Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition), April 1944 — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

THE BEAST There was. Padlocked. Big Oaf fumbled down into the fur that was strapped around his great belly, and produced a key. As the creature swung open the heavy door, Pen- drake extended his hand. “How about letting me have the lock? I don’t think I could climb up those walls if I happened to get left inside.” He spoke deliberately. He had done a lot of thinking of what his face-to-face policy to Big Oaf should be; and it seemed even now in the speaking that open distrust ex- pressed without rancor was psychologically correct. Big Oaf grimaced. “That place ain’t fer you. I built it strong and high like that so nobody nor nuthin’ could come through from Earth and catch me by surprise.” Nevertheless,” Pendrake insisted, “I wouldn’t be able to concentrate properly if I had even the feeling that maybe—” 3 Big Oaf grunted. “Look,” he said, “maybe you’d like to lock me in.” Pendrake pointed. “See that hill over there, about a hundred yards?” *Yaah?” “Throw it over there?” Big Oaf stared at him surlily, then he cursed. “Like hell! Suppose you get some- body over there to pick her up, and lock us both in Then they put an arrow in me, and let you out.” In spite of his tenseness, Pendrake smiled. “You’re one ahead of me,” he confessed. He frowned finally. It wasn’t that he had any real fear of Big Oaf at this stage. The man didn’t have to use trickery, not yet. And it might be a good idea, now that his protest had been made, to let the beast win. Not too fast, though. “Ever leave anybody in there?” he asked. The squat man hesitated. ““Yaah,” he said. “Two funny-lookin’ guys all dressed up in metal. They had a damn queer gun, all kinds of fine wires on it, and the whole thing shining with a blue light. “T used to have a scar on my shoulder where they burned me with it. I was scared stiff they’d burn down the stockade, but I guess it didn’t work on wood.” He sighed hoarsely with regret. “I’d sure like to have had that gun. But they took it with ’em when they jumped over the cliff.” Big Oaf explained: ““There’s another door that opens onto the cliff side. I opened it fer ’em, when they went mad. All this,” he finished, time that I was here.” “was long ago, maybe half the 37 Human beings with heat guns and metal suits five hundred thousand years ago— locked up with the machine for weeks. He tried to picture them caught in this tower- ing horror of a cage, with an ape thing looking dewn at them. The picture grew so vivid that, for a moment, he could almost see the men stag- gering from thirst and hunger and insanity leaping down to the merciful death below. The vastness of the elapsed time—and a crowding thought—abruptly dimmed the horrible vision. The interrupting thought grew enormous. He said at last, wearily: “You must be a sap, Big Oaf. If men who could make and understand guns like that, couldn’t make the machine reverse itself, how do you expect me to? In their deadly desperation, they must have tried everything.” “Huh!” said Big Oaf. Then he cursed his comprehension of the defeat that was here. All Pendrake said was: “Ill have a look, anyway.” But there was nothing. The trouble was, the machine had no knobs or dials, or any levers. It lay hard on the rock, an expanse of smooth metal, with a deep indentation where it functioned. The indentation was a regular cave. Pen- drake walked in without much hope, and his pessimism was justified. The active wall was pierced with tens of thousands, millions of tiny, needle-sized holes. He took out his lighter, and, holding the flickering flame in front of his master eye, tried to peer through the flame into one of the holes. Something glittered back at him. Shrugging, Pendrake came out of the cham- ber. “The control room must be elsewhere,” he said with decision. “In fact it has to be. There must be some kind of television con- trol board from which they aim the machine.” He stood, studying the rock. “Or perhaps we ought to try our hand at drilling under the machine. Might be some connecting cables.” He glanced up at Big Oaf. “You said something about other machines—” He left the question hanging. A scowl was gathering on the beast man’s hairy face. Big Oaf said curtly : “You ain’t seein’ no other machines till we make a deal. And just in case you figger you got lots of time to lie around here gettin’ all set with Devlin to knock me off my perch—that expedition is leavin’ to- morrow for some more women. comiicboo S (©