Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 Part 5

"Now he'll never again face Ana with love in his eyes!"

"What!" broke in Hale. "Did you plan this monstrous thing?"

"Of course! I told you I should forever cure him of his mad infatuation."

"But why didn't you kill him, as you killed the others? It would have been the most merciful way."

Sir Basil showed his teeth in his ugly smile. "A creator is never merciful."

A quiver pa.s.sed through the Indian's body and presently, he sighed deeply and opened his eyes. He seemed dazed, puzzled. He looked from Hale to the scientist, and turned seeking eyes to other parts of the laboratory.

"Ana!" he called weakly. "Where is Ana?"

He pulled himself a little unsteadily to his feet--to the spatulated, hairy _rodent_ feet that had come out of the life-machine. Staggering, he would have fallen, had he not thrown out his arm to steady himself.

Instinctively he tried to grasp something for support, and then, for the first time, he discovered his deformity.

Hale was never to forget that expression of horror and disgust that swept over the Indian's face as he spread open his revolting extremities and stared at them.

A sudden, wild roar of despair rang through the room. "Aimu! My hands!"

The scientist smiled with evident amus.e.m.e.nt. "You are a grotesque sight, Unani a.s.su. Do you want to see Ana now?"

The fright and horror faded from the Indian's face, for now he glared with hate into the mad, mocking eyes.

"You did it!" the Indian ground out. "You've made me into a thing from which Ana will run screaming."

Through the quiet rage of the perfectly spoken English ran a thread of sorrow. "Aimu, whom we considered too holy to name!"

Choking, he hobbled away to the door, which he unbolted. As he pa.s.sed out into the open, Sir Basil went over to the machine and began sighting the projector which cast forth the ray of destruction.

"No!" cried Hale. "You've done enough murder for to-day."

The scientist paused. "I was trying to be merciful. And then, I wonder if it is safe to let him go, hating me? Oh, well!" He shrugged his narrow shoulders. "I seldom leave the laboratory, and certainly nothing can harm me here." He touched the death-projector significantly.

Hale made a mental decision. "I must find out how the d.a.m.ned thing works and put it out of commission."

With this determination uppermost in his mind, he a.s.sumed a more intense interest in the strange laboratory. For the next two days, he a.s.sisted Sir Basil so a.s.siduously that he learned much about the operation of the life-machine. And gradually he stopped being horrified as the fascination of producing life in the laboratory grew upon him.

After he had a.s.sisted the scientist in building living organisms from basic elements, he ceased to cringe when he remembered that perhaps it was true that Ana was created in the mysterious life-machine.

Once the scientist declared, "She is untainted with inheritance. She is the perfect mate that I called into life so that before I pa.s.s from the flesh I may taste that one human emotion I've never experienced--love."

That very night Hale kept a secret tryst with Ana after the village slept. Sweet, virginal Ana, who knew less of the world than a civilized child of twelve--what a sensation she would create in New York with her beauty, her culture, her natural fascination! With her in his arms and an orange tropical moon hanging low in the hot, black sky, he ceased to care that she had no ancestors, for now his one pa.s.sionate desire was to save her from Sir Basil and to hold her forever for himself.

He might have been content to go on like this for months, tampering with creation in the day time, courting Ana in secret at night, had not Unani a.s.su come back for revenge.

On the fourth night after Unani a.s.su had disappeared into the jungle, Hale went to the _igarape_ to meet Ana. He had gone only half the distance when he encountered her, running frantically up the path toward him.

"Hale!" she gasped, falling into his opened arms, where she lay panting and exhausted.

Hale gently patted the long braids, shimmering in silver tangles under the moonlight, and, crushing the soft little trembling body close, he murmured:

"What's the matter, darling?"

She dug her face deeper into the bend of his arm. "Oh, Hale! I saw Unani a.s.su a few minutes ago." For several moments she was unable to go on, for sudden sobs cut off her breath. "It's terrible, Hale, what Aimu did to his hands and feet, but what Unani's going to do to Aimu is still more terrible."

Hale placed his hand gently under her chin and tilted up her small, pale, tear-drenched face.

"Be calm, Ana, and tell me plainly."

Still clinging to him, she went on. "He told me that Aimu is a devil, Hale. He showed me his hands and asked me if I could ever get used to them and be--his squaw." The round gold breastplates and the necklace of painted seeds clinked together over her panting bosom. "I told him about you, Hale. And then he seemed to go mad. He said he'd kill Aimu to-night."

"But, Ana! Why did he let you go, knowing that you would give the alarm?"

"He didn't let me go." Her petaled lips parted in a faint smile. "I escaped. Unani a.s.su tied me to a tree by the _igarape_. Because he doesn't ... hate me, he could not bear to tie me too tightly."

"Then he must be close to the laboratory now. If he breaks in upon Aimu--oh, my G.o.d!"

Hale remembered the death-projector. If Sir Basil were in danger of attack, he would not hesitate to touch the waiting b.u.t.ton that would broadcast death throughout the world.

He seized Ana's little hand and cried out: "Run, Ana! The only safe place now is Aimu's laboratory. Run!"

As they dashed on madly, Hale opened wide his nostrils to scent the heavy, flower-laden air of the jungle. Any moment all this sweet, rich life might vanish instantly. He had a horrible vision of a world devoid of life, a world of bare rocks, dry sand, odorless, dead waters. For it was life that greened the landscape, roughened the stones with moss and lichen, thickened the ocean with ooze, and turned the dry sand into loam--life that swarmed underfoot, overhead, all around!

And now, just as they reached the laboratory door, panting and frantic, a hoa.r.s.e shriek broke forth. Dragging Ana after him, Hale dashed forward, conscious of two masculine voices raised in pa.s.sion.

The door to the room where the life-machine performed its vile work was locked. Hale pounded against it and called out to Sir Basil, but only curses and the sound of tumbling bodies came from beyond the door.

Although originally the door had been thick and strong, the destructive forces of the tropics had pitted and rotted the wood. A few blows of Hale's shoulder broke it down.

Under the brilliant electric light, Sir Basil and Unani a.s.su were fighting upon the blood-spattered floor. The struggle was uneven: the scientist's emaciated body was no match for the splendid strength of the young Indian.

"Help Aimu!" cried Ana, pushing Hale forward.

Aimu was being choked to death.

Hale acted fantastically but efficiently. Catching up a bottle of ammonia, he moistened a handkerchief and clapped it against Unani a.s.su's nose. Instantly the Indian choked, released Sir Basil, and fell back, gasping for breath.

Hale thrust the handkerchief into his pocket.

"Get out!" he ordered Unani a.s.su. "Quick!" He threatened him with the ammonia bottle.