to bring into reality, Tretn and Ault rose together and went to Observation, They stood in the bubble, watching the sky, the Earth, and the black surface of the Moon through the transparent dome. ■ I lie re. ! It was coming too fast. Ault had just started to turn, hearing Trends cry, when the object struck, less

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than two miles from their position. They were Iwth thinking f Meteor when the explosion came. Only a fraction of the full brilliance- of the flash got by the dome lie fort the walls automatically darkened against the fjlarc. Yet their eyes were. blinded for the moment. They felt the ship shake beneath them, and even through the tureen some of the power of the concussion couid be felt. Autt spoke first. "A bomb, Trcm," Trem's eyelids were still down, his mind still filled with the picture of the flash, "No . , . no, it wasn't a bomb. They' re escaping their planet, Autt." "That way?" "First shot, probably. Unmanned rocket with explosive head. They'll be watching through telescopes to sec it hit. I imagine they saw that flash. It was atomic. We're just En time/* * Their eyes were clearing7 and the two looked up at the planet riding; high above them. They'd seen it more closely through the scanners, but there was a mystery and a beauty to the planet at this distance. And ever the til ought that, like thousands of races before them, an- other was Ion Icing: to the stars, yearning and reaching. Ault rubbed his eyes again, won- deringly. ' That flash must have improved my eyesight. Everything looks clearer than it should," ffYes. I was . . . Ault, the screen must be down l" They found Kerin talking into the communication panel, Ault 1 leaded for him, Trent reached the screen control, heard the beep from the speaker as the screen went up. Ault hadn't been gentle with Kerin, The junior navigator was against the records panel, holding himself half upright by the aid. of the rail. Tears were running down liis cheeks, slowly, and he was sob- bing, in hhnsi-lf ami brokenly, as though without the full strength It! it even to cry. Anh was. rubbing his knuckles and looking satisfied. "I" vein look Kit in by I hi? s boulder h ' and shook him rmi"blv. "Listen to me-t Kerin. "Listen- — what did you tell them?*' Kerin tried to pill I away, then straightened up and faced Trem. without looking at him. "Just that we were being at- tacked" "Just — just! Did you identify us? Kerin, did you have time to identify us?" "Yes." Trera took away his hands, lei Kerin slide unnoticed to the deck, "We can call back," Ault sug- gested. "Tell thfiin that it was — " "A mistake?" "Well, we could say Kerin was out of his head," "Too late. The message is all over the galaxy. Our position will already have been checked Frotm the previous message on file. There's no chance of stopping an invesu- gation," "No, I ™uess not. I had it all planned out. I was going to take a few million and buy — Well, it doesn't matter now." "No. Open the screen and we'll

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find out if there's been any reaction yet," Trem went to the communication panel, switched on the power, then stood back,, hoi touching the pressel. ft Request Trem of Omin, Primary Trader EG" — the calm voice of the operator at Federation Relay droned out of the speaker — "acknowledge. Further traffic f oltowg : "Message : How ma ay Jamiiis e.^ti mated in colony under attack? War T~>i rector , TCmpire of Jam in — Message: Sixty Systems Citizens have course. Twenty thousand first line battle cruisers on way. Sixty Systems Directorate — Mes- sage: Federation Fleets dispatched. Vanguards tinder ultimate drive to evacuate Federation colonists. Fed- eration Council — Message; Trem o| Omin. Full resources of allied sys- tems already mobilized. You will be protected or avenged, Omin Trading Combine — Message : Torcn Nationals, stand and fight* Keniem- bcr— " Tremb hand still on the switch that had cut ofF Federation lie lay, turned to Ault : "Man your flight station, Ault." Beyond the orbit of FJuto Trem and Ault .sat together in the flighty station, eyes on the view screen, "J^ook at them, Ault. A million, at least, A million maddened in- sects." Ault stared at the screen, at the countless points of lijjht that indi- cated moving ships. "Insects^11 'hThe warships. I'm thinking ol the way they're coming in swarms, THE .■ TARGET fighting mad. Faster than light, millions of weapons ready against whatever need;; attacking. It's st shame to leave a scene like this/' Ault cleared his throat, UI think I know what vou mean, Trem- Still. I thinks" Trem nodded. "1 rioH too. We better get out of here. Galactic drive, Ault/' The old reporter watched young Blade leave the observatory build- ing. The kid was hurrying out into the night to file his story as spot For the old reporter it uxts dtf^ feretif. He had to have a few min- utes to work this into a feature story, He ran fingers through whitened hair, Iraned forward in thought. His mind ivasiSt working smoothly, Every time he , thought of ihe Hash of the rocket exploding on the Moon— lVeIl> it made him feci as he had only once before in his life. It TETfJ when he was on the native island s just he fore the warships ar- rived. Even, before the smoke from fheir stacks hud been visible — H was an urge to get away, far and fast. Once, by accident, he'd almost touched off a major senr. J or in- nately, he'd failed, but kotv the con- viction came to the old reporter that someone had succeeded- Tie shook his head to clear away the zvild thought and walked toi\*ard the door. Looking out at the peaceful Milky Way should ease his mind. ■

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COLLECTOR'S ITEM BY FRANK B. LONG if you doitt httve ttme-tmrvJ, ca}Ct ice the future^ per- haps even the Hound of the fuftim c*m hi- devest fifing — Illustrated by TMitnlns Neville nas finished, "Finished" beinj* a somewhat ambiguous expression, indicating either irrev- ocable doom, or the joyous, completion of a task -with its ac- company ing brightly sparkling suc- cess a few qualifying statements arc in order, Neville didn't realize it* but in his case it meant hoth. The tiring that Neville had in- vented was a success in that it fulfil led all of Ins expectations* It hummed when tee clicked it on, and that humming was as beautiful a .4 &TO U X D I X G SCI C B^l CT J OH

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thing to hear as frequency modu- lation or a rahibow-hued waterfall in Victoria Nyanza. It hummed and it would sing! He was tired now, very tired, TCut he'd accomplished the impossible without removing his glasses from his J lose. He'd bridged the final gap tween theory and practice in the most bewildering of ah fields— that of time travel ! I f anyone had suggested to him that the field had l>een Overworked - -in fiction at least — his reply would Slave been simple, and dev ablating. "Specu- lation acid reality keep different hours — and when one comes in the ■ front door the other leaves bv the back!" The phonograph was a console mo del t fitted out with such a wealth of mechanical detail that Neville was at a loss to understand how lie could have invented it. But of one tiling he was certain. The phono- graph would be capable of high- fidelity reproduction a hundred years in the future or — a thousand years. As a ride sane men did not i n ven t t i me- tra vein iff phn n og raphs ■ But there were exceptions every rule and Neville was confident he had a firm grip on his sanity. Funny— to have occasional memory lapses, to invent amazing things in the darkness that could stand the test of calm appraisal in the sun- light, High-fidelity reproduction ! TEie phrase pleased Neville, and he rolled it on his tongue as though it were Napoleon h randy from a cob- webbery old bottle in his well- stocked cellar. The phonograph was not only 4 miracle of mechanical perfection, Neville was conn dent it couldn't be destroyed by anything short of the Hiroshima technique. The alloy he'd used to build a tight little fence around the *' home-recording "' turntable was burglar-proof. The turntable was waited in, roofed over and as impregnable as a fused tungsten bedlunip. If some StokowsUj of the future decided to capture the dramatic vitality of Sir;tYinski in front of the phonography the recording would be imperishably preserved in vinylite. But — just let him try getting the record out! Hah E More likely the attempt would be made by some garrulous big-brained dwarf or mischievous child ! 1-ikc most men of Inventive genius, Neville was a slave to the stereotyped patterns oi thought . which peopled the future with malign baroques. Just why the future should have taken on an aspect of lunacy for the more imaginative examples of Homo sapiens was anybody's guess. Perhaps a race determined to blow itself off the face of the earth pre- ferred to believe it would turn into something completely mischievous and grotesque before that dire event took place. Homo sapiens wouldn't feel so badly about destroying it- self if it ceased to be itself. It was rust a guess, of course, and NevMle had never cared much for guessing games. Once in a while he did indulge in abstract ^Or.T^C'TOTi ■ S tTRH!

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speculation But most of the time he was too busy inventing things, The phonograph had not been designed to remain in the future. It would simply travel forward in time, pick up whatever sounds swam within its ken and return with a high- fidelity recording. A collector's piece ! The human race owes much to it$ poineen?. Just how had a head- ache it would get from any sort of time travel had never entered Neville's thoughts. "I'm going places E" said the slipper animalcule, devouring its brother, Neville was confident that the high- frequency antenna, which pro- jected from both sides of the cabinet like the horns of a sea-green di- lemma* would do the trick. When he cEscked the phonograph on the vibrations would warp the tem- poral-spatial orientation of the entire machine, just enough to send it for- ward in time. Neville had gone over every Square inch of the machine in search of mechanical defects. There were none, A tall glass and a bottle of Scotch stood a>t his elbow. His nerves had never been steadier. . True, his lips were shaking a little. But he was sure that his hands wouldn't shake when he stepped forward and clicked on the" machine, His lips trembled when- ever he found himself wishing for an audience. Words rushed to his lips and tumbled out unbidden. But it was nothing— it was of no im- portance. He had simply acquired the habit of talking to himself. 7d Suddenly a tightness came into his face. He remained completely motionless, yet seemed to strain to- ward the machine as though his entire weight were pressing against the outer loop of a coiled spring. He spoke with explosive vehe- mence. +'Here gues!" The click was lardy audible, Kor a moment nothing happened. Neville was not dismayed. Tic knevv lliat the slipover would occur in about thirty seconds, without vibra- tory dramatics. The antenna did not even appear lo vibrate, but Neville knew that it was vih rating — Not just the fUHcjina, hut the re- volving turntable, the record, every parr of the machine. Neville was a short, dark-browed man, huiEt like a wrestler. He seemed to be inwardly wrestling with something stronger than him- self as he stood waiting, his gaze riveted on the machine. The seconds seemed to drag, to split up into fragments as he stared, so that he had the illusion of being immersed in tiny, scintillating par- ticles of time that kept swirling and dissolving about him. Suddenly Neville blinked* For the barest instant his eyes had a glint of wonder. Then the won- der changed to fear, to dread. Out- side the laboratory window a factory whistle shrilled, and he shuddered, as thougEi the thin sliver of sound had been inserted unnaturally in his brain. The phonograph was gone ! Neville swung about, poured him- self a stiff one with fingers that shook 4 little. Three jiggers, ASTOUNDING SCIT3WCE FICTIOW

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straight The whiskey glided over 4jls tongue, scorched his tonsils and set up a raw burning in his throat. He set the glass down and walked to the window. His features had begun to I witch again. It was curious how seldom he was able to control the con v nisi ve trembling of his face. It came on in spasms and pot progressively worse- Eight or ten times a day now. J^o* no— he wag wrong about that. Not only now — far as long as he could remember. Glazed eyes peering inf refusing to believe him. Eves filled with scorn and sharp curiosity — waiting fur the trembling to commence. They*d told him there was noth- ing wrong with his face! Hah J Nothing wrong with his face! Why when he looked in the mirror every twitching muscle was like . , , like ■ Aristotle's outmoded conception of ocular beams! Newton had dis- posed of that, hadn't he? In the Principia? And wliat about Dc Sitter, Einstein ? Sonic day he'd show them — show them all, even his wife! They'd made a mistake in letting him come home. He wasn't cured yet, not by a long sight. He'd never he cured of the — twitching. True, in his own home, his own laboratory, admittedly well -equipped* he could do pretty much as he pleased. He was free to invent things! But what good did that do when everything he invented disappeared? NOi no, no — nothing had disap- peared except the phonograph, not even the twitching ! Something about a psychotic split ! They were always whispering about him behind his back. As though he were a mischievous child who couldn't be trusted with , . . with - — Occupational therapy! The fools! The blind, unreasoning fools — The man who stood before the spotcast transmitter in the waning autumn of the year 2548 was en- tirely human itt aspect. His name was Henry May hew, and his thoughts were as traditional as his name. His thoughts were traditionally unpleasant — for the world's most powerful representative of law and order suffered from a somewhat childish sense of guilt. The picture of complete security for himself and his descendants which he held in front of his mind kept blurring around the edges. Blurring— and draining awayH He was powerless to control the blur- ring and he felt guilty about it— and more troubled than he woulrl have cared to admit. May hew was a Httle below me- dium height -a lean* hawk-visaged man with a sharply -defined rapacity in his stare. He stood gripping the curving neck of the transmission disk, staring at it as if its shape , might at any moment undergo a change which would turn it into an incandescent sheet of name. Suddenly he spoke. "Well, Win- ter— we may as well get it over with!" The man who had accompanied Mayhew into the spotcasting room had a thin, weary face* with un- pleasantly immobile eyes. There ti

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was a bald spot at the bick of his head^ and the veins on his forehead were thick, blue cord?;. He did not look at May hew as he replied; "J hope you realise, what you're risking by spot casting una public beanl l*d May hew swung about, I us lips twisting in a sneer. "T don't like the risks any better than yon do!" lie said* quickly. "But I've thought this thing through, and Idni deter- mined to go ahead with it. A man in niy position has Up take risks — or go under. I'm walking right out of the house — leaving the lights on and the door unlocked, Uut if Our- enemies arc wise — they'll leave their weapons on the doorstep/1 *lWhen they come knot-king, you mean ?" "They won't come knocking. Winter. They'll come crawling!" "I hope you're right/1 Winter said. May hew flushed angrily. ' The bitter bile of Winter's skepticism was too acrid for his liking. He moistened his Sips before replying, as though the taste of it had trans- ferred itself to his tongue. ,(I Tvant our enemies to know!" he rasped. fiDoes that satisfy yon ? What makes you think I won't he believed ? Preston has studied my onychograph, hasn't be? He . . . he knows I'm incapable of false- hood I" "It's the end of an epoch, then ?*J Winter said, and shrugged, as though something: horribly disillu- sioned and embittered deep in his mind had compelled him to ask the T3 question solely to give a final twist to the screw, "It is!'* Mayliew said. "And we may as well face if 1 In 1^53 Medlar saved civilisation by post- poning the showdown k>r exactly live hundred nineiy-livc« years ! 1 hate ^randdocnienl cliches, but sav- ing civil iftili On was i'.\'*frtly what 1] edlar did- Sometimes f think his name was no accitieiU* You grow up hearing a mime like thai dinned into your ears— and vim try id live up to it r ^MmIUli-'s meddling was the best tiling that cuukl have happened at the time," Winter pointed out. "I sli]] think it's the Nest thing. If there's anything better — I should like to know of it." "You'll know if we have to re- lease Bombardment Unit lonmda M C 73!" Mayliew said, "But JTm a little afraid to risk h\ J f we hlast lite Mediur sci'eciis, there'll be a lot of new radioactive isotopes float- ing over the eanh. And one of those isotopes may be us !" 'But the tests—" Maybe w grimaced, "Yes, we made several tests, didn't we? We disrupted three screens with enough M C 73 to blow a little round hole in the earth from pole to pole. We didn't let the hla^t get nut of con- trol and instead of an earthquake we were treated to a beautiful dis- play of celestial fireworks." Mayliew made a clicking sound in his throat. iHWe sent a jet of bill ion -degree heat as far as the Moon. But there were no enemy cities under the screens to £et mixed up with those radiations. We're not 1STOUNDISR BCTKNCB-PICTION

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sure whai would happen if a lot o£ very heavy nuclei prevented the siphoning off of the blast- We can't set up controls in an enemy cityl" Winter nodded. "But doesn't that con Linn what T said? We should he g-Taieri.il to Medlar for his meddling. He threw an impene- trable harrier around die wasps without removing their uli liters. ..The old atomic stingers couldn't be drawn, but Medlar neutralized then- destructive potential r* "A neutralised potential Es a con- stant threat !'* Mayhem retorted* "Surely you must realise that! Six centuries ago humanity had to en- dure that threat as the lesser of two evils. *'MedlEir did snmd:1uii& his toil- tern por a n es thought its lpos sil >1 e— construe ted a force screen of stable atomic nuclei* lint he lived in an a^e o£ savage internecine warfare. In such an a^(: there could be no security unless defensive, techniques outsU i ppc r 1 r any possibility of peace, "They tried out a system of in- spect ion which never could have worked/' lie added, ay though it were hardly worth mentioning. you wore thick-! en scd glasses, how far could you see under a bed? Or in Antarctica? "And now?" "Just the opposite^ true! Wild- eyed idealist* to the contrary — -most of us are watptike* Winter. . I'm glad you're enough of a realist to realize that. lJeacc can be made to last. EUit only on the 'strike first or be annihilated' principle." May hew looked directly at Win- ter. "I'd have no hesitation in bombing a screen-protected city if I thought we could get away with it/" he paid, with startling candor. Fkit we can't lie completely sure. Quanta are funny that way ! We have reason to believe that, even the planets jump — right out of their orbits every ha IE million years. It's the only sensible explanation for the phenomenon of cyclic glaein- Lioti, And it wc gyve the earth a prod—" "Rut why should we, warn our enemies that wTe can disrupt their screens,. :jitui homb their cities to rubble""" Winter persisted, "Do yon call that striking first V1 "Vaporise/* Mayljew corrected coldly. f'All ricrht— vaporize! I don't doubt that M C 73 could disrupt every Medlar screen on earth. But those screens have protected nur IHCLASSIFIEDJiUSr UNCLASSIFIED,MISC COIiT.lICTOR'S IfTHW 73

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dries too— for sbcty decades I Why twist the cat's tail? Why can't we trill be grateful to Medlar?** "Because well be too late if we wait !" May hew told him, "They're ahead of us now in some ways I If they strike first, we'll be fin- ished 1" ■'fim you'Jl be inviting them to strike first!" May hew shook his head. "No. Wc*ll simply be gi%ring them a psy- chological prod. When 1 tell them what M. C 73 can do — well have won. Winter, They'll have to be- lieve me, A psych ograph recording can't lie. I have a traumatic horror of falsehood. Even Preston knows that. Eradicating that trauma de- fect would tear apart. It could be done — in two . . . three years! But they have a psyehograph which shows that it hasn't been done/' "Their spies are accomplished/7 Winter commented. "Only as accomplished as I want them to be/' May hew said, smiling- thinly , ,JT let them nidi that psy- ehograph from the Central Bureau because T wanted them to believe me. And they will [ There'll be one World Federation instead of two, and I'll be at the head of it t" "Disarming our enemies could present technological difficulties/' Winter reminded him. "No— 1 hardly think so! Their surrender will be too immediate and abject. We'll keep our screens and compel them to dissolve, theirs* They'll scurry to covtrH fastr ftipht in out oi the rain of death we could hurl at them! Did you ever hear of umbrella ants ?** "Umbrella—' **In the deep jungle ihey fashion umbrellas of leaves^ to ward off the lightning. But they are not above scurrying into the nests of their neighbors when the downpour be- comes torrent ial. And uIht] they realize what a mistake thoy\e made their fat is in the rire!:' Winter tried to smile, out broke out in a cold swc;it iustead. "In- sects fascinate you, dou't they ?" "You started ft!'7 Maybew re- minded him. "And you'll finish it ! One feder- ation, ruled by one man wilh ab- solute power of life and death over two billion human beings. Would you like that vcnirserf *'Jt isn't a question ->I what I'd like or dislike," Mlij-Iil^v said, chill- ingly. "Military might alone can preserve the human race from com- plete extinction. Surely you must realize that divided power has be- come the exacl equivalent Qt a tine distillation ot cobra venom!" As soon as the spolcasl had passed into history May hew knew that his life hung in the balance. But he had n^ regrets. He valued hts -ife highly, but it scarcely weighed in the balance against the two billion lives he'd tossed On the scales. He moved through the .sun- red- dened upper rooms of bis elabo- rately fortified house, and thought of grapes ripening on hillsides in tar -oft lands that had suddenly ac- quired a destructive potential far in excess of their population. Would his word be doubted' A

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few misguided psychologists had Staled publicly that all psycho- graphs were suspect* The ten- sions created by a supreme decision involving millions of lives might sweep reason aside in enough brains to make his threat boomerang- Would his enemies risis destruc- tion to save their way of life? For reasons difficult to explain an es- tablished way of life could seem more precious than security to men in positions of trust — not only to the men at the top, A vortex of suicidal anger could whirl an en- tire society to destruction without any guidance from its best minds, Kenneth Preston was the man he feared most, Atomizntion at birth might have spared his enemies the ghastly necessity of nursing that viper in their bosom. It seemed incredible to May hew that any man could love power as much a 5 r rest on did. He had an awesome way of imposing his will on everyone because he was so com- pletely selfless, lie lived in a vac- uum from which every human in i pulse, except the will to power, had been sucked. He was hi] man only in his capacity for making de- cisions and enforcing them. He was not a tyrant because he had no personal ambition. He was neither compassionate nor heartless* He was a cold intellectual machine ■ that fed on power, functioned through power, and made decisions which no ordinary man won id have dared to make. Homo superior? Whispers had filtered through which May hew re- fused to believe. He thought of COTXFCTOIS'S ITESf how pleasant it would be to force Preston into a dark corner and take him by the throat, increasing his fjrip steadily until his enemy ceased to struggle. The stimulating wish- fulfillment fantasy was rudely interrupted by steps crossing the room at May- hew's back. He whirled, flushing: guiltily, his entire attitude that of a man who had been lulled into mo- mentary forget fulness of his duty by thoughts which were unworthy of him. The intruder was JsTorman Win- ter. As May hew stared at his foreign secretary the redness in the mom seemed to blend with the shadows that were dancing on the walls on both sides of htm. Winter advanced with surprising swiftness for a man whose steps dragged, his nostrils twitching as though he were trying to expel air through them, or as though he'd found something unpleasant under A danvp stone that was running swiftly up his back, May hew stood rigid, more sens- ing than understanding the jumble of words which poured from Win- ter's lips. After a moment understanding seemed to come to him. He had an impulse to knock Winter down, pick him up by the scruff of his neck and knock him down again. He had an impulse to walk to the wall and beat his head against it until his thoughts ceased to torment him. When he spoke even Winter did not fully realize how great his anger w

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was. "So Preston thinks we're bluffing, dots he ? lie's used that cold bra hi of his to convince him- self we're gambling on a weapon that's still in the blueprint stage! \Ve\]— he'll fhtd ottU" The enemy metropolis was stir- ring in the sun -reddened dawn, ft wna a CTly td~ py Eon- shaped bnild- "igs, magnificent in architectural sweep, its strr^fs rjLrl inltn^ outward from a great central t to man. The child \va> ht^ inning in think for liiin^ell, Mis intys helped lmn. They wevc truly extraordinary. A link median icnl mun, I ranspurenr, its evcrv nr^us au.Un miicallv :kvu- rate, as Though ii had just pepped dawn from a plaiform in a medical ■ college. It fould walk ami tnfk. The science of electronics had never scored a gnpalff triumph. There were other mvs ingenious beyond belief, A ckv,\n th:u could add. subtract and per l^rni pimple sums. A little concert orchestra* Jed by a grave- faced maestro who had utasiered jhe tliftiirult art oi bo wins from the I lips. A child's toy could be i lie nio^c miponant thing in the world. An immense weariiu^s almosi blotted om che kindliness in Ken- neth Trt iron's face as lie stood re- garding hi ^ son. He had entered the playroom rpiietly, without dis- turbing an intent, eager whispering which brought a queer ache to his throat. He felt like sinking into a chair and burying his face in his hands, l*ul be knew lie had no right to do that. There was no sense in alarming the lad!. The room blur red a little as he stared. He wanted to take his son eagerly by the hand and talk to him alxwit— death ? No. letter not to speak at all. How could be cm- ASTOCND1SC SOI K N C Ji -V I C J' f O N

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plain to a child that a trap was about to be sprung that would close on ev- erything forever? Haw could lie explain to a child that shivery was worse I Si an annihilation ? Preston MOcjd very quietly waiting; for the liyhts to go out. At firs i the descending rocket was a mere pinpoint of li^lit in the mid- dle of the sky. Hut it grew swiftly larger^ becoming brighter and brighter — I jcci lining ao bright at Last that 3 1 outshone the noonday suu+ Tin* explosion was so tremendous that it seemed to shatter the very keystone ol matter itself, H was an expanding whiteness that turned swiftly iu blue, # recti, yellow, purple, red. It was a blast of sound that would have shattered the eardrums of every man and woman in the city — 'if the city had remained to re- verberate to the blast as it traveled outward from its .source. But there was no city- -nothing. The vapor i nation t>f the entire city- was instantaneous with the birth oE the blast. Its building melted, ran together and disappeared, T he rei was no human awareness of the tragedy as the city vanished, for human awareness cannot exist in a time span too brief to be meas- ured by the instruments of human science. Jf May hew had thought coldly about itt he would itnt Ji^ve cared for that part of the . + . the syiii- phony, I It! t so tumultuous were the emotions aroused in him by the all- engulfing a weep of the explosion that his enjoyment was not marred. As a poet bad once phrased it: oollec^oh^ lvv.sr Destruction hastens and Intensifies, The ptoccss that is beauty, manifests Ranges of form tmlinmvsi be tore, and gives Motion nnJ voice and hue where other- Flkak ipifxiHvsiivcnesi hud leveled a 1 1. May hew turned from, the tele- visual receptor slowly, his eyes shin- ing. an but seldom in Such a weird way. For Maybew was repmtinjr aloud a formula he bad memorized so thor- oughly that its every equation wa* seared into his hrstin and had become an integral part of his triumph. He did not see the phonograph materialise in the shadows behind him. He did not hear its vibratory drone, Kc stood with his back to the shadows, his thin, haggard face becoming darker and darker as he repeated the formula over and over, like a man in the grip of an in- $tantaneous catalepsy. His lips were still moving when the phonograph vanished. Dr. Ralph Medlar envied his former cronies at Oak Ridge as he had not envied his newer cronies nt the plant which bore his name. At Oak Ridge human energies had been building up to a climax which hntl sw ept away an epoch. In the Medlar I ^ihorntories himntn en- ergies were at work on a project which might very well sweep that epoch back a^ain. "Epoch" was a weak term to ap- ply to the whole of human history tt

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right up to a tired old man's brain- atormT Eut he detested such tortured terms as "prc-atomic civilization" and "crude power age.,J What was the use of inventing a force screen that could neutralize Oak Kidge if Oak Ridge had ushered in a shining new age of power? Medlar's heart had never really been in ir. He'd never remembered being so tired. His muscles ached and even the .shining new world of 1952 spun dtsfcily ahaut him as he approached the secondhand record shop. Music was just uhout the only sol- ace be had left. A few more equa- tion a popping out of his whlte- thatched head would blot out thu glow for generations — tor when the Medlar harrier went up the danger signals would wink out m every city on earth. And the big-b rained, hairless ma [iima 3 that walked upright would be an ape again— for it was danger that had turned him into a man, Tt was the threat of destruction that had steeled his muscles* expanded his brain. If the old setup re- iSTOVJilDSa SCI ESCB-B-ICTION

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turned, he'd stHl have atomic power, but how would he use it? The old nest in the trees had been Surrounded with danger signals — the flowing eves of jungle beasts, fierce growls in the night. And the ape had become a Bikini maker! The terrible beauty of Bikini — the piercingly dangerous, water-shock- wave n munificence of Bikini ! With Bikini as a starting point man would advance in seven- league boots. But if the Medlar barrier went up — Medlar went through the sw ink- ing doors of the record shop like at man in a trance H He hardly noticed the inquiring stare of the proprietor, but plunged on toward the rear of the shop with his thoughts in a tur- moil. He liked the novelty record bins best. Quaint Calypsos from the West Indies, hot jaz7 straight from, the trumpet of Lhe peerless Dizzy FHppet, and studio- rejected bunk- house jamboree songs that dripped sen Li men £ without being maudlin. In his eagerness to thumb through the records *he failed to notice that the sign above the bin read: Uncias- ufied, wis* Medlar's simple en use-and- effect philosophy did not embrace the wider implications of pragmatism. Had he noticed the sign he would have been mildly irritated — nothing more. He was a zealous man of sci- ence but he had never conducted a down-to -earth search for life's rich- est plums in out-of-the-way nooks and crannies. He had. no idea that such plums have a way of gravitating straight toward bins labeled: Unclassified t COLLECTOR'S TTTlTtf mis. But ignorance is often a bless- ing in reverse* Eefore Medlar could read the la- bels on the records stacked evenly in the bin his eye alighted on a record that had 1>cen shoved into the bin in haphazard fashion, as though some- one with blunted sensibilities had tried to get rid of it at the termina- tion of a three-day binge. For how could a man in f nil pos- session of bis faculties remain indif- ferent to the appeal of such a record — a record with a totally blank label and a sheen that made Medlar blink in furious disbelief. Not all records were black, of course, Children's records were usually red and the Pritice of Wales, Medlar recalled, had renounced a kingdom on a blue platter put out by the British Broadcasting Company. But a rainbow-hued record, a rec- ord that gleamed with every color of the spectrum as Medlar stared at it was + . + was — Medlar seized the record and jerked it from the bin, so quickly that he almost dropped it. But he did not immediately carry it to the automatic record player at the front of the shop. He stood for an in- stan c scowling down at his tremblmg hands, as though fearful that his eagerness would be noticed by the proprietor to the detriment of his purse. After a moment the trem- bling ceased. The subterfuge was of no avail, for the proprietor was almost in- stantly at his side* "Can I help you, mister?" Medlar gulped. "Yes. I ... I was wondering . . * there's no la- 7t

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lid on this record. Is it a home re- cording, d'you suppose?" The proprietor seemed taken aback'. He took the. record from Mod Lit- and examined it intently, his brow furrowed* Suddenly he said ■ "Oh, ] re mem- lnir now-* 1*1 lat record came from a private collection. Gity named Nov- ? 3- 1 cr — a sdenlmc big1 shut. His wife sold his library and fill of his rec- Ords. Furniture went, loo. It made me sick just to be there. The poor guy cracked up. They tell me heTs in an asylum now — if fie isn't buried V* "Frederick Neville!" Medlar mut- tered. "Why, he was just about the most brilliant man in his — +t "Know I] mi, eh? I tell you — it gave me a jolt. When his wife phoned and asked me to eall for his records I couldn't look her in the face. Big house — terrific place. Why, tlw £uy had everything ! But . Til say tins for the old girl. She stood up to it like a thoroughbred. Didn't even blink when those bums came in and carted away a library it must have taken hini years to build. Didn't leave her a penny, I hear J" "Yes, yes, f understand !" Medlar interjected, feeling like an inter- loper at a funeral parlor. 'Td like to play tliis record— it you don't mind !" "Sure, why not ?" the proprietor said . ** Nothing much on itH Some guy talking to himself, mumbling. Eut go ahead. Neville must have made it right after — " *eued his mouth to sprak ins voice was SO shrill that the proprietor touk au alarmed step L'teLirmds. '\l lave you a ph oik- here ? 1\ . . I'd like to use your phone immedi- ately W The proprietor shtnik his head, * 'There's one in the ei**ar slm'c across the street !" he said* nervously. "You don't want this record, ell ?" "Wrap it up!" MecMar alnn.^i screamed at him. "I'll he rijght baek for it V* before the shopkeeper could close his gapm"- month Medlar wad out of the shop, ploughing? across the street with his sparse hair blow- ing in the wind, Rxtemal events have a way of molding themselves to the needs of men with explosive impulses. In the ri^ar store Medlar found an un- occupied phone booth, a quick h\m when he deposited his nickel and then — he was dialing his laboratory with a shaking forefinger. The conversation which ensued was a little on the irrational side. "Marston ? Slop all work on the screen 3 Yes — that's what I said! We're junking the entire experi- ment 3 Yes, yes — I know 3 I had that radioisotope snag licked ! But iSTOUKDlSQ SCIENCE PICTIOH

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now I've got a new formula that will — - Listen, Marston t I want - you to jot down a. mew set of equa- tions r Medlar tapped his fore dead in the humid phone booth. Tin not sure just what I've got here, but I do know it makes the sercen Inok silly — a kiddie svAgon sort of thing! We're in the kindergarten stage of heavy isotope exploration, but [>ve a pretty good idea what this formula could do ! There are techniques — so destructive it's sheer madness to waste time thinking a!on£ defensive lines. When no defense is possible you accept the inevitable and make the most of it ! The nation that oyish Fea- tures distorted with grief. !Ralpli Medlar looked shockingly like a limp rag; dolt, his arms folded loosely on his chest, his pumpkin- flat face shining in the glare which flooded into every corner of the big, vaultlike room. Forty-eight hours more, Marston si

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thought, and he'd have solved it! Humanity's brightest hope— in a municipal morgue. Morgues were supposed to he gloomy, but this one was brightly lighted and — it was ac- tually so dark you could see the lights guttering out all Over the world! . Psycho logically Marston was in- capable of self-deception, A cog had slipped somewhere m his makeup and he'd become the rar- est and loneliest of human types— a triple-plied realist. He knew that humanity could not survive without Medlar — and his screen. He did not have to speculate. He knrwi Atomic energy and man's innate combativencss were irreconcilable. The human animal went at it ham- mer and tongs — every instant of every hour. Quarreling with war- ring elements in himself, and pro- jecting that inner conflict to others also at war with themselves. Earth could not survive the mere physical presence of such a dishar- monic creature armed with weap- ons so flawlessly harmonic in their destructive potential. A cooling off period dictated by fear — a stalemate of some sort? Impossible! How could men with death at their fin- gertips avoid the nervous tics of unreason ? As Mars I on turned from ihe sla!> his mind was already busy with jotted notes on a pad, Nro man of integrity ton Id deviate from lus code. And Marsto-n's code was not sufficiently elastic to embrace dis- loyalty to a dead chieftain. For good or ill — the formula which Medlar had asked him to jot dowu would have to be developed and "perfected. The formula was not a departure — simply an advance in a field which Marston had made peculiarly his own. A gamma ra- diation splitting up an tall enough to be carried and released by a single rocket head — powerful -enough to blast a hole in the earth from pole to ^fole 1 As Marston emerged from the morgue he felt a little like a blood- stained savage with rt gleaming tomahawk in liis hand. Only— it wasn't a tomahawk but a Jovian thunderbolt which had a curious way of twisting up into smoking darkness when he allowed bis thoughts to stray from his immedi- ate task, But Marston bad no intention of letting his imagination run riot. He was a practical man- — with a job to iSTOUNElKfi SCIENCE FICTION

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do. For one sickening moment the shadow which had preceded him from the morgue had reminded him of a corpse walking upright, its heels trailing blood. But there was nothing to he gained by conjuring up images which chilled him to the core of his being. Even if lit was walking in the footsteps of a dead man— a part of himself was not dead! James Marston had emerged from obsemhy to become the most important yuimg man on earth. But save fur his tortured eye.s lie might have been any vainly man hurry- ing oft to keqi a date with his. gii1]. Hot ja/xmaiua is a peculiar af- fliction. Previous to 1935 it did not exist as a sharply defined aberra- tion. The middle nineteen -twenties were known as the Age of Jaz*, but jazz deckel out as a thie art, a gift straight from Olympus to knowing moderns was still in its swaddling clothes. A generation agQ highly inteU lectual people were not in the hah it of browsing in secondhand record shops with shining eyes and bated breaths, seeking early Duke Elling- tonsaN or mint-con dition recordings of Louis Armstrongs ''West End Blues" and Coleman Hawkins1 "Body and Soul." In 1927 such behavior would have been deemed lowbrow and uncouth. But hy the late fall of 1952 it had become a new form of mental dis- turbance quite as fashionable as Schizophrenia and infinitely less distressing. There was no need for the af- COLLECTOHF ITEM flfeted ones to endure the slightest constraint, for they were quite ca- pable of coiling up In their own apartments and consuming vast quantities of liquid nourishment w\(li their eyes fixed on a revolv- ing disk that took them completely out of the world. To the real initiates it wasn't calkd swing. It was still jazz arid it was hot — a distillation of pure magic that was just being discov- ered by cultured people a little on the maniacal side. But since it embodied the im- memorial rhythms Ot a race that had never forgotten how to laugh perhaps it wasn't so mad after all — or if it was a psychosis, could hu- man get tins have devised a more exciting form ot escape? And who could say that jelly roll Jiggers of Harlem, tickling the hot ivories, would not someday blink in dazed bewilderment from Parnas- sus, with Brahms at his right el- bow and Tchaikovsky at his left? Certainly there was a world of pure sensuous emotion, of simple human joy, that reversed values in a strange way as civilization cas- caded in upon itself. And who could say that such a reversal was not to be desired, or in the long run might not justify itself? Certainly not Mary Anne Cousins or her escort, Dale Wmthorpe. The New Year's party in the perennial Bohemia which was Greenwich Village was not par- ticularly interested in art *5 a topsy-turvy force. It was Whtthorpe who ap- proached the phono- radio com- as

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binatton and popped the record into the slot at its base, He was aware as he did so that Mary Anne was tugging at his sleeve. He ig- nored her, feeling giddier than a pelican dressed in forma! on a Florida key, balancing an uncorked bottle of Scotch in its gular pouch. A y'uidy bird is tftr PalictDi, ffs punch holds ffirtre fktm \Is fyetty tmtf "Why did you have to wait until now to play that record ?" Mary A tine protested, in ri manner more pa tiled than indignant, "Why did you? A record with a blank label from a hot jairz bin could be some- thing out of this world ! 13 ut now we're all too high to appreciate the law notes !" "Be quiet, my sweet J" Winthorpe mumbled, casting a swift glance around the room. The one girl in the world had sea-green eyes, but for the most part the other guests were too far off for Winthorpe to distinguish the color of their optics. Too far off or — too comatose. Two couples held the center of the floor, whirling about in all the distortions of the fox trot in. friable tempo. Wunhorpe had clicked off the ra- dio* but the dance went on Find on — hi a moment they'd have some- thing special to dance to --he hoped. f£Be quiet and lisshun !" he ad- vised Ins companion, "I waited ac- cidentally— on purpose I You Vc got to be high as a kite to "preciate unlabeled hot jazz!" 11 Oh, yemVe a scholar!" Mary Anne tittered. "It ttftfj called jazz once — long before .Barber Colton blew the first sweet notes on his dented trumpet! I*ong before* Lafcadio Heattt made an extra- special study of Creole music back in the eighties t and he used th,'M very word — jazjcl" "I us&l it Van to I'm high -is a kite ! " VV i n t h o rpc pr ot estc< L i t id i g nantly. Someone earne up and leaned un the phonograph. "J.)u you knu*v what "a the most single beautiful piece of music in the world he asked, "LWli's Arioso in A 1/hn? ! And1 you can't even get it on a rec- ord \ Nnt on a single record ! Only in an album! Outrageous! I'm gonna write; to the company- — " "Seat !" Mary Anne said- Sac turned1 tu her escort- '"That record had better be ^oud!" site warned. "When you turn off the radio at this .stage you've got to put something better ha its place t Von - want to [jet us lynched r" Ttie phono turntable was moving now — unmistakably moving inside the machine. Winthorpe could hear the faint rasp of the pickup. Ordi- narily sapphire pickups didn't rasp — but thp record was an aid one he supposed. A minute careened by. Two. Nothing. Prom the phono there came not fl- ing hilt the taint rasp of the needle. Nothing — nothing at all, Suddenly Winthorpe became aware of an uneasiness creeping ove" his sralp. The uneasiness was in hip fingertips too — and deep in- side his brain* ASTOUNDING 8CIKNCR FICTlOX

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It was J ike — nothing he'd ever ■ experienced before. As though something had been on the record that wasn't there any more. No, hold on — it was worse than that! There was a positive — something. Not sound — certainly not innsic. But it was there, deep, deep inside his skull, There was something not mme right about the absence of sound. The absence held a positive quality like . . . like . . . Waves. Waves pounding monotonously on a rocky coast beneath a leaden sky; a sky that Sad a sucked- hi look. Pound- ings ponndingj pounding — It was as though something dreadful wag about to happen that would wipe out everything that had happened. No — it was more mixed Up than that! -The something dreadful had already happened and he was listening to — the aftermath'! It was like discovering something half -buried and forgotten and for- getting to remember it. And sud- denly— there were images E Danc- ing through his mind ! A f utmeJ of darkness swirling around and around inside his head. And a multitude of shapes being sucked into the funnel ■ not ennte formless sh apes li ke — bu 3 Id t rigs ! Huge, alien , pylon-shaped build- ings, swirling and disappearing into , the funnel. And in the depth of the funnel a redness with other buildings toppling 3 Other* familiar buildings ! A familiar city dis- appearing in a fiery blast that sucked the larger T unfamiliar city straight down toward it* and made it disappear j too, A sense of the unfamiliar being destroyed because something close and fa mil) a v was being destroyed sooner and faster, i Winthorpc pressed wet palms to his temples. Sooner- — faster. Jt was like — a shining projection in a nebulous region of lime whipping bark to become nothing at all I :.z was like a telescoping of a toiuor- row hack Into a yesterday that had made that tomorrow impossible, ft was like — The images vanished, and the pounding resumed its sway, I'm drunk, he thought simply. It was like Debussy *s "From Dawn to Dusk on the Sea" — -hut with all the It t"e sucked out of it, with only the faint, elfin horns blowing distantly as dawn came up over the cold sea, Mary Anne's face had gone white. Winthorpe shivered convulsively: clicked off the phono. Oh, I'm glad yon did that!11 Mary An Tie whispered* her pupils strangely distorted. "Don't- — turn it on again ! Premise me you •won't!* She swayed toward him. Tlis arms went about hei\ held her tightly. It was warmth— reason again. Tight as he was, he knew the difference. The tardy reveler who threw open the door just at that moment seemed angry because no one paid the slightest attemiun to him. He

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had a newspaper under his arm arid he started waving it the instant he crossed the thresh old. **1 shay I You cati dartre ten billion thumbs ... and it wouldn't go outt Never could 1" The tardy reveler thought he was shouting at everyone in the room. But actually his words were barely audi hie, for he was mumbling around his pipe. And Wimhorpe had his back to the door and felt only the cold draft which the resentful man had brought with him into the mom. He held Mary Anne tighter. "We must be nursing a hundred screaming jeebies!11 he said, "If £ was cold sober— I'd a ay there was a title for that recording; TtTs a little hard to explain, but I . . , I felt a title P "I felt it tool" Mary Anne whis- pered, her fingers biting into bis flesh. For an instant she stood motion- less, fighting the impulse to say nothing further. Then Winthorpc heard her say in the voice of a terrified child, "I felt it toor Dale! 'World's Knd T

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WHAT'S WRONG IN THE PATENT SYSTEM? BY 6. S. CURRY A patent attorney disensses an aspect of Imv that is of immediate importance to every technical man — patent fr-w, and ^hy oats doesn't work. St ruttgeltf, hZdixon>& electric light would n*t have received a patent under oitr present set-up, precisely bec&nse Edison said he worked to> invent it! Hut if he'd fid ten down stairs, landed on his head* and seen electric lights instead of stars — then he could hare patented it! After the tirst hliuok of the news ot the atomic honib had worn off many people asked the question— who holds the patent On this im- mensely destructive yet potentially beneficial force ? The answer, of course, is that no one was the in- ventor because the atomic principle is a law of nature and as such cannot be patented. True, the mean* and method of harnessing this power are paten table* as for example, the methods of detonation are probably patentable, the means of distillation and separation of the component elements are probably patentable, but the basic law cannot be patented. The answers to this lie in an understanding of the American patent system. WHAT'S tt'HONfi IN THE PATENT Before entering into any dis- cussion "of the Paicm System, how- eve t% a few ot the basic facts should be outlined for the uninitiated. The Constitution of the United States empowers the Congress to "Promote The Progress of Science and Useful Arts, by securing- for limited times to authors and in- ventors the exclusive rights to their respective Wri tings and Dis- coveries". Accordingly, and pur- suant to this power, the Congress on April 1(\ 1790, enacted our first Patent Statute, the terms of which have remained substantially un- changed since 1870. Under the Patent Statutes, the Commissioner of Patents is ern- j>owered, after investigation has. TSTEM? 7 " *T

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satisfied him that the applicant is the original and ft est inventor of some new and useful improvement, to grant to such an inventor a patent which will he in force for seventeen years from the date it is issued by the Patent Office, Suppose there were no patent system for the protection of in- ventors, what would this mean ? It won I el simply mean that Mr, Average Inventor would tiave to rely on keep in;* his process a secret if he coukL or, in the case of a mad imt:, lie would have to rely on his head start in the field for his reward. Obviously this won Ed not work, for without protection the invention would be J mined lately copied by anyone wishing to capi- talize Dti it ; further, and far Worse, an inventor would not care to waste his time per ice ting an invention, knowing that lie would receive little or no compensation for his efforts. One of the host examples of ability to keep an indention secret lies in the field of blended ingredients where formulas have been lianded down from father to son for gen- erations. Certain types of superior glassware cannot be duplicated to- day because the particular com] jo- sitiort of the original formula has been lost and the originals defy analysis. The object of the patent system, therefore, is to provide a system of rewards ^hereby inventors are Stimulated to further effort. To this end, the patent system pro- vides for a system of rewards whose value is in direct proportion to the inventors' contribution to ■ the public knowledge. Thus, the inventor gkres his invention to the public in return for which the Government of the United States grants to the inventor a seventeen- year monopoly En his invention, and he is rewarded iwmciarily in the proportion of favor which hi* invention meets in the public eye. Were it not tor the issuance 01 u patent monopoly to inventors, a great majority of them won hi at- tempt to keep their inventions a secret; Lhus an invention which was neither patented nor commercially a success won Id he lost to the public as there would be no record n£ the invention Therefore, the patent system has two purposes, une to ftimtilalf: inventors to _^rcj;ilc:- ef- forts by offering a suitable reward audi two, to induce inventors t disclose their inventions to the pub- lic in return for proteciinu againsi Joss by the disclosure. The question may be askcti "What is a patent" ? A patent is u special type of beneficial monopoly. It is not a monopoly in the sense that it withholds or withdraw* something from the public. A pate rat deprives the public of noth- ing which it had previously. It is like a piece of land in that a person who owns a piece of land nifty do any legal tiling with that land, erect fences, build a house ihet'L'un, allow it to remain tatlow, or lease it to son] cone else in whole or in part. So, too, may the owner of a patent lease his patent to others or, in fact+ do any legal thing with his patent that he wishes, the only

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When a patent is applied for, the files of the Patent Office must be searched for conflicting or overlapping claims included in previous patents, in order that patentability may be established. Such work fi often done by attorneys expert in the process* difference bcin^ that he rutty exer- cise his exclusive right for a period of seventeen years, when he must relinquish his right to the public arid his patent becomes public properly. Let us suppose then that an in- ventor wishes to patent his inven- tion. The first question that arises is whether his invention is paten t- Mct assuming that the invention is not directly anticipated hy prior inventions- The basic statute de- fining invention Sec, 4886 R,S+ (USC, Title 35, Sec. 31) states. "Any person who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or compo- sition oi matter, or any new and useful improvements thereof, or who has invented or discovered and asexual Jy reproduced any dis- tinct and new variety of pi suit, other than a tn her- propagated plant, not known or used by others in this country, be (ore his invention or discovery thereof, and not patented or described in any printed publi- cation in this or any foreign, coun- try, be Lore his invention or dis- covery thereof or more than one year prior to his application and not in public use or on sale in this country for more than one year prior to his application, unless the same is proved to have been aban- 1M(JT'$ WRONG IN THIS PATENT STEJT*!W3

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doned, may upon payment of the fees required by law, and other due proceedings had, obtain A patent therefor." Here we have £ statute that 1* fairly clear and concise and one which has been changed very little from its inception. For the mo- ment then let us look at this statute to see exactly what it means : Mr, Artist goes to a patent attorney and says to him : "I have here a picture which 1 have painted. I consider it my finest work. Now I under- stand that I can patent this picture because the patent statute says that *any person who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or compo- sition of matter — is entitled to a patent. Now my picture meets must of these qualifications. It is art, it is a composition of matter, and I have manufactured it*" At this point the patent attorney must explain that an "art'* accord- ing to the interpretation of the Statute means a distinct method or process* it does not mean art in the sense of a photograph, painting- or piece of sculpture. A "Composi- tion, of matter" consists of putting two Or more ingredients either chemically or physically together to form or produce a new and homogenous mass. A "Mania Fac- turePF is anything made by humans except a machine, or a composition of matter. Next ive see that the invention tnusE be "new" and it must be ** useful". An invention's newness depends on whether it has been used or disclosed by others before. The nsef ullness of an inven- ■ titm i* nat 'questioned by the Patent Office unless it is frivolous or in- jurious to morals, but to be useful the invention must he operable, that is, if an example oi the patent is made from the specifications and drawings, it must work otherwise such a disclosure is not useful. Thus we see that since anyone must be able to make an operable object from the specifications and drawings of a patent,' Mr. Artist's picture docs not qualify and he must seek his protection under the copyright laws, which provide Specifically for works of ait. Furthermore, a mere idea is not patentable for there must be a means for utiles? ins it practi rally, New laws of nature arc not patentable for invention consists not in dis- covery but in "useful" application of the discovery. For example; Had Newton just recently dis- covered the laws of gravity he could not patent such laws, but, if as a result of the discovery of the law of gravity, he had invented a method to overcome the laws of gravity then the method would be patentable. An excellent example of this provided by the courts is contained in the Morton Ether case in which the court held that the discovery of the use of ether to render a patient unconscious to pain during an operation was not patentable. The court in this case (5 Blatch. 116; Fed. Cas. No, 9S&5) said: ^In its naked ordinary sens^ » discovery is not patentable. A dis- covery of a new principle* force or law operating or which can be ASTflTJNDIHfi K 0 T 11 X C"T> FltTIOS

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made to operate, on matter will not entitle the discoverer to a patent. It is only when the explorer lias gone beyond the mcrf domain of discovery, and 3i:i- hud hold of the new priueii jk\ force ur taw and connected it with some i>:icNcutiLr medium or mechanical contrivance by which or through which, it acts upon the material world, tint lie can seen re the exclusive control of it through the Latent Act." Toward the middle of the nine- teenth century an inventor decided that a. lead pencil such as we use today was all well and £nod but humans bein# prone to error an eraser was also a necessity. Now both peud3s and erasers wer* com- mon and had been in use fur many years but it remained for this in- ventor to conceive the idea of a fiixing the eraser to the pencil. This he didt and received a patent on bis invention. In the celebrated case of Rrcken- dorftir v. Fab€rf p J 17. Jff, the Supreme Court considered this patent and declared it invalid say- ing: "There might be the advantage of carrying about one instrument instead of two, or of avoiding Che Jiability to toss or misplacing of separate tools. The instruments placed upon the same rod might " be more convenient for use than when used separately. Each, how- everT continues to perform its own duty, and nothing else. No effect is produced t no result follows, from the joint use of the two." So - one of the most important points to remember is that novelty and utility alone are not su Indent to constitute a patentable idea. There must be hi addition an in- vention, in 01 heir words, then: must be displayed more inventiveness than ordinary skill. Mere dexierity with tools ill the solution of a prob- lem is not invention. Likewise, the mere gathering together of known parts or elements to produce a known result^ is what is called aggregation and not patentable, hut if a new result is accomplished or produced by the joint action of the elements or parts and it such result is not the mere addition of the separate elements, then there exists what is known as a patent- able combination. likewise the change in the ar- rangements of parts is not invention nor is the substitution of- equivalent materials or parts, or the production of a superior product. Omission of some of the elements or parts of an invention docs not form i patentable combination but omis- sion of a part or element together with a rearrangement of the re- maining parts or elements to form the same result is invention. One word of caution to Ihe in- ventor at this point. The fact that he believes his invention is new and that there is great need for his invention in industry, does not necessarily mean that his invention is actually new, Hundreds of worthwhile inventions are buried in the Patent Office because some in- ventor lacked the initiative and push to make his invention commercially WHAT'S WHOiVG IN TilT: PATENT SYSTEM?

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successful. I recall an inventor who had studied a particular problem Lti manufacturing for many years and finally worked out the solution. Both he tiiid hi 3 company were equally pleased with the machine and immediately applied for a l>£Gfent. The application was re- jected because a similar machine, had been patented over forty years be fore. At this point the inventor may ask what can be done to avoid a costly error of tins kind? The answer is not wholly satisfactory but many hours of labor and ex- perimental cost can be avoided if the inventor will sketch out roughly his idea of how his invention will ultimately work and have his patent attorney make a preliminary search on the subject matter. The search nf the Patent t^rfice files will give the inventor a fairly accurate idea of the prior development in the field and he may use this a3 a basis for further expert cue n tat ion, orp as in the case cited here, it would have revealed exactly ivhat the inventor was looking for. So much lor the LUiestion of what is patentable, Noiv let us take a loot: at what happens when an in- ventor applies for a patent. First Ins attorney makes out the application papers, drawings and formulates claims to cover the in- vention. Then the application is forwarded to the Patent Office and assigned to a division for examina- tion. There are sixty-five divisions in the Patent Office and each divi- sion handles certain type* of sub- ject matter, ISov example, .Division Thirty-one handles "Hydrocarbons; Mineral oil*/' Division Tsvcnty- two: "Aeronautics; I1 i rearms: Ord- nance'' and so on. After alignment to a division the patent receive a filing date, division number :md :t serial num- ber. Now bee; in* the -.VLiii. A* 01 March 21, 1947. the tola! number of jxttent applications awaiting ;il--- tion numbered 14,^,^4/ T The plain troth of the matter is that the e*- anijuiuy stajT of the I 'at em ( )fliec is too small, and the feu- examiners employed much o\ l-t worked. The net result L% after subLmuin,^ mi application it may he ;i year lxlfore it is examined. Thi> situation is admir;ihle from the Ptaud point of a large corpora- tion but deplorable tram the stand- point of Mr. Average In venter. Why; Let us see what happens: As soon as our application re- ceives a filing date and serial num- ber, the lare;e corporation places the product on the market and marks it ''Patent Pending". Xow fche significance of Patent Pending stamped on an article is that no one knows whether the corporation is going to get a good patent on the marketed item or, in fact* any patent at all. What small concern in their right mind would dare to produce anything like this item. If a patent is granted* any other company that has produced a simi- lar article will he liable for damages for inf rin^emeirtL What about Mr. Average In- ventor, however: He wishes to either sell his patent or to Itcense

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someone to manufacture the article covered by the expected patent. The first thing he runs into, how- ever,, is the question "Have you a pate in r"1 and the answer is ">JoTH. So Mr. Average Invtntnr c;unn)t market his invention became ho doesn't know whether he is ever goin^ to get a paiemt ami. further- ei lore, he dueniM fcnoiv what olj- jectian the Pnteiit Office lias to his application, nor vvils he kimw for iihoLii a year. He 5s in the position then, un I i lie the lar^e e.orpo ration, where he must sit and wait until the Patent Office has the time to take up his apphcat \tm before he can approach a prospective buyer or licensee with something to sell. As we mentioned l>efore there are sixty-five divisions in the Patent Office and each division must decide primarily what is patentable* and what is not patentable. What rules and regulations govern their de- cisions ? Primarily the basie shit ate re- ferred to in this article defining what is patentable is rhc thumb rule. However, should an ex- aminer refuse to pass an invention tor is sua Pice acid should the appli- cant then take an appeal eo the Board of Appeals of the Patent Office, the examiner is bound by the decision of the Hoard of .Ap- peals. Should the I^oard nf Ap- peals of the Pate tit Oil ice refuse to Thomas Alva Edison's electric lamp, dynamo and magneto, for which patents were granted in 1879. The Patent Office celebrated its one hundred fiftieth anniversary of service to the public in April. mm ffHA)"!J fflH^G IN THIS PAtKN'f SYSTEM!

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allow a patent to be issued then they in turn are bound by a sue- - cessful appeal to the United States Court of Customs and Patent Ap- peals. I am not gcin£ to enter into the many and varied technical points that must be met in order to appeal either to the Board of Ap- . peals or to tlie United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.) Now the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals is influenced by the decisions of the various United States Circuit Courts who, in turn, are influenced by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Thus we have a whdlc chain of Courts, Boards and examiners each dependent on the other for policy in the interpretation of the Patent JLaw?r This in and of itself would not be top bad stnee the procedure is similar to any court action where a lower court is bound by the de- cisions of a higher court in a aimiiar case* However, except for precedent matters and matters of form, we have no similar eases in patents; each case is an entirely new subject matter which must be decided on its merits, and sine* each patent and each patent appli- cation is a separate problem, the only method of standardization which can be relied on is not a specific case but a policy. Since the highest court in the tand, the United States Supreme Court, often decides patent cases we nqw have the situation where the policy adopted by the Supreme Court is the ruling factor in regard to patents. 94 Here is the policy of the Supreme Court over the last twenty years . In October, 1941, after many years of strictly interpreting patents, the Supreme Court had before it the case of the Cnno Corp. v. Auto- matic Devices Corp, 314 U,S.T at page 91 ). In this case the patentee Mead had invented a wireless lighter. 1 The ' prior inventions showed cigar lighters for autpnio- biles which either had roll-up wires attached or which needed manual pressure to maintain heating con- tact, Mead, on the other hand, utilized the metallic expansion principle so that the lighter need only be turned in its socket and when the heating element of the lighter became hot enouj^ii to ignite a cigar or cigarette, the expansion of the metal surrounding the Lighter broke the electric circuit so that there was no danger of burning out the heating clement and the lighter could be removed completely from the socket ^ In this case the Court declared the patent invalid, stating, "That is to say, the new device, however useful it may be, must reveal the flash of creative genius, not merely the skill of the calling. If it fails, it has not established its right to a private grant on the public domain." Something new has now been added. Yon will recaU that the basic statute reads '"'any person win? has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine/' et cetera* There is nothing, therefore, in the statute that requires the ^d.isplay

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of genius" yet the highest court in the United States has read into the biauue just that. While it is true thai great difficulties arise in the establishment of a division line between "mechanical • skill" and "invention," this difficulty is not insurmountable and the policy of the Patent Omce in the past was to lean towards the inventor, hut now the examiner and the lower courts no: only must distinguish mechani- cal skill from in vcutiveiiesSj but, also must make certain that a "flash of genius exists," We must examine sonic of the results of this decision to see how the policy is applied. In the ca.se of Sinclair & Carroll Co,, J nc v\ Intercheinical Corp^ 65 United States Patent Quarterly, at page 267 1 the Supreme Court considered a patent for a printing ink suitable for printing on a non- absorbent paper, substantially non- drying at normal temperatures, hut which dried instantly when the printed matter was heated. In this rase apparently, the court attempted to disclaim its "Flash of Genius" theory hy saying: "ft (the court) is not concerned with the quality of the inventor's mind, hut with the quality of his product." What did the court find as to the quality of the produce in this case? It fnund for nne thing that the product was new saying "The ink disclosed in these prior patents did not contain the same solvent or solvents similar to those which Gessler — the inventor ■ — recom- mended." The court also declared the invention to be useful saying WHAT'S WRONG IN TUB INTENT S "But the ink disclosed in the patent docs have utility in printing- maga- zines and the materials which use smooth non absorbent paper. Since its disclosure by Gessler, it or simi- lar inks which are claimed to infringe, have been used to print TAtf VetV Yorker, Cottier's, and The Saturday Evening Post. Such publications "previously would re- quire considerably more time for printing; si nee the reverse side of the paper which they used eon Id not be printed until the Ijrst side was dry/' The court also admits in its opinion that *'niaiiy efforts were made to eliminate the neces- sity for delay/' The court a iter finding that the product was of great usefulness and successful, attempted to delve into the inventor's mind. Quoting from the testimony of the inventor, it found that he had been ap- proached with the problem, that he had Learned that some printing rolls could be heated, and that the in- ventor bad selected from a cata- logue list, a solvent which met his specifications. With these facts in view the court decided that there was lack of invention saying; "It is difficult to believe that if Hanson had known of the quality oT butyl caibitol, if he had the Carbide and Carbon catalogues before him, he or any other person skilled in. the art could not have devised the ink which Gcsslcr claims to have in- vented. We reach tins conclusion even though Hanson testified in an affidavit introduced in support of a motion for rehearing that he had worked for over a year trying to YSTEan as

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I M VIM TO ft APPLICATION P AT« NT OFFICE PATENT EXAMINER z: [ PATENT IQARD OF APPEALS APPEAL TO COMM. OF APPEALS APPEAL TO V. COURT OF CUSTOMS AMD FAT I NT APPEALS PATENT 1 GRANTED | INFRINGEMENT CIRCUIT COURT HOLDS PATENT VALID CIRCUIT COURT HOLDS PATENT INVALID SUPREME COURT DECIDE* CASE FINALLY ON DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS OF DIFFERENT CIRCUIT COURTS Post tbi& couf» of a pat+nt from application «j fine) dvtitton hy fft* Svpf&m* Court* A5TOUXDTNQ &C * B SC H -Fl CTIO K *. ■

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NUMBER OF PtGISlONS INVALfD VALID 190O t*OA *9fO 1430 IMS 1930 1*31 1940 SUPREME COURT PATENT DECISIONS 1400-1440 WBAT'tt WEONfi T J? TUB PiTENT K T ST RU! IT

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produce such an ink and did not succeed," Therefore even though the Su- preme Court lias tried to refute ita "Flash of Genius^ theory it has nevertheless based its decision on the quality of the Inventors mind with which the court had stated it was not concerned, Any attempt to analyze these de- cisions brings home the fact that the Supreme Court has decided that any invention which can he rational- ized after it is made does not involve an invention worthy of a patent. To the court it is imma- terial that no one had ever accom- plished the satne result, the only inquiry being; whether the inventor displayed enough "Genius" 111 per- fecting the invention. For many years after the radial airoptane motor had been invented one paramount vital prohlcm had yet to be solved. The problem re- solved around the inability of the engineers to 'evolve an infallible system for draining the cylinder heads of all the cylinders when the motors were stopped. Inability to drain this oil properly meant seep- age of the oil through worn valves so that when an attempt was made to start \ motor, which had an ac- cumulation of oil in its cylinder, the result was a bent connecting rod from the tremendous pressure caused by the incompressible oil. Matiy schemes were tried such as suction hut the problem remained unsolved until a* aviation mechanic solved the problem by placing an oil sump lower than the lowest em piston head so that oil might drain by gravity into the sump and be returned to the cylinder bead by pressure. Here then was a solution of all the troubles and a solution which had for many years been sought* In the case of Pictird v. United Aircraft. 128 Fed, (2) at 632f decided in May 1942, the District Court, after hearing the testimony outlined above, stated that it saw in the decisions of the Supreme Court for over a decade or more "an increasing disposition to raise the standard of originality for a patent" and recognized a new doctrinal trend which it was the court's duty not to resist but to follow cautiously." Therefore, the District Court followed the Supreme Court de- cisions and declared that the Picard invention was not an invention but a mere application oE existing knowledge to a new problem and therefore mere mechanical skill. Subsequently in 1943 the Na- tional Patent Planning. Commission, appointed by the late President Roosevelt , staled in its report: "There is an ever widening ™ul£ between the decisions of the Patent Office in granting patents and de- cisions of the Courts who pass upon their validity." Later, in the same report, the Commission sidestepped the issue as to whether the stand- ards of the courts were too high or the standards of the Patent Office too low, saying that the issue was not for them to decide but that there should be uniformity, Now take a looli at the results of the Supreme Court's decision in ABTOUNTII^S SCTI-]M;n-E'hlCTJON

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the Cuno Case, with respect to ihe lasic theory of invention by indi- v id wals versus invention by research groups. In the case of Potts v. Coc, 60 United Stales Patcnls Quarterly, at page 226, the District of Colum- bia Court of Appeals held a patent invalid for lack of invention slating that 1-YVc have held that a stop for- ward which, considered In connec- tion with the highly developed condition of the art, reasonably could be expected from the research of highly trained specialists is not invention, Thus neither the result of great industry in experimental research nor the success fial product of a gradual process of experi- mentation over a period is inven- tion, r . , In order tt> evaluate the contribution of the inventor the court must reconstruct the condi- tions under which he worked, with emphasis On the contribution of others. ... In other words, patents are not intended a? a reward for a highly skilled scientist who com- pletes the final step in a technique, standing on the shoulders of others who have gone before hint. By the same token they are not in- tended as a reward for the collective achievement of a corporate research organization. 11 With the preceding decision in mind let us assume a hypothetical case. l_et us suppose that A is an uneducated individual who lives by hi* labor rather than his wits. B is a large manufacturing concern employing numerous research en- gineers. Now A in the ccmrse of his labors conceives the idea of a machine which wilt plow the ground, fertilize it, luirrow it and plant the seed all in one operation. 13 on the other hand, through the expenditure of thousands of dollars on research, has finally, through the e (forts of one of its engineers, succeeded in inventing exactly the same macln ne at the same lime, i\row with the recent policy of the courts in mind it is obvious that A is entitled to a patent for his inven- tion for his is the ' flash of genius/' hut D is not entitled to a patent for the invent Eon , say the courts, was merely the obvious result of "Routineeriug" and continuous development by those skilled in the art. The rule of thumb, there Tore, as applied by the courts is whether the individual merits a patent for the invention and not whether the invention itself is patentable. In Other words, it is as iC the court had sentenced a -child for the sins of its parents rathet than judge the child on its own merits. To go a Step further t in Order to bring our di^euss^on of cases up to date and look at one ot the most recent cases decided by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the second Circuit in the case of Maxwell M. Bilofsky and Indus- trial Electronics Corporation v. Wcstinghouse Electric Supply Company, and the Bryant Electric Company, J etc., decided March 7T 1947± in which the court said that although the inventor had not been VHAT'K WliOSt JN THE V A TENT SrSTBSf? AST- — 09

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A. single passage among the labyrinthine rows of shelves which hold the Patent Office records t No wonder a. patent search takes time* The Office is far understaffed and poorly budgeted for the amount of work on hand and in prospect, with no effective relief in sight. completely aiatici|jn(ed by the prior invent ion sT nevertheless, the inven- tion was not a. substantial step he.- vond the prior art and therefore was invalid. In support of this contention the court relied On and cited the Cuno decision of ihc Supreme Court. In other wolds the court said in effect : We cannot find anything which would invali- date the Patent on any ground shown bnt we will invalidate the patent anyway for lack of invention. It Is interesting to compare the present line of decisions with the attitude of Hie Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in. i the ca&e of Kaduilur Spedaltv Co. v. Btihat. 39 Fed. (2nd y 37J,378, CCA, (1930). This decision was handed down [n and repre- sents a far cry from the present attitude of the courts yet it does present from the writer s viewpoint and from the viewpoint of the inventor the correct hues of reason- ing on the question oi invention. In this c;ise the court said: efore the court) is tint a great one. Vet though not the work of gens us, it still may be invention. Invention A S>T OlfNPING SCIENCE- F T CT U>H

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is not way a the olrsprine; of genius ; more frequently it is the product of plain hard work ; slot infrequently it arises from accident or earele^sncss ; occasionally it is a happy thought of an ordinary mind and thesv have been instances where it is the rv stilt o[ sheer stu- 1 ji-clity . It is svitli inventive trtii- ceplj tin- tiling achieved, not with .the maimer of aehiev^neiit or the quality of the mind whiuri jjavt; it hirlh thai i Ik- [iiuenl law concerns hsc]l7J The siftiaiioN ns ii exists today is not only iinpu^iijlf I tin nigh unto intolerable, as lar as invt/ntnrs art i-tjnt'cnitd. and ha* been ^ellin™ worse aver n Hod of years. Do ring past lifteen to twenty years the sweeping trend of the United Slates Supreme Court to- ward invalidating pax en is has been growing as shown by the chart. Further, during rhe pa^r live-year period, seventy-live: percent of 462 patent opinions handed flown by the Circuit On ins held the patents before rhe in either invalid or not irj fringed. What bfts that to do w ith i I r ;. A vi inijsjf i n v em n r r Tr has this to do xvitli Mr. Aver- age inventor. I l" vhf silnaT'Lon is not remedied, fewer and fewer patents are going to issued. In- deed, it is exi.itmcly dtfrienh today to obtain, a jjiticur ui" any %vo7th due to tSie ojitllitndinouH objections A part of the search room where previous patent data can be looked up and studied. Just to check ail similar patents often t^kes months of w&rk and investigation by experienced, we II -trained researchers. -tr ft WWAT'K %VHOX« JN T II K TWHSifT SYSTEM? 101

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made by the Patent Office. The Office must take its cue from the trend, anH its reputation is at stake since the highest court in the land has seen fit to say in effect "You, the Patent Office, are gran tin £ patents which are invalid for lack of invention/* Tet us once more look at the prupn>i(iou regarding: the patent- ability at the atomic bomb. Origi- nally we decided that the principle as a Lift' of nature was not patent- able, but we did say that the means and method of harnessing atomic power were probably patentable. In the light of the present decisions of the Supreme Court we must now refute that statement, because we know that atomic power methods and the atomic bomb itself are a result of the conceited e (Torts of many scientists developed through extensive research. Under the de- risions of the Supreme Court noth- ing about atomic energy would he patentable because the court has said that, if enough scientific heads are brought together, the correct solution is bound to result and this would not he inventive genius hut a collective achievement of a re- search organization. If the situation becomes an* worse or even remains as it is, the ultimate result will be to destroy the very foundations of the Patent System in the United States as avowed in the constitution where the ultimate object was to provide a system of rewards whereby in- ventors are stimulated to? further effort. 102 i The excellence and efficiency of American industry is founded on a multitude of small invent ion s which when gathered together fonruitaic the. mightiest industrial organiza- tion the world lias ever witnessed. Eig sn -en fled Pioneer in vent tons oc- cur in frequently but Jt in the many small improvements and morliticn- ticnis which make such pioneer in- ventions more efheiem. Many a Great If lea wout quite work until the little idea improves it, i I is conceivable tlint lav^c; cor- porations in America today finding that they cannot receive talid patents as a result of the million- which they have spent in research, would do cither one of two things, either give up their research 01 practice their inventions in secret. Either course would he to the great detriment of the public, and im- measurably damage the advance of ma tii land. In this tiny and age re- search organizations are not a luxury but a necessity. With science as far advanced as it is„ the tools for invention are costly and the small inventor increasingly finds himself unable to keep abreast of the latest develop oients ; he must,, therefore, have the assistance of research facilities, such as lar^e or- ganizations, only can afford, \ ou as a reader or inventor may say "that is all very well \ but what is line remedy?" The remedy is simply this. Congress must pass a new patent law winch more speci- fically defines invention and just what kind of Lin invention will be entitled to a patent. That this needs ASTOUNDING PnENCK-FlCTlOS

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to be done is agreed by most of the various patent associations. What they cannot agree on is the form of the definition. This article is. written not as a di scon ra^e ment to invcnLurs but more in the hope that through it a better understanding of what is wrong will be circulated. Basically and fundamentally ihe Patent Sys- tem is sound. What is needed is body of men who gave the Patent a new injection of life by the very System its inception* TIIE END. FLYING SOMETHINGS i Continued from payc 5) Uecau&e we are not unnaturally* anthropoceutric in our coiiccpts> the background idea has almost invari- ably been that it was an empire started from and hy ITartli, Inas- much "as there are some million million stars in this galaxy, and present knowledge indicates that a very high percentage of stars may have planets , the chance of Earth being the first to launch such an Empire mus>t be one in several: thou- sand million, just on the basis of pure chance. If such an Hmpire were launched, and one thousand scouting explorers sent out, each scout searching one solar system a mouth — very busy and superficial scouts they'd he- — only twelve thou- sand systems a year could be searched. After a million years of this scouting, not even one percent of the galaxy tvould be covered Of course, the human race is less than a million years old; the Solar System ma Ires a swing around the center of gravity in one or two mil- lion years, and the whole galaxy gets pretty well scrambled in that length of time, so a remapping would be required. For many years* astrophysicists were a bit uncertain of one item of data; as far as could be measured t our galaxy appeared to be almost one hundred times larger than any other we could see — to contain nearly one hundred times as many suns. It seemed improbable— but there it was, The point has been cleared up re- cently* Because our galaxy is so much nearer, we can see it better. Galaxies are concentrated toward the center^ becoming more and more diffuse as you move out from the center. At a certain distance out from the ce titer of other galaxies, our photographs can no longer pick up the less densely clustered suns; it dually the galaxies extend much farther out. Actually, Our sun is so far from the center Di our galaxy that from sosnt other galaxy, our cameras wouldn't pick it up at all— it would be part ot the lost fringe. We're in the galactic backwoods, A galactic empire wouldn't bother much with so sparsely starred a region as this. The RnrroH, WHJT'K Wit O NO IK THE I'A'JfiNT SYSTEM?

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■ BOOK REVIEW "SPACE HOUNDS OF 1TC" by Edward E, Smith, lhh,D.t Fan- tasy Press, Reading, Pa., 1947. One must j I suppose, be an old- timer to remember the impact of Edward Smith's "Skylark of Space" on science fiction readers o£ nearly twenty years ago. The serial version appeared in 1928, after two years in which the best of th* re- " print material had been picked over* a ud from the first it was evident that a new something — almost as new as Seatous now fatuous X- eatalyst — bad been added to what was thcrt called scientifietionh With the first *' Skylark" story and its sequel, Hi Skylark Three/' Edward K. Smith raised the curtain on a whole school of science fiction writ- ing, of which ASTOUNDING Science Fiction's now fairly well standardized brand of story is the direct (EescendcTU. These were stories which drew convincingly on the type of physical research which was noticed almost daily in the headlines and feature stories of the nation's press — and which soared on to breath-taking visions of con- vincing extrapolation ^.vhtch included universes In their scope. What WeiubaunVa NA Martian Odyssey" dad to launch die "screwy animal1* cycle of stories, and "Skm" iti open the field of mutant humanity. Lhc "Skylark"' stories did to introduce the ° super- physics1* field of science fiction, 1 -ike *'SIan'\ they intro- duced an area which has Ijcconic a major division of scientific imagi- nation. "Spacchounds of li^C" was K.E. Smith's third novel. It has always been my favorite of all his stories t and ir is pleasing to he able to report that a new publisher, Fantasy Press Of Reading Pennsylvania, has selected it as its first book. 1 .el me say here that a^ ji hook it does credit to its publisher in format and typographical sandards. With luck, Fantasy Press — guided by the cx- pcricrtccd collector, fan, writer, and amateur publisher TJoyd A. Eshbaeh — may do for science fiction what Arkham House — Tinder the aegis of the similarly qualified August Derleth — has done for weird fan- tasy. " S pacebo l nut sT> appea r e d ser ia 1 ! y in 1931. As I recall the reader- letters of the time* it did not have the enthusiastic reception which had greeted the two ' Skylark" stories. It may have been as a result of this tepid response that Dr. Smith, in his later novels of the Lensman series — which Eshbaeh tells us in a MM

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jacket blurb s butt Id actually bc^in with "Triplanetary" — dedicated himself utterly io deep space and has rarely paid nunc than a passing visit to his own solar system. For my money b "Spacehounds of IPC" was and is the mr»sl believable of all S;niib"s liddks. Reading it a^aidi with tin1 recently published edition of " ^Skylark o{ Space1', it si lows eoiiskfcra! ly greater expert- ness in wrltrii^. "Steve" Stephens if the most, likable and real of all Sniith"s characters. This may be because the win i]c "Swiss .Family LtabiiijnUEi" drama c i- 1" the. Ijook is played nut within rhe lwrnnd^ries of our nwu system,, in a future which even in l'J3l seemed dose enough !<■ Ik- within reach, unci with tools nuil weapons only a little different inmr th^sc nf hut present laboratories. Miu ulrntfilly^ Dr. S mi ill lias [*nn« over the. story to touch up ike j assa^es, of explana- tion, lij i:]^intr in such modem terms ;is ''railflr" fur effects which had no popular i Kin it in 193L) ■\Sp:Hehoundsn' is Ike story of a ffirl in id a scientist, why escape when the spaceship on which they arc bound for Mars is altFicked, destroyed, mid its wreekji^c taken in tow by hostile Jovian?? making their first raid into the iuiKT System. They Kind a list en on (Jauymcue, -me of the mnolls of I npit^r, Hnd have the challenge of building, very nearly from sera I eh, an ultra- wave radio with which to .summon kelp and warn 1 Carl It of I he j'nvian menace, Tn the later chanters other Grange races, h in nan and non- bymanT tome into the picture and there are several topical E,E. SmKh space -lights with everything packed in but the kitchen sink, but through it all Stephens remains for me a real man trying to solve real prob- lems in a setting which you can see for yourself with a gwd telescope. In the "J^nsman" stoiia marvel is piled on marvel and super- weapon tops the climax of previous super- weapons witlj such rapidity that at times the effect is one of a forma- lized sh adow-i A ay — a h nos t a k i n d of i lance of symbolic h litres in an intra- - — or extra- --galactic settihg. "Spacchounds" stays close to home, for all its marvels. Maybe high school boys of today will have the prtpblem-: to solve that Stephens and I' ran don and West fall, the scien- tific "Hiy Three" oi" the book, must work otit to rlcfeat the ft r. vans and gain an understanding of the alien sciences oF Titan. CallistO, and the vnrkuhv of Jupiter's south pole. To 1 1 Ins l rate ibis edition of *'Spacehonndsr"r Fantasy I 'ress has found a new artist/ A. j; Donncll. 1-Iis excellent' jacket is somewhat reminiscent of magazine illustrations for thi,H and other of Smith's stories, and the interior iltnstl 'EUious are sound but not out stati ding, The YJj^neltes he has drawn for chapter heads, however, do add a great deal "to the book and are a feature which the puli] i shei" should continue if it is economically possible to do so. Jack Williamson's "League of Space", well known to ASTOL-ND- 1 KG Science taction readers^ is second on their hst, and John Taine's unpublished "Forbidden 106

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Garden'1 will be third. Other Smith yarns from "THpI&nctar^" on, Weinhaum's two h' 13 lack Flame" stories, and others by Van Vogt and a long line of other well known authors are announced. Collectors ■ will be Interested in the fact that a limited number of copies of each edition, will be inscribed by the author, when that is possible. Any publishing vcjlture which promises to give science fiction the permanence and standing it de- serves will be watched with interest by all science fiction readers. Some firmi which showed early promise have not been able to make the grade. Only sound choice of books and authors, hard business sense m gauging format and price, and the kind of imagination in publishing and promotion which has made Ark ham II oust success will keep such a venture jjoiiu^. l,-ainasy Press seems to have the odds on it* side. % IN TIMES TO COME ■ November, of course, starts E. Smith's new Lcii>mrtri srory — ** Children Of The T.^cns/' Cover and black and white illustration* by Hubert Hogtrs- Tlierc is very little one Can say about a' Smith story; if you've been reading since before Pearl Harbor you know I us work ; if you haven't, I can't describe it. But there's one disappointment on "Children Of The Lefts'* ; we find that its extreme length makes four installment s, rather than three." neces- sary. The story is well over 100,000 words — and we have a few other items to present, For instance, there's a Lewis Padgett story next month, and Ted Stur- geon, and an article by J. J. Coupling, And in Decern be rr there's Simak sviili another "City"' series yarn, and a Van Vogt yarn— Tjtce Editor ■ ■ ASTOUSDINfi SC1ENCE-PICTIOH

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THE END IS NOT YET BY L. RON HUBBARD Concluding Hubbard* s noncX of two, cross^ purposed ideal- 4Hx groups — ti?td, pointing out the inescapable failure of organised, .tingle- vumh'd freedom-lowers. M'ustrntecl by Ro£jers SYNOPSIS Charles Mart el, brilliant nuclear physkist is head of a group of scientists in the High A Has Moun- tains of Africa where he seeks to prevent Jules Fabrcckcn, international industrialist from starting an atomic THE EN !> TK NOT YfcT fwr to desfrov America and Russia ivhich alone in the ieorld oppose Ins dream of a fascist empire. Fa- breeken knozvs that only top-rank scientist? can appose him and JO hunts them down svith Conrtover Banks, a United States renegade financier, murderer of M artel's wife xoha sends a large 10?

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French force to attack the strong- hold jvhere Mart el has just suc- ceeded in making a new force "titicity" work, Viiicity is a tii'c flow which holds atoms fo~ gether. He is making large amounts of (joid fQr it-or iujetinst l*abrecken. He is aided by his adopted son, a nraif called Buckingham, by Professor Hans, an ex-Gentian intelligence chief, by Thorpe a British physicist, and by L/C Chat A F&imep a ivrifcr and soldier of fortune Fart 3 A few days later Martel was sealed hi the laboratory belli nd large converted transformer*; doing some bask calculations for addi- tional uses of the magnificent jinni he had discovered and, to some de- gree, bound to him with mathe- matical oaihs. The small desk was, rir.kety and high, its top slopio£ toward him. The light over it was dim and an old quiH scratched, in ancient style over problems well in advance of modern. So deep was he in his calculation* that he did not immediately recognize the bustle and wrangle which was corn- lug to him through his abstraction and then at last he looked up, peered through two enormous trans- formers and stared. Two technicians, with great stealth and nervousness, were tak- ing advantage of the supposed emptiness of the great laboratory. They had a leather sack of some size mid into this they were piling gold ingots and sw earing at each tot other for their slowness. Une was the Irish instrument man, O 'Toole and the other was the Russian would-be engineer. They would stagger hack from the hearth with the still warm bricks of the la*t run and dump I hem with a heavy thud into the siick and then rush hack for ai 101 lien They had kept this up v*r some minutes when, inueh to their dis- appointment, they funnd that lite .sack was mil to the hps with the lustrous yellow wealth, They tried to tie it and so hide the contents. They failed. "We'll have co take some ont],H said t) "Toole. The Rnswinn swore at him find refused. Hut when it was evident that the cum en is of the sack ivould be altogether too apparent and when they could find no other sack, they had to remove the last layer. This they did with much ^rumhJhiif and grudgingly restored the brick* to the hearth. With many fearsome glances about them then they found leather ties and secured the sack entirely. It was now their problem to fasten a pole to the lies so that they could carry the booty between them. As they worked the heaviness of the sack became more apparent, and then they tried to lilt it. They groaned , they heaved, they stramed until one could almoM hear their muscles pop. Finally O "Toole sourly gave tip. The Russian snarled and tried again all by himself but sat down panting and spent. Sadlyf CT Toole went about the A3TOCJ*iI>IKO SCinN-CK-if iC'HtfK

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business of taking out a third of the ingots and putting them back. Again they tried and this Chne they barely got the sack off the floor. After much dispute they again look out a third, -\ow they ere si] I smiles. By dint of sta^gerinjj and swaying and grunting they could barely walk with the sack susj>ended hi the center of a pole, "J "hi? test made they scurried about getting some items of clothing antt covering up any trace nf their depredation by ivpiling the remaining bricks, O'Toole could not resist putting one mure, ingot in his coat and then they w-ent back to the suck, "Well cell them it s an errand ti we're met/' said the Russian. The}' got ihcir shoulders under it and into it and their knee caps cracked and their hones wobbled and groaned, They began a pre- carious passage to the door. Hill when they got there, they found an obstruction. M artel was amusedly smoking a cigarette, lounging against the tun- nel side. "Going some place, buys ?'* They stopped, thoy gagged, they drop]jed their load. O' Toole ap- peared to be 1 unking tor something he had lost and flic Hussian promptly began to open and shut his mouth and make half -hear ted gestures pointing at the hag and out- . side— plainly the Russian thought he was talking but not a sound came forth, M artel let them lake a round turn on their nerves at id when they l'SE EJfT> 1R SOT "VET would have hurried the sack back to the hearths* he slowly, casually beckoned to them and smiled, They dropped the sack and stood with lowered heads, confused, neT rCtl- ''Where were you going r" said M.artel, "Kire/" said O 'Toole sulkily, iiu( the Kussian, for the first time apparently found himself con- fronted with the problem, i;I — '* faltered the Russian. "I don i know." And then appalled, *'I haven't got any place to go !'* "What would you have done in IrelandV* said M artel to O 'Toole. *"My family. They Jive on pota- toes, 'My grandfather hasn't even tobacco for the old age he's suCfev- iug. Me mother hasn't clothes. Sure and me sister and her niece must do charring. It s no bread and no cheer, that+s what it is to hn: sure. And a sorry world for them what with tithes and no land, i'or certain Mr, Martek it's death they're facing. Its starving tbey a VI are and it's scant fun to starve, Mr. MarteL" M artel was wise hi the world. Xle knew that this was probably true, but it wasn't all of it. "Tel) me now," he said, "haven*! you any other reasons for leaving our fair abode, eh!"" The Russian right away began to blush again. He was, after all only a young boy. He had got 10 Austria and had seen bathtuhs and taxis and fine shoe* for the first time and the shock of finding that somebody had been lying to him for years and years had sapped his fine Bolshevik enthusiasms. He remembered Vi- 109

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etina women who wore silk and sweet perfumes. "You both/' said Martcl, "liave a pretty good reason. It is dull around here." He made a pleasant curving motion with his hands and laughed at them. WI want a home, a wit e, children !" cried the R us sum. "In the la fit analysis/' said Mar- cel, "what does any man want" He had stopped laughing suddenly and turned his head to hide the pain, "Come along here, you two," he said. And lie led them out io the entrance and up on a small promon- tory where the wind blew cool from the high peaks above. Before them spread the great dun carpet of the coastal plain, "Look/* .he said. And he swept his hand across the desert wastes, avid, ruined, weary under the heavy sunlight. They stared but they also glanced at M artel. The wind was ruffling his hair and there was a look in his eyes now which caught them and they turned to the view o f the plain, a little puzzled as to what he saw there. "Once this was the land of Carth- age/' said Martel. "Once trees and green fields and small villages Oc- cupied all that waste you see be- fore you. Thousands upon thou- sands of square milts of beautiful -farming country/* "Sure and it must have been a sight !" said O'TooIe, for though he would have been mirthful at the statement from anyone else, he could not disbelieve Mar tel. "All this desert?" said the Rus- sian "What could have happened to it?" He was trying to see it but the shimmering heat of the great wastes of sand and ^harp mountains repelled him. ''All this desert." s:iid MarteL **A war Jiaptn.ned io ti/J 1 " A war ! j u i npi 1 1 " sn akes ! I'hwhat kind * -f a ImmTi would do that!- " **Ko bomb, jnsi a war. Most people think it was the Romany but that isn't right. Carthage wn> fined and repressed by Kt-mc Iili* she continued to live and this coun- try was still luxurious. Many Ko- man colonic? existed through here. That old temple down in die pass was first Carthaginian, then Roman,, then Vandal — if ,;They destroyed JKmnt si id the Russian. "Rome destroyed herself." said M artel, "Abu with war. The Vandals were a little more interest- ing than that. They were a blond, blue-eyed people who camt down into Spain from somewhere in the north. They lingered a little while in Spain and then they received an invitation from the Roman governor at Carthage and they came in and settled in all this rich land- "But the Romans excluded them from affairs and antagonized them in various ways and one day the Vandals, who were very strong people, rose up and took over Carthage and all this land. "They began to reor^ani^e the farming and made the area even more prosperous tlian before, starl- ing many works and restoring the glory to Carthage. They became so astoi:n,i>im(i St I ENCK FICTION

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dangerous . . . this was in the Jifth eenttiry A.D. . . . in that they were rich and minded their own business and sought prosperity in the land, that the Koman emperor sent a him died thousand men river in a couple hundred shins to destroy them just si? Cartilage had been destroyed he fore in the Punic war. „**But the Vandal s were tall North- erners and Rome had gone to pot. With iii c ships they set upon the Roman fleet at anchor and des- troyed it and with sword they dis- posed of a hundred thousand limiting men." *Tliwhat a tight that must have been r Reined O'Toole. '"It was pretty brief. And the Vandals went over to Komc and sacked it and came I jack to make this a better and more prosperous land than ever. Hut power still wouldn't let them be* Justinian of Constantinople- - who was a great fool — sent one of Ins generals* 1 lei i sari us — who was no fool- down here and Ken sari us, with a new invention — a ^nod horse archer in armor — ■dai^httve.rl all the Vandal men. "The Vandal women married Bell sari us* men and as it takes strong women to make a race, Carthage still had a chance. But then Justinian, who didn't know a lnyal general when he had one, started yetting jealous of K el i sari us and greedy for spoil from lie re and upset everything by taking away all the goods from the soldiers and setting the women adrift and gener- ally plowing the plate under." TEE nMJ* Ifi NOT YET "flow could he get any profit from thai ?" said the Russian- "Welt, you see* Justinian was interested only in profit he could set on the table beside his throne. An emperor oi the Myy.antium Km- pire would think of Carthage as being a lon^ way away and Justin- ian was no better informed about true wen! lb than he was abour dogma, "That abandonment of the coun- try to every petty official Justinian wanted to get out o£ sight, let the sand come in+ And from a land as fertile as our middle- we stern United Slates once was the Sahara Desert and all the rest of this waste was born." f5ayl" said O'Toole. "Is thai why Berbers are blond ?u f " Berbers, Tuaregx, in any Moors, the Riils are probably all Vandal Stock. "People who ran away from the destructive, in sanity of Justinian naturally came to the mountains and here they have stayed. Every- body thinks this blond -blue-eyed business a mystery. Jt isu^t, really. They're Vandals. "But all the history books say about Vandals is that they sacked Rome. They don'i tell yon they brought Carthage back to her glory for a little while and that Justinian murdered North Africa when he killed the Vandals here." "Sure and war hasn't been very healthy for this place/* said O' Toole. lie had finally managed to convert the scene before him to the eoo13 green hills of Eire and he was profoundly shocked. - People an

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Starved and died when the land dk-d. It mAf.lt: him think of the English and that made bun mad. "Somebody." sjlkI O" Toole, "ought to shoot 1 his Justinian!" "He died Fourteen hundred years ago and heV prol>ably lieen frying for his sins ever since/^ said Martel. "Then somebody ought to piit back the land!" said the Russian. "Not rich capitalists like Justin tan but workers like the Vandals." M artel looked at them siowly, "Do you renlly see any value in putting this land ha irk?" "Sure!" cried OTooJe. "People Could live and eat!" "And he free from tyranny !" said the. Russian, douching his fist. "Well, now." Haid Mar eel p "I'm mighty glad to hear that. For it's exactly what we're going to do. Look now. See where those heat waves shiver there? It's an ancient river gone underground, See those hills there ? The v' re natural reset- voirs for rain, ^Artesian water is available many places. Reforestation with fig trees, olives t pines will bring rainfall up to a normal tevcU Soya beans will enrich the hind — hr ei You need workers L" said the Russian, "Indeed so." "And money!" said O'Toole. "Money?" said Martel. "Well, we do at that. Hut money is Just the first step, not verv important/1 "This -old here/' 'said O'TooIe. "That gold there," laughed Mar- tel, '"is pretty valuable stuff- When you're hungry you can. eat it. When you're cold you can weave it into 11Z overcoat.*.* When your wife » sick she can have it for medicine." This puzzled D'Toole, "But you can buy things with it.11 "The things you can buy and noi the ^old is important. Most ig- norant people — no olYense — think that ^dd or money is something very spec hi. They can"i reach their braiu> out in rcidixc that money is "just a middleman. Money doesn't produce, b" rou on lies, as taught in your world, lads, is a lot of hog- wash, liven it J your land, Russian. 11 The only valuable thhi^ on earth — and never forget this— is the mind of man. With thut mind can he produced everything else. Land is also important but secon- dary Tor man can wtirk out ways to feed too many. "And the only valuable tiling to a man is Ins own dignity, his free- dom. Clear freedom, not claptrap mumbo jumbo of had semantics. "'All the gold here cannot buy dignity ioi" man, And it cannot create a single man. That is im- portant— the man. The proud, de- tent, hopeful, happy man. He's important. And if something steals his hope, his pride, his de- cency, his cheer, then that thing is devilish. "We have here — and wiEl have more when they come — the finest minds the world is producing. From those economists, engineers, doctors, bacteriologists, chemists and so on will come this country. It will be green and fertile and rich- It will nave water and trees and vineyards and growing fields. Out there where you see that, waste a new AST Ot" fiDtNQ SClK3fCE-F fCT IOJf

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nation is going to spring up ami iiijin ihat new nation will go forth every thing the world needs. "It sounds like a wild dream. Hut if there is ]iu selrish, avaricious overlord, it will enme to pass. Men working t'i.^-iln-i- can recreate this world in Li * .Sfimethui£ dwenu "If it ps not done, ilu-n liumklin! Will LttlUj'lUI^ liJ UtH InwtT iim.t totfer and the best minds aiuoug liini will roiitimu' to he used lor dosiruciion." "And p*,-MVJU' rilt"l l'hc tv.Urisi:m. '"There are millions upon millions: of starving peuple in lutrope and in rbat fount of weal ill tlie United States, They'll come/1 "And women:"" said the K ttssian. "Ali yes. The wtmion will rnme here, too/' The Russian '.ooked at the di-sert wasted with a dreaming eye. He sighed. The nc>ct instant found hi i n dead with a bullel in his heart. The VL>ik-y wn* aL lon^ inn^e, from the rim of Lhe [pass, and the death of ihc Kussian was chance* M artel reaeled hy training alone. Tie sxvcpl OH'oulo down and hack and the two of ihcm tlntpjxsd he- hind a great dim bouMer just as the mountain guns opened an hys- terical, couching fire on the air- drome. Tilt? vol urn n of firing incrcaso*l- Down in the small clearing before the ancient temple three men started to run. A rain of lead began to explode earth before rheui. Oik- 'J'TIE ]fl MIT VIS'I

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dropped. The second (el J sprawling with his face shot away. The third nearly reached the temple but fell there, dying t Ins hands clawing in agony at the steps. M artel estimated the Tire volume. The radar had announced no planes. The' Mannlichcrs and Garands of the Berbers had not yet begun to reply and only the fiat crack of Lebel;? echoed and re-echoed through these bare stones and slopes, O' Toole Wilis shaking so that he could not speak Martel held lum down to keep him from running out of cover and looked north to the entrance of the pass. The massed fire came from there. The moun- tain guns came from there. And he had nothing with which to reply but the standard infantry weapons in the Berber's hands. There were two machine gun em- placementsT one on either side of the pass mouth, between the air- drome and the base proper. These were not manned. There were rifle grenades and bazookas in the pill- boxes. The attacking force had evidently collided with some wandering Ber- bers north of the airdrome. Mili- tary minds are not necessarily logical nor well informed* Possibly, the expedition was not advised as to the distribution of forces here, if any. Otherwise they would have held off an attack until they could quietly envelope the airdrome. An Italian pilot was trying to get a pursuit ship going;/ He started the engine and raized his throttle. The great teeth ot sound 114 tore through the t hi niter din and all combined drifted up into the pass. The plane began to gather speed toward the runway and then suddenly disintegrated, throw ing up a ma** of green li^ht and black smolce througli which particles dri ftert. The hsmgarc had betfim to burn under the explosion of incendiary shells. The few people there sought to race across the flat expanse but were pursued by small, dusting trails of machine gun bullets which wcaved in and out amongst iheni, lessetied the number and then raced ahead only to come back a* though amazed to- find no more ran. The puffs traced back and forth, back and forth across the f fill en and the bodies moved, tlntc-thuc-lhnc, as the streams hit them again and again. r Finally the machine guns desisted and at extreme long range began tu drop fire into the pass mouth. The bullets struck rocks and glanced away with peculiarly musi- cal spang s which whined and grew higher as they went away. Still no Berbers. Martel clenched his jaw and decided. Martel shook G'Toole. "Go down to i he. barracks tunnels. Tell everyone to stay inside and to rush out only when they hear the radar siren up there. Thai way we'll catch them when they try tci enter the pass* Do you understand me?" Cy Toole understood. He snaked away and weaved from cover to cover. The sniping squad up on the rim began to search tor hitn

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and stone chips flew from every rock he used. O 'Toole was hallway to the first entrance, that of the laboratory, when they struck him. The im- pact caught him m "mid-leap and twister] him sideways in the air. He hit and rolled a dozen feet down the >tr-pe and then sideways again. A thin cheer came from up on the vim. f ^Toole was hidden from them hy a boulder. He came groggily to his knees, blood pour- ing from hi? shoulder an ft nerved himself for another dash. M artel had changed position, shifting riuy feet nearer the ma- chine, gun emplacements, tie glanced back and s»w O 'Toole was still going, Martel sprinted for the emplace- ment. The squad on the vim found this siew target and for an instant diverted their fire from Q'Toole. Stones and sand flew tip and lead cracked viciously about M artel's head and feet. He leaped sideways down the slope, used a huge boui- de- for a shield and came running up toward it. Masses of dust flew from the; top of the stone as though a strong wind blew there. Launching himself downhill and out again, Martel felt the pluck of a slug through his tap el. He took cover a second time and glanced back, Q'Toole was still going. All shots had ceased about him. With another uphill climb under cover, M artel launched, himself over the final thirty yards to the emplacement. There was a rushing sound in the air above him and an explosion THE END Ta NOT \ET on the rim. He dropped, breath- ing heavily, into the protection of the pillbox affair which had been erected so long ago to protect and hold this very pass. There was a second explosion ou the rim. He did not understand where this was coming from and looked cautiously out at the high wall. A man in khaki stood up. a silhouette against the sky, and with a long, shattering curse in French, spun around and fell to bump and rebound from the stones and shale as the body fell into the clearing below. Firing was si fenced on the rim Martel turned to stare at the other emplacement. A white band waved a glad hello to him and an eager face showed for an instant below the barrel of a bazooka* It was le Chat 3 Faiine. Happier now, Martel waved back and dropped to see what he bad at hand*. When he found two bazookas and projectiles, plenty of machine gun ammunition in links for the .50 caliber Browning — converted to .this use from a crashed plane they had found — he looked back at the mine entrances. O'Toote was nowhere to be seen, Martel examined the west face of the pass with some care. All the tunnels were there. The in- vaders evidently had not seen them for their snipers had been sent to the west rim. With a sigh, Martel picked up the first bazooka, it was all he could do- The badly armed tech- 11*

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Ascians and refugees there would only be butchered. Leveling the weapon lie made the contact and a* ait the first shell against the stony, precipitous slope above the laboratory month. The avalanche roiled. Stones bounded t < In st. raised a yellow curtain, smaller boulders fell and then more slowly. The dust blew away and the labora- tory mouth no longer existed. Lie Fore the last stone was -still* VI an el sealed the entrance to the barracks, three in all anil then, ■mally, the stores tunnel. When the debris wns settled* M artel looked for a moment at the temple. He could do nothing about that. Perhaps someone was in there* I:or the rest it would take them sonic time to dig out and when that time was ended, the troops would be gone. Le Chat a Faime had raised his hands in the double clasp for "well done 1" and M artel had replied when a faint call reached him. From somewhere amidst that tumbling: debris had come Bucking:- liam. The boy had not interpreted the avala nches. He did not know where M artel was. And he came out into the center of the rearing, pausing for an instant in his run, cupping- his hands. "Charles!" There was one sniper left on the west rim. The spiteful crack of Ins rifle was loud in Martel's ears, Buckingham stumbled forward but somehow kept his feet. His hands went to his chest and came away tin ck w ith blood , He eou gb ed and a dribble came from the corner of his mouth. With wide, incredu- lous eyes he started to look up at the rim and then, emptily, he crumpled, The hot wind ruffled his hair there in the clearing's center. That they lit I led the rim sniper instantly took no luad from Mart el's heart nnr any rape i'rom his face A running skirmish line was coining across the burning drome now. The rolling greasy clouds obscured ihein until they were al- most at the im it rr nice to the path. From either side of the entrance a crashing flood nf slugs as big h rutin r] as your thumb ripped into thciu, smashed then i H threw them shattered I Mick hrto the smoke. Three times mure they were sent out of tfiaL cover and into that lire. And there they died. That they died was nothing to the senior colonel. That he was held up was ever)' thing. With extreme hnlhanre he suddenly re- called Ins mountain lottery and sending two men out as spotters, brought the shells closer to their targets. T,e Chat a I'Liiuie clasped his hands to In is bead and stood up in the smoke o I an explosion. He started to step out of the emplace- ment and fell, belly across the con- crete shield, hands limply dangling, unconscious. Mart el watched the howitzers churn the valley behind liim. New avalanches started and rolled down to match those be himself had created. Two pi liars of the temple buckled but the roof still stood. ABOUNDING SPIKNCR-PjeTJOS

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Fragments churned the air above his cover. He tried to man hi* gun again hut the spotlers were tut now. A shell exploded directly in front of the shield and stamined the h reach of the £un into MarttT:* throat. A second ex( slusioU threw up yellon\ sufTocJtTin^-, acrid gaild and I he blue sky went our. A [itt J t ► you suppose Old Dupe knew what he was talk- ing about or was he just as halmy as everrv The ftcuuir colonel unified ++1 don't think anv comment is called for." "Well, we seen our duty and we done it. Ours not to reason why and so inrth. Let's get out of here, old hoy. There's a mighty attractive little business I've still to transact iu JU incite,*' For six enra^in^ sis: endless, six dtspaii iti/,r in^nihs they tried Charles MarteL And for two years after he was made gray with fa- ti^ie and anxiety in T.eav en worth Prison, Leavenworth. Kansas, They held him incommunicado and they tried him in secret. They whisked him about in cars with THT, TSKri IS S' 6l? VHT drawn curtains and planes without ports. He scarcely knew what country he was in and he certainly did n ol know why. Somewhere he had heard oF free- dom of speech , the riejht to a free trial Ivy his peers. Hm the Atomic Ays had changed all that and he was tirsi the business of the Cuilcd Nations Atomic JCnefejy Council fu(d then the concern of the United Stales which received liim for im- prisonment, ali without counsel Of leave to collect his own evidence and scarcely a speech in his own bebatl'_ They called it the necessity of seen city. It seemed that in the Atomic Age— and what a brief one that was! — in order to protect the world front sudden oblivion it was best to say nothing about it. TluV patent absurdity, somehow, never wholly came home to politicians and it' it did, then they were poli- ticians no longer but were promptly put out of a job. A whole police force sprung tip with the exclusive right to arrest, imprison* repress and censor in any field of science for violations fancied or actual. And it was the pride of all that no chuckle- headed scientist had any- thing to do with the jurisprudence. And so Charles Marlel Fared hankers and teachers and do*-;- catehers atid admirals, but never a scientist anywhere. And he was condemned on evidence so thin that they had to calk it to keep daylight from completely eating: it away. But M artel wasn't worried about their evidence, He was tortured by lack of information about f.iuclt- 117

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ingham and le Chat a Fa in it, but mostly Buckingham, The column had picked the boy up and had found that so great had been his loss of blood that his heart pumped fast beyond count. lie was given some plasma — l here was not much present — and bundled into a stretcher. On the ride; from the base of the mountains to the roast, Charles had time and again attempted to see hint or speak to him in the ambulance. But he was not so permilted. When Unckitiyham had not been taken out and buried and when the boy was placed in a hospital under care, it was evident that he would live^perhaps as a cripple — but he would live. And that was the very last that M artel had seen of him, heard of him, knew of himr He was not mentioned in the trials. All inquiries came to noth- ing;. To leave a wounded and helpless boy adrift on the world was a cruelty that Martel could not un- derstand. Certain it was that Buck- ingham had not been arrested for trial. Not so le Chat a Faime, Tliat careless campaigner, with a mock- ing smile Tor all his bandaged head was twice in the courtroom, with M arteL I-e Chat's answers had not been exactly what the judges wanted. When asked to identify Martel, le Chat bad said, "Him? Knew him in college. Princeton or Oxford it was. Name is Jones/* And when asked if Martel was a scien- tist, le Chat had answered, "Gf us course i lie is the worlds y real est authority on rats — judicial ones t" Soberly they had entered all this down. What a waste Je Chat" s solo testimony must have been to those dull, stupid, vicious judges who were as com ti ion as thev looked in lb c i r u nprcssed su E is ! I.e Chat, the last time, had givvn Charles a thumbs-up and for this frivolity the ^uard had been rough. Charles had not afterwards seen him nor could lie glean any tidings of him from the guards. Mad they shot him ? The trial was hardly any trial; at all. It was a sort of monologue on the part of the prosecutor, Mar- tel bad no attorney because he 3]ad no money. And this farce was re- pea ted rive times with different judges before they finally slipped lum the nitsericorde : Uelhcl ! EietheT Came into llu: dio^y court- room with something between a swagger and a cringe. Yes, he said, he was IJans J .cderbrecken " of the German Secret Service now employed by the United ^at^ins. Yest said Bethel, be had acted as an ageiiie provocateur in a society of scientists who wanted to destroy the world. Yes, he had seen the t^elotron with his own eyes and had seen the gold ji made. There was quite a rumpus about ibis and then the prosecutor ex- plained that poor I'elbel — Hans Lederhrecken — was after all no physicist. Then Bethel had waited to know about the others and said he thought

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he bad come there to identify many besides Mattel and again the prose- cutor had to explain that Bethel had been under the impression that more people hud been at the hide- away. People had muttered, Xo find- ings of machinery had been made. And the prosecutor had to explain that the colonel in charge would scarcely be competent to identify a cyclotron. Ami besides M arte I was known as a nuclear physicist. This statement of Charles,* edu- eation was always the clincher. Around there it appeared that the nuclear physicist and the Pour Horsemen were all members of the same lodge. Washington h after all. had lw;<jn bombed. If Berlin had been atom- ized, and Washington leu alone, perhaps this might not have ob- tained. But Washington had been treated to a fine ^anuna dose and it wasn't digestible. roliticians, who should have thanked the phy- sicists for creating alt those new posts, uere unable to see any benefit, AH the best political thought was that the midear phy si cists of the world should be shot without trial, overlooking the identity of the people who had put the work o£ the physicists into operation in the first place. And so Bethel — Hans Leder- brecken — droned on with his testi- mony and the Judges agreed "Guilty" and that was that. For two years now Charles Mar- tel had been in this cell, entirely separated from the world, permitted THE ENP IS NOT YKT to receive no letters, unable to write to anyone. For two years he had made notes and calculated formulas, and tried to forget where lie was. But night* were worst. A itd on this fatal August night the sky of Kansas turned yellow and green under the impact ot a ter- rible bomb. And the siren on the wall howled like a mad dog let loose iap^n world. Leavenworth. Kansas Working in' the flame-bathed dark, for the howling convicts were so anxious for light that they thrust burning mattresses into the aisles, Charles M artel worked with Jimmy the yegg. Tliey worked anxiously and hard. They had managed to collect many packs of cards, many cigarette wrappers. And people- in the other cells kept screaming, "Are you finished V "Hey, hurry up !" and "Make it snappy !" and some other things artel didn't like to hear. He worked with the shreddings and he made his fuse. He packed the lock around the holt and then he packed it again. He made Jimmy the yegg hold tip mattresses for their protection and then he lit the fuse* With a crash the loek blew, the concussion hurling the two men, mattresses and all, hard against the back of the cell. Mattel had a bruised hand but he didn't notice u\ The lock was still hot. One kick with his foot and the cell door Hi

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leaned wide and hulig there shud- dering. A screaming, roaring cheer racketed through the tier and then as they fancied ihat M artel, in ap- proaching tiie main switchboard, was deserting iheni, cries and pltsttl- Ings were hurled at him, extrava- gant y re muses, even money and vials of do|K_\ J 11 this raint Martct tried to wtfrk the .iw itches, J Jut the 1*0 wer was dead. Despair hi I the tier when HftrteJ iiiifl the yegg vanished. They tt used the two as hard as rbey had pleaded with them. Mart el came hack shortly. Jie had a big key rmg In his hand. I fe littixl it into the lock of flie Xe^ro but just as he wa^ ah' mi Uj Htm it he saw tlie in£U>hs L naming month and wild cyws. He hacked up. "Al! of you!" he hello wed. "AH o. you on this tier! Shut up! I want io talk 1" They shut tin, eyes hungry un I I ih prft- keys iv hi eh dandled. H"lt I open these doors you are going to rush Out and iind the arsenal or run out trf the gate* and En to God knows what, You'll get killed, many of you. You may even try to kill me.1* Screams cjf denial ioiv at lum and then all al once they began to plead once more. lie shut ihcni up. "That bomb .tr whatever it was hit Kansas City, thirty miles south of here, T rot- able there isn't a human being alive in that entire City, Probably there is something- wrong with the airr Perhaps tilings are radioactive. If you £0 near that area> you'll get ISA killed.. lJossibiy every large town in the country is m tbar condition. If you go into 3 >o[itImx1 areas to loot, there may Ijc something there to kill you. "The highways will be jammed with terrified pen pie. Men will he killing each ^Lhrr by Phihjitow for a sic rap of hread. Kvery vc^ti^e uf ei viEi/al ti i wiU he gune wheal, pt-uple begin io c*tn front slarvatii in. "Money isn't worth anything oljl thereh or kill. Vim haven't gi it a dog's chance if yen lu^e yuiir heads." "jln* cohered i|um bur Ehh^ man, remmmg sftuhy hi I. Ik: face of what had ha[ilK"ucd. c:dh'd, " F "d nah^r Ti^i.st im Kan.-a* f'isy tb:Lii rut in thi* iIlii^ heap!" And i-cnrybody laughed hysici'icnFly ;;nd :ti upland £l I ami ^creamed anew for tin: keys, Mhi'u-1 turiird hi lIh- _\vgg and Jimmy upijearcd io be in awe of the changed eell mate. A demon or a god had hc-cu ri^hi wiiii kliini Hn' l wo ye: or*; and Hue wonder e^an to threaten, ( 'du r win^ of the prisuis wej-e jnsi as alive with sound. Marti- [ waited. J ill HI ly came l*Jidi with n mA, pun and a tonimyguii, I hi la pt the foi'iiitr and gave the latic i ■ m Marieh "I want," j-aid jMattek "jl man wiio has heen in the army." Far ojT a parade ^voliikI l>eUow heat the concrete. "That's me J That's ine. I was a lirdt sergeant ASTOUNDING Stfl I" NCK-nrTIO*

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in the United Stairs Marines but they framed ine! I'm the toughest gent in this whole chicken coop and \i you want Elation cat] on O'Shannijjan E L Flarehaek Q\Shan- uigan I1* "Lot him cmt," said M artel, toss- ing Jimmy the ke.es. And (.r'Shaniii^an Lttnif. Me was six foot six :hh] his hands were bleeding where he had tried iv bend the bars-- and he had 1 1 e: 1 1 them, too. He diluted and for an instant lie seemed to flitter in his Marine Corps blues. Then he was hi gray a#airt and taking the £im from J immy, "Spiny anybody that makes a rush/* #ai Miffed them into his belt and led oiT. They Went down imr the ^ray courtyard where all the shadows were ink in the starlight and the half of a moon rising Tate Two more military men had stepped up. ^i* unuv »nns bad been collected, One man tried to rush for the j^ate but his own line- mate caught him and threw him down. "We'll stay here!" said some- body. "But "not lonff!" "You'll stay until Martci says THE! FIND IS NOT T nT go!" said O'Shanui^an. And they stayed. M artel went into the building with [immy. They found the ar- senal and took an ariuload of guns. Jimmy stayed £uard on the place wlii I ti battel went of~i to other tiers. If was a ionj^ job. There was trouble. Cut M artel was patient. Me bad learned a lot of patience in (wo years. And Ins. patience resulted in thousands of men Mand- in«j n rider control in the court yard. Just why he was taking i ommand he was not sit re, All he knew was that there was a job to he done somewhere. There was a man named Jules Fabrecken. Another one named Bunks. And somehow — lie came hack and looked at the men, O'Shannigan had taken charge by seniority of the other tiig;-shot scientist!" squeaked Jimmy. "They railniadcd him in here!" "Quiet," said Martel. * ■ Qtt i et ! 1 ' ba wled O f Sh anni ga n -

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"Hut it seems to me/' satd M ar- id f ''that a body of men proceeding together with what transportation, they can muster, carrying: what food can be got here* working together in general, will succeed in reaching safety where scattered groups will not. The army will be out there searching and shooting. You arc in gray and v on Id be shot, I know- that many of you are hysterical enough to want to run for it. Others th ink you have to get home quick. Still more want to get out and kill somebody.'' The ranks of prison-pall ored Faces Lurried to him with a strain. Yes, there were people they wanted to kill. Yes, they were thinking of home, '"KcJicvc mc when 1 tell you that those who lived in cities will have to bear the tragedy that their homes no longer exist. If they bothered —whoever made this war -with Kansas City, there were a lot of cities ahead of that. Do you under- stand me-?" They didn't. O'Sfiannigan and some of the other tier captains bludgeoned them to silence. The blue- white moon- light painted their pallored faces. "The men you wanted to kill are most likely injured or dead I At the moment we stand here prob- ably fifty percent of the population of the United States ni America is Jyin^ dead in the ruitis of its cities. How many of you were in the war ? You saw ruined and bombed towns. The worst of those* towns is now the United Spates as a whole." 152 "How do you know this:' bel- lowed several. "Yes, how does he know," mut- tered others to line another. "Qniet you enters!*' hauled OShanmgan, "Because 1 know the man who started this %var. And 1 know On: result. TheTe will 'be a dictator- ship in this country to morrow. Arc<l the name of that dictator will be Cmmover Banks. And the man who started this war and smashed this u a I ion is across a wide sea/1 "It was the Russians!" yelled many. Mnrtel yelled: '"Right this minute United States atom bombs are wiping out Russia and who cares* say you, Hut it was one manT do you hear? One man! I know him and I'm going to get him." ''Shut up, yon illegitimate people!** bawled O'Shanmgan, "There's the gate V shouted M ar- tel, *Tn a minute I am going to step down from lie re. 1 can take you to safety, I can lead you out of danger in this country. I can - lake you to the man who started this war. ** Any body who wants to fh row- in his lot with mc, stand your ground ! Anybody who wants to run for it, run!" He dropped his arm in a swift gesture. "Get out E** Many went. The most of them went, tumbling over each other in haste, rushing blindly at a dead run into the night and vanishing even unto their echoes.

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Three had thought belter of it outside the gate. They came back. M artel stood there with the rag- gedly spaced ranks of a thousand, one hundred and thirteen men. He stood up again. "-Now that the .sheep are gone, let me thin you further. I do not intend to surrender to civil author- itjh* anywhere. I intend to shoot when the mi fi nary stops us. My intent ion is to get out of the United States and run over all obstacles as we come to them. The govern- ment which will take over will con- stat o* robber barons and fascists. AM const ttuttonal rights will be suspended. But uur main danger will come from mobs. Whoever stays with me. slays with me to obey, Uj ta!;e puishmetU, to become part of a military group. All those who want nothing of u may still .V,-. " go. Theie was a wavering and then more than half uf the remainder, hungry for those gates and the freedom for which they had dreamed, went uncertainly and doubt fully away. Some of them paused to form up under their own leaders. More than one man took Martel's example and collected a squad about them. One such de- manded food arid weapons. Then another came back for them as an afterthought. Both received some- thing from the stores under the eye of Jimmy the yegg who became, thenceforward, a jealf.ni? and honest guardian of the commissariat. The pale moonlight fell softly on the thin ranks. They formed up closer, THJfl «ND I S- WOT ¥ FT "Shut up!" bawled OShannigan. M artel spoke into the silence, "Tli is is very flatter in^. Em X remind you that we may have active ciaslics with authority. There L\ one man in this world who now, after tonight, rules the entire world* who would march every existing national army against us if he knew I commanded. I am dangerous iv be around. The mission is ver> dangerous, Many of you will be killed. Discipline here will be harsh and puishment swift and terrible. You are consigning yourselves to a mission which has one hope in a thousand of success. If it fails, you will all dieH This is not refuge in numbers. This b a violent declaration of war by a handful pi men against the most powerful in- dividual on earth. You will prob- ably be killed!" One man only started to walk away and then, seeing be was alone stopped sel f -co J isciou si v. "Go!" said Martel.' "No half- hearts r 'M3eat h? yousc lr" shouted OShan- nigatir "Wait!" pleaded the man. ^f'vt got a right to my say J" And when he saw he would be heard, con- tinued. "I am doubtful because f feel you inay be flying in the face of the United Stales Government. I am no rebel against my country even if she did imprison me. I was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces. I did black market on the hump and I got caught. This was justice. But I will not tight my country*" Martel stood' talL *JA= of to^ 13S

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i%Tll tlw United Slates Government as you knew- it ceased to exist. Violence begets violence. The LThited States is now a frightened mass of peiniilt* without government . Tomorrow there will be one, a gov er mi ]el T<\o, Texas, one of the few1 station* left alive. There isn't news, really. It's n garbled mess about New Vork and Sun Francisco* Denver and I 1 < 1 1 1 y wood ; f 'or t ] an d T Maine a n d Portland. Oregon. They don't ex Est any Jou^cr. Your nation con- sists of fifty millions ,slain because vonr politician* laid common sense aside and let their [jackets £ahi 1M while rheir vomit rv W<:ut to Kg death. "Go protect Tiu: L-iuu'.d Slaus! Hyttxy L'ommaml or snldiur-H out there iff- a potential looting forces livery naval sliip in the harbor left intact U iLlrt'Hcly sailing fur safer" ports, where it will be a government by virtue of its si n tern -inch gxiik*. ' Go proteci yon i United States Government. Vonh And .'l fascist dictator named Connover 15 auks setting up business. Ihisinesi! To make money ! "There."!] he a t'jist i^in here. And a fascism consists of money com- 1 tiiicd with ibe military: We arc oJT on a wild trail, Liu I we've a hope, "If we sneceed, therein he free- dom in your United Slates again. If wc fail, then you'll keep your Hitler, bought by foreign money, A STOUSPIS O J^C I F:NO it VI r't TOT?

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swollen by £reed for pnwer, cruel beyond Ivan and greedy beyond Midas, This is a mad adventure we intend, "We want no patriotic jingo now. May I bid yon a good night, lieu- tenant V* He was thoughtful, that ex- lieutenant, lie had been taught ^so many things that it was hard for him to see that they had gone< livery body was waiting as though what he might say was deeply im- portant to them eiEI. And into their silence cut the thin voice of die radio, turned up full vn En me of Jimmy the yegg : , . reported by Jersey residents that it was an atom bomb. A ham r a tor is on the air in Pennsyl- vania, stating that an atom homb willed out Philadelphia at two-o- five a.m. and that it is still blazing* The roads north of Washington are jammed ti^bt ivith cars which managed to escape and an operator in Maryland claims rhat the District of Columbia is still bathed in a sea of fire. We are getting; a few repots now from the West Coast where several ham operators have gone into action with car wheels turning generators and other de- vices . . . Here's a bulletin just handed me from Richmond con~ firming previous reports from that quarter. A radio station there on the air states that the city is un- touched and shortly the former attorney gene nil oF the , United States who happened 10 be visiting there will issue proclamations as the sole surviving member of the TCTlfc R NO rfl NOT Y FIT government Martial law will he declared, nationwide, and the con- stitutional rights suspended- The Honorable Coimqver Hanks, ac- cording to these advices, as attomey- geuerah is now the president oE the United Slates—0 liven before the last announce- ment the ex-lieutenant had started slowly back to the ranks, But now he slopped. He looked at Martel as though he saw some supernatural be in«; to whom clairvoyance was a usuai thing. His mouth opened as though he expected to see thun- derbolts in the leader's hand. Quietly Mar lei said, "You've changed your mind?" The ex- lieutenant found his voice. "Changed it r Mister, I'd follow you anywhere I" O'Sbatmigan told them to shut up but it was no use. The old gray courtyard shook under the violence of their cheers, Every day he wandered to the slope which overlooked the coastal plain and sat with his heart in his eyes, the cold wind of Africa twist- ing at his hair even as the unshed tears twisted his heart. For three years he had come to this place and looked fur a space each day. Sometimes he brought with Utm a book he had found in one or another of the old caved tunnels of thft mine and he read, stealing now and then a hopeful even anxious glance at the plain and then emerging wholly from his reverie to know that they had not been seen, Sometimes at night in his Lor- iir.

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■ men Fed dreams alone at the feet of ike shattered old god he dreamed that til ey came all glorious and resplendent from their wars and marched with flu t to ring pennons into the ancient pass. And that he ran forth from the temple and threw himself into the iJtrms of Charles Martel. But that, before he could breathe more than a greet- ing an arrow came, cruclbarbed and thrust itself into his foster father's heart and there he died. The dream was unchanging, in- terspersed with other more poig- nant dreams of Anne or of the old days when he slunk, unwanted through the alleys and gutters of war-torn Europe. For three years Buckingham had waited. The Berbers thought him mad for he would not look at them or speak to them. Perhaps they repented what they had done ior always they shunned the pass, Per- haps the arms they had received, the ammunition and the cloth were not good in the light of the deed they had been bought to do. But they saw the boy and thought him mad. When the moon was up and lie was not about they would some- times leave a young goat'* haunch or some tigs on the steps of the ancient temple— as much for the shattered old god as for the boy. In daylight they did not venture near but a sentry on some far rugged crag would sec the speck of him in the immensity of these ranges and brood a little while and wonder. Three years change the moun- tains little. Sometimes there come 12* storms, torrential rainsT but usually it is dry and the thick dust runs about the gullies and through the passes in a 11 incessant game; and the wind quietly whimpers as it stabs itself oil the sharp rocks. All the world mi^ht bum but her v. the Atlas broods, silent, the air clear, thinking about Carthage or some city dust long before which ruled in heady arrogance on that plain. The scar on his breast was like a Star t white- rayed as Tychn on the Mopn. For months he bad now and then coughed a little blood but the French had told him when they let him go at Marseille that he would live. The blood did not worry him* At night when it very cold the broken bones of his chest grated in old remembered pain. Hut this had ceased a long" while since and lie was brown, nimble and strong if very thin. The Rim had bleached his hair nearly white and had burned his face *bdow a coffee shade. Eating worried him sometimes. And then he would wan fie r in the tunnels and sift the moldy old fiour until he found a bag which was not entirely bad. And he would dig about until lie found a tin he had overlooked before and he would eat sparingly for there might be no more fiour or tins. The goat meatT the tigs and the mase he kept as best he could. He had a store of food but that wasn't his. It be- longed to Charles. For some day Charles might come and l>e hungry and they might have to hide here for a long time yet.

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It had puzzled him when the planes had cen.se fl to fly. In the first, two years he had often seen a silver Hash to the north and! even, at times, had heard a motor's drone far off Lmt echoing in lonely vibra- tion amongst these peaks. But be had seen find heard no plane for a year. O fieri he worked at the prob- lem and read the old books in the temple. Pet haps they all used rockets now antl traveled faster and higher so that there would be no planes. Hut suddenly they had stopped, never to come back again. It was as though the pulse uf the world had stopped and the motor's droning would not come again any more than zi t 'iirihagininn chariot would make this old pais grumble. He studied- He had nothing else to do. There were many books in the technics ns* quarters which were Ji^ht and racy and had no message. P*ut he iiked to read them sometimes, particularly when they described women and love and furious fig] its with ehivahic din. It was a relief to him to scan their pages for what he had found in the temple, beneath the cracked stones had almost cracked his brain. Tons of books were there. Anxious hands had sorted out many and taken them ilwav in what mutt have he tin a headlong flight, Hut the bulk had stayed. There were rolls of film, too. and n projector. But the film was dry ; even when he had made atnild generator give him electricity he could not see more than a few pages at a time. Anil these were like taking the center T3B *=Nr> NOT V K * of a novel and expecting to- know beginning and end- Technical books and technical papers walked dci&tity through his days. He feh Charles would be proud if he did this. But there was much to Understand and no one to explain and he came by devious routes to qtteer sciences of his own which would have shocked the princely grandeur of the uni- versity pedagogue. lie did not think, for instance, that Ally hook on psychology there was right. He felt guilty. He understood that the authors, those ghostly presences with which he lived, expected him to swallow what they said. Bta rats tverc not human beings. And the arduous years in Europe had given him much more data than these clois- tered experimenters seem to have. And so he made a psychology ah his own. He wrote it at night while a goat- fat taper guttered. He used a yellow ochre ink he had made on brown paper cut from wrappings in the liar rack s. It was hard to read. He laughed at it sometimes. And when he wrote he would carefully hide all the psy- chology hooks so they could not spy on htm. Still, maybe Charles won I* I be plea-sed. It seemed to him that there was something" missing in man's under- standing of man, that no one had ever reached a dynamic principle of existence. Spencer, from what he could make out, was a hazy fraudj having no dynamic principle at all. He set out, in those forgot- ten hills, to prove him wrong. He 1ST

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argued with Spinoza. He exiled Kant. It did 11 at seern strange to him that lie was doing these things. Nobody had told him alx>ut the saeredncss of the great and that; naughty -naughty, one must bow l>e- fere the itiuin^iaity of the past, lie found thmi ihcre. They had no awesomfi introduction and he read them. ITe thought he was writing psychology. Now and then somebody would tangle him all up about God. And then he found Jean ami arranged what others said as an offering for mirth to his uld friend on the -hipped dias. Kuekingham was in raritied a in It never occurred tu hint to lose his sense of balance in these thinking heights. He had never been warned about thinking He came out of a. savage state, learned anew how to read under Anne and now he had people to ft-itcl. Tie had 1>y -passed the bric-a~hran the way to becom- ing one or" -he most profoundly in- formed persons on the face of the earth and he didn't even suspect it. Ue thought everybody ekne must know all this and more, lie had met few professors. And so be ate scantily and ranged the pass like an Acadian Pan and thought long and awfully in the stillness* The stripped1 laboratory fright- ened him for no light he had would penetrate more than a few feet of its gloom. And the almost entirely closed entrance ad mi i ted only dust. He would find a need to look there every few days. The re was an old, tattered apron and the eogeles Martel had" worn and he felt a need to touch them imw and then. There was a single bar <*\ gold in there U-side llie wc-!i-.duikcd vi- bration, dmpped in hasp1 **' k-aviivg. He never touched it but would eye hri glint in lhe dickering and uncertain light he hi-Ul. Charles could use that. Me know Charles could. And it used to grieve Inm thai if was hcre^ useless, taking on a Cuai of grime, sinking hy its weight little hy liille i tn i l bard- packed dirt. He would always go a\vay a tier such an eerie visit and sir for more hours than usual im the *lnpe, look- ing with hungry and aching eyes down into the refeilin^ ranges and die plain bey md. Sutue day CharU's wouirl come. Some day, lint it was tuti Charles Marie! who found Buckingham, k was Han s. KEirly in the funrth year, after , drenching rains had thiekencd the earth and cleasvd the a I read v as- tonishing air of the men. mains, Hans, Jaeckel and a bodyguard of lour heavily armed Spaniards warily approached the ancient pass and regarded from afar ihe neglected aspect of the flying held and the clear his: within the: month. They bad not expected to find anyone but they %vell recalled die piled j bodies before that mouth the day the legion had taken Ma rich And, in addition „ they had a superstitious ■ dread of the place, quite unlike A S T O tt D 1 NO PifilFNCE-PJ QTION i

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scientific men. There had tollapsed a dream of empire. Buckingham saw ihrm from afar. He had no arms, but lie had poised a boulder. welt balanced* as a de- fence- of the pass and to this he squirmed. They mi^hi t*e lEcrbers Coming 1 »Etfk from ;t Lid, They might ho some of the E-'rench re- turning to search ngam. Hut even that far olT sight combined wirii in- tuition to f|inet hi* first wild, leap- ing hnpe that it iiii^ht be Charles. 'Die ^Ln came lurticdy to tlsc entrance of the pass and stared around, up at the esupty blasted emplacements, 1 jr^ck ru the living field with its charred scraps of planes, TIaus held them back from pro- ceeding and looked cave fully up, His thick lenses glinted in the Sun- light and a mad cry stabbed down at him. f J an s 1 " A r id It ueki n gham w as up. shouting, sliding, running and yelling "Hausd" He came down to them ant! stood grinning at themH ton overcome at close range for speech, Here would be news of Charles, Certainly Ha.ua must know ! "Py Gotti" cried Hans. "Py Golt, Buckingham is' Oh, py Gott X" And he sat down very sud- denly and je^an to cry. But as suddenly he was up a^ahl and turn- ing Buckingham around and feel- ing bin], "To a man lie is **rnwn ! IdiU so lean. Py CotE. Huckici^haiii. it's starvation! Aeh, hui tins is a happy, happy day!" And he sat down on a rock and began to cry all over Again and this time he did not stop for more than two minutes. It was Buckingham who had to console him, "How lonjj? have you been here?" Hans demanded. MOeer three years.' ' said Buck- ingham, I -fans started to cry once more and Jaeckel and lluekin^ham had to |>at and cajole him inlu good spirits. But they had no more than done this when the most dense gloom imaginable settled over the litile professor. 'Three years anil more/' He mourned, "Iror three years you wait here, l"-ike a faithful do#. You wait in dark nights and si onus, And ns only an hundred miles away f roi 1 1 1 icre ! A clu ( j tn t p Bu ck ! " A i id he commenced to cry once more aiub tins time there was no stopping hiio. "Please, professor/' s^Ed Duck- in^ham. "It is not so bad. I would wait twice that for Charles 1 Cartel* I knew I would hear of him some- day. And now yon have come. Tell tne qnickIyH professor. \\ here is Charles? Safe with yuu?" Tt was as though he ha<l cast a spell and turned them all into wooden carvings. (aeckel, sud- denly understanding, looked away with eyes ahrnprly dim. II any sat morion I ess, eyes on Ins feet. Three of tEie Spaniards stared round-eyed at Duck high am. F!ut the founli soldier had never been noted for tact or grace. He was a bandy-legged little veteran of the war that slaughtered Franco and ail his greasy lords and his 126

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whole repute was if slot. His lumpy ears had followed the con- versation with great difficulty for he had learned has English from, a brother who had owned a fruit stand in New York and it didn't stand up to accents nor Bucking- ham's pure diet Ion. But he got the slant of the talk at last and there was a crow of triumph in his reply, for at last he could show them that he, too, knew a thiuy and more. fHMartcl 1 Charles M artel, .sen or f Of course he is dead," Jaeckel could have murdered the soldier. He was afraid to look. directly at IhickiiigLiam. He did not know what to tell the boy now. Somehow he expected the lad to cry out or faint. At last Jaeckel had to look. The boy's head was held up Irigli. There was strength in his hack and his eyes were clear, brilliantly blue in his tan face. The wind thrust a lock of his bleached hair into his eyes and he angrily cast it back. And the 3i lie ton tinned to stand Lherr, silent. *T am sorry V said Hat is, "Ach, my poor boy, I am sorry. Maldito, you ugly — 1+ "No!" said Buckingham. "Do not scold him. I was to be told this gently t I suppose, the instant I asked for iL T do not believe it,JJ Ilaus swept the ground with his eyes. No one spoke for a long time and then Hans said, "Buck, it is very true. It was in the news- papers." "And what did the. newspapers 130 say r" said Buckingliaui in a mono* tone. "That lie had been shot for trea^ son; aiding enemy spies to escape* It was there. The place, the judges. He was executed, Buckingham." *"ff the newspapers said ,so. they lied, I know that Charles is not dead. I f*el it. These are al] lies." - Strong, he stood there and glared at them, proud t full of disdain. "They could noc la 11 Charles. They would not dure/' Haus pa tie: I the boy's shoulder helplessly and there was a tone;, un- com f o rt al >lc sil e nee. It was Makbto who broke it again. "Now, wc know why we are here. It was him that sent us the message." "Ah! Of course!" said JacekcL "You repaired a micro radio! Good lad. And now that we're here we'll rake you back." ■CI sent no message, " said T.-uek- ingliam. "And 1 am not going back, I am wailing here. For Charles." This confused them. They began to fear a trap and the soldiers were all for retreat tug: lo their ha! f- track instantly. But Buckingham stood where he was and noi all the urg- ing* ot Hans and jaeckel combined could budge him. Finally, despairing, their argu- ments gone and their nerves jumpy, they had to surrender to him* "We will send food/'" Hays prom- ised, "Thank you," said Buckingham. "Hut we could just as well send astoi;n»ikg sptknoe fiction

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two men back Lu watch!" said Jaeekel, one last try, "No diank volt," said IWkiug- haim Ami 1;tic i p:i 3" \\v."t dmen s; liaek. flit US' 0}(',i \Yf,lTV lilted with the si^ht of him there in die i-KisiSj :dl ^looe ^ain^r iln^c ^i tiHi dun mountains. They wvre acn^ss tbv iWd when ihc first plane came. They dived like hnrjMwin^ ani- mals. But the plant' drupped smoke for wind mid rlicu with curiously silent engines, came hissing in lfi si perfect landing. It taxied to the Lveaft of the runway again and stopped. The Side doO"* ■ i] jc-a^'r-! twriny mm rapidly dropped out of it, i;uns at ready, dispersing under 11 ie orders ot a noncommissioned officer. Their uni tonus iynv black with red piping and they wore a spread- ing golden ray on their helmets, {covering them :i Turret ^utnier slid back Ins plastic ^lifc-lrl find waited threateningly. Four of ihem ciLine sprinting up I lie .slope to the laM. place tliey bad seen Buckingham. Jim when they arrived at [lie pass month only his roiee was then- from some place above. "Halt !" said I k n t- k i t ■ ] ■ a in . "You>r covered."" "W here are yon r* said a mmcom. ■'lii^ht where I'm going to .stay!" said the invisible Uncfdu^haui. 'Go back to that plane or I'll Lire I" "See here. we doiii mean any lmrm, see? We ^ol orders to make sure this place is dear. I Tow many are there of you?" THE KM'r IS yOT VET hJ Never mind,'* Kuckiiighaiii looked down to the rield and saw that Hans, Jacckel and the soldiers were all rounded up. There didn't seem, to lie any quarrel for the carotin was relaxed, "Aw, cunie on down/' said the notieom. 'AYc: got to cheek this area/* " Then leave three men where 1 can keep rhem covered and check it. "['hen go away/' They did thai ami the noi )com came hack. "1 suppose," he said sarcastically, "that yon jjot no objections to a si^nak" And he didn*¥* wait but p id led a. large pistol fro in his belt and fired three white siars from it. The] i he and his mates withdrew. There had been a humming in the air and now it grew louder. A for- mation of huge* camouflaged planes swept across the rield, came back and swiftly, in threes landed, They would rusfi down with vibrant win^s and swoop to a stop to taxi then on? the r ut i way Inro three parks* 1 1 was a brilliant and bewildering sight to Huckmpjham. Planes seemed ominous to him as they won itl to anyone who had spent all of his youth beuit; bombed. And the military precision of tins group which landed tony- three planes in half thai number of minutes - appalled him. The ships crouched there on the yellow earth, bristling wish guns, sacagc iitxl full of men- And then, suddenly, riuekingham stood tip with a. howl, lie launched himself down the slope, running AST — PN 131

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faster than he had ever run before. And as lie ran Lit yelled and cried, I 'or Charles Marteh huge, cloaked and black belted but bar el leaded, had steppd out ot the Lisi plane. Buckingham hurled 1 urn self itito iVI artel's arms wuh eunuch force to have knocked a smaller mail dOwiL What the boy wan saying was all mixed up+ 1sh3 f hysterical* full of tears and laughter at the smue rime, contradicting explaining ^ivin^ a narrative, a^kin;- for f;iLts. and hi short rai-tn^ jhCi much dust while Charles hugged hull that the sol- diery, for 141 in;* up. looked on with wistful smile:*. And when tliey found, tlio.se hard -hi Et en veterans of a year of Lighting, of running, at tit chine;, for- aging, ^ovei'ninsf ami running a^ain. that this tall skinny liicl had we kited in this f Jod- forsaken loneliness for three years just on the slender hone that his cilaid Hans. "They have no pn hpelk i>. no jet engines. And they hold five times as much as most planes should. Vot issr"? iM artel leaned against a wheel and laughed, patting it. "No luel. Ah pay load*, so in speak. You are not keeping up with modem de- velopments." ".Mudertj dcvelopUieUTS I Since the war vot modern developments Or maybe it i^n't known to you lhat Russia iss iti ruins and the L oiled Spates so much charcoal . AL-dern development?, ! In Lttt££c parts of I his world, t haik-s, a stone ax they Eu-e usin^. L A en i'aris char- coal iss. L'nd you come En mit a plane — w "Ai i'vingnian. Arizona wt- found a park of old World War TI B-29s. Several thousand [hem.- ihit there wasn't ;l moU r in the iot and no fuel to be hau. JSo we set up our labs and here you have it. No motor weight, no fuel load." Hans peered curiou-ly ai the craft. "Dnn't be so mysterious please. Atoms piles you could not make Oil such notice 1" a a t o r; k r>i n~o s c t k k c k ■ rr j err t on

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■ "That's citieity working,'* said Martel. He pointed to the leading edges and tl>e cockpit in the nose. **A vitidty uTiiv near the pilot keeps, the wire in front of the wings sup- plied. The force is directional. Therefore, all along the front of the plane and slightly above the wine; a continuous vacuum is create* 1. The energy collapses die gas mole- ctilcs a: id the plane is forced-- or sucked — into .the vacuum. No weight, PXV I"nd snenuced to fuel or rn^jics, 'Hie wlmle setup weighs about iwn hundred and thirty- j line pounds."' Hans locked tin." series of di- rectional cups. *lLtui then ymi really wuujs ad, alJ this prepju uti-i m here. We have a wonder f tit city not a hun- dred miles avay. l^orty t lit >n sand neopi*1 tiler*' coutd live, all below ground. YYhv do von not come there?" '*Oid friend, this* I hopt* is the end Of a very lirtljf tjnest. f need not tell you whom we are after i>r why." "Adi! Jules i-Ttbtiekeu. Con- iitiver Hanks — >J **A«d cc mi] ku ]y," .^ii d Mattel. "We marclKxl our olT+ We stole trains* We foraged and raided- in the I "nitfd SiaiesH in Mexico,, even in the Argentine. We have had more adventures than I could tell about hi a year. But we did not iind julcs babrcckeiu An<l tit id him we must, lie owns the world now. AH of it. There isn't a Country anywhere but what hits a dictator of such ruthless power that the feudal system, along industrial lines* is in force everywhere. The entire globe is strangled. All it took was this war. Connover Banks has the ITnited States in such a harsh grip that no one dares speak or act without Ins permission. And science.] Ilatifi, they've hung, shot or imprisoned practically every major scientist in the United States/1 "Yes, yes 1 These things I know. We have been very busy and from many of these places we have brought "men and their families. We have had no trouble since that traitor Itethd — der , r . veil. No trouble new.1' ""You rhink none u coining?" said Mattel. "Sooner or later a workl-widt machine like VabrccU- en's will stumble into you and- then it will be curtains." "Aeh, yes. Rut to set up this place be re again, a piace which they know!1' * And he looked at the orderly confusion of Martel's force w hi eh carried supplies., instruments, weapons up into the mines while others cleared away debris. A whole souad was ahead}: straight- ening out the "field, picking up stones and rubble, making it obviously an airfield. 4 '7 counted/' said M artel. *'on your being busy, keeping touch. I can't tell you how happy X am. Now we have the nucleus we need. Your uuricrgrouud city sounds in- teresting— it" fantastic- and be- lieve me, old friend, well have need of It. But my job is laid out, tea

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Science must not die out as it did in the middle ages. Status quo is all very profitable for certain characters, hist the world at large is much more important. And soT when wc-vc got Fabreeken — . Haus shuddered and looked up at the sky a-i though "Kabrecken might be there in person, listening The man whose* tnupire now coveted the i^lobe, whosn- extraordinary niea^niTri had .Hiifeyuarded his domi- nance (O.r general ions to come, loiig after bis- own death r could not be discussed so lightly. "He'll coiner said l-Taus dole- fully. "He'll send his minions first and then he'll come/' said Maitel- "Now my expert intelligence genius, where ib Bethel?" "Bethel If A hideous glare set- tled upon Haus' usually mild face. "If bethel— tf "No, no, You misunderstands We need him. We need him very badly. Get him here/* "Bnt vy?" "So he ears cany the tidings all over again. We can't locate Fa- b reckon. HVs a ghost for all we can discover. Bethel will bring; hint down ,011 us." "A eh, what confidence! But while all ibis is doing; — ?" "Wc are setting up an atom bomb proof liase here. This is goiiiff to be a showdown — a free for all fight. I mean to antagonize that man who slaughtered all these mil- lions until he'll wish lie was dead. .And we can arrange that, too. Yon should have seen what happened to uiy home town, Los Angeles! The ok.l people, the kids — i-til you know about that." "Yes,11 said Elans, His breath was short before all thin activity and flaring, Han* and his c^lunls, deep in the belief that Mattel was dead, availed and feeling powerless ayjiust I In- lmlocauM which bad swept the worlds had marked time and hoped for an inspiration which bad not come. And now Triced with a whirlwind of el'iorl, cvidently rteep plans., J tans was half afraid this was a dream. "You mean all ihi-H?"* pleaded little Hans. "'You mean we've #ot a chance to get even and put science back where it belongs. Vnn mean this, don't yom Charles.;?'1 "That aufl more'" said Mattel, giving his friend a shake. " You've got the proper nucleus Ell Lc down and look it over. fee grit the army and the materiel — '* "The army? I dou"t see hut a few luiud reft — " "l>odh V said Mai tel. "A hun- dred i mined men with the proper weapons can lick ten million any day. Wait and sec. Ham*. Your nu [fit, my out lit. they art now oueT And were declaring war against the world." "All, but a few hundred," sighed Han?. "And n I ready we have lost many* Poor old Ix1 (Tint — " "Le Chat!" cried Mnrtol. "Of course. We heard that he was killed—" "T.e Ctiat is the liveliest dead man you ever saw," said artel. "They had him in the military ASTOUND I NO SClEJTCK^rCnOS

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prison. : Li Lou v en w orth . 1 1 e1 II be 'UmmK tonight wiili ihc second con- voy." llaus -uiddenly ex j landed. "Ty Ciott, Charles—" and then he l>e#ni to cry. Lliwkin^liasn, returning from his inspection of the plates, teh like crying, loo. Ho wlioti^ Charles sev- eral limes by the hand and could not speak. mi]Ai Chat is hrniging more 111011?" said 1 -fiLiiy. "Xo, Supplier. Twenty plane toads. Oh, you'll see, Haus. We're one outfit now. A ln^r yours and mine. Wc'H knock this whole eraxy setup tor a row of ten pins t Why Ic Chat is bnu^mt^ . . , well, you'll see them when they jjet here, Once upon a time von rircaimed of ;i world where scientists were kin ^5 and man wan; happy. That world is coming i-igln up+ Hans, Piping "Ja!" Ami then for a moment Mans thought of hahrecken, thought of Ri3.St.i:L smashed and the United States si) much cliareixiL Hut he threw olT the thought. War against the world. It was not the first time lor Haus. .■ TIIH KM> IS MOT VHT "When we are smuuod around hero, wk*11 iju to your city/* said Martd. "And then we'll plan every- thing out just nghr, Vou'll *ee. This time we'll wmT* They called tin1 city Xew Vorii since New \ork was im lOOi'e, J hit where that once jjreat men'op- olis had raised a proud hear] into the clouds — only to 1m? fume, a target — *_ the 3 lew New Vork 111 the lTi_y;h Atlas went sohoiy into rue ground. Two gentl<mrn from Kansas were rcsponsihh; lor it. Pro feasor X'luiuh and Kussell Hays, the for- mer a famous ceramist and the let- ter an engineer. They had racked back through amhjuity to ducoi'Cr what they con Id ahout cities beneath the £ Firth aurt they had found much and many, Their present triumph /ell some twenty thousand in pop- ulation short of another (.-icy iti Asia Minor before the Middle A.^cs, hut nevertheless was pn ihuhlv far" more sanitary and comfortable. Carved out of very so it rock into the side 01 a rearing mountain, ihe metropolis wandered in tiers with business centers and suburbs, residential districts, hospitals, res- tan

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ervoirs. .and alt dial a "city might need, Slicli spar inns n ess was only pos- sible he ani se of it calcining process they had invented which permitted them to turn crnnililirjg avails into the smoothest tile. The di^gfu^T had Jieen vlh-v easy For the rubble of the tipper levels heeauic the body of 1 1x1 Sower, All the compartments were, jo the shape of ei Gothic arch, all were air-condition en. All hat I he! in re- flectors which ga\een used to the utmost. Xt way a clean, airy tort'li. There were no wive conduits because Mailers vita city was used on per- manent filament lamps and merely rnrli sited through the area. Solar heat was $\ o red in fells. Natural gas and coal fields had dictated the site and theft*, underlying every- thing, furnished inexhaustible sources of fuel in case the)1 were needed. Mar tel. wrLiidcring through it that night with 1 fans and Thori>e, was extremely appreciative of the good sense involved. '"]JmV* he said to Thorpe, "I woimIlt you ventured on such ptiiiiiam ne> \ What's the po- litical situation Thorpe grinned and rubbed thumb gainst otrerio-er. "Your gold," he *akh "We bought iot the Berbers an autonomous state from France and they go about very lumpy while we are the real strife. Tl was simple actually* We didn't dare go fur- : ther titan this, of course, but no | 12# one i> ;*Oni£ in think uddly ahnut this. Over Lmlf the I it rue r nation is direct I \ in um1 £:=upiny. \\f issue our mui cnrreik\, coo tin; customs and so forth. And btvau the wor ] "y one met ho rl nr unothe r the city was not made dull and oc- casional small parks with fountains sparkled at intersections. The. was ot various lines. And here cm the right was a small factory where a big loom whirred even at" this Imiir. weaving draperies rich pattern. -(<fhe 1 Berbers #row th« raw ma- teri:il." srhd Thorpe. '"And we have workers from everywhere who know how to use it. The valleys outside — yrm could in<: st:e Lhem properly in the dark — are a heauu- ful Sight, tjreeu where they were growing stones hcturc, ^^"e are rich, the Kerhers are rich. A na- tion is only ;is rich as it has man- power and can produce and money has no hearing on it, heft to our- selves with prosperity and not self- ishness in mind and we've here in the making probably the richest country on earth.1' "Few skk/' said Hans. "Every- body tree and happy." "Don't you have a few who won't work- or are unhappy !-" said M artel. "Those who wont work Just wo rt't work/1 said Thorpe, waving Low air] a small knot of men who sat in a tiny cave- off the main tun- nel. They were crouched around ASTOUNDING SC? < F^OE ■FTCI'IO.li

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a low iahlo± iw^ O.Cuhs and three An itricaufi, drinking coffee and playing cards. " They belong to the lowgr incut hracket. yon might say, and after a while they £el bored with heing down on a t id work anyway. It happens that way often. .Mc ist of thu la^.y oucsj are plain ]>sychf> and iliat is curable. \\fc can produce cLi'Ai^h 10 care for six titles a,s inanv as we. have and ftftljodv is gohiy; In starve. .1?nt women, you see. rdways have ilujr pride Find the l-^o-rs dorft have rirtv wouien/+ "Aiifl the- people \v!]li don't aerec?'" . "*Wc lake them in,1' said 1 l:m.L every col iff. W ut tee] i political creeds hy count. Out liuddlust c-K.vo. u-cl my how their liascba]] teams they clicerT* L"So yott lei the in work out their Mtirgy in sports." "Ac!), no. We riay Jonk : vol ve do here economies' iss. J"ni yon L should he lolling. Charles/" "No, nn.'h "Jhti it was voiTr own idea be- fore you left,'' snid Thorpe. "You see }y&ct a nation at war. At war against the elements, disease, star- TltE PI Ml I ft NOT VET vat ion. Everybody is anxious to fight that war and he d rather right it collectively than alone. So we are an organiza tion made to fiqht wars against things which destroy men. not men. And the result Is tliat politics can operate smoothly :i!s a. sideline. J lie re ate nineteen ho roughs hero and each one has its uwrj style of government, as it de- :?] res, "+Theii what are we?" said iJatteJ: ^Priests/' smiled 1-1 aua. 'Ja, priests, I labylonhm stvle.7' ^JViestsT 'said Martel, "But what thru ol* ttdi^ioil as j^opte know it?" ''There are many kind* of re- li^ion. tH dtiwn thnju^li a lon^ ruw of lusli hydroiXNtiics oamc le Clwt a Jennie antS fkitddn^hain who had waited for him. ' Lc C hai V cried Hans. "Hans!** crtcd le. Chat. l'uckin^hani st.r>rxl proudly hy as Though ht- hat I invented both of Ihcm. Thty huggetl each «>ther and did a sort of danc^ wherein le Chat found time to j^reet Thorpe nnd re- port let if artel and tell them all what a wonder tu5 ihin£ this all was. I .o Chat looked «n older, but. there ^"as a g]-andcur upon him now — a beautiful paihia of mysteri- ous adventures which would never be toSd except, perhaps, all back- wards and in fra^tnetus. In a black cape he looked more swash-

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buckling and romantic than ever. He had an ait^ le Chat and he would have it until he died. H&US was weeping now and lc Chat was giving him a handkerchief and telling Thorpe that this was the fanciest tomb si nee long before the Pharoahs. His eyes sparkled at the sight of the Mowers and colored tile and his adventurous nose wrin- kled up at the scents which came to it. "And what," he said at last, "did you have under conspiracy when I arrived ?" They brought him up to date and as they walked along toward the council chamber, le Chat ehafTed - Haus. "Priests! J can just sec you now j Haus. Black hooded and aw- ful* scaring little children. Come now. you don't mean this surely,1*" "I," said Hans, "am the most in- formed political genius on earth. When 1 tell you we are priests, all I mean is that we have a cult and a mystery to protect. And that's the end of it. That's all a priest ever is. And priestcraft hag ruled the world with arts which the politicians couldn't begin to understand, lit Chiru^ India, they still rule," "Christians won't like this/' said le Chat. "Christianity is an institution which we trouble not, If we are Christians, ach, then we are Chris- tians. If not, it matters nothing. Freedom of worship is a corner- stone of all good -government and the mark it is of all enlightened societies. Myself I respect the civilizing influence of Christianity/' 138 "And */' said lc Chat. "And I. Forgive mer Ilaus, but youVe dug me a deep brain furrow. Tell u& what we intend to do as priests." *'As priests/1 said Haus, "we stand as advisors behind any gov- ernment anywhere, The mystery we safeguard is ihe source of weap- ons, materials, techniques." "But the technicians ! No scien- tist can £CL along without tech- nicians/' "They are an iuicrior order oT scientist and an tipper order of hu- manity. The technician's educa- tion . is seldom broad enough to evolve the whole process/ * "Then what is a scientist r" de- manded le Chat. "A scientist is a searcher after truth/' said Haus. "And to our purposes » he is a finder of greater probabilities which can he directly applied to the bene hit of mankind/' "Ah," said Jc Chat. ' How grand yuu sound t lie specific, my infa- mous friend, hirst we are scien- tists and then searchers after truth and then priests. 1 am dazed/' "The day le Chat is dazed. Ach V1 said T-Taus. "You make sport oi me. J. used the term priest to indi- cale the safeguarding of a mys- tery not known to the many und to involve the various facets of priest- craft. Und scientist T use ail the time. Science a cult is. Worship- ers il has everywhere^ in the world. There are temples of science every- where. And homage to the great scientific mind goes. Tt is a mystery to nearly everybody. Fission is known to so very few, actually. M artel's viticity is known to just A &TOU.VDING K O | nNCE -FICTION

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Martel and Jaeckeh Their own technicians do not even Understand/1 "There are many mysteries al- ready explained/* said MaiieL "Anybndy who Can amk can make gu n powder. So June; as you have gunpowder, you can have a war/* rt*'Ah, yes. True, true, true/1 said Haas. "Hut in one single ^cticra- Pign the sL'imcu oi making gun- powder becomes a lost :irt, known only to the (.lilt. All duuyfcrulis playthings belong to the cult. At present, if they are used, an appeal to us will iilL f] > it. If these sections in this city went to war. using fjun- powdcr^ we come in with vilieity and Where arc they?" "Then yuit will make war," ac- cused le Clint. "Yes," said Martel, "A govern- ment which exists liy force alone or which gains its .pn&Ltiun by force can only .stay in ptwer with the same means. 1 do not like this, T would not use- a mass weapon Against any populace anywhere* I think you've strayed into some 1 >! oody-m i nd w I nc ss. T Tan s/1 "Then," said Ilaus, spectacles pugnacious, "jjivc ns a weapon which is nol a mass weapon/* Mart el grinned at them, 'T have about fifteen line ways to do just that. You well see, liul here we are. Is this I he chamber?1 1 Tt was .in hex abulia I room with Gothic arches in each comer ineet- inp; at a point. A lar^c fireplace where a cold lire burned against the night cool -sent colorful patterns across the carpeted floor. A single table, round, was in the center of Tin; iiKins sot tkt the room and there assembled were a dozen men. Martel was introduced and each One rose. .Ml of these men were known — or had been — ;o the world of science in many line* and had come here out ot chaos to work in laboratories which each commanded. They were pica -taut, dignified men, i meres ted none Ot rhem in personal power but intensely concerned with I he welfare ot mankind. Martd rook his seat and Thorpe as chairman explained io them what Martel had been duin^ and what he intended here. H Cha-les Mane I cxj>ected a re- vulsion against such bold seeps he was in error. For these men, all of them, began fo smile or hum and look cheerful. Montaigne, the French ctimaiolo- e;istf rose and solemnly shook M ar- tel's hand. They called upon him for n speech. "ClentlemeEi." said Martel, '"t am not so certain now that I wish to risk this paradise winch you have built up here. Please do not Ije anxious to phm^e into tins mad scheme. For, our there, nothing but disaster walks and T would not bid him to enter here. *' Or 1 finally 1 came to ibis place — or rather the pass where we had our first laboratory which Taeckel there built—" "And converted expertly by you," bowed Jaeekel, Martel smiled and continued. ''There is a group of men who brought about the condition, of the world toda}-. You know ail lIus, of is*

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course. Lint I 'have just tunic from hell, ^errtlemen. "Out there an insidious philoso- phy of nii^ht and pro! it is laying ■ waste what liiile is left. In the Unired States two or throe hun- dred ait executed for political crimes daily. And amongst them tire in!iny scientists --yrent edu- cators,, chemists, ecnnt u l lints. They are killed, gentian ten. because they may become a men ace to the *talc They arc nut killed for any c runes but that they might upset the dic- tatorship. "Ninety percent of sill arable land lies falkov and mankind starves. factories rim bj.lt they art; factories which pay starvation wages and demand fourteen hour flays. There are monopolies in the world for every tiring. And there is no single weapon" of opposition ati v where. A man niav he exe- cuted for surest hie; a strike. Any attempt at a union is met by shut- ting down :m end it plant until peo- ple coint hr^ine, fov work — and the plan I si ill stays shut down. ^Existin^ technological develop- ments are not bciujf improved upon. Nearly all manufactures are of poor, even worthless quality. For many process* which were Once expensive, we have scrapped in fa- vor of quirk, e^icap means. And who is to speak of their quality? "Money is scanty. There i,s but one hlter national currency from one inu^-iuitioual bank. And the owner of thai bank is Jules T'abreekcn. 1 Ic is sole stockholder. "The Vabrecl;cn crowd is safe. Their empire i* built to endure. 144 Tint it is built upon hones and mis- ery. And it is upludd by soldiery. "Fear rules the wondr m?r fear is the cheap, easy way to control. There net finest out there now. Russia ehkt had her serfs. All man- kind is ■ degenerating to serfdom wherein a nian is less lhan the land he tills. 'Thf re i? not oiu- democracy left out there. Kvcn in the smallest countries it t'abrecken diciaU'r^bip. wifh |>n[)|K-ts. has heei] sec tip, "A ^t^iuuic Hvri. an enormous air force, a hu^e n urbanized army keep the |>tmulalioii oi die \mrld in Hue, A iid even w*. because it makes business, there is an oeaLsiotial war. fotii^lit with nFji-ulctc arms, ^Mankind Es even denied the sol- ace of i cliff ihed churches, as we kimw them, have been destroyed. ."But I do not g\\e you geullo men news, hut only continuation from our own voyage*. 4*1 tame here with the intention of ^lecln i"i ei^ atl mil wtir u|>on Fab- reeken and his minions. I ll not use mass weapons. I intend to util- ize the old pass a^ a lunl. and arm it. It is a hundred or more miles northeast of here. Hut it I do this* I gravely threaten your city. I can give yon I'trouviivt and offensive weapons and you can doubtless con- A STOl NTH NO SIMKSC K-FICTION

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coet many r>l" your owi^ l.iut there is a chance that, you will be over- run. "That is nil 1 have u> say, £entlc- Ho sal flown and wills* i ti mo- mcmV hesitation, thr assemhled cried their assents ai him. They were savsiye, these mitd men of thought. They wanted blood oi the desec valor of their idols, They wanted action. 'There was no Slethcl here. Such weis their un it.nl that it al- most iris^Litcrac-cL M artel. They wanted to bnnih anything connected with Titles Fabrcelu:nr "NoT aaid M artel 1 i will not This government iuu>t establish it- self, if it tan, without force against the multitudes. ] have four linn- fired highly skilled soldiers, care- fully trained. J brought two hun- dred Ink1 technicians and scientists of Iwser rank. J hit what j^iud would it do to inercstsse tlui suiTer- itig uf the world. Tli tit would be to violate the first principle which I ps'opose: thai science; shall he used onlv for the benefit of man- kind/' They cheered him to the echo. And then they became practical. Mow wits he somtf to wage this war? lint they didn't ask as if it belonged to MarteJ, but to all of then), which it did. They wanted Ui know the first steps they should lake. Le Chai answered them: They had sea red y noticed le Chat, inking him fur Maricl 'n lieutenant. Now he startled them. THS V3*n IS NOT TIT wJust wi;at/? demanded lc that, *' is a scientist?" They answered him va/iously arid finally settled oil a de I'm hi on. Le Chat ' was satisfied. "Therj JTfuis is a scientist and I am a sci- entist. For know, gentlemen, that ITaus is the create *t political genius in the world," They agreed. '"And t" . said le C hat, '"alii cer- tainly the e;r cutest pr^i[w^uidi*t*** Such candiditess tt>ok them aback a little. <J\Ye have bronchi," said le (..'hat, "a transmitter o f Mn.ii a v ariety of wave length* and such an enormous potential ot power that we can beam it over th<j entire world. 1 suggest as the first step that we In- stall it and tell scientists everywhere what their mission in liu: must be/' This excited them. "That will expose many poor fel- lows to a firing squad,5' objected MarteL. "But it will save many more," said le Chat. lTHOr le Chat a Kaine will be writing th&( propaganda a cud God help Jnles Fabrceken." He laughed and they laughed with him. "Then tiCMt/" said Marcel, "ivc must Have a code. T.tke doctors had. Wherein the sci-r:n isT pledges himself to permit his work, inven- tions and general knowledge to be used only as it will specifically bene- fit individual met » everywhere, "And we must have a working program here win el i we can blow up to size whenever it is needed. We have much of that already* I understand. Tint we must recruit and gather field parties against the 141

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hour when Tab rec keifs hack is broken. For if we cannot take over rapidly, we doom millions of hu- man beings 10 starvation and worse." "We have yeast vats here," said Penile, the bacteriologist- "We can make food and more food. I can feed a whole world, if neeessifry.?' "Good. Wc must have medical supplies."' Murtowsky looked alert. "We have manufactured great quantities of a new drug better than penicil- lin or sulfa and almost complete in coverage* We have three new sur- gical techniques in vol vine; light which permit aluiost instant heal- ing. We have toxins for 1ial£ the reci milling- outlaw bactenas and vi- ruses and a specilie for cancer. Leave medicine to me and we will do all we can." "Good" said Mavtel. One. a fier another he named specif ec problems and one after an- other they gave him promise of remedies. It was a very proud Mattel when they had finished. "You see;" crowed Haus. "You see what I mean by priest? Here we hold all the mysteries. We are a cult and the answers will not es- cape. We guarantee freedom of re- lig-ion, of speech, of press, of all things man desires and withhold only the formulary. We benefit mankind and mankind cannot get along without us. That, with all the art* of priestcraft, is the strong- est government the world will ever know. Tt will endure forever. Le Chat smiled at Vtm, a little cynically. But he held his peace 143 and the planning went on until the night was old, Jules L'ahreeken was hunting in Canada when, the fust repmt came in. He did not know it would he one of many startling reports and so yuvc it very little attention. After all, what did it mailer? Ik- riii'S seeurelv entrenched ever\ where, Tl;o?e who were Ins trivtids made money. The empire was finely Constructed, aduiirahly run. The states every where were totalitarian in ah things and there wa& not a cEiaiioe that itnyonc would slip up. There were several reason?) for his confide] ice. The ilrn; was. hi^ original structure. Men were where they were he cause it was in their interest to be there and no nonsense. It was worth money tu be dictator or associated with any dictatorial gnvcrnmeni. The sec- ond reason w;is ilu- international FKink. The third was the interna- tional police force- which worked on a sort of United Nations basi^ and against which no one won hi dare reheh The fourth was the espion- age system which operated with great thoroughness against the dic- tators the nisei ves ran I was all per- vasive. The fifth was the good safe way his military men were chosen, ■ Only when it was entirely ap- parent that a man had no stupid nonsense about him could Lhat man assume a comma Lid of any kind. Erratic and idealistic fools were carefully eliminated in the first scan. Men were judged not so much by what they accomplished., but the A &T OtT NT>T N a S I : T UXOMT J C T ION

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things they refrained from accow- pi i sailing. That was 'safest. It might not be efficient, but it was safest. The new jut or national naval and military academies were very soundly based on this principle:. And fi-ar was the single- method of enforcing ubr-dk-nee and discipline with in. j claptrap about esprit. Who would think of rfhellioti when then: was ]iu place: in which a to an could lice? And from whence would come any ifle;i of rebellion? For agi- tators and. in pyriicular.. liberally inclined snk-mtriis. were ca re fully thinned do ah to nothing as soon as detected. He had ihc 1x;st weapons in the world al lus disposal ami there would be; no new ones. lie had worked out the ideal -jove m mental philosophy and so long as men abided by it, those men could be happy — jjarticularly the men that mattered. It was with "th tH Xnr 1'BT looked re mini seemly into the log fire while the chief read it. ,H What's this to do with me';" said Fabreefcen pleasantly, '"It merely says that several incidents have recently taken place which arc ran sing concern. A series' of vil- lages in Switzerland disappeared to a man. all watch n inkers. What do 1 carer That's more motley for the factories lit Connecticut,'1 "It says," replied l fritter, **that several Strang planes wen- seen just before and after the incident. Maybe there's a renegade air force some place, chief. I just thought you'd want to kno-c, that's all/' "llardlv likely,** ^aid Kabreekcii. "Where's Banks?" ."He's at N'ew San Francisco tunv. taking over as Inrernational chair- man, like you said " "Oh, yes. Md almost forgotten. So used to thinking of him a* run- ning the United States, Well, let's send a dispatch to Banks and tell jiin> to send somebody out. Good rye. isn't it ?" "Sure is, chief. They tell me you really nailed that moose*'* Fabreeken laughed and forgot ahont the Swiss watch makers. He did not think about them, in- deed. iiT.-iL the bombardment began. In occasional groups, small items bewail to fall into the cities of the world from the clear skies. This was puzzjmg because radar fold of no planes. And the small objects were pujifchng because they resem- bled nothing seen before unless it was an overstate dollar watch. The objects did not tell time. 14a

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iiaeh was lowered gently down by a paper I ike parachute which bore the. legend, iii the suitable Language : This might just as well have been an atom bomb. It isn+t be- cause the Alliance exists to ben- efit all Mankind^ not to destroy. Hide this and use it to hear the Voice of Science, Press button at the top several times to prime* THE ALLIANCE. The llrst totalitarian oldcials to lay ruin on these though* they were bombs ami hmI^iI them be- fove they opened them. But alt that was inside was a puzzling sim- plicity of wires. The hack was a sort of speaker diaphragm. A brave secret service man in England dis- covered that when tile di recti Otis were followed some very good muwic came out f[uite reliably. I-Iarl this been alL Fahrecken probably would not have heard of it, For it. seemed like an advertis- ing stunt, Hut between pieces of music: a half-humorous voice ad- dressed several well known fas- cists, sometimes one^ sometimes an- other, and asked them how baby murdering was paying1 out, There were skit**, tno, in which Jules ^Fahrccken was portrayed on the day of hi* ascendance to the Pearly .( fate* to face his e rimes , in which Conn over Banks pot indiges- tion from eating EOO many dishes called, "Individual Liberty/* unci " Freedom Vic" and so had to call quits. And there was poetry, some of it rapturously beautiful, some of it 144 violent, all of it destructive h* the New Order. And there was a ^Jl'l whose lovely contralto to id the tales of men who had been free, and s»a:^ their son^n. Ihtl wrn'.Hi of fdl and nlnst shuck- ing to b'abi-eckeu and Hank* and dictators every telit: re wii* a daily dramatic re^din^ of the honor roll of science. (Ioiil1 with nuiiTLcri, sob- bing drums, enough in chill a man's spine. Tl called tlie seicnlibc dead and said what they H^icI clone, for man and h always ended with the cab n as stir a i tee1: ""Some da> „ hefure tins ^euera- tiou ends, I'^ihrt-ckt-u will tel] u* why htL ha,- nmrdered these it mo- cent men/* Jt was all done so smoothly and with such aploinh that a wave of hope went thrilling (iter the wortd. And t lie wave mcked the feet of thrones. 1'ur there were no riots. New objects came I rrun the Sky and though the oOU ialdinn se tumbled to appropriate them all and made it a death penalty for anyone to have one hi liis home the pro- grams increased in inleusitv, official worry grew, Kvtr/s ordinary efforts were made I r ■ locale the set^ and the source. And many pcnplc were shot as examples. It is a ma vim that the harder a government attempts to throw off disturbing currents, the more re a sto iiKTnyo sctP-vrn-pit'TioK

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emits it i nukes J "ISauks," said Vabrccken tit tjeneva, "this idleness is intolerable ! Why haven't you done something :" J Sut instantly he was sorry, "My nerves/" he said, "Its bad hearing yourself lam foisted every day and to know that yonr whole empire is listening." J Jut J /tanks knew he was skating where the danger sij^n.s rend plain. He had seen Kabrtecken s^ct rid oi too many men. f'Wc have tried," said iSanks, squirming in his 1% chair,- hab- revkcn"s picture on the wall behind [yto. "Well, see if yon ^ain locate thru nation S" '■ft docsn*t work like regular ra- dio, lt?S Cl-A'AY hut it don't. IJots- i ist, J itles, we've had every research fab hi the world combed for some- body with a solution/' "We own the labs. We should nri-: rm» is sot yet have somebody ! Lfanks, didn't we hire the best scientists wre could get? And what are they doing "Trying:," said Banks. "Honest, Jules, they're trying hard. We'll have this e nuked in two or three months. Then we'll know its posi- iion and my hoys ean go to work, A Few plat ICS mid tanks will finish it all ofl and thar will he that." inl rertahdy hope so," said >'ab- rcrken. It was si range how reticent yuunj£ scientists were to Jinrl a solution, lmt not so strange that old -Tine college professors failed. They had not been picked for brilliance but because they were safe men whit wouldn't cause any trouble. And after all. hadn't they had dinned at them for years that it was a sin, a crime, to follow up any- thing beyond a new process ? lint a starry-eyed ex-oflicer in New Philadelphia n rimed Robert A, UUlltiig put a not in considerable intellect to work and, borrowing from a philosopher who had long he.vn banned, made headway on the problem, lie had rather fuzzy ideals but there was nothing fuKsty in his science. He could not identify the type of wave* but he did make a large model and he found that it was direertonal, As a member nf the lodge, be was not long in getting it to the attention of the government Hi id this, in turn, made haste to put it in the capable hands of Coiinover Hanks. Kid ling received a letter of ap- proval and he was happy. A flying squad of the Interna- tional Police used up several hun-

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dred thousand gallons of gasoline before they found that the source of power was North Africa. But the wave was not sharp enough. R idling made a holier mode] and received anmhrr U-U trr The Tntt:riuaii uial TV I ice an- nounced with pride that it had lo- cated the. station. Banks whistled with relief, lie called J-"abrcckou and got auLhui tea- timi s"or the Atomic Control to i$- sue aiiihoi-i^ttiou for four atom bombs. Wheels wUluo wheels began to turu inexorably h It took time. Iti Geneva, Jules Fab reek en and Banks dined complacently. The ta- ble was covered with snowy linen, silver dishes, delicious viand*. They expected news any moment that the tou founded transmitter had been smashed and so they drank each other s health and damned the rabble and complained about man's unwillingness to live and let live. Hut tt wasn't news of the trans- mitter they received first. A rou- tine message from Carlson, Chair- man ol The Board of the United Stales f asked for certain shipments of food in view of rite fact thai a severe drought had settled over the country. Not a drop of rain had fail en all spring and no snow had fallen hi the mountains or, for ]hat matter, anywhere. He needed food. There had been two riots. Banks looked at the Relief Agency head who stood there. The Swiss remained respectfully silent. "Send lii m some food, of course/' said l^anks. "Can't have riots* You 14a know you've ^ot permission ro do that at any time, hasn't he. Jutes P*5 And lie put a tender squab between hi? jnws, h'ahrceken tooked into 1 1 i== wine- glass, admiring the ruddy glow of the precious vintage. Me did not bother to answer, " S phi p Mr. ILn,L>.'" said the Swiss, "you did not read ii all. It is very odd, very peculiar. Xo snow ail VviiUer ■ and n rawi in Uk- spring ;uiy where in the United States, it says clouds form I mi are either pre- cipitated over the ocean or Lakes or they never reach the country at aU. He ,says the Science Kadin prom- ised this about four tin nut is ago/' "What '-^ said Fahrecken. +,They promts t.d it "That outlitT said LSanks, "Got some weather information in ad- vance, that's all. Xobody euuid slop rainfall."' "They claimed they wert do;n£ it a:]f] would tin it. And they added that when livings wen- straightenpd out — when they wet'e in power, DeiiE'llE^ your pnrdou. Mr. Fab- reeken — they could make rain and snow fall exactly where it was needed and thai the whole wrudd would bloom.'4 "Rot!" said habrevken. "What a lot of li[j]ik[" echoed f!a:iks. "Send the food and Forget it." But this was not the only up- setting incident of that dinner. A smart you tig staff oflicer, all gold braid and glitter, came racing in with the news. I [e clicked to attention and presented the dispatch ASTOUMMXO KCITSNCE.iriCTIQH

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to Banks who gave it unread to Fabrecken. Fabrecken gaped at it and then shook his head. He shoved it im- patiently at Banks. "Banks/' said Fabrecken, "you had better get some chuckle-headed fools before a retiring board ! That's impossible. Relieve him of com- mand immediately." Banks read : COMMANDING GENERAL : HAVE LAUNCHED ATOM BOMBS WHICH EAILED TO EX- PLODE. AM ENCAMPED THREE MILES WEST OF A PASS IN HIGH ATLAS. REBELS ENTRENCHED IN OLD MINE HAVING ADVANCED AIR-BORNE TROOPS TO VICIN- ITY. REBELS STATE WE HAVE FREE CONDUCT TO DEPART UN- MOLESTED. DISLIKE SITUATION. WOULD ADVISE REINFORCE- MENTS BE SENT. REBEL CHIEF IS NAMED CHARLES MARTEL. DEMANDS AUDIENCE WITH BANKS AND FABRECKEN. AD- VISE COURSE, AXTON P. JONES "Who is that man?" fumed Fab- recken. "Admiral Jones," said the staff officer, "Oh yes;' said Fabrecken, sink- ing back. "He's not a bad fellow. He came to that party in Tenerife that night, But what the devil can be wrong?" Banks was white and his hand shook so that the message quivered. He started up from the table as though about to escape and then sank back. "Jules," he said, regaining com- posure, "this is either a hoax or a ghost. Get that name? Charles Martel ?" Fabrecken remembered. "He was killed in the atom war, wasn't he ?" "Maybe . . . maybe not," said Banks. "Banks, don't tell me you let the man get awav. What else?"' "I ... I think I know what this is about. I couldn't understand it myself but . . . but he wrote a book and I took a carbon of' it. I've still got it. It talks about a new kind of energy. It was enough, I thought, to get it out of the way. But he must have something new and it may be that book. It says in there that 'the energy that holds the world together is infinitely more powerful than that which blows it apart." I don't savvy this stuff but maybe that's why the atom bombs wouldn't work." He looked scared. "If it's Martel, it's Martel. And what can he do?" said Fabrecken. "Tell that fool admiral to advance. Infantry is the only real weapon anyway. Tell him to take that Mar- tel dead or alive." "Those are my orders," said Banks to the staff officer. "Tell the commanding general to have good infantry sent to Jones and then take the place by storm." The aide saluted uncovered and spun about to dash away. Banks began on the squab once more. But it didn't taste anything like it had before. Nothing like it at all. In the cold, cold dawn of the High Atlas, where the sun struck THB END IS NOT YET 147

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with sudd ciip crystal sharpness long before it bathed tlie plains below, five thousand men Jay crouched and shivering and looking up at the gun- si.^ht oT a pass. Jones and {lerher, the general who bad come no with infantry, stood well Iwck. The orders haout war is wrone, only it it is hypo- critical." l<l*lcase es"p!ain.v said LSiurkhijf- hani. ■ **WoI], when a nation says it is going to war against si n oilier one, it tells youth that war is adventure and sucks them nil in on die prom- ise that women will love llicuu And then youth goe? into the war and finds that it is in an Iron vise of petty discipline, War is not ad- venture iiy definition, adventure means to do something and then to stop on: from there on a ouest into (be blue. \d venture docs noL con- sist of following orders to save somebody else's bacon. As soon as individual action is missing in the equation, the adventure doesn't exist. "'So youth, caught in n trap of hyjHJcrisy — -lighting for s^lory only to trnd it was not for glory at all but ho in ebony che"s profit — rebels against war and says it is no good and everybody tfots on a fine binge about peace. But there is nothing Wrong with figlitirijj.**

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"Very well," said I'luekiii^hau], "We are then to understand that to- gahzed in-urdur is not UiipiioruL" "Darn >■ c i li _ Luck. Ivver shiee T came Sack ymi : ■ l-t^ full ni wisdom. What"* #u into yon": Ala 1 srey is that it isn't wroiitf for i H and hi* ganjr tti ^(i mil and helier-skell'tpr knock the si alliums nut f Joe &tid lii-S hoys, W'lifil is wron^ is to force, men with Iks mtu an inm vise of militarism -which is fascism. J-'itfht- in£ can he fun. Knl people gel elut- tered up hetween hypocritical wars and fighting and say fight in}; is had- Mcver had so much fun in my life as when I was Ei^hthi** f !," said Is? Chat, "No, t am ^oinj; lo rctiudn litre and become a i'-c-si t scientist." "And fhat i> the liie.he.-H ihiu^ in the world ;" said le Chat. "Of voEir.se!" Lc Char laughed silenlly Find fixed the glasses on the oncoming line. Overt i d there iva> an occasional explosion itji a shell pierced the outer rk-fd of ullia7\Yave \iiieity anil detonated against the. inner re- pulse, current Somewhere snmc gunners were #cuin^ lie 1 1 from a 4khaltcrn for setting fuses wrong. THE ElJfl* I*i NOT YTVtf A plane came screaming down m a dive and unloaded ?i ?,tie.k of' hmnhs. They exploded almost ui- staulh arid even started up again be Core they did so. The plane came down iti a flat *phi. struck the re- puFse field ami went slithering tide- way* whi It! the ]xi rati nitiu^ j>5lot drc>f>ik;d straight on iluott^h, ^Aluminum buckled." said 1c Chat. '"Lucky hoy. O'Shannt^an 1 Gather me up that pilm and 1 > r : n ^ him here!"' 0*Shaniu^[ni I iaw led at a run- ner arid very short! y t lie* pilot was hauled np, seared, brui-cd and very eold. "Wlu/s in command out there:" Said le Clint. The pilot retained a stony face. Le Cii;iL shil^etl. "AxtOn F. Jones and tierber. isn't it }*" Tiie pilot remnintvd siletit. "CliarJest" called le Chat. ^1 aite I lotted up from a note- hook on whitii lie w,ris serihhlinci ot casuinal orders to the lahs. "We've »ot a messenger," sa?d le Chat. Marte! nodded anrl applied him- self to a unc-s^i^e. TTe ^are it J in inly Mie yeLfff who came across the strip of open ground and handed it \nto- the eni[>hieement. It read: L LLam"eir^'i6cc witJ) you. Wf hnvo nut _vot K'nun our w;tr. I would hkIvEjiu a a totly ii^ctinff- Clmrlti ^fart^l. t t,e Chat gave it to the messen^ei . "Use your shirt for a white flag 14&

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and go Kick ty yonr own lines. ward the Lirst line ot advancing i jive this to Admiral Jones/' khaki, Me ripped off bis shirt as The pilot was really scared now. lie went and soon came through. He looked at the bursting, flam- Buckingham would have waif hod hiS hell which stretched between him approach the ritafF of the other the two forces, side but he was suddenly diverted, "\\> aren't firing/' said le Chat' The first line of infantry had hit '*Wc haven't even advanced. So the outer, invisible barrier, all you got to worry about is your It was sudden. Tt was devastat- owii people, and ma foiy they aren't ing. barbarians 3" A thousand num ii] an extended The pilot looked at him and then line, leaped upright or fell down, took tSie note. He raced duwn the Their guns flew l*ark wards from slope and across the flying: nekl to- them and those who were in sling ASTOPSDISH Sr-iUxrH-PiCTIOJf

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went light Etloiig ivitFi the guns, heels over head. W here a ihmisaiuf men hit J crept in frdtr. a thousand sprawled in ludicrous jxoh^. "They wiM make gun;* uf iron," saul le Chm. remembering his fri^hU'iiju^ pistoL So m f n( the holier trained came on again and as swiftly lost their weapons, Officers wilh IiAlsteretl weapons appeared as people walk- ing under the sea and then, stii'jj- TT1T1 RM> Ifi NO'JT YET nig hard against the bamcr, lost balance and were hurled Laek, 5cvamhlir.£ like overturned bee ilea* T3ie second wave came up and tangled with the firf*. The third came on and mixed in Up the tum- bled heaps. Two thousand reserves were called instantly into action and went charging pell-mell up the slope toward the field. They wavered as Lhev struck the backwash o£ the

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fir*t waves but ibe_y held formation and caule on, They rushed over the eat pet of wia] joii a and burled til tin selves vail a nth' mu> the fray. They wont hack as though shot Alt rhm day infantry tried to break through the barrier. And tIumj a sergeant, faster of wit than Jones or een on our side/* "Alt right/1 said Martel to 0\ShamnganT O'Shannigan charged down the slope with a lie) low and twenty men, their insulating cloaks flap- ping about them, swept on behind their huge leader." They halted and drew on oxygen masks. And then their aluminum jets went into action. There was no air to be breather! around the desperate attacking force. They crumpled, Overhead a squadron of attack- ing planes ran into a high harrier strata. Their engines coughed and rjuit and the squadron sailed out ot sight, A moment later there were rumbling crashes l>eyxmd the pass. F-C CI l sit sighed. He was hnrcd. Suddenly he was tat en uith au n:dea. 'May IT7 he pleaded to Mar tel. Miu tel shrugged. i era Ijtf Chat nailed I hick on the shoulder and they raced down into the i*issr A small vehicle with caterpillar treads was waiting there. They sprang into it and pointed ahead tn thn driver. The vehicle (lew dnwi) the slope,, a black bond rising which made it look Jike a rampant insect- Jl raced THit through rhe harriers, clattered and bumped through the gunies and then shoi tip an incline to the puint where Jones and Cerher still stood. Shells burst at a distance Mom it. Xotbing came near it. r lands reached out alter the fleeing siaiT and snatched. The vehicle spun **u n tread and went rocket in si- flmvn the in dine, up towards thef-*re il readied the Ixirrter it ejected a ytumg staff captain of the enemy whu stood thtrre, da^ed. reeling. M artel's note fluttering in his band. The black vehicle funded into the pass and vanished from sight. Weaponless and tlaxed. the re- mains of an army collected tinder its officers and after a little white went dispiritedly away. [-"very man there would have believed in devils, demons, jinn. anything. They wct'c somewhat demobilized. Tt was nnl, huwever, mml faU that Jules Fabrecken was driven down enough to offer a conference. Many things had happened, all of them — from Jnnbreekcn's stand- point— bad, J Reoperation began tu haunt the Fabreckcn governments by Seplem- ASTOt?NT>tN-0 HCriJNOK tffOTJOJ*

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r \- bci and daily, lists of incidents, critnes and difficult icb came to lie accusingly on .[tijrs I'alireeken's desk. J fe had moved into the Geneva i i : h lis try iimv and though no one identified him w\v\ was not supposed to know, circulate*! con- tinuously amongst v;trifri.s depart- ments. His |itcnliar ejenius began to be fell and the ii^lu against Lhc th re at en i n £ re vi ■ 1 1 l 1 v vel o j >e and fur a very short time merchants had vrdued them, But .when j icons who normally made fifty cental o* si day came in with three or four thousand dot Jars and demanded cars and cartloads of fancy fouds, all sln>ps shut down. The eoimLiy was flooded with' money and the economy was shat- tered. Troops— 'ami ESLe many South Aliicri can armies, these troops were loyal so hm^ ;i.h they were paid and fed — reTused ihe currency and the Commissary sergeants had lit resort to bayonets to £et supplies. The diet a tor re-dee hired martial law and hysterically called for aid from Geneva. Fabreckeii had him sent a qokl reserve and minted coins and a 'JCnE EXD IS VOT THT money emliargo. lylih great diiji- enhy, was placed, on Chile. Ten days after the arrival o£ the gold* the streets of Valparaiso were showered with minted gold pieces and peons who made fifty centavos a day came En with three or four thousand dollars in ^okl and de- il lauded cars and cartloads 01 fancy foods. The army snarled; the dictator burned the radio to tieneva, Kabrecken sent out cerium bank stocks which, he supposed* were im possible to duplicate. KiTtecn days later Valparaiso was flooded with duplicate certificates. The army, goaded beyond mens- urt\ revolted and tossed the dictator into the hay, complete with minis- ters and he^au to ]>ass DHL hand- written script as the only legal tender. Ah economic: intercourse with Chile was severed perforce. Kach step had been preceded by a request from M artel, via the Voice of Science, for a conference with Jules Fahreckeu and the heads of leading nations. Fabreckcii sent a dozen excellent i7pies into the Atlas and received hack their clothes in hmidles* each bundle accompanied hy a note re- questing a conference. Anil then Xeii" E'lnladetphia was flooded with currency. Au< I th en Montreal. A nfl V-ierlin and Shanghai and Cape Town and Calcutta. Moscow, always dangerous and seething — having greatly disliked the change Of dictators— erupted in a lull blown revolt and fully half of the International Police went into bar- JB3

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faciei throughout Ross™ where the situation continued to be utterly Olit of control. New Sail Francisco,, when it had reached the stajfe of gold, threw up its collection hands find tlir^w out its International f iarrisioii. Like a growing Maine, unrest, open rehellinti and saSnitagc stalked the empire ot ."jutes L-VIireciken, J i -ynii femuded npnii economies. Tt was threatening to die die sax tic way. Jean Christuphe* on a small is hind, was able to substitute gourds for French money when the French boycotted HTijit i. All over the world people were beginning to do things similar Jo this and the economic rope.1; which hound the empire to- gether hrgau'lo fray, l-"or wit I lout it unified currency, with a disturbed credit my stem, with no means of inteL'ehanging raw or manufactured goods. jieoplei everywhere be^au to cut the threads which hound the to. The sit nation:, by September wa& complicated by other 3 undents. Once some teeth were shown by the Voice of Science, young l^ls just out of school began to get i< bra a and active sahota^e, on an independent and small scale it is true, bej^an lo take a toll of rail- roads, shipping, planes* official ears. And the Voice of Science blithely reported the incidents and praised therO. 33 ut tins Mas not alt that catne Co break Jules Fabreckcn's heart. Just as summer began, Planks had placed il Negative Energy Flows" with the National Research Council of the United State h and in a very secret atmosphere, a very thorough investigation was hegun nuclei- the direction of the few ok I I me scien- tists who remained. They were thorough men. They were lmt irnae;maiice. I hey had [heir processes and* within their :],.-Ms, -Jicv knew ill c-ir husinc^ ■ .If a fa mar. or a l)ar:iL; had 1 hi tin there, the Laic nli^fu iiavr been entirely differ em. Their Lirst reports hLated that die tiling was an absurdity jmic.1 miite hiip<"NSiiihle mid perhaps they won id have let's it there i t Fab- rcc ken's tongue- 1 ashing had not driven them hack tu rhe 1 sir ri cades- This time: they went to work in earnest and even imported several youngster a. 'I "hey also recalled .Hoht-rt A. Itidling and he hecauie their sole authority. The honk, they complained, had obviously In1 en written in haste and the basic work was earukiss. The primary experiments were not even fully descriheLl. I bit they sought to repear tbeiu. And on those slender threads Jides Fab rev ken pinned the future. Meanwhile the Yoke of Science went on. Meanwhile cities, overnight, lost touch with the economic empire, Fahreckcn began to age- He was lighting an enemy he COtlld oot see, could not predict, and the fight was to the death, fie could not foreclose on the enemy, nor buy Trim nor yet even blockade him. ' The struggle, so titanic, so deva- stating* hinged on such small things : pieces of paper* a, Eew words on a A KTOTJiTOTNfl SfriMXCB-nriTTOW

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radio, an occasional kidnaping, minor but unique destruction and the unrelatin^ pressure oE a world populace which b l-j^ilii to under™ stand how very thoroughly it had been chained. I* kick shadows reached oser the globe, 'I ho only truly powerful weapon in the- world was at work: an idea. The rebels laughed at the block- ade of Norlh Africa and Hen in radar undetected planes ten thou- sand ''t-f-T above the stratosphere tulips of I lie International Air Voice. The Navy, which plowed hack ;md forth r>u" iln- coasts of the stronghold, wns a .Hill ijtci for t l icks and jokes. And lite very blithesiess of the incidents and the laughter with which l bey were told made them ten times as deadly as the most awful massacre* For the re h els kept their hands clean, Thev were bene lining human it v. And how could one war with their lack of real violence!' Charles Maris!, ]t was a name ■which Moze Fahreckcns heart. At night lie would awake and think that Mario! had hrrn handed or shot mill he happy for a mom cut and then a stair, captain or Hanks would be on tin: phone to shatter the dream. A not tier incident had occurred. The rebels had met a merchant >hip rm the high seas and bought her captain and crew, had sent the shin as a p re sent to some port w 3 licll the money barrage liEid wrecked, white- painted sides say* iiujt "Science Presents You With Food". TH£ KSJP I« XfrT YET Fab reck en tried violence. In that complicated and unreliable fashion which he had heard from the Japanese he masqueraded 'agents as seiemists and sent them out to pillage aitd slay. It was a last ditch maneuver. And though people did not doubt the identity of the , raiders, I hey screamed that the Fab reck en £Over;i merit \v;i; weak for what better evidence could they have than this lack of protection. Weapons, old weapons like, war a[id money were turning in Fab- recken"s hands and everywhere he looked to find relief,. Uur Fabrecheu. in planning the status quo had not allowed for the possibility that opposition mighi arise front such an unassailable source W hen be looked around to pardon sciemws be had once haled so as to use their wits, he found they had already escaped or had died. When he ransacked universities Lor new thought he found his people had bee a taught not to think but to memorize hand those tin at still thought were hi? implacable foes, lon^ deserted to the rebels. He learned too late that victory goes to the best weapons, not the heaviest battalions. And he could buy no new weapons unless ±rNeyn- live Fnergy Flows — " That fall, of a tjuiet Sunday., when the reside iils of New Phila- delphia were bciii£ herded into the Established Church of the Ke^v Order j an explosion wiped out a third of the industrial center. When £la;>s and mortar had ceased to tinkle down, it was found

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that the beads of the Research Council, the eager youngsters who had been salvager! from the univer- sities, and the authority, Robert A. [{.idling, had vanished in the holo- caust. With them had i;onc the only copy of "Negative ftnergy Flows." With them had £one the Ja.st hope ot -Striking buck in kinresL-nt. Your sutciHtantie is invited. JtiJes h";il>i-ilckcH, 'Fl\sA night J/abrtreken .-slept jxsacc- fuTly for llie ;ir*r limu in months. Charles Martcl was lei I led at three cnihtek, at (ieucva. on the afternoon ot October 33th- Perhaps there was S' unotbmg of foreknowledge of l his in his leave- taking from hi* Crie-ml* at the Geneva airport. He looked very r:ilm and his roieti was gciitle. He had forsaken flic prorecthv ekutk anrl wore, in- stead, some lettered tweeds, a trench cuat and ;\ sTmieh hat. It was raining and The water came otY the hrhn ami made a vi'i] before his face/ Cine hy One he. told [hem tfoixl- hjf\ Haus. lc Chai, J hickintdiam, though the kisi orotesteil, alarmed and iiervnus, that it was imt £uod- byt that Charles would come kick. Thiit F;i brock en wuLildu'i dare. Tim llie rain came down and SOJlU-bow [ir^uxh qtiilo hclievftfl he would nomc hack. Two other planes, luatktl with science soldiers under ( J'Shanuigan, crouched black on tbo port. Martel had already shook bis head at their ae co m pan > i nif him. J I c wC£g six paces behind him, looking -A H T O IT y n J Nfl SiltRNrKPlf.'TldN

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tens*'. Ik' h*^:lh:[ ,cry s-n.dl in flic* rain, head doun. .t thk1r y«t ;vod Kahreekeu.. because- T am cer- tain, we can toiri- to terms." "That may be/* said Martel, "We are prepared to maVe cer- tain oilers and even modify them. I trust that you arts in an agreeable frame of mind/* 1 'Perhaps/1 said Martel. He had the sE range Taney that the world, like a poker pot, was spinning ui the middle of that huge hoard. "We will grant you and your people amnesty/* said Fa I j rocket i. "and give 3^0 ti the ( reedoai . ut a large country. In return you ni:n sell to lis whatever of your in- ventions yon may see fir/* lpThat is interesting/" said Mnr tel. "I "ut i supposed that there was a real otter to be made/' "Wliat (to you want !H++ Twelve pairs of eyes were hos- tile upon him. you gentlemen abdicate from at I governments and decline fur- ther political interference, disband your private armies and divide up your industries and lands, we arc- prepared to ofTer you estates where vou can reside eomfona7 lv and nn molested- We want Jin blood hath. All we wish to do is establish governments according to the ErfiTili* cat desires oE the people every where and to act as advisrlrs to tlirwc govern Lneuts/* "You mean yon want a Russian state!" bellowed Banks, ffA Russian stater Who would want that said Martel, "I am afraid yon are a little behind in. your ideologies, Batiks, Wc have a newer one. Tt isn't, based on force and death and war. . But I 1ST

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did not come hero to row, gentle- men, but only to offer you decent incomes and estates and a quiet and honorable retirement from the field, "The scientist has his proper position in the world. Scientists arc men of j^ood education, en- lightened find liberal for tilt most part. Tluy have wearied of having their I lead* drained of data foe use in the slaying atiks* eye* were beginning to' gleam. Martel nmsl have surrender in mind far he would not other- wise have brought that book. It's label was glaring: "YnTClTY/1 The man bad a price. 1 Ie whis- pered eagerly to Fahreckcn mid Vabrecken looked stil -prised, Ktit be tried. "Martel," said Fabreeken, "we are prepared to offer you, person- ally, a large sum, considerable fame and reknown for the scientific se- 10a erets winch you bold. We will employ yon personally in large laboratories under your sole di rec- ti on. You will be wealthy and famous a Etd will be able to work in peace. This we can promise you." "And what other akc:nao vv?,r said Ma rich "Why/' .sjl i d t-'ahrerken evenly, "tht" onlv possible, alternative. We will kUfy", Martel." 'l li ere was deep silence in the room. And ihfsi A Tan el saidt **>So this was only a trap. Von tli) nk t Eiut l)3j holding nie as hostage or killing me yon ran halt ihe re- helliOfi. T am afraid you sire mis- taken. Where you keep no word now. how would I value your word later r" "These arc practical means/' said Kahrecken. And at a whis]3cr from I tanks; '*all take it from yon by force." Martel made a sli^dn slum' ui re st stance and ihen >1 ironed. "When one sets u;if to pkiy with ro^wes — Hut there. That is all you will ever nwd to Uoow about vitr- ei t v. It will last you inc. rest oi your lives." lie sent the book spinning up the board. It made a sthihuit whis|>er in i he room, "You will be rewarded/' said Fabreeken. "T am certain of it/* said Marteh Fabxeekcn eagerly grasped the volume, I tanks leaned close. Faces and necks strained to catch si"hl of it. And the cover wad lifted. There was a blinding flash. a srou n- in n r; sc i k xej; r i*7jj- r o .v

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The; piei Ljres quaked imvard. The air m the room vanished. M artel heard the sob of breath yanked from collapsing Lungs, hreaih which carried no screams to ^prcfri i lie agony. Mi; ] i: l ci covered his face with his lift where :tn oxygen tube was hidden and lit' had dropped baci: ami to tlif floor- It bad been a Uniii gambit- r A. tfesperjJlte n[jc. to cany the wiir here, where it belonged, to answer their treachery with death, J hit he did not know how deeply that treavhery had heen plrnmcd. There was :i slit in the wal! he- hind hi in. A slit owr ilit ii replace, tint Lor I ned savaj^cly from one. Fejik hla^.ed from lite oilier. And Mai let's body jerked under the impact *i\ a doxen shigs. Then- \m\* death in the room and tortured air moaned and sighed as it came iii.mu tvnm under the doors. The idiis whistled as well. "Xei 11 n Jan. 1 L( p frying marked lite pru.sLnfj of (Jrtii or and Fcak* Mnr(el lived for rmy-tlnee minutes. The battalion* fought in- to the town. j^EiEvEmizcd by the beleagu erec I U " SI i at 1 1 1 i gan , I nter- nationfil troops fell bach or died ^■here Uiey sought to stand. And then I Mack mil form?. swarmed throng! i the n villi strv. l*ur there w^s no heart where leadership was gone and the inereenary regulars as s TS: >"1)T YET They la Ed htm on the couch iu Fabrecken's ow-n office and sought vainly to staunch his wounds. Buckingham knelt beside him, chaf- ing his hand, pleading with him not to die, Ilaus was dry-eyed, but there were tears in his heart which he potild never shed. The doctor factually faced them. fJHe will not regain eou seiousness. lie is dying, gentlemen.1' "Charles!"' cried Buckingham. ' 'Don't die, Charles, Please don't die/' Le Chat \yept and, with head bowed upon his breast. waitc<:. numbly for the passing of that great soul. At seven mi tunes of four the doctor dropped the inert hand and spread a coverlet over the blood - less day, "He is dead, gentlemen/" 11 We have lost everything !,h Halt* hasten call v radioed .\'ew New York. But they had not. They had won. The Science Government of the • World was an actuality. Mankind had been freed, progress could go on. They had won. Two years a nil nine ilays later. Buckingham and le Chat a Faime lay sprawled in some indignity upon the lawn before the Government House at New Washington. Fall was red hi the leaves and the marble buildings shone An the crys- tal, tangy air. It was warm her* 156

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in tlit sunlight, warm and peaceful. They had been invited to attend the anniversary celebration in the United Stales and they were bored with the feasting, the speecb -mak- ing, the. solemn dignitaries. A hri^e statue of M artel had been erected m the square across tlie way and the Stars and Stripes floated over u, if 11*; and color rut in the breeze, luit somehow it was 'as if that Mart el in the statue and their Charles were different people and when they spoke, of iM artel the Martyr to banquets* they scarcely thought of their Charles. Grici was. for the ^albun comrade they had known, not a hero wrapped in hazards and legends. The two tif then i wore the white d(»;iks which diitiiiguished them as members of the Alliance— of Sci- ence throughout the world. I-e Chat's, was somewhat stained with £rass and spitted a trille lune and there wit]] wine, lhickingham had slept twice in his at id it looked it. A portly senator obviously started as he came down the steps, Jt aiiiaxed htm to see two white cloaks thrrc mi the lawn. Hut, of course, if the Alliance, which guarded ami rifled mankind and. in particular, kept democracy status quo as the masses desired it. wished to lie on lawns, he could not quibble. Lie- went on and )e Chat grinned. "We," said lc Chat, "arc a di^ grace*' "You. not me," said Uuckiugham< "'JjO, 1 am hired into evil ways — Look, there's Hans and Thorpe!" "And Kpstein the physicist!" said le Chat. They interestedly watched the huge limousine stop for a light and then go on. Haus was expou tiding and his glasses had a beljigereuj flitter. Thorpe was trying to keep the peace, Epstein , Chairman of the Alliance in tlie United States* was arguing back with violence. The limousine disappeared. After a little < VShamiigaii. with a glittering chief of stafiL beside him- —Jimmy tlie yegjj — alighted at the government and dashed j iiniiiy glancing; at his watch with aJ]*iety and saying how late it was. **Afld so the white rabbit went into hi ft hole/' said le ("hat, ''Poor fellows. They arc all so busy. How simple it was to be a rebel with e so ne of the other fellow's burdens. Sometimes I feel sorry for prior old Fabrcekcn,-' "'J do not," said Buckingham with sudden bitterness. 'AVetl, why not. said le Chat- 'JlTe was a fanatic, true, but he was doing exactly what lie thought was right. If u lot of- people suf- fered and wars raged, why what kin# can you name who did much better? .And what have we in re- turn y* "Peace, liberty. No war. i'lenty of food, Many things." "For a little while/' said le Chat. 14 Then some paranoiac will hegin 10 online and .^omebndy will object and somebody else will yo viticity one better and voila, you will have another revolt brewing/' "Yes:" said Uuekiit^harn, "Yes/' said lc Chat. "For mark my words, CQtuptiHao, when there exists but one power in the world, AUrOCXftl *U KOTTJSCK -PL OTTO?*

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one power without check even as the Alliance, sooner or later its high principles are perverted by men. You want a hot government? Get good people. Irrcmi crusaders they will degenerate into fat. la/y hrutes, full of jealousv and env\. l7or what will all this heroine hut an- other dictate »rshii »." Buckingham suddenly sat up straight. lie was remembering that threat work of his, the. one which lie had never dared publish, particularly now when all such knowledge was tabu in the popular fields. lie traced out a principle and then another. Finally, relapsing as he rarely did into vernacular, he said, "Well, I'll he teetotall v damned!" "What's up?" "We fought so hard to get an- other dictatorship of the world!" V ep. 'T.ut we have one which is nine times as vicious as the last. For we have real genius at the bottom of ours and no knowledge will ever escape. Why. this is the dark ages all over, with everybody benefitting but eating off from Mystery! Le Chat I never realized it before. We've fought to put chains on all mankind. And le Chat, they are ^.hysterically happy about it !" "For a little while, friend. For a little while. Kven a New Order ■ grows old.*' "I can prove it."' said Bucking- ham, always mysteriously alluding to that great book w hich only he knew. $1,756 to $3,021 Year to Start VETERANS GET PREFERENCE! Get Ready Now for Next Examinations Railway Postal Clerks Railway Postal Clerks prot $2,300 the first year regular, being paid on the first and fifteenth of each month. f.595.J)4 each pay day.) Their pay is automatically increased yearly to $3,600. Ad- vance may lv hail to Chief Clerk at $5,400 a year. ($225.00 each pay day.) Age 18 to 35. 3 Days On ... 3 Days Off . . . Full Pay Railway Postal Clerks on Ions runs usually work 3 day- and have 3 days off duty or in the same proportion. During this off duty their pay continues just as though they were working. They travel on a pass when on business. When they grow old, they are retired with a pension. City Moil Carriers, Post Office Clerks Clerks and Carriers now get $ -J. 1.00 ($175 a month t the first year on regular and automatically Increase $100 a year to $M.100 ($258.00 a month I and $3,400. Age 18 to 50. Ass't Statistical Clerk Open to Men — Women 18 to ."0. Kn trance salary $2,1 fiX a year. Appoint- ments as Clerks in the De- partments at Washing too, D. C. are made from this examination. MANY OTHER POSITIONS Many other positions are obtainable. Those wishing these positions should qualify at once. GET FREE LIST OF POSITIONS Fill out the following coupon. Tear it off and mail it today — now. at once. This small investment may result in your getting a big-paid government job. FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, Dept. K96. Rochester 4, N. Y, Rush to me, entirely free of charge (1) a full descrip- tion of U. 8. Government Jobs; (2) Free copy of illus- trated 32-page book. "How To Get A U. S. Government .lob"; (3) List of It. S. Government Jobs; (4) Tell ma what to do to prepare for one of these*. Name Address Veteranf. Use This Coupon Before Yob Mislay It. Write or Print Plainly. THE END TR NOT YET 161

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"T can prove 1 "hi bored!7' said le Chat. linckinghani lay hack with a yawn. He wrig^lttl and lay quiet. Suddenly lie sat up. "Wdl?"' he Chat also s;it m j. "'Well what AVere l>oi cd, ( >h. le Chat.*' *WUyf certainly. Charles, God lilr^ 3 1 x 1 1 1. p was a revolutionary. They cvinc ill any; every few genera- tions. And they change things, always a . little bit for the better. Rut if he were to be bam today he would he ttp to his neck in re- volt wJicii he reached our n^cs. It was hi Ins blood/' "And we art now nothing . We are not even scientists*!" cried Buckingham 1^ Chat laughed heartily and then locked sly. "Mot scientists ? And is this so horrible !J Why. Murk, we are the stunt from which songs are inside. We have truek only with beauty and laughter. And govern- ment is at tjest a dull thing when it is established at lust. Von and 1 were never s Hen lists, never could be. 3 fear yr^ally tliaf we belong io a higher realm." Imckin^bam looked ai bini and grinned^ He j£Ot to his feet and tnok off the white doak. rossiug it inconspicuously nver hi* arm. J*Comm£. le Chat ::' 'Where?" ^Why. \v c are w rilers and singers of son^s. And have to do with beauty ami laughter. J.et us go to China and sing son^ about Ktililai Khan.** '•Coming."' said lo Chat. And an« in arm they went down past the huge statue of Charles Marte!, through the autumn trt:es and out of si^ht, hound for China and songs about Kublai Kliati, TNK KXU, THE LEGION OF SPACE Tack Williamson's "T.cgion of Space*" one of the old-time classics of science- fiction, is finally available in hook form. It! you've read the story 3 you'll remember it ; if you haven't, it was the first of one of Williamson V berii series of novels, "and belongs in any science- net ion collection. Published by Fantasy Press, Reading:, Pennsylvania. ^59 pp., ^3.00, It's a limited edition, the first five hundred numbered and autographed* A 3to r; x 01 s n s r r r %■ r r. -r> t fT 1 on

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put; A LIFE OF ACTION FOR MEN OF ACTION I Byp-P. U.S. COAST GUARD ■

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