Read Astounding Stories of Super-Science February 1930 Page 5

  Creatures of the Light

  _By Sophie Wenzel Ellis_

  He had striven to perfect the faultless man of the future, and had succeeded--too well. For in the pitilessly cold eyes of Adam, his super-human creation, Dr. Mundson saw only contempt--and annihilation--for the human race.

  In a night club of many lights and much high-pitched laughter, where hehad come for an hour of forgetfulness and an execrable dinner, JohnNorthwood was suddenly conscious that Fate had begun shuffling the cardsof his destiny for a dramatic game.

  First, he was aware that the singularly ugly and deformed man at thenext table was gazing at him with an intense, almost excited scrutiny.But, more disturbing than this, was the scowl of hate on the face ofanother man, as handsome as this other was hideous, who sat in a farcorner hidden behind a broad column, with rude elbows on the table,gawking first at Northwood and then at the deformed, almost hideousman.

  _The projector, belching forth its stinking breath ofcorruption, swung in a mad arc over the ceiling, over the walls._]

  Northwood's blood chilled over the expression on the handsome,fair-haired stranger's perfectly carved face. If a figure in marblecould display a fierce, unnatural passion, it would seem no moreeldritch than the hate in the icy blue eyes.

  It was not a new experience for Northwood to be stared at: he was notmerely a good-looking young fellow of twenty-five, he was scenery,magnificent and compelling. Furthermore, he had been in the public eyefor years, first as a precocious child and, later, as a brilliant youngscientist. Yet, for all his experience with hero worshippers to put anadamantine crust on his sensibilities, he grew warm-eared under the gazeof these two strangers--this hunchback with a face like a grotesque maskin a Greek play, this other who, even handsomer than himself, chilledthe blood queerly with the cold perfection of his godlike masculinebeauty.

  * * * * *

  Northwood sensed something familiar about the hunchback. Somewhere hehad seen that huge, round, intelligent face splattered with startlingfeatures. The very breadth of the man's massive brow was not altogetherunknown to him, nor could Northwood look into the mournful, near-sightedblack eyes without trying to recall when and where he had last seenthem.

  But this other of the marble-perfect nose and jaw, the blond,thick-waved hair, was totally a stranger, whom Northwood fervently hopedhe would never know too well.

  Trying to analyze the queer repugnance that he felt for this handsome,boldly staring fellow, Northwood decided: "He's like a newly-made waxfigure endowed with life."

  Shivering over his own fantastic thought, he again glanced swiftly atthe hunchback, who he noticed was playing with his coffee, evidently toprolong the meal.

  One year of calm-headed scientific teaching in a famous old easternuniversity had not made him callous to mysteries. Thus, with a feelingof high adventure, he finished his supper and prepared to go. From thecorner of his eye, he saw the hunchback leave his seat, while thehandsome man behind the column rose furtively, as though he, too,intended to follow.

  Northwood was out in the dusky street about thirty seconds, when thehunchback came from the foyer. Without apparently noticing Northwood, hehailed a taxi. For a moment, he stood still, waiting for the taxi topull up at the curb. Standing thus, with the street light limning everyunnatural angle of his twisted body and every queer abnormality of hishuge features, he looked almost repulsive.

  On his way to the taxi, his thick shoulder jostled the younger man.Northwood felt something strike his foot, and, stooping in the crowdedstreet, picked up a black leather wallet.

  "Wait!" he shouted as the hunchback stepped into the waiting taxi.

  But the man did not falter. In a moment, Northwood lost sight of him asthe taxi moved away.

  * * * * *

  He debated with himself whether or not he should attempt to follow. Andwhile he stood thus in indecision, the handsome stranger approached him.

  "Good evening to you," he said curtly. His rich, musical voice, for allits deepness, held a faint hint of the tremulous, birdlike notes heardin the voice of a young child who has not used his vocal chords longenough for them to have lost their exquisite newness.

  "Good evening," echoed Northwood, somewhat uncertainly. A sudden aura ofrepulsion swept coldly over him. Seen close, with the brilliant light ofthe street directly on his too perfect face, the man was more sinisterthan in the cafe. Yet Northwood, struggling desperately for a reason toexplain his violent dislike, could not discover why he shrank from thissplendid creature, whose eyes and flesh had a new, fresh appearancerarely seen except in very young boys.

  "I want what you picked up," went on the stranger.

  "It isn't yours!" Northwood flashed back. Ah! that effluvium of hatredwhich seemed to weave a tangible net around him!

  "Nor is it yours. Give it to me!"

  "You're insolent, aren't you?"

  "If you don't give it to me, you will be sorry." The man did not raisehis voice in anger, yet the words whipped Northwood with almost physicalviolence. "If he knew that I saw everything that happened in there--thatI am talking to you at this moment--he would tremble with fear."

  "But you can't intimidate me."

  "No?" For a long moment, the cold blue eyes held his contemptuously."No? I can't frighten you--you worm of the Black Age?"

  Before Northwood's horrified sight, he vanished; vanished as though hehad turned suddenly to air and floated away.

  * * * * *

  The street was not crowded at that time, and there was no pressing groupof bodies to hide the splendid creature. Northwood gawked stupidly,mouth half open, eyes searching wildly everywhere. The man was gone. Hehad simply disappeared, in this sane, electric-lighted street.

  Suddenly, close to Northwood's ear, grated a derisive laugh. "I can'tfrighten you?" From nowhere came that singularly young-old voice.

  As Northwood jerked his head around to meet blank space, a blow struckthe corner of his mouth. He felt the warm blood run over his chin.

  "I could take that wallet from you, worm, but you may keep it, and seeme later. But remember this--the thing inside never will be yours."

  The words fell from empty air.

  For several minutes, Northwood waited at the spot, expecting anotherdemonstration of the abnormal, but nothing else occurred. At last,trembling violently, he wiped the thick moisture from his forehead anddabbed at the blood which he still felt on his chin.

  But when he looked at his handkerchief, he muttered:

  "Well, I'll be jiggered!"

  The handkerchief bore not the slightest trace of blood.

  * * * * *

  Under the light in his bedroom, Northwood examined the wallet. It wasmade of alligator skin, clasped with a gold signet that bore the initialM. The first pocket was empty; the second yielded an object that sent awarm flush to his face.

  It was the photograph of a gloriously beautiful girl, so seductivelylovely that the picture seemed almost to be alive. The short, curvedupper lip, the full, delicately voluptuous lower, parted slightly in asmile that seemed to linger in every exquisite line of her face. Shelooked as though she had just spoken passionately, and the spirit of herwords had inspired her sweet flesh and eyes.

  Northwood turned his head abruptly and groaned, "Good Heavens!"

  He had no right to palpitate over the picture of an unknown beauty. Onlya month ago, he had become engaged to a young woman whose mind was asbrilliant as her face was plain. Always he had vowed that he would nevermarry a pretty girl, for he detested his own masculine beauty sincerely.

  He tried to grasp a mental picture of Mary Burns, who had never stirredin him the emotion that this smiling picture invoked. But, gazing at thepicture, he could not remember how his fiancee looked.

  Suddenly the picture fell from his fingers and dropped to the floor onits face, revealing an inscription on the back. In a bold, masculinehand,
he read: "Your future wife."

  "Some lucky fellow is headed for a life of bliss," was his jealousthought.

  He frowned at the beautiful face. What was this girl to that hideoushunchback? Why did the handsome stranger warn him, "_The thing insidenever will be yours_?"

  Again he turned eagerly to the wallet.

  In the last flap he found something that gave him another surprise: aplain white card on which a name and address were written by the samehand that had penned the inscription on the picture.

  Emil Mundson, Ph. D., 44-1/2 Indian Court

  Emil Mundson, the electrical wizard and distinguished scientific writer,friend of the professor of science at the university where Northwood wasan assistant professor; Emil Mundson, whom, a week ago, Northwood hadyearned mightily to meet.

  Now Northwood knew why the hunchback's intelligent, ugly face wasfamiliar to him. He had seen it pictured as often as enterprising newsphotographers could steal a likeness from the over-sensitive scientist,who would never sit for a formal portrait.

  * * * * *

  Even before Northwood had graduated from the university where he nowtaught, he had been avidly interested in Emil Mundson's fantasticarticles in scientific journals. Only a week ago, Professor Michael hadcome to him with the current issue of New Science, shouting excitedly:

  "Did you read this, John, this article by Emil Mundson?" His shaking,gnarled old fingers tapped the open magazine.

  Northwood seized the magazine and looked avidly at the title of thearticle, "Creatures of the Light."

  "No, I haven't read it," he admitted. "My magazine hasn't come yet."

  "Run through it now briefly, will you? And note with especial care thepassages I have marked. In fact, you needn't bother with anything elsejust now. Read this--and this--and this." He pointed out penciledparagraphs.

  Northwood read:

  Man always has been, always will be a creature of the light. He is forever reaching for some future point of perfected evolution which, even when his most remote ancestor was a fish creature composed of a few cells, was the guiding power that brought him up from the first stinking sea and caused him to create gods in his own image.

  It is this yearning for perfection which sets man apart from all other life, which made him _man_ even in the rudimentary stages of his development. He was man when he wallowed in the slime of the new world and yearned for the air above. He will still be man when he has evolved into that glorious creature of the future whose body is deathless and whose mind rules the universe.

  Professor Michael, looking over Northwood's shoulder, interrupted thereading:

  "_Man always has been man_," he droned emphatically. "That's notoriginal with friend Mundson, of course; yet it is a theory that has notreceived sufficient investigation." He indicated another markedparagraph. "Read this thoughtfully, John. It's the crux of Mundson'sthought."

  Northwood continued:

  Since the human body is chemical and electrical, increased knowledge of its powers and limitations will enable us to work with Nature in her sublime but infinitely slow processes of human evolution. We need not wait another fifty thousand years to be godlike creatures. Perhaps even now we may be standing at the beginning of the splendid bridge that will take us to that state of perfected evolution when we shall be Creatures who have reached the Light.

  Northwood looked questioningly at the professor. "Queer, fantasticthing, isn't it?"

  * * * * *

  Professor Michael smoothed his thin, gray hair with his dried-out hand."Fantastic?" His intellectual eyes behind the thick glasses sought theceiling. "Who can say? Haven't you ever wondered why all parents expecttheir children to be nearer perfection than themselves, and why is it anatural impulse for them to be willing to sacrifice themselves to bettertheir offspring?" He paused and moistened his pale, wrinkled lips."Instinct, Northwood. We Creatures of the Light know that our race shallreach that point in evolution when, as perfect creatures, we shall ruleall matter and live forever." He punctuated the last words with blowson the table.

  Northwood laughed dryly. "How many thousands of years are you lookingforward, Professor?"

  The professor made an obscure noise that sounded like a smothered sniff."You and I shall never agree on the point that mental advancement maywipe out physical limitations in the human race, perhaps in a fewhundred years. It seems as though your profound admiration for Dr.Mundson would win you over to this pet theory."

  "But what sane man can believe that even perfectly developed beings,through mental control, could overcome Nature's fixed laws?"

  "We don't know! We don't know!" The professor slapped the magazine withan emphatic hand. "Emil Mundson hasn't written this article for nothing.He's paving the way for some announcement that will startle thescientific world. I know him. In the same manner he gave out veiledhints of his various brilliant discoveries and inventions long before heoffered them to the world."

  "But Dr. Mundson is an electrical wizard. He would not be delvingseriously into the mysteries of evolution, would he?"

  "Why not?" The professor's wizened face screwed up wisely. "A year ago,when he was back from one of those mysterious long excursions he takesin that weirdly different aircraft of his, about which he is sosecretive, he told me that he was conducting experiments to prove hisbelief that the human brain generates electric current, and that theelectrical impulses in the brain set up radioactive waves that some day,among other miracles, will make thought communication possible. Perfectman, he says, will perform mental feats which will give him completemental domination over the physical."

  * * * * *

  Northwood finished reading and turned thoughtfully to the window. Hisprofile in repose had the straight-nosed, full-lipped perfection of aGreek coin. Old, wizened Professor Michael, gazing at him covertly,smothered a sigh.

  "I wish you knew Dr. Mundson," he said. "He, the ugliest man in theworld, delights in physical perfection. He would revel in your splendidbody and brilliant mind."

  Northwood blushed hotly. "You'll have to arrange a meeting between us."

  "I have." The professor's thin, dry lips pursed comically. "He'll dropin to see you within a few days."

  And now John Northwood sat holding Dr. Mundson's card and the walletwhich the scientist had so mysteriously dropped at his feet.

  * * * * *

  Here was high adventure, perhaps, for which he had been singled out bythe famous electrical wizard. While excitement mounted in his blood,Northwood again examined the photograph. The girl's strange eyes, odd inexpression rather than in size or shape, seemed to hold him. The youngman's breath came quicker.

  "It's a challenge," he said softly. "It won't hurt to see what it's allabout."

  His watch showed eleven o'clock. He would return the wallet that night.Into his coat pocket he slipped a revolver. One sometimes needed weaponsin Indian Court.

  He took a taxi, which soon turned from the well-lighted streets into asection where squalid houses crowded against each other, and dirtychildren swarmed in the streets in their last games of the day.

  Indian Court was little more than an alley, dark and evil smelling.

  The chauffeur stopped at the entrance and said:

  "If I drive in, I'll have to back out, sir. Number forty-four and a halfis the end house, facing the entrance."

  "You've been here before?" asked Northwood.

  "Last week I drove the queerest bird here--a fellow as good-looking asyou, who had me follow the taxi occupied by a hunchback with a facelike Old Nick." The man hesitated and went on haltingly: "It might soundgoofy, mister, but there was something funny about my fare. He jumpedout, asked me the charge, and, in the moment I glanced at my taxi-meter,he disappeared. Yes, sir. Vanished, owing me four dollars, six bits. Itwas almost ghostlike, mister."

  Northwood laugh
ed nervously and dismissed him. He found his number andknocked at the dilapidated door. He heard a sudden movement in thelighted room beyond, and the door opened quickly.

  Dr. Mundson faced him.

  "I knew you'd come!" he said with a slight Teutonic accent. "Often I'mnot wrong in sizing up my man. Come in."

  Northwood cleared his throat awkwardly. "You dropped your wallet at myfeet, Dr. Mundson. I tried to stop you before you got away, but I guessyou did not hear me."

  He offered the wallet, but the hunchback waved it aside.

  "A ruse, of course," he confessed. "It just was my way of testing whatyour Professor Michael told about you--that you are extraordinarilyintelligent, virile, and imaginative. Had you sent the wallet to me, Ishould have sought elsewhere for my man. Come in."

  * * * * *

  Northwood followed him into a living room evidently recently furnishedin a somewhat hurried manner. The furniture, although rich, was notplaced to best advantage. The new rug was a trifle crooked on the floor,and the lamp shades clashed in color with the other furnishings.

  Dr. Mundson's intense eyes swept over Northwood's tall, slim body.

  "Ah, you're a man!" he said softly. "You are what all men would be if wefollowed Nature's plan that only the fit shall survive. But modernscience is permitting the unfit to live and to mix their defectivebeings with the developing race!" His huge fist gesticulated madly."Fools! Fools! They need me and perfect men like you."

  "Why?"

  "Because you can help me in my plan to populate the earth with a newrace of godlike people. But don't question me too closely now. Even if Ishould explain, you would call me insane. But watch; gradually I shallunfold the mystery before you, so that you will believe."

  He reached for the wallet that Northwood still held, opened it with amonstrous hand, and reached for the photograph. "She shall bring youlove. She's more beautiful than a poet's dream."

  A warm flush crept over the young man's face.

  "I can easily understand," he said, "how a man could love her, but forme she comes too late."

  "Pooh! Fiddlesticks!" The scientist snapped his fingers. "This girl wascreated for you. That other--you will forget her the moment you set eyeson the sweet flesh of this Athalia. She is an houri from Paradise--amaiden of musk and incense." He held the girl's photograph toward theyoung man. "Keep it. She is yours, if you are strong enough to holdher."

  Northwood opened his card case and placed the picture inside, facingMary's photograph. Again the warning words of the mysterious strangerrang in his memory: "_The thing inside never will be yours._"

  "Where to," he said eagerly; "and when do we start?"

  "To the new Garden of Eden," said the scientist, with such a beatificsmile that his face was less hideous. "We start immediately. I havearranged with Professor Michael for you to go."

  * * * * *

  Northwood followed Dr. Mundson to the street and walked with him a fewblocks to a garage where the scientist's motor car waited.

  "The apartment in Indian Court is just a little eccentricity of mine,"explained Dr. Mundson. "I need people in my work, people whom I mustselect through swift, sure tests. The apartment comes in handy, asto-night."

  Northwood scarcely noted where they were going, or how long they hadbeen on the way. He was vaguely aware that they had left the citybehind, and were now passing through farms bathed in moonlight.

  At last they entered a path that led through a bit of woodland. For halfa mile the path continued, and then ended at a small, enclosed field. Inthe middle of this rested a queer aircraft. Northwood knew it was aflying machine only by the propellers mounted on the top of the hugeball-shaped body. There were no wings, no birdlike hull, no tail.

  "It looks almost like a little world ready to fly off into space," hecommented.

  "It is just about that." The scientist's squat, bunched-out body,settled squarely on long, thin, straddled legs, looked gnomelike in themoonlight. "One cannot copy flesh with steel and wood, but one can makemetal perform magic of which flesh is not capable. My sun-ship is not amechanical reproduction of a bird. It is--but, climb in, young friend."

  * * * * *

  Northwood followed Dr. Mundson into the aircraft. The moment thescientist closed the metal door behind them, Northwood was instantlyaware of some concealed horror that vibrated through his nerves. For onedreadful moment, he expected some terrific agent of the shadows thatescaped the electric lights to leap upon him. And this was odd, fornothing could be saner than the globular interior of the aircraft,divided into four wedge-shaped apartments.

  Dr. Mundson also paused at the door, puzzled, hesitant.

  "Someone has been here!" he exclaimed. "Look, Northwood! The bunk hasbeen occupied--the one in this cabin I had set aside for you."

  He pointed to the disarranged bunk, where the impression of a head couldstill be seen on a pillow.

  "A tramp, perhaps."

  "No! The door was locked, and, as you saw, the fence around this fieldwas protected with barbed wire. There's something wrong. I felt it on mytrip here all the way, like someone watching me in the dark. And don'tlaugh! I have stopped laughing at all things that seem unnatural. Youdon't know what is natural."

  Northwood shivered. "Maybe someone is concealed about the ship."

  "Impossible. Me, I thought so, too. But I looked and looked, and therewas nothing."

  All evening Northwood had burned to tell the scientist about thehandsome stranger in the Mad Hatter Club. But even now he shrank fromsaying that a man had vanished before his eyes.

  Dr. Mundson was working with a succession of buttons and levers. Therewas a slight jerk, and then the strange craft shot up, straight as abullet from a gun, with scarcely a sound other than a continuouswhistle.

  "The vertical rising aircraft perfected," explained Dr. Mundson. "Butwhat would you think if I told you that there is not an ounce ofgasoline in my heavier-than-air craft?"

  "I shouldn't be surprised. An electrical genius would seek for a lessobsolete source of power."

  * * * * *

  In the bright flare of the electric lights, the scientist's ugly faceflushed. "The man who harnesses the sun rules the world. He can make thedesert places bloom, the frozen poles balmy and verdant. You, JohnNorthwood, are one of the very few to fly in a machine operated solelyby electrical energy from the sun's rays."

  "Are you telling me that this airship is operated with power from thesun?"

  "Yes. And I cannot take the credit for its invention." He sighed. "Thedream was mine, but a greater brain developed it--a brain that may begreater than I suspect." His face grew suddenly graver.

  A little later Northwood said: "It seems that we must be making fabulousspeed."

  "Perhaps!" Dr. Mundson worked with the controls. "Here, I've cut herdown to the average speed of the ordinary airplane. Now you can see abit of the night scenery."

  Northwood peeped out the thick glass porthole. Far below, he saw twotiny streaks of light, one smooth and stationery, the other wavering asthough it were a reflection in water.

  "That can't be a lighthouse!" he cried.

  The scientist glanced out. "It is. We're approaching the Florida Keys."

  "Impossible! We've been traveling less than an hour."

  "But, my young friend, do you realize that my sun-ship has a speed ofover one thousand miles an hour, how much over I dare not tell you?"

  Throughout the night, Northwood sat beside Dr. Mundson, watching hisdeft fingers control the simple-looking buttons and levers. So fast wastheir flight now that, through the portholes, sky and earth looked thesame: dark gray films of emptiness. The continuous weird whistle fromthe hidden mechanism of the sun-ship was like the drone of a monsterinsect, monotonous and soporific during the long intervals when thescientist was too busy with his controls to engage in conversation.

  For some reason that he could not explai
n, Northwood had an aversion togoing into the sleeping apartment behind the control room. Then, towardsmorning, when the suddenly falling temperature struck a biting chillthroughout the sun-ship, Northwood, going into the cabin for fur coats,discovered why his mind and body shrank in horror from the cabin.

  * * * * *

  After he had procured the fur coats from a closet, he paused a moment,in the privacy of the cabin, to look at Athalia's picture. Every nervein his body leaped to meet the magnetism of her beautiful eyes. Neverhad Mary Burns stirred emotion like this in him. He hung over Mary'spicture, wistfully, hoping almost prayerfully that he could react to heras he did to Athalia; but her pale, over-intellectual face left himcold.

  "Cad!" he ground out between his teeth. "Forgetting her so soon!"

  The two pictures were lying side by side on a little table. Suddenly anobscure noise in the room caught his attention. It was more vibrationthan noise, for small sounds could scarcely be heard above the whistleof the sun-ship. A slight compression of the air against his neck gavehim the eery feeling that someone was standing close behind him. Hewheeled and looked over his shoulder. Half ashamed of his startledgesture, he again turned to his pictures. Then a sharp cry broke fromhim.

  Athalia's picture was gone.

  He searched for it everywhere in the room, in his own pockets, under thefurniture. It was nowhere to be found.

  In sudden, overpowering horror, he seized the fur coats and returned tothe control room.

  * * * * *

  Dr. Mundson was changing the speed.

  "Look out the window!" he called to Northwood.

  The young man looked and started violently. Day had come, and now thatthe sun-ship was flying at a moderate speed, the ocean beneath wasplainly visible; and its entire surface was covered with broken floes ofice and small, ragged icebergs. He seized a telescope and focused itbelow. A typical polar scene met his eyes: penguins strutted about oncakes of ice, a whale blowing in the icy water.

  "A part of the Antarctic that has never been explored," said Dr.Mundson; "and there, just showing on the horizon, is the Great IceBarrier." His characteristic smile lighted the morose black eyes. "I amenough of the dramatist to wish you to be impressed with what I shallshow you within less than an hour. Accordingly, I shall make a landingand let you feel polar ice under your feet."

  After less than a minute's search, Dr. Mundson found a suitable place onthe ice for a landing, and, with a few deft manipulations of thecontrols, brought the sun-ship swooping down like an eagle on its prey.

  For a long moment after the scientist had stepped out on the ice,Northwood paused at the door. His feet were chained by a strangereluctance to enter this white, dead wilderness of ice. But Dr.Mundson's impatient, "Ready?" drew from him one last glance at the cozyinterior of the sun-ship before he, too, went out into the frozenstillness.

  They left the sun-ship resting on the ice like a fallen silver moon,while they wandered to the edge of the Barrier and looked at the gray,narrow stretch of sea between the ice pack and the high cliffs of theBarrier. The sun of the commencing six-months' Antarctic day was a low,cold ball whose slanted rays struck the ice with blinding whiteness.There were constant falls of ice from the Barrier, which thundered intothe ocean amid great clouds of ice smoke that lingered like wraithsaround the edge. It was a scene of loneliness and waiting death.

  "What's that?" exclaimed the scientist suddenly.

  Out of the white silence shrilled a low whistle, a familiar whistle.Both men wheeled toward the sun-ship.

  Before their horrified eyes, the great sphere jerked and glided up, andswerved into the heavens.

  * * * * *

  Up it soared; then, gaining speed, it swung into the blue distanceuntil, in a moment, it was a tiny star that flickered out even as theywatched.

  Both men screamed and cursed and flung up their arms despairingly. Apenguin, attracted by their cries, waddled solemnly over to them andregarded them with manlike curiosity.

  "Stranded in the coldest spot on earth!" groaned the scientist.

  "Why did it start itself, Dr. Mundson!" Northwood narrowed his eyes ashe spoke.

  "It didn't!" The scientist's huge face, red from cold, quivered withhelpless rage. "Human hands started it."

  "What! Whose hands?"

  "_Ach!_ Do I know?" His Teutonic accent grew more pronounced, as italways did when he was under emotional stress. "Somebody whose brain isbetter than mine. Somebody who found a way to hide away from our eyes._Ach, Gott!_ Don't let me think!"

  His great head sank between his shoulders, giving him, in his fur suit,the grotesque appearance of a friendly brown bear.

  "Doctor Mundson," said Northwood suddenly, "did you have an enemy, a manwith the face and body of a pagan god--a great, blond creature with eyesas cold and cruel as the ice under our feet?"

  "Wait!" The huge round head jerked up. "How do you know about Adam? Youhave not seen him, won't see him until we arrive at our destination."

  "But I have seen him. He was sitting not thirty feet from you in the MadHatter's Club last night. Didn't you know? He followed me to the street,spoke to me, and then--" Northwood stopped. How could he let the insanewords pass his lips?

  "Then, what? Speak up!"

  * * * * *

  Northwood laughed nervously. "It sounds foolish, but I saw him vanishlike that." He snapped his fingers.

  "_Ach, Gott!_" All the ruddy color drained from the scientist's face. Asthough talking to himself, he continued:

  "Then it is true, as he said. He has crossed the bridge. He has reachedthe Light. And now he comes to see the world he will conquer--cameunseen when I refused my permission."

  He was silent for a long time, pondering. Then he turned passionately toNorthwood.

  "John Northwood, kill me! I have brought a new horror into the world.From the unborn future, I have snatched a creature who has reached theLight too soon. Kill me!" He bowed his great, shaggy head.

  "What do you mean, Dr. Mundson: that this Adam has arrived at a point inevolution beyond this age?"

  "Yes. Think of it! I visioned godlike creatures with the souls of gods.But, Heaven help us, man always will be man: always will lust forconquest. You and I, Northwood, and all others are barbarians to Adam.He and his kind will do what men always do to barbarians--conquer andkill."

  "Are there more like him?" Northwood struggled with a smile of unbelief.

  "I don't know. I did not know that Adam had reached a point so near theultimate. But you have seen. Already he is able to set aside what wecall natural laws."

  Northwood looked at the scientist closely. The man was surely mad--madin this desert of white death.

  "Come!" he said cheerfully. "Let's build an Eskimo snow house. We canlive on penguins for days. And who knows what may rescue us?"

  For three hours the two worked at cutting ice blocks. With snow formortar, they built a crude shelter which enabled them to rest out of thecold breath of the spiral polar winds that blew from the south.

  * * * * *

  Dr. Mundson was sitting at the door of their hut, moodily pulling at hisstrong, black pipe. As though a fit had seized him, he leaped up and lethis pipe fall to the ice.

  "Look!" he shouted. "The sun-ship!"

  It seemed but a moment before the tiny speck on the horizon had sweptoverhead, a silver comet on the grayish-blue polar sky. In anothermoment it had swooped down, eaglewise, scarcely fifty feet from the icehut.

  Dr. Mundson and Northwood ran forward. From the metal sphere stepped thestranger of the Mad Hatter Club. His tall, straight form, erect andslim, swung toward them over the ice.

  "Adam!" shouted Dr. Mundson. "What does this mean? How dare you!"

  Adam's laugh was like the happy demonstration of a boy. "So? You thinkyou still are master? You think I returned because I reverenced youyet?" Hate shot viciously through the
freezing blue eyes. "You worm ofthe Black Age!"

  Northwood shuddered. He had heard those strange words addressed tohimself scarcely more than twelve hours ago.

  Adam was still speaking: "With a thought I could annihilate you whereyou are standing. But I have use for you. Get in." He swept his hand tothe sun-ship.

  Both men hesitated. Then Northwood strode forward until he was withinthree feet of Adam. They stood thus, eyeing each other, two splendidbeings, one blond as a Viking, the other dark and vital.

  "Just what is your game?" demanded Northwood.

  The icy eyes shot forth a gleam like lightning. "I needn't tell you, ofcourse, but I may as well let you suffer over the knowledge." He curledhis lips with superb scorn. "I have one human weakness. I want Athalia."The icy eyes warmed for a fleeting second. "She is anticipating hermeeting with you--bah! The taste of these women of the Black Age! Icould kill you, of course; but that would only inflame her. And so Itake you to her, thrust you down her throat. When she sees you, she willfly to me." He spread his magnificent chest.

  "Adam!" Dr. Mundson's face was dark with anger. "What of Eve?"

  "Who are you to question my actions? What a fool you were to let me,whom you forced into life thousands of years too soon, grow morepowerful than you! Before I am through with all of you petty creaturesof the Black Age, you will call me more terrible than your Jehovah! Forsee what you have called forth from unborn time."

  He vanished.

  * * * * *

  Before the startled men could recover from the shock of it, the vibrant,too-new voice went on:

  "I am sorry for you, Mundson, because, like you, I need specimens for myexperiments. What a splendid specimen you will be!" His laugh was uglywith significance. "Get in, worms!"

  Unseen hands cuffed and pushed them into the sun-ship.

  Inside, Dr. Mundson stumbled to the control room, white and drawn offace, his great brain seemingly paralyzed by the catastrophe.

  "You needn't attempt tricks," went on the voice. "I am watching youboth. You cannot even hide your thoughts from me."

  And thus began the strange continuation of the journey. Not once, inthat wild half-hour's rush over the polar ice clouds, did they see Adam.They saw and heard only the weird signs of his presence: a puffing cigarhanging in midair, a glass of water swinging to unseen lips, a ghostlyvoice hurling threats and insults at them.

  Once the scientist whispered: "Don't cross him; it is useless. JohnNorthwood, you'll have to fight a demigod for your woman!"

  Because of the terrific speed of the sun-ship, Northwood coulddistinguish nothing of the topographical details below. At the end ofhalf-an-hour, the scientist slowed enough to point out a tall range ofsnow-covered mountains, over which hovered a play of colored lights likethe _aurora australis_.

  "Behind those mountains," he said, "is our destination."

  * * * * *

  Almost in a moment, the sun-ship had soared over the peaks. Dr. Mundsonkept the speed low enough for Northwood to see the splendid view below.

  In the giant cup formed by the encircling mountain range was a greenvalley of tropical luxuriance. Stretches of dense forest swept half upthe mountains and filled the valley cup with tangled verdure. In thecenter, surrounded by a broad field and a narrow ring of woods, towereda group of buildings. From the largest, which was circular, came theauroralike radiance that formed an umbrella of light over the entirevalley.

  "Do I guess right," said Northwood, "that the light is responsible forthis oasis in the ice?"

  "Yes," said Dr. Mundson. "In your American slang, it is canned sunshinecontaining an overabundance of certain rays, especially the Life Ray,which I have isolated." He smiled proudly. "You needn't look startled,my friend. Some of the most common things store sunlight. On very darknights, if you have sharp eyes, you can see the radiance given off bycertain flowers, which many naturalists say is trapped sunshine. Thefamiliar nasturtium and the marigold opened for me the way to holdsunshine against the long polar night, for they taught me how to applythe Einstein theory of bent light. Stated simply, during the polarnight, when the sun is hidden over the rim of the world, we steal someof his rays; during the polar day we concentrate the light."

  "But could stored sunshine alone give enough warmth for the luxuriantgrowth of those jungles?"

  "An overabundance of the Life Ray is responsible for the miraculousgrowth of all life in New Eden. The Life Ray is Nature's most powerfulforce. Yet Nature is often niggardly and paradoxical in her use of herpowers. In New Eden, we have forced the powers of creation to takeascendency over the powers of destruction."

  At Northwood's sudden start, the scientist laughed and continued: "Is itnot a pity that Nature, left alone, requires twenty years to make a manwho begins to die in another ten years? Such waste is not tolerated inNew Eden, where supermen are younger than babes and--"

  "Come, worms; let's land."

  It was Adam's voice. Suddenly he materialized, a blond god, whose eyesand flesh were too new.

  * * * * *

  They were in a world of golden skylight, warmth and tropical vegetation.The field on which they had landed was covered with a velvety greengrowth of very soft, fine-bladed grass, sprinkled with tiny, star-shapedblue flowers. A balmy, sweet-scented wind, downy as the breeze of adream, blew gently along the grass and tingled against Northwood's skinrefreshingly. Almost instantly he had the sensation of perfect wellbeing, and this feeling of physical perfection was part of the ecstasythat seemed to pervade the entire valley. Grass and breeze and goldenskylight were saturated with a strange ether of joyousness.

  At one end of the field was a dense jungle, cut through by a road thatled to the towering building from which, while above in the sun-ship,they had seen the golden light issue.

  From the jungle road came a man and a woman, large, handsome people,whose flesh and eyes had the sinister newness of Adam's. Even beforethey came close enough to speak, Northwood was aware that while theyseemed of Adam's breed, they were yet unlike him. The difference waspsychical rather than physical; they lacked the aura of hate and horrorthat surrounded Adam. The woman drew Adam's head down and kissed himaffectionately on both cheeks.

  Adam, from his towering height, patted her shoulder impatiently andsaid: "Run on back to the laboratory, grandmother. We're followingsoon. You have some new human embryos, I believe you told me thismorning."

  "Four fine specimens, two of them being your sister's twins."

  "Splendid! I was sure that creation had stopped with my generation. Imust see them." He turned to the scientist and Northwood. "You needn'ttry to leave this spot. Of course I shall know instantly and deal withyou in my own way. Wait here."

  He strode over the emerald grass on the heels of the woman.

  Northwood asked: "Why does he call that girl grandmother?"

  "Because she is his ancestress." He stirred uneasily. "She is of thefirst generation brought forth in the laboratory, and is no differentfrom you or I, except that, at the age of five years, she is theancestress of twenty generations."

  "My God!" muttered Northwood.

  "Don't start being horrified, my friend. Forget about so-called naturallaws while you are in New Eden. Remember, here we have isolated the LifeRay. But look! Here comes your Athalia!"

  * * * * *

  Northwood gazed covertly at the beautiful girl approaching them with ararely graceful walk. She was tall, slender, round-bosomed,narrow-hipped, and she held her lovely body in the erect poise ofsplendid health. Northwood had a confused realization of uncoveredbronzy hair, drawn to the back of a white neck in a bunch of shortcurls; of immense soft black eyes; lips the color of blood, anddelicate, plump flesh on which the golden skylight lingered graciously.He was instantly glad to see that while she possessed the freshness ofyoung girlhood, her skin and eyes did not have the horrible newness ofAdam's.

  When she was still twen
ty feet distant, Northwood met her eyes and shesmiled shyly. The rich, red blood ran through her face; and he, too,flushed.

  She went to Dr. Mundson and, placing her hands on his thick shoulders,kissed him affectionately.

  "I've been worried about you, Daddy Mundson." Her rich contralto voicematched her exotic beauty. "Since you and Adam had that quarrel the dayyou left, I did not see him until this morning, when he landed thesun-ship alone."

  "And you pleaded with him to return for us?"

  "Yes." Her eyes drooped and a hot flush swept over her face.

  Dr. Mundson smiled. "But I'm back now, Athalia, and I've brought someone whom I hope you will be glad to know."

  Reaching for her hand, he placed it simply in Northwood's.

  "This is John, Athalia. Isn't he handsomer than the pictures of himwhich I televisioned to you? God bless both of you."

  He walked ahead and turned his back.

  * * * * *

  A magical half hour followed for Northwood and Athalia. The girl toldhim of her past life, how Dr. Mundson had discovered her one year agoworking in a New York sweat shop, half dead from consumption. Withoutfriends, she was eager to follow the scientist to New Eden, where hepromised she would recover her health immediately.

  "And he was right, John," she said shyly. "The Life Ray, that marvelousenergy ray which penetrates to the utmost depths of earth and ocean,giving to the cells of all living bodies the power to grow and remainanimate, has been concentrated by Dr. Mundson in his stored sunshine.The Life Ray healed me almost immediately."

  Northwood looked down at the glorious girl beside him, whose eyesalready fluttered away from his like shy black butterflies. Suddenly hesqueezed the soft hand in his and said passionately:

  "Athalia! Because Adam wants you and will get you if he can, let us setaside all the artificialities of civilization. I have loved you madlyever since I saw your picture. If you can say the same to me, it willgive me courage to face what I know lies before me."

  Athalia, her face suddenly tender, came closer to him.

  "John Northwood, I love you."

  Her red lips came temptingly close; but before he could touch them, Adamsuddenly pushed his body between him and Athalia. Adam was pale, and allthe iciness was gone from his blue eyes, which were deep and dark andvery human. He looked down at Athalia, and she looked up at him, twohandsome specimens of perfect manhood and womanhood.

  "Fast work, Athalia!" The new vibrant voice was strained. "I was hopingyou would be disappointed in him, especially after having been wooed byme this morning. I could take you if I wished, of course; but I preferto win you in the ancient manner. Dismiss him!" He jerked his thumb overhis shoulder in Northwood's direction.

  Athalia flushed vividly and looked at him almost compassionately. "I amnot great enough for you, Adam. I dare not love you."

  * * * * *

  Adam laughed, and still oblivious of Northwood and Dr. Mundson, foldedhis arms over his breast. With the golden skylight on his burnishedhair, he was a valiant, magnificent spectacle.

  "Since the beginning of time, gods and archangels have looked upon thedaughters of men and found them fair. Mate with me, Athalia, and I,fifty thousand years beyond the creature Mundson has selected for you,will make you as I am, the deathless overlord of life and all nature."

  He drew her hand to his bosom.

  For one dark moment, Northwood felt himself seared by jealousy, for,through the plump, sweet flesh of Athalia's face, he saw the red bloodleap again. How could she withhold herself from this splendid superman?

  But her answer, given with faltering voice, was the old, simple one: "Ihave promised him, Adam. I love him." Tears trembled on her thicklashes.

  "So! I cannot get you in the ancient manner. Now I'll use my own."

  He seized her in his arms crushed her against him, and, laughing overher head at Northwood, bent his glistening head and kissed her on themouth.

  There was a blinding flash of blue electric sparks--and nothing else.Both Adam and Athalia had vanished.

  * * * * *

  Adam's voice came in a last mocking challenge: "I shall be what no othergods before me have been--a good sport. I'll leave you both to your owndevices, until I want you again."

  White-lipped and trembling, Northwood groaned: "What has he done now?"

  Dr. Mundson's great head drooped. "I don't know. Our bodies are electricand chemical machines; and a super intelligence has discovered new lawsof which you and I are ignorant."

  "But Athalia...."

  "She is safe; he loves her."

  "Loves her!" Northwood shivered. "I cannot believe that those freezingeyes could ever look with love on a woman."

  "Adam is a man. At heart he is as human as the first man-creature thatwallowed in the new earth's slime." His voice dropped as though he weremusing aloud. "It might be well to let him have Athalia. She will helpto keep vigor in the new race, which would stop reproducing in anotherfew generations without the injection of Black Age blood."

  "Do you want to bring more creatures like Adam into the world?"Northwood flung at him. "You have tampered with life enough, Dr.Mundson. But, although Adam has my sympathy, I'm not willing to turnAthalia over to him."

  "Well said! Now come to the laboratory for chemical nourishment and restunder the Life Ray."

  They went to the great circular building from whose highest tower issuedthe golden radiance that shamed the light of the sun, hanging low in thenortheast.

  "John Northwood," said Dr. Mundson, "with that laboratory, which is thecenter of all life in New Eden, we'll have to whip Adam. He gave us whathe called a 'sporting chance' because he knew that he is able to send usand all mankind to a doom more terrible than hell. Even now we might beentering some hideous trap that he has set for us."

  * * * * *

  They entered by a side entrance and went immediately to what Dr. Mundsoncalled the Rest Ward. Here, in a large room, were ranged rows of cots,on many of which lay men basking in the deep orange flood of light whichpoured from individual lamps set above each cot.

  "It is the Life Ray!" said Dr. Mundson reverently. "The source of allgrowth and restoration in Nature. It is the power that bursts open theseed and brings forth the shoot, that increases the shoot into a gianttree. It is the same power that enables the fertilized ovum to developinto an animal. It creates and recreates cells almost instantly;accordingly, it is the perfect substitute for sleep. Stretch out, enjoyits power; and while you rest, eat these nourishing tablets."

  Northwood lay on a cot, and Dr. Mundson turned the Life Ray on him. Fora few minutes a delicious drowsiness fell upon him, producing a spell ofperfect peace which the cells of his being seemed to drink in. Foranother delirious, fleeting space, every inch of him vibrated with athrilling sensation of freshness. He took a deep, ecstatic breath andopened his eyes.

  "Enough," said Dr. Mundson, switching off the Ray. "After three minutesof rejuvenation, you are commencing again with perfect cells. Allravages from disease and wear have been corrected."

  Northwood leaped up joyously. His handsome eyes sparkled, his skinglowed. "I feel great! Never felt so good since I was a kid."

  A pleased grin spread over the scientist's homely face. "See what mydiscovery will mean to the world! In the future we shall all go to thelaboratory for recuperation and nourishment. We'll have almosttwenty-four hours a day for work and play."

  * * * * *

  He stretched out on the bed contentedly. "Some day, when my work isnearly done, I shall permit the Life Ray to cure my hump."

  "Why not now?"

  Dr. Mundson sighed. "If I were perfect, I should cease to be sooverwhelmingly conscious of the importance of perfection." He settledback to enjoyment of the Life Ray.

  A few minutes later, he jumped up, alert as a boy. "_Ach!_ That's fine.Now I'll show you how the Life Ray speeds up dev
elopment and producesfour generations of humans a year."

  With restored energy, Northwood began thinking of Athalia. As hefollowed Dr. Mundson down a long corridor, he yearned to see her again,to be certain that she was safe. Once he imagined he felt a gentle,soft-fleshed touch against his hand, and was disappointed not to see herwalking by his side. Was she with him, unseen? The thought was sweet.

  Before Dr. Mundson opened the massive bronze door at the end of thecorridor, he said:

  "Don't be surprised or shocked over anything you see here, JohnNorthwood. This is the Baby Laboratory."

  They entered a room which seemed no different from a hospital ward. Onlittle white beds lay naked children of various sizes, perfect,solemn-eyed youngsters and older children as beautiful as animatedstatues. Above each bed was a small Life Ray projector. A white-cappednurse went from bed to bed.

  "They are recuperating from the daily educational period," said thescientist. "After a few minutes of this they will go into the growingroom, which I shall have to show you through a window. Should you and Ienter, we might be changed in a most extraordinary manner." He laughedmischievously. "But, look, Northwood!"

  * * * * *

  He slid back a panel in the wall, and Northwood peered in through athick pane of clear glass. The room was really an immense outdoor arena,its only carpet the fine-bladed grass, its roof the blue sky cut in themiddle by an enormous disc from which shot the aurora of trappedsunshine which made a golden umbrella over the valley. Through openingsin the bottom of the disc poured a fine rain of rays which fellconstantly upon groups of children, youths and young girls, all clad inthe merest scraps of clothing. Some were dancing, others were playinggames, but all seemed as supremely happy as the birds and butterflieswhich fluttered about the shrubs and flowers edging the arena.

  "I don't expect you to believe," said Dr. Mundson, "that the oldestyoung man in there is three months old. You cannot see visible changesin a body which grows as slowly as the human being, whose normal periodof development is twenty years or more. But I can give you visible proofof how fast growth takes place under the full power of the Life Ray.Plant life, which, even when left to nature, often develops from seed toflower within a few weeks or months, can be seen making its miraculouschanges under the Life Ray. Watch those gorgeous purple flowers overwhich the butterflies are hovering."

  Northwood followed his pointing finger. Near the glass window throughwhich they looked grew an enormous bank of resplendent violet coloredflowers, which literally enshrouded the entire bush with their royalglory. At first glance it seemed as though a violent wind weresnatching at flower and bush, but closer inspection proved that theagitation was part of the plant itself. And then he saw that themovements were the result of perpetual composition and growth.

  * * * * *

  He fastened his eyes on one huge bud. He saw it swell, burst, spread outits passionate purple velvet, lift the broad flower face to the lightfor a joyous minute. A few seconds later a butterfly lighted airily tosample its nectar and to brush the pollen from its yellow dusted wings.Scarcely had the winged visitor flown away than the purple petals beganto wither and fall away, leaving the seed pod on the stem. The visiblechange went on in this seed pod. It turned rapidly brown, dried out, andthen sent the released seeds in a shower to the rich black earth below.Scarcely had the seeds touched the ground than they sent up tiny greenshoots that grew larger each moment. Within ten minutes there was a newplant a foot high. Within half an hour, the plant budded, blossomed, andcast forth its own seed.

  "You understand?" asked the scientist. "Development is going on asrapidly among the children. Before the first year has passed, theyoungest baby will have grandchildren; that is, if the baby tests outfit to pass its seed down to the new generation. I know it soundsabsurd. Yet you saw the plant."

  "But Doctor," Northwood rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, "Nature's forces ofdestruction, of tearing down, are as powerful as her creative powers.You have discovered the ultimate in creation and upbuilding. Butperhaps--oh, Lord, it is too awful to think!"

  "Speak, Northwood!" The scientist's voice was impatient.

  "It is nothing!" The pale young man attempted a smile. "I was onlyimagining some of the horror that could be thrust on the world if asupermind like Adam's should discover Nature's secret of death anddestruction and speed it up as you have sped the life force."

  "_Ach Gott!_" Dr. Mundson's face was white. "He has his own laboratory,where he works every day. Don't talk so loud. He might be listening. AndI believe he can do anything he sets out to accomplish."

  Close to Northwood's ear fell a faint, triumphant whisper: "Yes, he cando anything. How did you guess, worm?"

  It was Adam's voice.

  * * * * *

  "Now come and see the Leyden jar mothers," said Dr. Mundson. "We do notwait for the child to be born to start our work."

  He took Northwood to a laboratory crowded with strange apparatus, whereyoung men and women worked. Northwood knew instantly that these people,although unusually handsome and strong, were not of Adam's generation.None of them had the look of newness which marked those who had grown upunder the Life Ray.

  "They are the perfect couples whom I combed the world to find," said thescientist. "From their eugenic marriages sprang the first children thatpassed through the laboratory. I had hoped," he hesitated and lookedsideways at Northwood, "I had dreamed of having the children of you andAthalia to help strengthen the New Race."

  A wave of sudden disgust passed over Northwood.

  "Thanks," he said tartly. "When I marry Athalia, I intend to have anold-fashioned home and a Black Age family. I don't relish having mychildren turned into--experiments."

  "But wait until you see all the wonders of the laboratory! That is why Iam showing you all this."

  Northwood drew his handkerchief and mopped his brow. "It sickens me,Doctor! The more I see, the more pity I have for Adam--and the less Iblame him for his rebellion and his desire to kill and to rule. Heavens!What a terrible thing you have done, experimenting with human life."

  "Nonsense! Can you say that all life--all matter--is not the result ofscientific experiment? Can you?" His black gaze made Northwooduncomfortable. "Buck up, young friend, for now I am going to show you amarvelous improvement on Nature's bungling ways--the Leyden jar mother."He raised his voice and called, "Lilith!"

  The woman whom they had met on the field came forward.

  "May we take a peep at Lona's twins?" asked the scientist. "They areabout ready to go to the growing dome, are they not?"

  "In five more minutes," said the woman. "Come see."

  * * * * *

  She lifted one of the black velvet curtains that lined an entire side ofthe laboratory and thereby disclosed a globular jar of glass and metal,connected by wires to a dynamo. Above the jar was a Life Ray projector.Lilith slid aside a metal portion of the jar, disclosing through theglass underneath the squirming, kicking body of a baby, resting on a bedof soft, spongy substance, to which it was connected by the navel cord.

  "The Leyden jar mother," said Dr. Mundson. "It is the dream of usscientists realized. The human mother's body does nothing but nourishand protect her unborn child, a job which science can do better. And so,in New Eden, we take the young embryo and place it in the Leyden jarmother, where the Life Ray, electricity, and chemical food shortens theperiod of gestation to a few days."

  At that moment a bell under the Leyden jar began to ring. Dr. Mundsonuncovered the jar and lifted out the child, a beautiful, perfectlyformed boy, who began to cry lustily.

  "Here is one baby who'll never be kissed," he said. "He'll be nourishedchemically, and, at the end of the week, will no longer be a baby. Ifyou are patient, you can actually see the processes of developmenttaking place under the Life Ray, for babies develop very fast."

  Northwood buried his face in his hands. "Lord! This is awful. Nochildh
ood; no mother to mould his mind! No parents to watch over him, togive him their tender care!"

  "Awful, fiddlesticks! Come see how children get their education, howthey learn to use their hands and feet so they need not pass through theawkwardness of childhood."

  * * * * *

  He led Northwood to a magnificent building whose facade of white marblewas as simply beautiful as a Greek temple. The side walls, built almostentirely of glass, permitted the synthetic sunshine to sweep from end toend. They first entered a library, where youths and young girls pouredover books of all kinds. Their manner of reading mystified Northwood.With a single sweep of the eye, they seemed to devour a page, and thenturned to the next. He stepped closer to peer over the shoulder of abeautiful girl. She was reading "Euclid's Elements of Geometry," inLatin, and she turned the pages as swiftly as the other girl occupyingher table, who was devouring "Paradise Lost."

  Dr. Mundson whispered to him: "If you do not believe that Ruth here isgetting her Euclid, which she probably never saw before to-day, examineher from the book; that is, if you are a good enough Latin scholar."

  Ruth stopped her reading to talk to him, and, in a few minutes, hadcompletely dumbfounded him with her pedantic replies, which fell fromlips as luscious and unformed as an infant's.

  "Now," said Dr. Mundson, "test Rachael on her Milton. As far as she hasread, she should not misquote a line, and her comments will probablyprove her scholarly appreciation of Milton."

  Word for word, Rachael was able to give him "Paradise Lost" from memory,except the last four pages, which she had not read. Then, taking thebook from him, she swept her eyes over these pages, returned the book tohim, and quoted copiously and correctly.

  * * * * *

  Dr. Mundson gloated triumphantly over his astonishment. "There, myfriend. Could you now be satisfied with old-fashioned children who spendlong, expensive years in getting an education? Of course, your childrenwill not have the perfect brains of these, yet, developed under the LifeRay, they should have splendid mentality.

  "These children, through selective breeding, have brains that makeeverlasting records instantly. A page in a book, once seen, is indeliblyretained by them, and understood. The same is true of a lecture, of anexplanation given by a teacher, of even idle conversation. Any man orwoman in this room should be able to repeat the most trivialconversation days old."

  "But what of the arts, Dr. Mundson? Surely even your supermen and womencannot instantly learn to paint a masterpiece or to guide their fingersand their brains through the intricacies of a difficult musicalcomposition."

  "No?" His dark eyes glowed. "Come see!"

  Before they entered another wing of the building, they heard a violinbeing played masterfully.

  Dr. Mundson paused at the door.

  "So that you may understand what you shall see, let me remind you thatthe nerve impulses and the coordinating means in the human body arepurely electrical. The world has not yet accepted my theory, but itwill. Under superman's system of education, the instantaneous recordsmade on the brain give immediate skill to the acting parts of the body.Accordingly, musicians are made over night."

  He threw open the door. Under a Life Ray projector, a beautiful,Juno-esque woman was playing a violin. Facing her, and with eyesfastened to hers, stood a young man, whose arms and slender fingersmimicked every motion she made. Presently she stopped playing and handedthe violin to him. In her own masterly manner, he repeated the score shehad played.

  "That is Eve," whispered Dr. Mundson. "I had selected her as Adam'swife. But he does not want her, the most brilliant woman of the NewRace."

  Northwood gave the woman an appraising look. "Who wants a perfect woman?I don't blame Adam for preferring Athalia. But how is she teaching herpupil?"

  "Through thought vibration, which these perfect people have developeduntil they can record permanently the radioactive waves of the brains ofothers."

  Eve turned, caught Northwood's eyes in her magnetic blue gaze, andsmiled as only a goddess can smile upon a mortal she has marked as herown. She came toward him with outflung hands.

  "So you have come!" Her vibrant contralto voice, like Adam's, held thebirdlike, broken tremulo of a young child's. "I have been waiting foryou, John Northwood."

  * * * * *

  Her eyes, as blue and icy as Adam's, lingered long on him, until heflinched from their steely magnetism. She slipped her arm through hisand drew him gently but firmly from the room, while Dr. Mundson stoodgaping after them.

  They were on a flagged terrace arched with roses of gigantic size, whichsent forth billows of sensuous fragrance. Eve led him to a white marbleseat piled with silk cushions, on which she reclined her superb body,while she regarded him from narrowed lids.

  "I saw your picture that he televisioned to Athalia," she said. "What abotch Dr. Mundson has made of his mating." Her laugh rippled likefalling water. "I want you, John Northwood!"

  Northwood started and blushed furiously. Smile dimples broke around herred, humid lips.

  "Ah, you're old-fashioned!"

  Her large, beautiful hand, fleshed more tenderly than any woman's handhe had ever seen, went out to him appealingly. "I can bring you amorousdelight that your Athalia never could offer in her few years of youth.And I'll never grow old, John Northwood."

  She came closer until he could feel the fragrant warmth of her tawny,ribbon bound hair pulse against his face. In sudden panic he drew back.

  "But I am pledged to Athalia!" tumbled from him. "It is all a dreadfulmistake, Eve. You and Adam were created for each other."

  "Hush!" The lightning that flashed from her blue eyes changed her fromseductress to angry goddess. "Created for each other! Who wants amade-to-measure lover?"

  * * * * *

  The luscious lips trembled slightly, and into the vivid eyes crept asuspicion of moisture. Eternal Eve's weapons! Northwood's handsome facerelaxed with pity.

  "I want you, John Northwood," she continued shamelessly. "Our love willbe sublime." She leaned heavily against him, and her lips were like ablood red flower pressed against white satin. "Come, beloved, kiss me!"

  Northwood gasped and turned his head. "Don't, Eve!"

  "But a kiss from me will set you apart from all your generation, JohnNorthwood, and you shall understand what no man of the Black Age couldpossibly fathom."

  Her hair had partly fallen from its ribbon bandage and poured itsfragrant gold against his shoulder.

  "For God's sake, don't tempt me!" he groaned. "What do you mean?"

  "That mental and physical and spiritual contact with me will temporarilygive you, a three-dimension creature, the power of the new sense, whichyour race will not have for fifty thousand years."

  White-lipped and trembling, he demanded: "Explain!"

  Eve smiled. "Have you not guessed that Adam has developed an additionalsense? You've seen him vanish. He and I have the sixth sense of TimePerception--the new sense which enables us to penetrate what you of theBlack Age call the Fourth Dimension. Even you whose mentalities areframed by three dimensions have this sixth sense instinct. Your veryreligion is based on it, for you believe that in another life you shallstep into Time, or, as you call it, eternity." She leaned closer so thather hair brushed his cheek. "What is eternity, John Northwood? Is it notkeeping forever ahead of the Destroyer? The future is eternal, for it isnever reached. Adam and I, through our new sense which comprehends Timeand Space, can vanish by stepping a few seconds into the future, theFourth Dimension of Space. Death can never reach us, not even accidentaldeath, unless that which causes death could also slip into the future,which is not yet possible."

  "But if the Fourth Dimension is future Time, why can one in the thirddimension feel the touch of an unseen presence in the FourthDimension--hear his voice, even?"

  "Thought vibration. The touch is not really felt nor the voice heard:they are only imagined. The radioactive
waves of the brain of even youBlack Age people are swift enough to bridge Space and Time. And it isthe mind that carries us beyond the third dimension."

  * * * * *

  Her red mouth reached closer to him, her blue eyes touched hidden forcesthat slept in remote cells of his being. "You are going into EternalTime, John Northwood, Eternity without beginning or end. You understand?You feel it? Comprehend it? Now for the contact--kiss me!"

  Northwood had seen Athalia vanish under Adam's kiss. Suddenly, in onemad burst of understanding, he leaned over to his magnificent temptress.

  For a split second he felt the sweet pressure of baby-soft lips, andthen the atoms of his body seemed to fly asunder. Black chaos held himfor a frightful moment before he felt sanity return.

  He was back on the terrace again, with Eve by his side. They werestanding now. The world about him looked the same, yet there was asubtle change in everything.

  Eve laughed softly. "It is puzzling, isn't it? You're seeing everythingas in a mirror. What was left before is now right. Only you and I arereal. All else is but a vision, a dream. For now you and I are existingone minute in future time, or, more simply, we are in the FourthDimension. To everything in the third dimension, we are invisible. Letme show you that Dr. Mundson cannot see you."

  They went back to the room beyond the terrace. Dr. Mundson was notpresent.

  "There he goes down the jungle path," said Eve, looking out a window.She laughed. "Poor old fellow. The children of his genius are worryinghim."

  * * * * *

  They were standing in the recess formed by a bay window. Eve picked uphis hand and laid it against her face, giving him the full, blastingglory of her smiling blue eyes.

  Northwood, looking away miserably, uttered a low cry. Coming over thefield beyond were Adam and Athalia. By the trimming on the blue dressshe wore, he could see that she was still in the Fourth Dimension, forhe did not see her as a mirror image.

  A look of fear leaped to Eve's face. She clutched Northwood's arm,trembling.

  "I don't want Adam to see that I have passed you beyond," she gasped."We are existing but one minute in the future. Always Adam and I havefeared to pass too far beyond the sweetness of reality. But now, so thatAdam may not see us, we shall step five minutes into what-is-yet-to-be.And even he, with all his power, cannot see into a future that is moredistant than that in which he exists."

  She raised her humid lips to his. "Come, beloved."

  Northwood kissed her. Again came the moment of confusion, of the awfulvacancy that was like death, and then he found himself and Eve in thelaboratory, following Adam and Athalia down a long corridor. Athalia wascrying and pleading frantically with Adam. Once she stopped and threwherself at his feet in a gesture of dramatic supplication, armsoutflung, streaming eyes wide open with fear.

  Adam stooped and lifted her gently and continued on his way, supportingher against his side.

  * * * * *

  Eve dug her fingers into Northwood's arm. Horror contorted her face,horror mixed with rage.

  "My mind hears what he is saying, understands the vile plan he has made,John Northwood. He is on his way to his laboratory to destroy not onlyyou and most of these in New Eden, but me as well. He wants onlyAthalia."

  Striding forward like an avenging goddess, she pulled Northwood afterher.

  "Hurry!" she whispered. "Remember, you and I are five minutes in thefuture, and Adam is only one. We are witnessing what will occur fourminutes from now. We yet have time to reach the laboratory before himand be ready for him when he enters. And because he will have to go backto Present Time to do his work of destruction, I will be able to destroyhim. Ah!"

  Fierce joy burned in her flashing blue eyes, and her slender nostrilsquivered delicately. Northwood, peeping at her in horror, knew that nomercy could be expected of her. And when she stopped at a certain doorand inserted a key, he remembered Athalia. What if she should enter withAdam in Present Time?

  * * * * *

  They were inside Adam's laboratory, a huge apartment filled with queerapparatus and cages of live animals. The room was a strange paradox.Part of the equipment, the walls, and the floor was glistening withnewness, and part was moulding with extreme age. The powers ofdisintegration that haunt a tropical forest seemed to be devouringcertain spots of the room. Here, in the midst of bright marble, was asection of wall that seemed as old as the pyramids. The surface of thestone had an appalling mouldiness, as though it had been lifted from anancient graveyard where it had lain in the festering ground forunwholesome centuries.

  Between cracks in this stained and decayed section of stone grew fetidmoss that quivered with the microscopic organisms that infest age-rottenplaces. Sections of the flooring and woodwork also reeked withmustiness. In one dark, webby corner of the room lay a pile of bleachedbones, still tinted with the ghastly grays and pinks of putrefaction.Northwood, overwhelmingly nauseated, withdrew his eyes from the bones,only to see, in another corner, a pile of worm-eaten clothing that layon the floor in the outline of a man.

  Faint with the reek of ancient mustiness, Northwood retreated to thedoor, dizzy and staggering.

  "It sickens you," said Eve, "and it sickens me also, for death and decayare not pleasant. Yet Nature, left to herself, reduces all to this.Every grave that has yawned to receive its prey hides corruption no lessshocking. Nature's forces of creation and destruction forever work inpartnership. Never satisfied with her composition, she destroys andstarts again, building, building towards the ultimate of perfection.Thus, it is natural that if Dr. Mundson isolated the Life Ray, Nature'ssupreme force of compensation, isolation of the Death Ray should closelyfollow. Adam, thirsting for power, has succeeded. A few sweeps of hisunholy ray of decomposition will undo all Dr. Mundson's work in thisvalley and reduce it to a stinking holocaust of destruction. And thetime for his striking has come!"

  She seized his face and drew it toward her. "Quick!" she said. "We'llhave to go back to the third dimension. I could leave you safe in thefourth, but if anything should happen to me, you would be strandedforever in future time."

  She kissed his lips. In a moment, he was back in the old familiar world,where right is right and left is left. Again the subtle change wroughtby Eve's magic lips had taken place.

  * * * * *

  Eve went to a machine standing in a corner of the room.

  "Come here and get behind me, John Northwood. I want to test it beforehe enters."

  Northwood stood behind her shoulder.

  "Now watch!" she ordered. "I shall turn it on one of those cages ofguinea pigs over there."

  She swung the projector around, pointed it at the cage of small,squealing animals, and threw a lever. Instantly a cone of black mephitisshot forth, a loathsome, bituminous stream of putrefaction that reekedof the grave and the cesspool, of the utmost reaches of decay before thedust accepts the disintegrated atoms. The first touch of seething,pitchy destruction brought screams of sudden agony from the guinea pigs,but the screams were cut short as the little animals fell in shocking,instant decay. The very cage which imprisoned them shriveled andretreated from the hellish, devouring breath that struck its noisome rotinto the heart of the wood and the metal, reducing both to revoltingruin.

  Eve cut off the frightful power, and the black cone disappeared, leavingthe room putrid with its defilement.

  "And Adam would do that to the world," she said, her blue eyes likeelectric-shot icicles. "He would do it to you, John Northwood--and tome!" Her full bosom strained under the passion beneath.

  "Listen!" She raised her hand warningly. "He comes! The destroyercomes!"

  * * * * *

  A hand was at the door. Eve reached for the lever, and, the same moment,Northwood leaned over her imploringly.

  "If Athalia is with him!" he gasped. "You will not harm her?"

  A wild
shriek at the door, a slight scuffle, and then the doorknob waswrenched as though two were fighting over it.

  "For God's sake, Eve!" implored Northwood. "Wait! Wait!"

  "No! She shall die, too. You love her!"

  Icy, cruel eyes cut into him, and a new-fleshed hand tried to push himaside. The door was straining open. A beloved voice shrieked. "John!"

  Eve and Northwood both leaped for the lever. Under her tender whiteflesh she was as strong as a man. In the midst of the struggle, her red,humid lips approached his--closer. Closer. Their merest pressure wouldthrust him into Future Time, where the laboratory and all it containedwould be but a shadow, and where he would be helpless to interfere withher terrible will.

  He saw the door open and Adam stride into the room. Behind him, lyingprone in the hall where she had probably fainted, was Athalia. In a madburst of strength he touched the lever together with Eve.

  The projector, belching forth its stinking breath of corruption swung ina mad arc over the ceiling, over the walls--and then straight at Adam.

  Then, quicker than thought, came the accident. Eve, attempting to throwNorthwood off, tripped, fell half over the machine, and, with a shortscream of despair, dropped into the black path of destruction.

  * * * * *

  Northwood paused, horrified. The Death Ray was pointed at an inner wallof the room, which, even as he looked, crumbled and disappeared,bringing down upon him dust more foul than any obscenity the bowels ofthe earth might yield. In an instant the black cone ate through theouter parts of the building, where crashing stone and screams that weremore horrible because of their shortness followed the ruin that sweptfar into the fair reaches of the valley.

  The paralyzing odor of decay took his breath, numbed his muscles, until,of all that huge building, the wall behind him and one small section ofthe room by the doorway alone remained whole. He was trying to nervehimself to reach for the lever close to that quiet formless thing stillpartly draped over the machine, when a faint sound in the doorelectrified him. At first, he dared not look, but his own name, spokenalmost in a gasp, gave him courage.

  Athalia lay on the floor, apparently untouched.

  He jerked the lever violently before running to her, exultant with theknowledge that his own efforts to keep the ray from the door had savedher.

  "And you're not hurt!" He gathered her close.

  "John! I saw it get Adam." She pointed to a new mound of mouldy clotheson the floor. "Oh, it is hideous for me to be so glad, but he was goingto destroy everything and everyone except me. He made the ray projectorfor that one purpose."

  Northwood looked over the pile of putrid ruins which a few minutes agohad been a building. There was not a wall left intact.

  "His intention is accomplished, Athalia," he said sadly. "Let's get outbefore more stones fall."

  * * * * *

  In a moment they were in the open. An ominous stillness seemed to gripthe very air--the awful silence of the polar wastes which lay not farbeyond the mountains.

  "How dark it is, John!" cried Athalia. "Dark and cold!"

  "The sunshine projector!" gasped Northwood. "It must have beendestroyed. Look, dearest! The golden light has disappeared."

  "And the warm air of the valley will lift immediately. That means apolar blizzard." She shuddered and clung closer to him. "I've seenAntarctic storms, John. They're death."

  Northwood avoided her eyes. "There's the sun-ship. We'll give the ruinsthe once over in case there are any survivors; then we'll saveourselves."

  Even a cursory examination of the mouldy piles of stone and dustconvinced them that there could be no survivors. The ruins looked asthough they had lain in those crumbling piles for centuries. Northwood,smothering his repugnance, stepped among them--among the green, slimystones and the unspeakable revolting debris, staggering back and faintand shocked when he came upon dust that was once human.

  "God!" he groaned, hands over eyes. "We're alone, Athalia! Alone in acharnal house. The laboratory housed the entire population, didn't it?"

  "Yes. Needing no sleep nor food, we did not need houses. We all workedhere, under Dr. Mundson's generalship, and, lately under Adam's, like alittle band of soldiers fighting for a great cause."

  "Let's go to the sun-ship, dearest."

  "But Daddy Mundson was in the library," sobbed Athalia. "Let's look forhim a little longer."

  * * * * *

  Sudden remembrance came to Northwood. "No, Athalia! He left the library.I saw him go down the jungle path several minutes before I and Eve wentto Adam's laboratory."

  "Then he might be safe!" Her eyes danced. "He might have gone to thesun-ship."

  Shivering, she slumped against him. "Oh, John! I'm cold."

  Her face was blue. Northwood jerked off his coat and wrapped it aroundher, taking the intense cold against his unprotected shoulders. The low,gray sky was rapidly darkening, and the feeble light of the sun couldscarcely pierce the clouds. It was disturbing to know that even thesummer temperature in the Antarctic was far below zero.

  "Come, girl," said Northwood gravely. "Hurry! It's snowing."

  They started to run down the road through the narrow strip of jungle.The Death Ray had cut huge swathes in the tangle of trees and vines, andnow areas of heaped debris, livid with the colors of recent decay,exhaled a mephitic humidity altogether alien to the snow that fell insoft, slow flakes. Each hesitated to voice the new fear: had thesun-ship been destroyed?

  By the time they reached the open field, the snow stung their flesh likesharp needles, but it was not yet thick enough to hide from them ahideous fact.

  The sun-ship was gone.

  * * * * *

  It might have occupied one of several black, foul areas on the greengrass, where the searching Death Ray had made the very soil putrefy, andthe rocks crumble into shocking dust.

  Northwood snatched Athalia to him, too full of despair to speak. Asudden terrific flurry of snow whirled around them, and they were almostblown from their feet by the icy wind that tore over the unprotectedfield.

  "It won't be long," said Athalia faintly. "Freezing doesn't hurt, John,dear."

  "It isn't fair, Athalia! There never would have been such a marriage asours. Dr. Mundson searched the world to bring us together."

  "For scientific experiment!" she sobbed. "I'd rather die, John. I wantan old-fashioned home, a Black Age family. I want to grow old with youand leave the earth to my children. Or else I want to die here now underthe kind, white blanket the snow is already spreading over us." Shedrooped in his arms.

  Clinging together, they stood in the howling wind, looking at each otherhungrily, as though they would snatch from death this one last pictureof the other.

  Northwood's freezing lips translated some of the futile words thatcrowded against them. "I love you because you are not perfect. I hateperfection!"

  "Yes. Perfection is the only hopeless state, John. That is why Adamwanted to destroy, so that he might build again."

  They were sitting in the snow now, for they were very tired. The stormbegan whistling louder, as though it were only a few feet above theirheads.

  "That sounds almost like the sun-ship," said Athalia drowsily.

  "It's only the wind. Hold your face down so it won't strike your fleshso cruelly."

  "I'm not suffering. I'm getting warm again." She smiled at him sleepily.

  * * * * *

  Little icicles began to form on their clothing, and the powdery snowfrosted their uncovered hair.

  Suddenly came a familiar voice: "_Ach Gott!_"

  Dr. Mundson stood before them, covered with snow until he looked like apolar bear.

  "Get up!" he shouted. "Quick! To the sun-ship!"

  He seized Athalia and jerked her to her feet. She looked at him sleepilyfor a moment, and then threw herself at him and hugged him frantically.

  "You're
not dead?"

  Taking each by the arm, he half dragged them to the sun-ship, which hadlanded only a few feet away. In a few minutes he had hot brandy forthem.

  While they sipped greedily, he talked, between working the sun-ship'scontrols.

  "No, I wouldn't say it was a lucky moment that drew me to the sun-ship.When I saw Eve trying to charm John, I had what you American slangistscall a hunch, which sent me to the sun-ship to get it off the ground sothat Adam couldn't commandeer it. And what is a hunch but a mentalpenetration into the Fourth Dimension?" For a long moment, he brooded,absent-minded. "I was in the air when the black ray, which I suppose isAdam's deviltry, began to destroy everything it touched. From a safeelevation I saw it wreck all my work." A sudden spasm crossed his face."I've flown over the entire valley. We're the only survivors--thankGod!"

  "And so at last you confess that it is not well to tamper with humanlife?" Northwood, warmed with hot brandy, was his old self again.

  "Oh, I have not altogether wasted my efforts. I went to elaborate painsto bring together a perfect man and a perfect woman of what Adam calledour Black Age." He smiled at them whimsically.

  "And who can say to what extent you have thus furthered naturalevolution?" Northwood slipped his arm around Athalia. "Our childrenmight be more than geniuses, Doctor!"

  Dr. Mundson nodded his huge, shaggy head gravely.

  "The true instinct of a Creature of the Light," he declared.

  * * * * *

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