A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, October 1950 — page 109: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

106 A. MERRITT’S FANTASY his penthouse office below the silver dome. He sat down in front of the screen be- tween the staring iconoscope lenses. An engineer’s crisp voice told him that the private telebeam was tuned on the cruis- er’s communicator. “Hello, Patrol-cruiser Valiant.” He tried to swallow the shaky rasp in his throat. “Dr. Bull of Taurus, calling Pa- trol-cruiser— The prompt reply startled him: “Hello, Bull.” The voice sounded in- solent and amused. “I’ve been waiting for you. Tune your screen to Code N-89.” With trembling fingers, Dr. Bull de- pressed a series of keys on the console. His small eyes blinked at the suddenly illuminated screen. The face he saw there didn’t belong to any patrol officer. But he knew the massive forehead, the sullen lips, the high cheeks, the close-set, pierc- ing eyes. “Scarr!” he gasped. The seamed, ray-blackened visage was gtinning at him. “Yes, Bull, it’s Iron Scarr.” The pirate appeared to enjoy Bull’s stunned bewilderment. ‘We've come up together, you and I. You peddled . bottles of dirty water, and I cut throats in the meteor miner’s dives—and your lies, Bull, probably killed more men than my ion-gun ever did. “We came up together, Bull—and our games are still the same. Now you can hypnotize all the system with TAU, but stilt you peddle mud and water. I still kill men honestly, for what I want. But now, I’m looting planets.” Dr. Bull gulped again, and tried to stop the trembling of his white beard. “You won’t loot Taurus—not this time, Scarr.” His voice was hoarse and des- perate. “I’ve got a new safe, down at the core of Taurus, that even you can’t open. I’ve got most of my valuables cached safely—elsewhere. And I’ve got two new forts, strong enough to fight off the Val- iant.” ~ Scarr flung back his iron-gray, close- cropped head. His mouth opened cavern- ously, and his laughter thundered from the screen. “Tt isn’t Taurus, Bull.” The violence of laughter and voice were overdone, Dr. Bull thought uneasily. “I’ve come up, along with you. I have come merely to offer you an extraordinary opportunity. I need you for an ally to help me conquer and loot the Earth!” Dr. Bull’s mouth fell open. “Scarr, you're insane,” he said in a dry faint whisper. The pirate grinned. “Other great con- querors have been called crazy. I know, because once, when I lay for twelve years in a patrol prison, I devoted myself to a study of Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, the Red Nemesis, and the rest. I know how they succeeded, so far as they did, and why they failed. I have simply perfected a technique that has been three thousand years in development. “The problems are not essentially dif- ferent from those met in taking and loot- ing a ship. The technique is necessarily more elaborate, but the reward is propor- tion. There’s no call, Bull, for your out- raged stare. Not when you've been loot- ing the whole system, in your own way.” On the screen, Scarr leaned forward. “I need you, Bull.”’ His voice was swift and persuasive. ‘‘The first principle of attack is to secure communications, and TAU is the most effective instrument of communication in the system. Time is vital. I’m going to explain in a few words what I have done, and what remains to be done to make me master of Earth. When you understand, you'll join me gladly.” Dr. Bull’s eyes narrowed. “Go on.” a Oe by my technique, re- quires money, men, weapons, mili- tary skill, carefully planned fifth column cooperations, timing for surprise, scien- nn) (C 6)(0)©) Ss (C(O)