Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 189, No. 4 — page 107: what you’re looking at

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

THE SUN TEST. lest some of the lunatic contagion spread to them. They were regarding the fleet one as people anywhere regard a man de- mented, or the victim of a fitful malady. In the opening between the two buttes, Tench could see smoke ascending lazily as from the embers of a dying fire. The mere sight was painful. He shuddered and closed his eyes for the moment. Then he looked to Xlaco imploringly, as he asked: “Is he dead?” “The Sun god has taken him,” Xlaco replied sternly. “ Terrible,” muttered Tench. “Tt is justice,” said Xlaco. ‘ Abominable! ‘Revolting!”’ “Tt is the will of the Sun god.” Tench flared back, indignantly: Mayan cruelty.” Xlaco rose to his full height and replied in solemn reproof: ‘A Mayan is never cruel. He is the obedient child of the Sun. He obeys the will of his god. Only the Sun can reward or punish. Only by obediently following the behests of the Sun can the Mayan remain on this earth.” “ But he was not a murderer. He was only a thief,’ Tench protested, his mind arguing after the event in favor of the late wily Pete, and prompted to judgment by the standards of the civilization mto which he had been born. A deep love for this wayward, unreason- ing young man must have actuated the heart of the old Mayan; for Xlaco took the trouble to explain. ‘“‘ He was a thief of the Sun’s Windows. He was caught entering the sacred mine. “Tf a heathen who does not estnie of the belief in the Sun god should possess a window of the Sun, he would become at once the father of all criminals, for the Sun’s Windows are terrible in beauty and arouse in the breast of man pride and envy, lust and murder. “One who would steal a window of the Sun is at heart both a thief and murderer. His crime places him beyond the judgment of man. He is a fit subject only for the test of the Sun. The god alone can judge him.” This inexorable, simple, savage logic ren- dered Tench speechless for a moment, espe- sf A “It is 577 cially on top of what he had just witnessed. He was none the less revolted, not more reconciled to the Mayan cruelty; but he perceived how useless was protest, and he realized that he had strained the indulgence of Xlaco almost to its limit. He saw the resentful glances of the guards who stood beside him. He felt in the sul- Jen looks of the Mayans beyond a growing resentment. If he was to save his own life, if he was to escape from these hideous con- ditions, he must tread warily. He could do nothing more for Pete; it was too late to think of that now. The sufferings of the miserable desperado were at an end. If he had died at the end of a noose, or a firing squad, Tench would not have been upset. It was only the method of the execution which unnerved him. As they proceeded back toward the stone huts Tench pondered silently, and came to a Clearer understanding of his own mental condition. The Sun test had brought him completely to his senses. This ended for him the lure of the primitive. The poetry and glamour of the life of his ancestors three or four thousand years before no longer had any hold on him. The tortuous evolution through those thou- sands of years down which his immediate progenitors had come had refined his soul. While the Mayans had stood still, his people had gone on, active in the life of the race, suffering, renouncing, achieving, conquering their cruel instincts, overcoming the brute within. He knew now that he could not go back. Renunciation of the generation and the times in which he had been born was im- possible. It had been a glamorous dream, but now he saw what horrible consequences might result from it if he indulged it fur- ther. Man does not stand still, he told himself. He must advance, ever on and on, up from the monad into man, from the brute into the human, from the animal to the spirit, out of hypocrisy into light and truth. No. He must turn his back on the Mayans, and quickly. He must escape from a pestilence, but he could not go without Za. It was more important that she should go, even than that he should get away. Gomichbooks (E(0)