Air Wonder Stories, July 1929 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

70 AIR WONDER STORIES Birds there were in plenty so that the Mentors had all the serums and solutions and glands they needed. The Indians were the first to discover that children with wings were appearing among the white settlers and there began a time of persecution for the children of Mentor. “The next two centuries of their existence ap- pears to have been made up of flight, fleeing from haven to haven until at last they founded this settle- ment here on the edge of Peru with only a few savage tribes as neighbors, savages who look upon the alate as gods of some sort and have no inter- course with the white men. “Wings have come to them to stay, and they have prospered out here in the wilderness. Eventually the need of importing new blood drove them to stealing women. Occasionally, too, it appears that men have been picked up and brought to Mentor for the same purpose. Mentor, I believe, could account for the disappearances of whole scientific expedi- tions that have never been heard of again. They refuse to breed with any but people of their own race, hence the fact that Latins, Semites et cetera are never captured by them, Many of their women ._ die, too in giving birth to their children, and of late they have found it necessary to bring in as many women as they can find so that the eases they have planned can be brought into being . . Wormley sighed, “And that’s that. what?” “Tt all sounds highly improbable.” I noted, “I think that if 1 pinch myself I'll wake up.” “Don’t do that,” laughed Wormley, “for here comeg eur pretty nurse Miss Lois... And if I am not mistaken you are very much taken ,.. eh?” She came in smiling brightly and inquired as to how we were. She seemed to guess that we had been talking and she shook her finger at us and admonished us for exciting ourselves. She took our pulse and temperature and left us with directions to sleep. “Some baby, had gone. “Tt appears to me,” like Mentor after all!” Simple, eh ” commented Wormley when she I said, “that I could learn to CHAPTER FIVE Convalescence HE next week I spent in bed convalescing though I had very little pain. At first I was given a liquid diet and later more substantial food. Fruits, green vegetables, bread of corn and wheat flour and a few different varieties of wheat and fowl constituted the menu of Mentor, I noted imme- diately a strange foreign taste that I put down to some new condiment, but Wormley quickly put me straight. The strange flavor he said was due to Ingredient “B” that was fed to every man, woman and child in Mentor. Once a week Ingredient “A” was injected into our blood and twice monthly In- gredient ““C’ was added to the menu. I can’t say that any of it was very tasty. I learned later that I had already had a gland operation. “They're making full-fledged Mentorites out of us, old man,” Wormley declared. The second week I was allowed to sit up in a chair to take short walks in and around the hospital: I discovered just how complete an institution it was. Everything was kept spotlessly clean. Most of the work was devoted to the maternity wards where the young Mentorites were brought into the world scientifically and as easily as possible. One mother out of eight usually died in giving birth to the winged babies, The death rate had been higher before the coming of Doctor Morris and he was doing all he could to reduce it still more. There was a dispensary to attend the every-day sicknesseg and accidents such as those brought about by deadly insects or by the winged people who sometimes misjudged distances and hurt them- selves on limbs of trees, etc. Diseases were practically unknown even in this fever-infested land—tfor every precaution was taken. Healthy people are not prone to become diseased and the alate were healthy without a doubt, Then too, I discovered that every new captive was quarantined miles from the city for the duration of a month before they were allowed to intermingle with the Mentorites, and during that time their blood was purified and thoroughly cleansed of any lurking germ-cells. The reason that Wormley and I were not quarantined, of course, was due to our session in the hospital; and I learned that we had been completely de-germed. On the fifth day of my convalescence, I was allowed to climb the flight of steps that led upward and into the jungle. The trees grew high and thick and the sunlight had difficulty in finding its way through the branches. To offset this lack of sun in their underground cities every citizen whose work did not bring him into the sunlight was forced each day to take'a sun-bath either in the clearings or else on platforms reared high in the trees—where the beneficial rays of the sun could penetrate. And once daily a strong violet ray was switched on and swept throughout the city. A path led away from the entrance to the door- way through which I had come. The door itself was in the trunk of a giant tree that had been hollowed out and the bark placed on the door-panel so ingeniously that it was difficult to detect that it was a doorway from the outside, Nor was the path I trod a distinct one. It might have been one made by animals or the Indians. In fact, a stranger might have walked all about the ‘city’ or rather atop it and not know that life seethed beneath his feet. He might have even made his camp on the top of one of the sky-lights of the underground community without being aware that glass and concrete were his bed. The jungle had been cleared to some degree so that the winged people might move about more easily, but the clearing had been done in such a natural manner that one passing through the area would not have noticed particularly that it had been cleared. Strangers had in fact actually passed this way or camped hereabouts without being the wiser. No wonder Mentor could not be discovered by plane! As I came into the forest I met Miss Lois who was also out for an airing. She joined me and pointed out the points of interest as we strolled comnliclooolks.com