CHAPTER II
_The Strange Guard_
There confronted him the hugest figure of a man he had ever seen.Hilary was not lacking in inches himself--he was well over six feet;but the giant staring quizzically down at him was nearer seven, withshoulders to match. The features of his face were gargantuan in theirruggedness, yet singularly open, while a pair of mild blue eyes,childlike in expression, looked in perpetual wonder out upon theworld.
In spite of his annoyance, Hilary instinctively liked the giant.
"What do you want?" he inquired gruffly.
The Colossus surveyed him with his child's eyes.
"Man, you are crazy." He spoke in a deep bass rumble, without emotionor inflection. He was simply stating a fact.
A surge of annoyance swept over the returned wanderer from the farspaces. This was the last straw.
"I may be," he admitted coldly, "but I like my particular form ofcraziness."
"You know the penalty of course for what you are doing?" the big maninquired unemotionally.
Hilary swore deeply. "Damn the penalties, whatever you mean by that.Here's a man who has been tortured unmercifully--chained like a dog. Iintend to free him."
The mild blue eyes contained the hint of a gleam.
"But you know the penalties," he repeated. His murmur sounded like therumble of a distant earthquake.
Hilary straightened sharply, poked his finger at the midriff of thegiant.
"I don't know what you are talking about," he stabbed. "What is themeaning of all this? Who is this unfortunate, and why did everyonedisappear as though I had the plague when I sat next to him?"
* * * * *
A look of bewilderment swept over the massive face, bewildermenttinged with a dawning suspicion of the questioner's sanity.
"You mean to say you don't know?" The tone held incredulity.
"I've just told you so," Hilary pointed out. He felt a growing unease.
The giant eyed him closely. "Man, where on earth have you been theselast three years?"
Hilary grinned. "I haven't."
"You haven't?" echoed the other. Suspicion hardened the childlike eyesinto cold flame. The man was dangerous when aroused. He thrust his jawdown at Hilary. "If you are jesting with me...." He left the sentenceunfinished, but the clenching of a huge fist left no doubt as to hisintention.
"I am not jesting," Hilary assured him grimly. "I have been away fromthe Earth for five years. I've just returned."
The great hand clenched tighter. "Now I know you are crazy, or--Whoare you?" he ended abruptly.
"Hilary Grendon."
"Hilary Grendon--Hilary Grendon," rumbled the other in manifestperplexity. It was evident the name meant nothing to him.
This then was the homecoming he had dreamed of in the unfathomablereaches of space. Hilary thought bitterly. Five short years and he wasalready forgotten. Then the irony of it struck him, and he laughedaloud.
"Yes," he said. "Five years ago I led the Grendon Expedition toexplore interplanetary space in the space-ship I had invented. I'vecome back--alone."
It was amazing to watch long-overlaid memories struggling up throughthe subconscious. At last the giant spoke.
"Oh, yes," he said meditatively, "I seem to remember something aboutit." He surveyed Hilary with a new interest. "So you were one of thosechaps, eh?"
The explorer admitted it, humbly. Of such are the uses of fame.
"Well, now," said the giant, "that might explain it. Though it surebeats all." And he shook his head as though he still did notunderstand.
"Who is that man?" Hilary stabbed a forefinger at the blind man, whosat immobile as before, his worn etched face ever to the front. "It'smonstrous. Amos Peabody shall hear of it."
The Colossus looked at him mildly.
"That," he said, "_is_ Amos Peabody!"
* * * * *
Silence lay like a live thing between them. Hilary whirled in akaleidoscope of emotion. Was this wasted, tortured being the portly,dignified President of the United States who had bade him Godspeed atthe start of his tremendous journey five years before? His pityingeyes searched the lineaments of the poor wretch. There was no doubt ofit now; it _was_ Amos Peabody.
Hilary gripped his informant's arm. His voice was deadly calm. "I wantthe truth about this, and I want it fast."
"The truth," echoed the big man with strange laughter; "now that issomething--"
His eyes widened over Hilary's shoulder. With a swiftness remarkablein one of his bulk he shook off Hilary's restraining grip, caught himby the shoulder and thrust him, all in one motion, into a chairseveral removed from Peabody. In a trice his huge bulk was safelyensconced in the adjoining one.
Hilary's hand went to the butt of the automatic within his blouse. Thegiant saw the movement. He leaned forward.
"Don't make a move," he warned, "the guard is coming."
"What guard?"
"You'll see fast enough. Appear unconcerned if you value your life.Don't look back."
Hilary complied. His face became an expressionless mask as he loungedin his chair, but his thoughts seethed and boiled. What terriblemystery had enveloped the Earth during his absence? Why was AmosPeabody tortured and made into a public mockery?
There was a slight whirring noise behind him. Heedful of hiscompanion's admonition he relaxed in apparent unconcern, but his handstole once more to the fold in his blouse. His long fingers restedcaressingly upon the butt of his automatic. There were still threegood Earth bullets in the chamber.
The whirring ceased. There was a slight jar as of something landingon the speeding conveyor. Yet Hilary did not look back, though hisgrip tightened. A heavy body stumbled toward them, cursing in strangephrases. It passed from behind, came to a halt before the giant.Hilary shot a sharp glance upward from under veiled lids. Anexclamation sprang full-throated to his lips, died unheard under atremendous effort of his will.
* * * * *
Before them stood a being--it could not be called a man. He was nodenizen of the Earth, that was evident, yet Hilary had visited all theplanets outward from our own without encountering such a monster.
He hulked before them like a behemoth, even dwarfing Hilary'scompanion with his enormous stature; but it was noticeable that hesupported his weight ill, as if Earth's gravitation was too strong forhim. Manlike he was in every essential, but the skin of his face was apasty dull gray, and ridged and furrowed with warty excrescences. Twoenormous pink eyes, unlidded, but capable of being sheathed with afilmy membrane, stared down at them with manifest suspicion. A gray,three-fingered hand held an angled tube significantly. A lens gleamedtransparent in the sunlight from the open end.
Hilary did not move under the stare, nor did his companion. The mildblue eyes were childlike as ever. The guard's gaze shifted from themto the trembling figure of Amos Peabody. He bent over him, thrust athim with ungentle hand. The automatic under Hilary's fingers creptfarther out from the blouse, but a warning gesture from his companionstopped him.
The guard amused himself with shaking the blind man; then he bentsuddenly. He had seen the broken links. With ominous deliberation heturned his vast weight upon them. His baleful pink eyes fastened uponHilary's companion.
"You!" he growled throatily, "what do you know about this?" He spokein English, but it was obviously not his native tongue.
Mildly innocent was the giant's face.
"I know nothing, Magnificent," he said humbly. "I am on my way toGreat New York on my own insignificant affairs, and I bother my headwith nothing else."
"The bonds of this dog, Peabody, have been severed," the guardinsisted, "and recently, too. Speak up, Earthman, or--you know thepenalty."
"I know the penalty," he answered respectfully, "but I have beenseated here only five minutes, and I know nothing of this Peabody."
The guard fingered his tube.
"Let me see your tag," he said suddenly.
> * * * * *
* * * * *
The other opened his blouse obediently and exposed a thin copper disksuspended on his chest. The guard tugged at it brutally to bring itwithin range of his vision. The pull jerked the giant's head forward,and the thin metal strand cut cruelly into the back of his neck.Hilary saw a flush of red sweep like a wave up to his forehead, andthe mild blue eyes turned hard like glinting blue pebbles. But not aword escaped his lips.
"Grim Morgan," the guard read, "A46823 Great New York. Pah, whatbarbarous names you Earthmen have." He shoved the giant back heavilyinto his seat, and turned his baleful glare upon Hilary.
"You, what do you know about this?"
Grim Morgan interposed hastily. "Nothing, Magnificent. He came on theexpress conveyor after I did."
The guard's free hand went back. Very deliberately he struck himacross the face with three ridged fingers. An angry welt raised.
"That will teach you to keep your mouth shut when not spoken to."
The big man's eyes were mild, but his hands tensed as though they werecurled around a throat. He said nothing.
The guard turned to Hilary again. "Answer me," he barked.
"My friend told the truth," Grendon said simply.
"Your tag?"
"I have none."
Suspicion flared openly in the pink eyes.
"Where is it?"
"I never had one."
"Ah!" There was a world of meaning to the exhalation. "You know ofcourse that every Earthman must be registered. The penalty fornon-obedience is--death."
The angled tube came up with the swiftness of light. Grim Morgan criedout sharply, lunged out of his seat. Hilary tore at his gun, knowingsickeningly that the draw would be slower than the action of thestrange weapon in the guard's hand.
There was a sneer on the monster as he pressed something on the tube.Hilary's automatic was only half out of his blouse. Grim's lunge wouldnever reach in time. He was too far away.