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"Go right in there." He gaped at my arm when the bandages were off. I took a quick glance
and wished I hadn't. "How did you do this?" "Smoking in bed," I said. "Have you got ... something that...."
He caught me before I hit the floor, got me into a chair. Then he had
that Scotch he'd been wanting, gave me a shot as an after-thought, and
looked at me narrowly. "I suppose you fell out of that same bed and broke your leg," he said. "Right. Hell of a dangerous bed." | 1 |
"He'll have it. In writing, if he wishes." "Yes, I assured him on that point. He'll be here about noon
tomorrow--it's a hundred and fifty miles from the hospital, but the
doctor flies his own plane--and the examination can start at two in
the afternoon. He seems familiar with the facilities of the
psychology department, here; I assured him that they were at his
disposal. Will that be satisfactory to you, Doctor Chalmers?" "I have a class at that time, but one of the instructors can take it
over--if holding classes will be possible around here tomorrow," he
said. "Now, if you gentlemen will pardon me, I think I'll go home and
get some sleep." * * * * *
Weill came up to the apartment with him. He mixed a couple of drinks
and they went into the living room with them. | 1 |
"What we call Unit Eight--the heart of the drive." Then,
tight-beamed to Garlock:
"This is the thing that you designed _in toto_ and that I never could
understand any part of. All I did was build it. It must generate those
Prime fields." "Probably," Garlock flashed back. "I didn't understand it any too well
myself. How does it look?" "He isn't even close. He's got only half of the constants down, and half
of the ones he has got down are wrong. Look at this mess here...."
"I'll take your word for it. | 1 |
"Excuse me," he said, "I think--"
"Thank you," said the girl. Garnet made his way back to his carriage. "They are blue," he said. THE ARRIVAL
IV
From Axminster to Lyme Regis the line runs through country as pretty
as any that can be found in the island, and the train, as if in
appreciation of this fact, does not hurry over the journey. It was
late afternoon by the time the chicken farmers reached their
destination. The arrangements for the carrying of luggage at Lyme Regis border on
the primitive. Boxes are left on the platform, and later, when he
thinks of it, a carrier looks in and conveys them down into the valley
and up the hill on the opposite side to the address written on the
labels. The owner walks. Lyme Regis is not a place for the halt and
maimed. Ukridge led his band in the direction of the farm, which lay across
the valley, looking through woods to the sea. | 2 |
"Well, moderately so, Barncastle, moderately so. Fact is," said the
Duchess, "you can stir a multitude with your eloquence; you can write a
novel that so will absorb a school-girl that she can't take her eyes
from its early pages to look into the back of the book and see how it is
all going to turn out; you can talk a hostile parliament into doing
violence to its secret convictions; but in some respects you are
wanting. You are an atrocious horse-back rider, you never take a run
with the hounds, and I must say I have seen times when you seemed to me
to be literally too big for yourself." "By Jove!" thought Toppleton. "What a clever fellow I am! If this
duchess is so competent a reader of character as her estimate of
Barncastle shows her to be, it's a marvel she hasn't found me out." Barncastle laughed with a seeming heartiness at the duchess's remark,
though to Toppleton, who was now watching him closely, he paled
slightly. "One of us is more than he expected, and two of us simply shock him,"
said Hopkins to himself. "Of course, Mr. | 2 |
"Yes." . . . . "Well, take it. Pronounce my name, noting exactly the second when you
speak. I will repeat it as soon as it shall come to me, and you will
observe the exact moment when you get my answer." "Yes; and half the time between my call and your answer will exactly
indicate that which my voice will take in coming to you." . | 1 |
What there's left of it, that is." Molly thanked him and there was a short pause, during which I felt
the speculative regard of the lieutenant. I pulled out a packet of
cigarettes, which I had opened, as always, by tearing off the top. I
happened to have it upside down and all the cigarettes fell out. Before
I could move my foot to obliterate what they had spelled out on the
sidewalk, the two cops saw it. The lieutenant gave me a hard look, but
said nothing. I quickly kicked the insulting cigarettes into the gutter. When we got to the restaurant, it was crowded but cool--although it
didn't stay cool for long. We sat down at a side table near the door
and ordered Tom Collinses as we looked at the menu. Sitting at the
next table were a fat lady, wearing a very long, brilliant green
evening gown, and a dried-up sour-looking man in a tux. | 1 |
All
three were nearly enough alike--small weapons, rather heavier than
they looked, firing a tiny ten-grain bullet at ten thousand
foot-seconds. On impact, such a bullet would almost disintegrate; a
man hit anywhere in the body with one would be killed instantly, his
nervous system paralyzed and his heart stopped by internal pressure. Each of the pistols carried twenty rounds in the magazine. Verkan Vall and Sirzob of Abo took their places, their pistols lowered
at their sides, facing each other across a measured twenty meters. "Are you ready, gentlemen?" Klarnood asked. "You will not raise your
pistols until the command to fire; you may fire at will after it. Ready. _Fire!_"
[Illustration: ]
Both pistols swung up to level. Verkan Vall found Sirzob's head in his
sights and squeezed; the pistol kicked back in his hand, and he saw a
lance of blue flame jump from the muzzle of Sirzob's. | 1 |
I looked down into the street, hitherto
deserted ... and into the upturned face of Fu-Manchu! Wearing a heavy fur-collared coat, and with his yellow, malignant
countenance grotesquely horrible beneath the shadow of a large tweed
motor cap, he stood motionless, looking up at me. That he had seen me,
I could not doubt; but had he seen my companion? In a choking whisper Kâramanèh answered my unspoken question. "He has not seen me! I have done much for you; do in return a small
thing for me! Save my life!" She dragged me back from the window and fled across the room to the
weird laboratory where I had lain captive. Throwing herself upon the
divan, she held out her white wrists and glanced significantly at the
manacles. "Lock them upon me!" | 3 |
Drawing herself to her full height, she tossed
back her head and flung out her arms before her. "No one can know I am afraid--but you," she said. "And I--shall forget." She dropped her arms and stood passive. "I go now to take the drug--there in the little garden behind, where no
one can notice. You will come down?" The Big Business Man cleared his throat. When he spoke his voice was
tremulous with emotion. "How long will you be gone--Lylda?" he asked. | 1 |
But each face she looked at was the same. Watching them dissolve and
regrow in the nutrient solution, she had only been able to guess at the
horror of what was happening. Now she knew. They were all the same lean-boned, blond-skinned face, with a
pin-feather growth of reddish down on cheeks and scalp. All
horribly--and handsomely--the same. A medical kit lay carelessly on the floor beside Max's tank. She stood
near the bag. "Max," she said, and found her throat closing. The canned
voice of the mechanical mocked her, speaking glibly about waking and
sitting up. "I'm sorry, Max...."
The tall man with rugged features and bright blue eyes sat up sleepily
and lifted an eyebrow at her, and ran his hand over his red-fuzzed head
in a gesture of bewilderment. | 1 |
But to anyone who knew him as intimately as I
did, such an hypothesis is untenable; nor, if admitted, would it explain
some of the strangest incidents. Moreover, it was strongly negatived by
Dr. Frobisher, from whose verdict in such matters there was at the time
no appeal, by Dr. Dobie, and by Dr. Bruton, who had known Sir John from
his infancy. It is possible that towards the close of his life he
suffered occasionally from hallucination, though I could not positively
affirm even so much; but this was only when his health had been
completely undermined by causes which are very difficult to analyse. When I first knew him at Oxford he was a strong man physically as
well as mentally; open-hearted, and of a merry and genial temperament. At the same time he was, like most cultured persons--and especially
musicians,--highly strung and excitable. But at a certain point in his
career his very nature seemed to change; he became reserved, secretive,
and saturnine. On this moral metamorphosis followed an equally startling
physical change. | 0 |
It was poor stuff, no
doubt--what else could one expect?--but it was a start. He would tell
them what was wrong with it, and they would try again. Literary criticism, armaments, tariffs, manners--there was no end to it. "What else?" Luke stepped forward. "The plans for the large weapons You commanded
Your servants to design, Master." He put three large sheets of parchment
on the desk. Weaver looked at the neat tracery on the first, and frowned. "You may
come near Me," He said. "Show Me how these are meant to operate." | 1 |
And I see he begun to be
impressed. How true it is that, from the Bible down to Josiah Allen's Wife, you
have to talk in stories in order to impress the masses! You have to hold
up the hammer of a personal incident to drive home the nail of Truth and
have it clench and hold fast. But mine wuz some different--mine wuz facts, every one of 'em. I could have brung them to that man and laid 'em down in front of him
from that time, almost half past ten a.m., and kep stiddy at it till ten
p.m., and then not know that I had took any from the heap, so high and
lofty is the stack of injustices and wrongs committed in the name of the
Law and shielded by its mantilly. But I had only brung up two, jest two of 'em; not the most flagrant
ones either, but the first ones that come into my mind, jest as it is
when you go to a pile of potatoes to git some for dinner, you take the
first ones you come to, knowin' there is fur bigger ones in the pile. But them potatoes smashed up with cream and butter are jest as
satisfyin' as if they wuz bigger. So these little truthful incidents laid down in front of my pardner
convinced him; so they wuz jest as good for me to use as if I had picked
out bigger and more flagranter ones. I first brung up before him the case of the good little Christian
school-teacher who had toiled for years at her hard work and laid up a
little money, and finally married a sick young feller more'n half out of
pity, for he hadn't a cent of money, and had the consumption, and took
good care of him till he died. And wantin' to humor him, she let him make his will, though he didn't so
much as own the sheet of paper he wrote on, or the ink or the pen. | 2 |
"Would you mind informing Spider Reilly
of that fact? It will make life pleasanter for all of us." "Mr. Scobell sent me along here to ask you to come and talk over this
thing with him. He's at the Knickerbocker. I've a cab waiting outside. Can you come along?" "I'd rather he came here." "And I bet he'd rather come here than be where he is. That little
surprise packet of yours last night put him down and out. | 2 |
Further, I believe you are Terran
and I will not deal with you. And finally, you have twice saved my life
and I would find small pleasure in torturing you. I say no. Drink again
with me and we part without a quarrel." Beaten, I turned to go. "Wait," said Dallisa. She stood up and came down from the dais, slowly this time, walking with
dignity to the rhythm of her musically clashing chains. "I have a
quarrel with this man." I started to say that I did not quarrel with women, and stopped myself. The Terran concept of chivalry has no equivalent on Wolf. | 1 |
Dowson said, waving a hand at them. "You may feel that poking fun at insanity is humorous, Mr. Malone, but
let me tell you--"
"It wasn't like that at all," Boyd said. "And," Dr. Dowson continued in a somewhat louder voice, "wanting to
take Mr. Logan away from us. Mr. Logan is a very sick man, Mr. Malone. He should be properly cared for." | 1 |
My eyes clamped shut against the monstrous blaze of heat and light. Then, Snow's hand tightly gripped in mine, I was enveloped in inky
blackness, with nothing but empty air beneath the soles of my boots. And falling. 20
"Snow! Darling, are you all right?" I asked, getting groggily to my
feet and pressing her hand between both of mine. The fall hadn't been
as bad as the one I'd taken earlier through that hole in the floor, but
it was enough to shake me up. "Y-Yes, I think so, Jery," she said, pressing one slim hand to her
forehead, then brushing a wisp of hair back out of her eyes. I took her
tightly in my arms and held her. Only then did I suddenly realize where we were. | 1 |
of his
unfinished paper on "Snake Poisons and Their Antidotes." By chance he
pulled out the brief account, written the same morning, of his uncanny
experience during the night. He read it through reflectively. It was incomplete. A certain mental haziness which he had noted upon
awakening had in some way obscured the facts. His memory of the dream
had been imperfect. Even now, whilst recognizing that some feature of
the experience was missing from his written account, he could not
identify the omission. But one memory arose starkly before him--that
of the cowled man who had stood behind the curtains. It had power to
chill him yet. The old incredulity returned and methodically he
re-examined the contents of some of the table drawers. | 3 |
The fortress-castle
of Oscarburg, on the lonely wooded shore of Viborg Bay, had kept many a
secret safely before now, and it would keep this one. Every retainer in
the Castle, every man, woman, and child on the estates for leagues
around, was his, body and soul, as their fathers before them had been
the blind, unquestioning serfs of his fathers. There his word was law,
and his will was fate. There was no "liberty" within his domains, since
no man wanted it, or would have understood it had it been given to him. When their argument was over they parted, apparently the best of
friends. Franklin Marmion went to bed calmly curious as to what was
going to happen, and Oscarovitch paid a visit to his captain. A little after three that morning he opened the door of the Professor's
state-room very gently and looked in. The room was dark, and he
listened. A soft, just audible sound of breathing came from the bed. It
was the breathing of a man fast asleep. | 1 |
"What the devil do you mean by entering my room?" A tall, irate man, with the Army stamped all over him, dressed in
pyjamas, with a monocle firmly wedged in his left eye, was fiercely
eyeing a smaller man in a bath-robe. "Not content with having got into my room, but damme, sir, you must
needs try and get into my trousers. What the devil do you mean by it?" Bindle looked along the corridor appreciatively. "Looks like a
shipwreck at night, it do," he remarked to the chambermaid. "It's my room," said the man in the bathrobe. "Confound you," was the reply, "this is my room, and I'll prosecute you
for libel." "My room is No. 18," responded the other, "and I left my wife there
half an hour ago." | 2 |
answered Connel. "What?" exclaimed Roger, momentarily forgetting he was addressing a
senior officer. "How in blazes are you going to do that?" Connel turned to the chart-screen projector and switched it on. Immediately an image of Earth and its Moon, and much farther away the
sun, was visible. Connel stepped to the screen and pointed to Moon. "The Moon is a captive satellite of Earth, revolving around Earth the
same way Earth revolves around the sun. It's the same situation we have
here. This satellite is a captive of Tara, and Tara is a captive of
Alpha Centauri. | 1 |
"Events have been moving somewhat rapidly since then," said Challenger,
picking up his pile of telegrams. "I am in close touch both with the
authorities and with the press, so that news is converging upon me from
all parts. There is, in fact, a general and very insistent demand that I
should come to London; but I see no good end to be served. From the
accounts the poisonous effect begins with mental excitement; the rioting
in Paris this morning is said to have been very violent, and the Welsh
colliers are in a state of uproar. So far as the evidence to hand can be
trusted, this stimulative stage, which varies much in races and in
individuals, is succeeded by a certain exaltation and mental lucidity--I
seem to discern some signs of it in our young friend here--which, after
an appreciable interval, turns to coma, deepening rapidly into death. I
fancy, so far as my toxicology carries me, that there are some vegetable
nerve poisons----"
"Datura," suggested Summerlee. "Excellent!" cried Challenger. "It would make for scientific precision
if we named our toxic agent. Let it be daturon. | 1 |
But
she looked real mauger, and I sez:
"You look kinder beat out, Jane Olive, hain't you well?" Yes, she said she wuz well, but had so many cares that they wore on her. "Why," sez I, "you don't try to do your housework alone, do you?" No, she said she had ten servants. So I knowed she didn't have to do the heaviest of her work, but her face
looked dretful tired and disappinted and I knowed it wuz caused by her
efforts to git into fashionable society, for I'd hearn more about it
since I come here, Miss Huff knowed a woman that lived neighbor to her,
she said that in spite of all Sam Perkinses money and Jane Olive's
efforts she couldn't git so fur into the circle of the first as she
wanted to, though she had done everything a woman could do. Went off summers where the first went and winters too. When it wuz
fashionable to go to springs and seasides she went and ocean trips and
south and north, and when it wuz the fashion to go into the quiet
country she come to Jonesville. And now she wuz tryin' a new skeem to git into the first, she got up a
name for bein' very charitable. That took her in, or that is part way
in, for her money went jest as fur and wuz jest as welcome to heathens
and such as if it wuzn't made out of pork. It went jest as fur as the
money that wuz handed down from four fathers or even five or six fathers
who wuz small farmers and trappers in Manhattan years and years ago. | 2 |
I shall watch till the end. Then he heard a faint, faint
noise. From somewhere there was a humming. The merest shadow of a hum,
and Robin listened to it, startled. The humming rose in pitch, it
was no dream, and as he sat, mouth open, amazed, there was a thin,
high-pitched screaming outside the rocket and he suddenly began to feel
hot. Robin had but a second in which to think to himself, There's an
atmosphere and we're burning up, when there came a new sound. A sort of
_bloop_ from over his head, a snapping noise, and something seemed to
grab the rocket and jerk it upside down violently. Robin was tossed in a sharp somersault, banging against the original
floor of his compartment in a jumble of arms and legs. He sat up and
realized that he was sitting--not floating--but actually sitting
_against gravity's pull_! He scrambled onto his knees, peeped through
his peephole. | 1 |
"Well, Axel, there is a very simple answer to your objection that
this soil is alluvial." "What! at such a depth below the surface of the earth?" "No doubt; and there is a geological explanation of the fact. At a
certain period the earth consisted only of an elastic crust or bark,
alternately acted on by forces from above or below, according to the
laws of attraction and gravitation. Probably there were subsidences
of the outer crust, when a portion of the sedimentary deposits was
carried down sudden openings." "That may be," I replied; "but if there have been creatures now
extinct in these underground regions, why may not some of those
monsters be now roaming through these gloomy forests, or hidden
behind the steep crags?" And as this unpleasant notion got hold of me, I surveyed with anxious
scrutiny the open spaces before me; but no living creature appeared
upon the barren strand. I felt rather tired, and went to sit down at the end of a promontory,
at the foot of which the waves came and beat themselves into spray. Thence my eye could sweep every part of the bay; within its extremity
a little harbour was formed between the pyramidal cliffs, where the
still waters slept untouched by the boisterous winds. | 1 |
"What a horrible-looking man!" said Billie, breaking it with a little
gasp. Jno. Peters often affected the opposite sex like that at first
sight. "I beg your pardon?" said Sam absently. "What a dreadful-looking man! He quite frightened me!" For some moments Sam sat without speaking. If this had not been one of
his Napoleonic mornings, no doubt the sudden arrival of his old friend,
Mr. | 2 |
We
bring you knowledge and skills and our own need, they said in effect, we
will be an asset to your country if you admit us. The Americans could
not understand; they themselves had been fair to all and only kept out
undesirable immigrants. Gradually the world geared itself to a slower tempo. The gogetter
followed the brontosaurus to extinction, and we Americans with the
foresight to carry on our businesses from new bases profited by the
unAmerican backwardness of our competitors. At this time I daresay I was
among the hundred most important figures of the world. In the marketing
and packaging of our original products I had been forced to acquire
papermills and large interests in aluminum and steel; from there the
progression to tinmines and rollingmills, to coalfields and railroads,
to shippinglines and machineshops was not far. Consolidated Pemmican,
once the center of my business existence, was now but a minor point on
its periphery. I expanded horizontally and vertically, delighted to show
my competitors that Americans, even when deprived of America, were not
robbed of the traditional American enterprise. _68._ It was at this time, many months after we had given up all hope of
hearing from Joe again, that General Thario received a longdelayed
package from his son. It contained the third movement of the symphony
and a covering letter:
"Dear Father--Stuart Thario--General-- I shall not finish this letter
tonight; it will be sent with as much of the First Symphony as makes a
worthy essence when it goes. | 1 |
It was one of these extremely local tempests which expend all their
principal fury over a small space of country; and, in this instance, the
space seemed to include little more than the river, and the few meadows
which immediately surrounded it, and lent it so much of its beauty. Marchdale soon found that his cries were drowned by the louder voices of
the elements. The wailing of the wind among the ancient ruins was much
more full of sound than his cries; and, now and then, the full-mouthed
thunder filled the air with such a volume of roaring, and awakened so
many echoes among the ruins, that, had he possessed the voices of fifty
men, he could not have hoped to wage war with it. And then, although we know that Charles Holland would have encountered
death himself, rather than he would have willingly left anything human
to expire of hunger in that dungeon, yet Marchdale, judging of others by
himself, felt by no means sure of any such thing, and, in his horror of
apprehension, fancied that that was just the sort of easy, and pleasant,
and complete revenge that it was in Charles Holland's power to take, and
just the one which would suggest itself, under the circumstances, to his
mind. Could anything be possibly more full of horror than such a thought? Death, let it come in any shape it may, is yet a most repulsive and
unwelcome guest; but, when it comes, so united with all that can add to
its terrors, it is enough to drive reason from its throne, and fill the
mind with images of absolute horror. Tired of shrieking, for his parched lips and clogged tongue would
scarcely now permit him to utter a sound higher than a whisper. Marchdale lay, listening to the furious storm without, in the last
abandonment of despair. "Oh! what a death is this," he groaned. | 0 |
Outside there was the occasional cry of some animal in alarm
or pain, or calling to its mate, and the intermittent sounds of the
Malay and Dyak servants. Presently one of the men began a queer
chanting song, in which the others joined at intervals. After this it
would seem that they turned in for the night, for no further sound
came from their direction, and the whispering stillness became more
and more profound. The clockwork ticked steadily. The shrill hum of a mosquito explored
the place and grew shriller in indignation at Woodhouse's ointment. Then the lantern went out and all the observatory was black. Woodhouse shifted his position presently, when the slow movement of
the telescope had carried it beyond the limits of his comfort. He was watching a little group of stars in the Milky Way, in one of
which his chief had seen or fancied a remarkable colour variability. It was not a part of the regular work for which the establishment
existed, and for that reason perhaps Woodhouse was deeply interested. He must have forgotten things terrestrial. | 1 |
Without conscious
volition, Howell's pistol was out and he was thumbing the safety off. The Svant stopped short, then dropped the knife, ducked his head,
and threw his arms over it to shield his comb. He backed away a few
steps, then turned and bolted into the nearest house. The others,
including the woman in the ragged tunic, were twittering in alarm. Only the man in the leather apron was calm; he was saying,
tonelessly, "_Ghrooogh-ghrooogh_." Luis Gofredo was coming up on the double, followed by three of
his riflemen. "What happened, Mark? Trouble?" "All over now." He told Gofredo what had happened. | 1 |
"And then?" I said huskily--for my heart was fluttering like a captive
bird. "Alas! from that day to this I see her no more, my gentlemen. I travel
not only in Egypt but near and far, and still I see her no more until
in Rangoon I hear that which brings me to England again"--he extended
his palms naïvely--"and here I am--Smith Pasha." Smith sprang upright again and turned to me. "Either I am growing over-credulous," he said, "or Azîz speaks the
truth. But"--he held up his hand--"you can tell me all that at some
other time, Petrie! We must take no chances. Sergeant Carter is
downstairs with the cab; you might ask him to step up. | 3 |
I think
I can convince you that I am _not_ suffering from space-shock. I've
found Miss Ramsey. She's been badly hurt and needs immediate medical
attention." The Commander looked as if a man he had thought sane was standing
before him with a gun in his hand. Not Corriston, but some other, more
violent man. For a moment longer he remained rigid and then his hand
went out and tightened on Corriston's arm. "By heaven, if you're lying to me!" "I would have no reason to lie, sir. It proves I'm not a space-shock
case. But that's unimportant now. | 1 |
With upraised weapon I gazed
cautiously out. Miko had disappeared. The deck within my line of
vision, was empty. But was it? Something told me to beware. I clung to the casement,
ready upon the instant to shove myself down. There was a movement in a
shadow along the deck. Then a figure rose up. "Don't fire, Haljan!" The sharp command, half appeal, stopped the pressure of my finger. | 1 |
As she ascended the stairs, her fit of temper at the Doctor passed, and
she felt lonely, weary, and unutterably miserable. She sank to a seat
on the topmost step and gave herself over to bitter reflections. Nick was gone! The realization came poignantly at last; there would be
no more evening rides, no more conversations whose range was limited
only by the scope of the universe, no more breath-taking kisses, the
sweeter for his reluctance. She sat mournfully silent, and considered
the miserable situation in which she found herself. In love with a madman! Or worse--in love with a demon! With a being
half of whose nature worshiped her while the other half was bent on her
destruction! Was any one, she asked herself--was any one, anywhere,
ever in a more hopeless predicament? What could she do? | 1 |
Prepare yourself!' When the Mantis' head finally did appear, leering in at them
ominously, she found doing exactly as he told her infinitely easier than
not doing it. She clung to him as if possessed, and the Mantis'
first glimpse of them was exactly as Kalus had wanted it. Akar stood
submissively to one side, allowing the Monarch an unobstructed view. After studying the three closely, he gestured for the wolf to follow him
to the broad ledge outside the larger cave. Akar obeyed
unquestioningly, snaking his way carefully down the sharp incline. 'What will he do now?' asked the girl, moving with Kalus to watch
from the stone lip that ran like a low parapet just beyond the entrance
of the niche. 'I do not know. He will want to know why we are here, but after that
I cannot say. | 1 |
Colonel Paula Quinton wanted to know. Her military
education was progressing, but it still had a few gaps to fill in. "The next time they're air-struck, they won't stay bunched,"
Mordkovitz replied. "A lot of them didn't stay bunched this time, if
you noticed. And they'll keep out from between the fences." In the large screen, a quick succession of gun-flashes leaped up from
the direction of the Hoork River and shells began bursting over the scene
of the attack. The screen tuned to the pickup on the airjeep went
dead; in the big screen, there was a twinkling of falling fire. Almost
at once, thirty or forty rocket-trails converged on the gun-position,
and, for a moment, explosions burned like a bonfire. "They had a 75-mm at the rear of the column," somebody called from the
big switchboard. "Lieutenant Kalanang's jeep was hit; Lieutenant
Vermaas is cutting in his pickup on the same wavelength." | 1 |
The arrow caught the doe full in the side, and in the same moment Nobs
was after her. She turned to flee with the two of us pursuing her,
Nobs with his great fangs bared and I with my short spear poised for a
cast. The balance of the herd sprang quickly away; but the hurt doe
lagged, and in a moment Nobs was beside her and had leaped at her
throat. He had her down when I came up, and I finished her with my
spear. It didn't take me long to have a fire going and a steak
broiling, and while I was preparing for my own feast, Nobs was filling
himself with raw venison. Never have I enjoyed a meal so heartily. For two days I searched fruitlessly back and forth from the inland sea
almost to the barrier cliffs for some trace of Ajor, and always I
trended northward; but I saw no sign of any human being, not even the
band of Galu warriors under Du-seen; and then I commenced to have
misgivings. Had Chal-az spoken the truth to me when he said that Ajor
had quit the village of the Kro-lu? Might he not have been acting upon
the orders of Al-tan, in whose savage bosom might have lurked some
small spark of shame that he had attempted to do to death one who had
befriended a Kro-lu warrior--a guest who had brought no harm upon the
Kro-lu race--and thus have sent me out upon a fruitless mission in the
hope that the wild beasts would do what Al-tan hesitated to do? I did
not know; but the more I thought upon it, the more convinced I became
that Ajor had not quitted the Kro-lu village; but if not, what had
brought Du-seen forth without her? | 1 |
He
might have no soul, but a lifetime of being an overseer had given him
habits that replaced the need for what had been a pretty slim soul to
begin with. "Quitters!" he yelled. "Lazy, worthless, work-dodging goldbrick
artists!" He knelt in fury, thumbing back the eyelids of the corpses. There was little need for the test. They were too limp, too waxen to be
pretending. The overseer cut them out of the chain and kicked at Hanson. "Move
along!" he bellowed. | 1 |
Drinking and walking is what the
doctors prescribe and I d'no but what the walking in the invigorating
mountain air does as much good as the water. The doctor generally
makes you drink a glass about seven in the morning, then take a little
walk, then drink another glass, and another little walk and so on
until about eight, when you can go to the Swiss bakery and get the
zwiebach or twice baked bread, which is handed you in a paper bag, and
then you can go to some cafay on the sidewalk and get coffee or tea
and boiled eggs and make out your breakfast. No butter is given you
unless the doctor orders it. That madded Josiah and he said they kep'
it back because they wuz clost and wanted to save. He is a great case
for butter. And then after resting for an hour, you go for a walk up the
mountains, or if you are too weak to walk, you can get a cart and a
donkey, the driver walking alongside; up the shady paths you will go,
resting anon or oftener at some pleasant summer house or cafay. At one
you have your dinner, you can get it anywhere along your way or go
back to your tarven for it; Josiah and I generally went back and got
our dinner at the tarven and rested for a while. After dinner, folks
generally go for another walk, but Josiah and I and Tommy used often
to go to the Sprudel Corridor and listen to first-rate music or to a
garden concert nigh by. It wuz a sight to set in the Sprudel Corridor and see the crowds of
people go by, each one bearin' a little mug in their hands or strapped
over their shoulders. All sorts of lookin' folks, handsome and humbly,
tall and short, thick and thin, thousands and thousands of 'em a-goin'
every morning for their drink and walk, drink and walk. | 2 |
When he went for his constitutional that day
he was still chuckling at the absurd story his paper would have had him
believe. Wasps indeed--killing a dog! Incidentally as he passed by the
site of that first crop of puff-balls he remarked that the grass was
growing very rank there, but he did not connect that in any way with the
matter of his amusement. "We should certainly have heard something of
it," he said; "Whitstable can't be twenty miles from here." Beyond he found another puff-ball, one of the second crop, rising like
a roc's egg out of the abnormally coarsened turf. The thing came upon him in a flash. He did not take his usual round that morning. Instead he turned aside by
the second stile and came round to the Caddles' cottage. "Where's that
baby?" he demanded, and at the sight of it, "Goodness me!" | 1 |
The loudspeaker said severely: "_The checking should have been done
earlier!_"
There was silence. Mike and Joe, together, painstakingly checked over
the very many items that had to be made sure. Every rocket had to have
its firing circuit inspected. The tanks' contents and pressure verified. The air connection to Mike's space suit. The air pressure. The device
that made sure that air going to Mike's space suit was neither as hot
as metal in burning sunlight, nor cold as the chill of a shadow in
space. Everything checked. Mike straddled his red-painted mount. Joe left the
lock and said curtly:
"Okay to pump the airlock. | 1 |
Up to a certain point it
maddens almost beyond endurance; but, that point past, it soothes. At least, it was so in my case. Gradually I found myself hating
him less. Soon I began to listen, then to answer. Before I left
the club that night, the first mad frenzy, in which I could have
been capable of anything, had gone from me, and I walked home,
feeling curiously weak and helpless, but calm, to begin the new
life. Three years passed before I met Cynthia. I spent those years
wandering in many countries. At last, as one is apt to do, I
drifted back to London, and settled down again to a life which,
superficially, was much the same as the one I had led in the days
before I knew Audrey. My old circle in London had been wide, and I
found it easy to pick up dropped threads. I made new friends,
among them Cynthia Drassilis. | 2 |
A desperate effort was in me to say the strong, sensible thing which
should destroy the oppressive horror that grew so stiflingly about us
both, but again the mirror drew the attempted smile into the merest
grin, betraying the distortion that was everywhere in the place. "You mean," I stammered beneath my breath, "that her faith has gone, but
that the terror has remained?" I asked it, dully groping. I moved out of
the line of the reflection in the glass. She bowed her head as though beneath a weight; her skin was the pallor
of grey ashes. "You mean," I said louder, "that she has lost her--mind?" "She is terror incarnate," was the whispered answer. "Mabel has lost her
soul. Her soul is--there!" She pointed horribly below. | 0 |
"I do," he answered. "It may be that it is something in
my temperament, I suppose one would call it a sort of
spiritual mindedness. But I think of it all constantly. Often as I stand here beside the window and see these
cars go by"--he indicated a passing street car--"I cannot
but realise that the time will come when I am no longer
a managing director and wonder whether they will keep on
trying to hold the dividend down by improving the rolling
stock or will declare profits to inflate the securities. These mysteries beyond the grave fascinate me, sir. Death
is a mysterious thing. Who for example will take my seat
on the Exchange? What will happen to my majority control
of the power company? I shudder to think of the changes
that may happen after death in the assessment of my real
estate." "Yes," I said, "it is all beyond our control, isn't it?" | 2 |
Brutal? You bet it was, but I couldn't
afford to take any chances on his coming to. What would you have done? If I'd killed him right then and there, the
Board would not have censured me. I was sure of that. Not to have done
so was perhaps foolish, a weakness in me. I was cutting down my chances
of getting as far as the Colony, before a security alert went out, and
the Wendel police started after me with instructions to blast me down
on sight. But somehow I couldn't do it. Not only for the reasons I've
mentioned ... because a new head on the Wendel boa constrictor would
have solved nothing ... but because it went against the grain. I'd have
had a feeling of guilt I never could have completely thrown off. | 1 |
Mr Bickersdyke seemed to think them so. He rose again, and returned to
the first room. 'I have made you restless,' said Psmith, in a voice of self-reproach,
when he had settled himself once more by the manager's side. 'I am
sorry. I will not pursue the subject. Indeed, I believe that my fears
are unnecessary. Statistics show, I understand, that large numbers of
men emerge in safety every year from Turkish Baths. There was another
matter of which I wished to speak to you. It is a somewhat delicate
matter, and I am only encouraged to mention it to you by the fact that
you are so close a friend of my father's.' Mr Bickersdyke had picked up an early edition of an evening paper, left
on the table at his side by a previous bather, and was to all
appearances engrossed in it. | 2 |
It's Dan. Daniel Crowley." The three of them looked at him in bewilderment. The ape was beginning to shimmer as though he was being seen through a
window wet with driving rain. "Don's my goody-goody brother. Used to live in the same house with me,
but ever since we were kids and I got picked up on a juvenile delinquent
rap for swiping a car, he's been snotty. Anyway, now he's moved out to
Frisco." Patricia blurted, "But ... but you let us believe you were Donald...."
He brushed it off with a flick of his hand. "You said you had some deal
where I could make me some money. O.K., I was between jobs." | 1 |
_Mrs. L.-C._ And I never knew a woman who couldn't work and talk bonnets
at the same time. _Mrs. C._ Just a few palms--don't you think, Mrs. Bulkwise?--in those
dreary, _dreary_ rooms, and some oriental rugs on the floors, and a
little bunch of flowers on each desk would make life so much easier to
live. [_Colonel Bulkwise murmurs something unintelligible_. _Mrs. B._ What do you say, George? _Colonel B. (with sudden fierceness)._ I said, that there are too many
old women, as it is, in the War Office. | 2 |
It's frozen solid. It would take almost a year to get to it on Abbot drive, and if your
ship has Dillinghams, why not take a little longer and go to a good
planet? So nobody bothered with Abaddon." But for Dunnan's purpose, it would be perfect. He called Prince
Bentrik and Alvyn Karffard to him; they found the idea instantly
convincing. They talked about it through dinner, and held a general
discussion afterward. Even Guatt Kirbey, the ship's pessimist, could
find no objection to it. Trask and Bentrik began at once making
battle plans. Karffard wondered if they hadn't better wait till they
got to Gimli and discuss it with the others. "No," Trask told him. | 1 |
The minutes passed; the silence lengthened out, and at last
after an hour of security my courage began to return to me. By this time I was no longer very much terrified or very miserable. I had, as it were, passed the limit of terror and despair. I felt now that my life was practically lost, and that persuasion
made me capable of daring anything. I had even a certain wish
to encounter Moreau face to face; and as I had waded into the water,
I remembered that if I were too hard pressed at least one path
of escape from torment still lay open to me,--they could not
very well prevent my drowning myself. I had half a mind to drown
myself then; but an odd wish to see the whole adventure out,
a queer, impersonal, spectacular interest in myself, restrained me. I stretched my limbs, sore and painful from the pricks of the spiny plants,
and stared around me at the trees; and, so suddenly that it seemed
to jump out of the green tracery about it, my eyes lit upon a black
face watching me. I saw that it was the simian creature who had
met the launch upon the beach. He was clinging to the oblique
stem of a palm-tree. I gripped my stick, and stood up facing him. | 1 |
Therefore, if father had not made a fortune
he would not have bullied her. Practically, in fact, if father
did not bully her he would not be rich. And if he were not rich--
She took in the faded carpet, the stained wall paper and the
soiled curtains with a comprehensive glance. It certainly cut
both ways. She began to be a little ashamed of her misery. "It's nothing at all; really," she said. "I think I've been
making rather a fuss about very little." Joan was relieved. The struggling life breeds moods of
depression, and such a mood had come to her just before Aline's
arrival. Life, at that moment, had seemed to stretch before her
like a dusty, weary road, without hope. | 2 |
On coming close to their victims they found them to
measure twelve feet from tip to tip, and to have a tremendous
thickness of feathers and down. "From the looks of these beauties," said Bearwarden, "I should
say they probably inhabited a pretty cold place." "They are doubtless northern birds," said Cortlandt, "that have
just come south. It is easy to believe that the depth to which
the temperature may fall in the upper air of this planet must be
something startling." As they turned from the cranes, to which species the birds seemed
to belong, they became mute with astonishment. Every mushroom
had disappeared, but the toadstools still remained. "Is it possible we did not see them?" gasped Ayrault. "We must inadvertently have walked some distance since we saw
them," said Cortlandt. "They were what I looked forward to for lunch," exclaimed
Bearwarden. | 1 |
To steady himself he shut his
eyes, shook his head as though to clear it, then looked again at that
strip of metal in his hand. Attached to it were two slender strips of
leather like straps, ending in small, bronze buckles. "Why, it's not from the plane," he stammered aloud. "Damned if it
doesn't look like a greave the old Greek warriors used to wear to
protect their shins." Suddenly alarmed and mystified beyond words, he shuffled forward over
the snow, the greave yet clutched in a fur gloved hand. Presently two
more objects, already half buried by the stinging, swirling drifts,
caught his attention. One was the stock of Alden's rifle, protruding
starkly brown from the unrelieved whiteness, and the other was a
broken wooden shaft that ended a graceful but wickedly sharp bronze
spear head. "I've either gone crazy," he said, "or I'm delirious. Yes, I must be
clean nutty! There _couldn't_ be a human settlement within a thousand
miles. | 1 |
Aga's burned corpse. The cutlass was lying by her side, assuring him of her identity. Re-oriented, he turned back, still pulling Amra by the hand. This time
he ran into a wall, but he had his free hand stretched out in front of
him for just such an event. Frantically, he groped to his left until
he came to the corner of the room. Then, knowing that the doorway lay
back to his right, he turned and felt along the metal until he came to
the opening. He plunged through it, almost fell into the other room,
which was as dark and dusty as the one he'd just left. He trotted on
ahead, bumped into another wall, groped to his right, found the next
exit and ran through that. Here the air was much more free of dust. He
could actually make out outlines of his companions as the light was
penetrating the fainter haze. | 1 |
"'Look what I worked out, with a little, minor help from one of the
employees in my sector.' "But I've seen that line worked before, Bond, and worked smoothly. You
don't catch the Old Man napping so easily as that." He paused. "Of course we don't know whether or not this device is going to be of
any real use. But we do know that this man, Graham, has developed one
thing which can be profitably incorporated into conventional equipment. That power source of his appears to be quite practical, and we'll adopt
it. Offer it to the man's employer, subject to community royalty. And
see if you can get Graham a little time off work in compensation. Then,
keep a close watch on his work on the rest of his device. | 1 |
"May I speak?" Reiner asked icily. The old man nodded and re-lit his cigar. "I have been called--behind my back, naturally--a fanatic," Reiner
said. He pointedly did not look anywhere near F. W. Taylor as he spoke
the word. "Perhaps this is correct and perhaps fanaticism is what's
needed at a time like this. Let me point out what the so-called
Government stands for: brutal 'taxation,' extirpation of gambling,
denial of life's simple pleasures to the poor and severe limitation of
them to all but the wealthy, sexual prudery viciously enforced by penal
laws of appalling barbarity, endless regulation and coercion governing
every waking minute of the day. That was its record during the days of
its power and that would be its record if it returned to power. I fail
to see how this menace to our liberty can be condoned by certain
marginal benefits which are claimed to accrue from its continued
existence." He faltered for a moment as his face twisted with an
unpleasant memory. | 1 |
"Your eyes drive me mad!" he hissed. "Your lips taunt me, and I know
all earthly greatness to be a mirage, its conquests visions, and its
fairness dust. I would rather be a captive in your white arms than
the emperor of heaven! Your sweetness intoxicates me, Miska. A fever
burns me up!" Helpless, enmeshed in the toils of that mighty will, Miska raised her
head; and gradually her expression changed. Fear was smoothed away
from her lovely face as by some magic brush. She grew placid; and
finally she smiled--the luresome, caressing smile of the East. Nearer
and nearer drew the green veil. | 3 |
Well, he drew himself up proudly, there was a way. He was not afraid to
die. "Whoa, now, wait a minute. Let's think this out. Death's no answer." For a new idea had just struck him. He forced the worry, the fear,
the ... the self-pity ... from his mind, and settled down to consider
this new concept. Maybe it wasn't as bad as he had thought, after all. "Yandor and his goons were the only ones who knew I was a Terran, and
they're dead," he thought. "So they can't tell on me. | 1 |
They had one proverb that embraced it all: "Labor is
the necessity of life." I studied this peculiar phase of Mizora life,
and at last comprehended that in this very law of social equality lay
the foundation of their superiority. Their admirable system of adapting
the mind to the vocation in which it was most capable of excelling, and
endowing that with dignity and respect, and, at the same time,
compelling the highest mental culture possible, had produced a nation
in the enjoyment of universal refinement, and a higher order of
intelligence than any yet known to the outside world. The standard of an ordinary education was to me astonishingly high. The
reason for it was easily understood when informed that the only
aristocracy of the country was that of intellect. Scholars, artists,
scientists, literateurs, all those excelling in intellectual gifts or
attainments, were alone regarded as superiors by the masses. In all the houses that I had visited I had never seen a portrait hung in
a room thrown open to visitors. On inquiry, I was informed that it was a
lack of taste to make a portrait conspicuous. "You meet faces at all times," said my informant, "but you cannot at all
times have a variety of scenery before you. How monotonous it would be
with a drawing-room full of women, and the walls filled with their
painted representatives. | 1 |
West, that this explanation corresponds with the facts
as you observed them?" "Entirely so," I replied. "It might be added, too, that the changes in
fashions were greatly fomented and assisted by the self-interest of vast
industrial and commercial interests engaged in purveying the materials of
dress and personal belongings. Every change, by creating a demand for new
materials and rendering those in use obsolete, was what we called good
for trade, though if tradesmen were unlucky enough to be caught by a
sudden change of fashion with a lot of goods on hand it meant ruin to
them. Great losses of this sort, indeed, attended every change in
fashion." "But we read that there were fashions in many things besides dress," said
Edith. "Certainly," said the superintendent. "Dress was the stronghold and main
province of fashion because imitation was easiest and most effective
through dress, but in nearly everything that pertained to the habits of
living, eating, drinking, recreation, to houses, furniture, horses and
carriages, and servants, to the manner of bowing even, and shaking hands,
to the mode of eating food and taking tea, and I don't know what
else--there were fashions which must be followed, and were changed as
soon as they were followed. It was indeed a sad, fantastic race, and, Mr. West's contemporaries appear to have fully realized it; but as long as
society was made up of unequals with no caste barriers to prevent
imitation, the inferiors were bound to ape the superiors, and the
superiors were bound to baffle imitation, so far as possible, by seeking
ever-fresh devices for expressing their superiority." | 1 |
The dark blur of struggling Tartars and Mamelukes grew rapidly larger. Qutuz's banner was nowhere to be seen, but the beast-tail Tartar
standard rose up in the west, and Kalawun's black banner was waving far
to the north. They were coming on the Tartar horsemen from the flank and rear. Daoud
was close enough to see faces turn and Tartars wheel their ponies to
meet the attack. Daoud drew his bow out again, picked a big Tartar with a drooping black
mustache, and loosed an arrow at him. The Tartar fell back over his gray
pony's rump, and the pony slowed, trotted out of the Tartar formation,
and stood nibbling on the tall dead grass while its dead master lay
nearby. Three Tartars peeled off from their formation and charged at Daoud. His
arrows took two of them, and an arrow from one of his men struck down
the third. Elated, he whispered a prayer of thanks to God. Baibars's yellow
standard changed direction. | 1 |
"We accept," I answered; "only I will ask your permission, sir, to
address one question to you--one only." "Speak, sir." "You said that we should be free on board." "Entirely." "I ask you, then, what you mean by this liberty?" "Just the liberty to go, to come, to see, to observe even all that
passes here save under rare circumstances--the liberty, in short, which
we enjoy ourselves, my companions and I." It was evident that we did not understand one another. "Pardon me, sir," I resumed, "but this liberty is only what every
prisoner has of pacing his prison. It cannot suffice us." "It must suffice you, however." | 1 |
Don't you know
that the heir to the title always goes on a yachting cruise, with
his whole family, and gets drowned--and the children too? It
happens in every English novel you read." "Listen, Aline! Let us get this thing straight: I have been in
love with you since I wore knickerbockers. I proposed to you at
your first dance--"
"Very clumsily." "But sincerely. Last year, when I found that you had gone to
England, I came on after you as soon as the firm could spare me. And I found you engaged to this Freddie excrescence." "I like the way you stand up for Freddie. So many men in your
position might say horrid things about him." | 2 |
And Joe was
very glad they did make it before then. He wouldn't have liked to be
merely astride a skinny framework in that ghastly darkness, with the
monstrous blackness of the Abyss seeming to be trying to devour him. Haney met them in the airlock. He grinned. "Nice job, Joe! Nice job, Chief!" he said warmly. "Uh--the Lieutenant
Commander wants you to report to him, Joe. Right away." Joe cocked an eyebrow at him. | 1 |
But a moment later I saw it--a small black oblong bundle--hovering
beside us. It was perhaps a hundred feet away, circling us. Held by the
Planetara's bulk, it had momentarily become our satellite. It swung
around us like a moon. Gruesome satellite, by nature's laws forever to
follow us. Then from another tube at the bow, Blackstone operated a small
Zed-co-ray projector. Its dull light caught the floating bundle,
neutralizing its metallic wrappings. It swung off at a tangent. Speeding. Falling free in the dome of the
heavens. | 1 |
He knew not whether they
were players, men that would vanish suddenly as they came, disappearing
by the track that climbed the hill; or whether they were indeed
magicians, workers of great and efficacious spells, who knew the secret
word by which the earth may be transformed into the hall of Gehenna, so
that they that gazed and listened, as at a passing spectacle, should be
entrapped by the sound and the sight presented to them, should be drawn
into the elaborated figures of that mystic dance, and so should be
whirled away into those unending mazes on the wild hills that were
abhorred, there to wander for evermore. But Darnell was not afraid, because of the Daystar that had risen in his
heart. It had dwelt there all his life, and had slowly shone forth with
clearer and clearer light, and he began to see that though his earthly
steps might be in the ways of the ancient town that was beset by the
Enchanters, and resounded with their songs and their processions, yet he
dwelt also in that serene and secure world of brightness, and from a
great and unutterable height looked on the confusion of the mortal
pageant, beholding mysteries in which he was no true actor, hearing
magic songs that could by no means draw him down from the battlements of
the high and holy city. His heart was filled with a great joy and a great peace as he lay down
beside his wife and fell asleep, and in the morning, when he woke up, he
was glad. IV
In a haze as of a dream Darnell's thoughts seemed to move through the
opening days of the next week. Perhaps nature had not intended that he
should be practical or much given to that which is usually called 'sound
common sense,' but his training had made him desirous of good, plain
qualities of the mind, and he uneasily strove to account to himself for
his strange mood of the Sunday night, as he had often endeavoured to
interpret the fancies of his boyhood and early manhood. At first he was
annoyed by his want of success; the morning paper, which he always
secured as the 'bus delayed at Uxbridge Road Station, fell from his
hands unread, while he vainly reasoned, assuring himself that the
threatened incursion of a whimsical old woman, though tiresome enough,
was no rational excuse for those curious hours of meditation in which
his thoughts seemed to have dressed themselves in unfamiliar, fantastic
habits, and to parley with him in a strange speech, and yet a speech
that he had understood. With such arguments he perplexed his mind on the long, accustomed ride
up the steep ascent of Holland Park, past the incongruous hustle of
Notting Hill Gate, where in one direction a road shows the way to the
snug, somewhat faded bowers and retreats of Bayswater, and in another
one sees the portal of the murky region of the slums. The customary
companions of his morning's journey were in the seats about him; he
heard the hum of their talk, as they disputed concerning politics, and
the man next to him, who came from Acton, asked him what he thought of
the Government now. There was a discussion, and a loud and excited one,
just in front, as to whether rhubarb was a fruit or vegetable, and in
his ear he heard Redman, who was a near neighbour, praising the economy
of 'the wife.' | 0 |
"What?" He was settling himself beside the mouth of the crack, where a
man would have to come clear inside to get a shot at him. "A starship implies the intention to go to the stars. Why haven't you?" "For the simplest reason in the world," said Shearing bitterly. "The
damn thing can't fly." "But--" said Hyrst, in astonishment. "It isn't finished. It's been building for over seventy years now, and a
long and painful process that's been, too, Hyrst--doing it bit by bit in
secret, and every bit having to be dreamed up out of whole cloth, and
often discarded and dreamed up again, because the principle of a
workable star-drive has never been formulated before. And it still isn't
finished. | 1 |
"What I call you if I not call you father?" "Don't call me anything. Say 'sir.' What did you want to say?" "Father, sir," began Brute again, "Adam forget. Adam fall." With a muted roar, Adam swept his powerful arm in a backhanded arc that
caught Brute full on the side of his head. The blow would have felled an
ox, but Brute was not shaken. Apparently unhurt, he stood patiently, his
blue eyes on Goat with something of pleading in them. "Adam, let him alone!" | 1 |
Wayne bent and, for good measure,
took off the man's helmet and tapped him none too gently on the skull. There was the sound of footsteps, the harsh _chitch-chitch_ of feet
against the rock. "He's up that way," he heard a deep voice boom. That meant the others had heard the rock hitting Hollingwood's plexalloy
helmet. They were coming toward him. Wayne sprang back defensively and glanced around. He hoped there were
only five of them, that the rule of six was still being maintained. Otherwise things could become really complicated, as they hunted him
relentlessly through the twisted gulleys. He hated to have to knock out too many of the men; it just meant more
trouble later. Still, there was no help for it, if he wanted there to be
any later. | 1 |
Your boss said "Trail along." Well, do it, then. I
should hate to lose you. I don't suppose you know it, but you've been
the best mascot this tour that I've ever come across. Right from the
start we've been playing to enormous business. I'd rather kill a black
cat than lose you. Drop the disguises, and stay with us. Come behind
all you want, and be sociable.' A detective is only human. The less of a detective, the more human he
is. | 2 |
"Part! No!" "You have thought?" he insisted. "I will not part." She took his hand. "If this meant death, _now_, I
would not let you go." "If it meant death," he said, and she felt his grip upon her fingers. He looked about him as if he feared to see the little people coming as
he spoke. And then: "It may mean death." | 1 |
Now, have you had any information on
Kennedy since I called last?" "Hm, no. I did mention to Thomson, as you asked me to, that I'd heard
rumors of some revolutionary encephalographic techniques and would be
interested in seeing the work. Why did you want me to do that?" "Thomson," said Fraser, "is one of Kennedy's men. Now look, Jim, before
long you're going to be invited to visit Kennedy. He'll give you a spiel
about his research and ask to measure your brain waves. I want you to
say yes. Then I want to know the exact times of the three appointments
he'll give you--the first two, at least." "Hmmm--if Kennedy's doing what you claim--"
"Jim, it's a necessary risk, but _I'm_ the one who's taking it. | 1 |
"O.K., Tom, I'm sorry," he said. "O.K.,
let's get back to work," ordered Tom. Back at the _Polaris_, as they continued cleaning the hull of the ship,
Tom saw the two men disappear into their craft, throwing dirty looks
back at the three cadets as they went. "You know, Roger, I think you made a very bad mistake," he said. "One
way or another, they'll try to even the score with you." "And it won't be just a report to Captain Strong," added Astro darkly. Roger, cocky and unafraid, broke out his engaging grin again and
shrugged his shoulders. CHAPTER 3
"... And so we dedicate this capsule to the civilizations of the future. Those who may dig this cylinder out of the ground in ages to come will
find within it the tools, the inventions, and the scientific wonders
which have made the era of the Solar Alliance one of peace and lasting
prosperity." Captain Steve Strong paused, glanced at the huge crane and the
shimmering steel capsule that dangled at the end of a cable, then called
out, "Lower the capsule!" | 1 |
He might know that a rocket doesn't go where it's
pointed, as a matter of theory. He might even know intellectually that
the final speed and course of a rocket is the sum of all its previous
speeds and courses. But he hadn't used the knowledge Joe and the Chief
had. Something rushed at them. They went into evasive action. And they didn't
merely turn the noses of their space wagons. They flung them about
end-for-end, and blasted. They used wholly different accelerations at
odd angles. Joe shot away from Earth on steering rocket thrust, and
touched off a four-three while he faced toward Earth's north pole, and
halfway along that four-second rush he flipped his craft in a somersault
and the result was nearly a right-angled turn. When the four-three
burned out he set off a twelve-two, and halfway through its burning
fired a three-two with it, so that at the beginning he had two gravities
acceleration, then four gravities for three seconds, and then two again. | 1 |
He knew he was not alone in this, for the arresting planes of
her face, the dramatic color of her rustling taffeta gowns, attracted
many followers. He would sit in the lounge at night and watch her
dancing, and then realize, suddenly, that she had disappeared, long
before the evening was over. She was an elusive creature, as
unpredictable as a butterfly. Wandering listlessly about the ship, one afternoon he stepped through
the open door of the Library. In the almost empty room he saw the auburn
head of Tanya, bent over so as to hide her face and show him only her
glowing hair. She raised her head as he approached. "Are you looking for a book, Dr. Chase?" "No, I just wondered what was interesting you so much." * * * * *
She shifted her seat, to let him see a large sheet of rough drawing
paper covered with a chalk sketch of a desolate gray marsh over which
green waves swirled from the sea, behind them loomed rose-colored
granite hills. | 1 |
But I will not hamper your
escape. Burdened with me you would fail. Nay, do not fear for me. They
will never suspect that I aided you willingly. Go! What you have just
said will glorify my life throughout the long years.' He caught her up in his iron arms, crushed her slim, vibrant figure to
him and kissed her fiercely on eyes, cheeks, throat and lips, until she
lay panting in his embrace; gusty and tempestuous as a storm-wind, even
his love-making was violent. 'I'll go,' he muttered. 'But by Crom, I'll come for you some day!' Wheeling, he gripped the gold bars and tore them from their sockets with
one tremendous wrench; threw a leg over the sill and went down swiftly,
clinging to the ornaments on the wall. | 1 |
"It's the journey, dude, not the destination -- the act
of organizing all these people, of putting up the APs, of advancing the
art. It's all worthwhile in and of itself." Kurt shook his head. "You want to eat Vietnamese?" "Sure," Alan said. "I know a place," he said, and nudged the car through traffic and on to
the Don Valley Parkway. "Where the hell are we *going*?" Alan said, once they'd left the city
limits and entered the curved, identical cookie-cutter streets of the
industrial suburbs in the north end. "Place I know," Kurt said. "It's really cheap and really good. | 1 |
Later, Sola, with the aid of several of the other women, remodeled the
trappings to fit my lesser proportions, and after they completed the
work I went about garbed in all the panoply of war. From then on Sola instructed me in the mysteries of the various
weapons, and with the Martian young I spent several hours each day
practicing upon the plaza. I was not yet proficient with all the
weapons, but my great familiarity with similar earthly weapons made me
an unusually apt pupil, and I progressed in a very satisfactory manner. The training of myself and the young Martians was conducted solely by
the women, who not only attend to the education of the young in the
arts of individual defense and offense, but are also the artisans who
produce every manufactured article wrought by the green Martians. They
make the powder, the cartridges, the firearms; in fact everything of
value is produced by the females. In time of actual warfare they form
a part of the reserves, and when the necessity arises fight with even
greater intelligence and ferocity than the men. The men are trained in the higher branches of the art of war; in
strategy and the maneuvering of large bodies of troops. They make the
laws as they are needed; a new law for each emergency. They are
unfettered by precedent in the administration of justice. Customs have
been handed down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring
a custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of the
culprit's peers, and I may say that justice seldom misses fire, but
seems rather to rule in inverse ratio to the ascendency of law. | 1 |
"None of the rest of
the staff will come in until we're through." Colonel Mannheim looked at the biophysicist speculatively. "You seem to
think secrecy's important all of a sudden." Bart Stanton grinned and kept silent. Dr. Farnsworth went over to a table, where an urn of coffee radiated soft
warmth. "Cream and sugar over there on the tray," he said as he began to
fill cups. "Frankly," Colonel Mannheim said, "I was going to ask you to find us a
place where we could talk privately. You seem to have anticipated me." "I thought you might have something like that in mind," said Dr. | 1 |
Of course, if anything
happens to the old man, then we get it all. I don't think
he'll last long. I notice him each day, how weak he's
getting. My son in the business? Well, I'd like him to be. But he
don't seem to take to it somehow--I'm afraid he takes
more after his mother; or else it's the college that's
doing it. Somehow, I don't think the colleges bring out
business character, do you? X. A Study in Still Life--My Tailor
He always stands there--and has stood these thirty
years--in the back part of his shop, his tape woven about
his neck, a smile of welcome on his face, waiting to
greet me. "Something in a serge," he says, "or perhaps in a tweed?" There are only these two choices open to us. | 2 |
Continually he was thrown into the rough wall at his right by the
centrifugal force of the asteroid. How far did the passageway extend? Was Ku Sui at the end of it? It occurred to the Hawk that the asteroid
was a developing shooting star, eating up the few hundred miles of
life that remained, streaking down into the atmosphere, where waited
quick friction and incandescence--and he down in the heart of it,
blind, without clue to what lay in front of him, ignorant of
everything, and with only minutes in which to achieve his end. There'd
be no heat-warning through his insulated suit. Even now, perhaps,
there was no time to get out; already the deadline might have been
crossed; he could not know. He went on....
How far? A hundred yards; two hundred? Easily that, he thought, and
still no variation in the blackness around him! The passageway seemed
straight, so he might now be past the rim of the dome above. | 1 |
Show a picture of what
you see. Are the slaves escaping?" "Everything's all right," Sherman sent back. "Something broke loose down
below and I stumbled trying to look at it." He closed his eyes, forming
a mental picture of the hall, with everything in order, then one of the
passage, and reached up and detached the helmet, motioning to Murray for
the knife. An instant's sawing and the device short-circuited with a
fizzing of blue sparks. "That will give that one a headache for a while," he remarked. "We'll
have to hurry, though. When he comes to he'll investigate and then
there'll be trouble." "What's that?" | 1 |
But
there are one or two things I should like to get settled in my mind.' He meditated for a long while, pacing up and down the room. Light after
light was extinguished in Edna Road, and the people of the suburb slept
all around him, but still the gas was alight in Darnell's drawing-room,
and he walked softly up and down the floor. He was thinking that about
the life of Mary and himself, which had been so quiet, there seemed to
be gathering on all sides grotesque and fantastic shapes, omens of
confusion and disorder, threats of madness; a strange company from
another world. It was as if into the quiet, sleeping streets of some
little ancient town among the hills there had come from afar the sound
of drum and pipe, snatches of wild song, and there had burst into the
market-place the mad company of the players, strangely bedizened,
dancing a furious measure to their hurrying music, drawing forth the
citizens from their sheltered homes and peaceful lives, and alluring
them to mingle in the significant figures of their dance. Yet afar and near (for it was hidden in his heart) he beheld the glimmer
of a sure and constant star. Beneath, darkness came on, and mists and
shadows closed about the town. The red, flickering flame of torches was
kindled in the midst of it. The song grew louder, with more insistent,
magical tones, surging and falling in unearthly modulations, the very
speech of incantation; and the drum beat madly, and the pipe shrilled to
a scream, summoning all to issue forth, to leave their peaceful hearths;
for a strange rite was preconized in their midst. The streets that were
wont to be so still, so hushed with the cool and tranquil veils of
darkness, asleep beneath the patronage of the evening star, now danced
with glimmering lanterns, resounded with the cries of those who hurried
forth, drawn as by a magistral spell; and the songs swelled and
triumphed, the reverberant beating of the drum grew louder, and in the
midst of the awakened town the players, fantastically arrayed, performed
their interlude under the red blaze of torches. | 0 |
* * * * *
Ambition has many origins. The urge to return home became a drive. The
result was Junior Spaceman Howard Reed's complete preoccupation with
the mathematics known as Hansen's Folly. As the months went by he exhausted his original knowledge. He took to
the library, to the local schools, and to self-study to improve his
grasp. He approached the basic mathematics of the space drive from
several different angles, even going back to the old original Einstein
Equations and learning their fault in the hope that this study might
point the way. Then, as the months began to grow into the close of his first year,
Reed took advantage of the casually informal operation at the Space
Service Base. He began to experiment with hardware on the theory that
he would have a better grasp of the problem if he tried some empirical
work as well as the academic approach. Junior Spaceman Howard Reed had been on Eden, Tau Ceti, for eighteen
terrestrial months before his superior officer, making a tour of
inspection, opened the office reserved for him at the Administration
Building. On the eighth day of his visit, Commander Breckenridge
summoned the junior spaceman to his office. | 1 |
It would detect those immediately and I would only
stand convicted as a liar or worse. Tonight's events might well spell
the end, the closing of the door just when I thought I stood on the
threshold of a momentous discovery....
* * * * *
Cephalon Ariz. Nov. 11th. Went to the P. G. last night. Tried everything for over an hour. Result:
zero. No contact with The Brain. * * * * *
Cephalon Ariz. Nov. | 1 |
He remembered now the skulking figure he had seen outside the house. There were more than two, for now he heard other voices, and some one
calling Targo's name. He held the girl closer and stood motionless. Like rats in a trap, he
thought. He felt the fingers of his right hand holding something heavy. It was a piece of stone--the stone he had looked at through the
microscope--the stone with which he had struck Targo. He smiled to
himself, and slipped it into his pocket. The girl had slowly pulled him over to the inner wall of the room. The
footsteps came closer. They would be here in a moment. | 1 |
Where will you find a cooler spot?" "Oh, it's cool enough anywhere! Let's go back," she replied, starting to
return as she spoke. She saw his excitement, and, being herself a little
confused, had no idea of allowing a scene to be precipitated just then. She flitted on before with so light a foot that he did not overtake her
until she came to a bank too steep for her to surmount without aid. He
sprang up and extended her his hand. Assuming an expression as if she
were unconscious who was helping her, she took it, and he drew her up to
his side. Then with a sudden, audacious impulse, half hoping she would
not be angry, half reckless if she were, he clasped her closely in his
arms, and kissed her lips. She gasped, and freed herself. "How dared you do such a thing to me?" | 1 |
"I will reorganise my campaign. First the
skirmishers, then the real attack. I will peg along with verses till
somebody begins to take my stories and articles." I felt easier in my mind than I had felt for some time. A story came
back by the nine o'clock post from a monthly magazine (to which I had
sent it from mere bravado), but the thing did not depress me. I got out
my glue-pot and began to fasten the rejection form to the wall,
whistling a lively air as I did so. While I was engaged in this occupation there was a testy rap at the
door, and Mrs. Driver appeared. She eyed my manoeuvres with the
rejection form with a severe frown. After a preliminary sniff she
embarked upon a rapid lecture on what she called my irregular and
untidy habits. | 2 |
"What's the meaning of this?" he muttered. "What was the idea?..." He picked it up examined it. Then he gave a grin and a click of the tongue
and chuckled, slowly:
"Don't move an eyelash, my dear. Let all these people clear off. All this
is no business of ours, is it? The troubles of police don't concern us. We
are two motorists travelling for our pleasure and collecting old saucepans
if we feel so inclined." He called his chauffeur:
"Adolphe, take us to the Parc des Landes by a roundabout road." | 3 |
"Naturally you doubt me, my boy, naturally. All you need do is to wait
until Friday the thirteenth and if I'm right you'll know it and if I'm
wrong you'll know it. But I assure you that I am not wrong. The war is
over and Roosevelt is the only obstacle to certain long-range practical
arrangements for organizing the peace. The Old World, mind you, doesn't
like outsiders like Wilson and Roosevelt telling them what to do with
victory. From now on, America is going to be immobilized. It's all
rather simple, really, but I haven't time to explain how simple it is
because the explanation is bloody complicated." "You still haven't told me why you have passed on this fantastic story
to me," I pointed out. "Oh, that? It's just this, my boy. | 1 |
"How can that possibly be?" "Mr. West, we are losing some charming music," was her only reply to
this, and turning to the telephone, at a touch of her finger she set
the air to swaying to the rhythm of an adagio. After that she took good
care that the music should leave no opportunity for conversation. She
kept her face averted from me, and pretended to be absorbed in the
airs, but that it was a mere pretense the crimson tide standing at
flood in her cheeks sufficiently betrayed. When at length she suggested that I might have heard all I cared to,
for that time, and we rose to leave the room, she came straight up to
me and said, without raising her eyes, "Mr. West, you say I have been
good to you. I have not been particularly so, but if you think I have,
I want you to promise me that you will not try again to make me tell
you this thing you have asked to-night, and that you will not try to
find it out from any one else,--my father or mother, for instance." To such an appeal there was but one reply possible. "Forgive me for
distressing you. | 1 |
This room is free of ammonia
gas." "But how in the star-blazing dickens can they keep it out of here when
everything else outside is flooded with it?" asked Tom. Astro spun around and began to examine the walls. "Just as I thought!" he exclaimed. "This room is airtight! Sealed! Oxygen is being pumped in
here." "From where?" | 1 |
My message was in code, but it could be quickly broken if someone wanted
to try hard enough. I took it to the message center myself. The psiman
was in his transparent cubicle and I locked myself in with him. His eyes
were unfocused as he spoke softly into a mike, pulling in a message
from somewhere across the galaxy. Outside the rushing transcribers
copied, coded and filed messages, but no sound penetrated the insulated
wall. I waited until his attention clicked back into the room, and
handed him the sheets of paper. "League Central 14--rush," I told him. He raised his eyebrows, but didn't ask any questions. Establishing
contact only took a few seconds, as they had an entire battery of psimen
for their communications. He read the code words carefully, shaping them
with his mouth but not speaking aloud, the power of his thoughts
carrying across the light-years of distance. | 1 |
She said unsteadily, "Holding the wire, I smell that
horrible smell." He put his hand on the wire's end. He shared the sensation. "Terror beam across the highway," he said calmly. "Maybe on our
account, maybe not. But there was a side road a little way back." He backed the car. He'd smashed the backing lights, too. He guided
himself by starlight. Presently he swung the wheel and faced the car
about. | 1 |
I only want to
know what it is that he is after. In the quiet hours when we are
alone with ourselves and there is nobody to tell us what fine
fellows we are, we come sometimes upon a weak moment in which we
wonder, not how much money we are earning, nor how famous we are
becoming, but what good we are doing. If a barrister ever has
such a moment, what is his consolation? It can only be that he is
helping Justice to be administered. If he is to be proud of his
profession, and in that lonely moment tolerant of himself, he
must feel that he is taking a noble part in the vindication of
legal right, the punishment of legal wrong. But he must do more
than this. Just as the doctor, with increased knowledge and
experience, becomes a better fighter against disease, advancing
himself, no doubt, but advancing also medical science; just as
the schoolmaster, having learnt new and better ways of teaching,
can now give a better education to his boys, increasing thereby
the sum of knowledge; so the barrister must be able to tell
himself that the more expert he becomes as an advocate, the
better will he be able to help in the administration of this
Justice which is his ideal. Can he tell himself this? I do not see how he can. His increased
expertness will be of increased service to himself, of increased
service to his clients, but no ideal will be the better served by
reason of it. | 2 |
It makes terrible hams of them all. He spat on the
floor. "A living doll," I said. I took a better look at this honey. Face it, he
was an oily snake, cleaned up as much as possible, but not enough. No
amount of dude ranch duds, gold spurs or Indian jewelry could hide his
stiletto mentality. He was just a Tenderloin hoodlum with some of the
scum scraped off. Well, I should know. So was I.
Simonetti finished licking the seam of his roach. He came forward as he
lit it and blew too much smoke in my face. | 1 |
"Very well," he said, finally, "It was nice knowing you." "Shut the door quietly on the way out," she retorted. He stared at her, his face revealing nothing. He turned, went to the
door, and opened it. He looked back. She had not moved. He left without
a word. Rhoda Kane lit another cigarette. She stared out across the East River
at the expensive view that went with her high-rent apartment. She got up
and went to the liquor cabinet and made herself a drink. | 1 |
I put
the gun away and stood up. I had a feeling I would have to put it over now or not at all. "The rest of the squadron is still out there. If we don't show, they'll
carry on alone. They're supplied for a century's operation. They don't
need us." That was true up to a point. The squadron had everything--except fuel. "You figure you got it made if you can get your hands on that
scout-boat," Arena said. "You figure to pick up fuel pretty easy by
knocking off say the Lackawanna Pile." | 1 |
When they sank out of sight it was supposed that the god had accepted
the present, and would show his gratitude for it by favoring winds and
peaceful weather. "A thousand years afterward history speaks of the occurrence derisively,
as an absurd superstition, and at the same time they believed in and
lauded a more absurd and cruel religion. They worshipped an imaginary
being who had created and possessed absolute control of everything. Some
of the human family it had pleased him to make eminently good, while
others he made eminently bad. For those whom he had created with evil
desires, he prepared a lake of molten fire into which they were to be
cast after death to suffer endless torture for doing what they had been
expressly created to do. Those who had been created good were to be
rewarded for following out their natural inclinations, by occupying a
place near the Deity, where they were to spend eternity in singing
praises to him. "He could, however, be persuaded by prayer from following his original
intentions. Very earnest prayer had caused him to change his mind, and
send rain when he had previously concluded to visit the country with
drouth. "Two nations at war with each other, and believing in the same Deity,
would pray for a pestilence to visit their enemy. Death was universally
regarded as a visitation of Providence for some offense committed
against him instead of against the laws of nature. | 1 |
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