97

.fey THEOBOHE STUHGEBi

0 It wasn't vicious; it IT walked in the woods.
It was never born. It existed.
was simply curious—and Under the pine needles the fires
VEry haiMWy deadJyl burn,. deep and smokeless in the
mold. In heat and in darkness and
Illustrated by Edd Cartier decay there is growth. There is

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9S STREET vl- SMITH'S UNKNOWN

life and there is growth. I t grew, tail curled tightly over, his back and -
b u t It was not ahve. I t walked his long, jaws agape. H e ran \vltli
unbreathing through the woods, and an easy lope, loving his freedom and
thought and saw and was hideous the |X)wer of his flanks and furry'
and strong, and it was not born shoulders. His tongue lolled list-

4
and it did not hve. • I t grevy and lessly over his lips. His lips were
moved about without hving. black and serrated, and each tiny
I t crawled out of the darkness pointed liplet swayed with his doggy
and hot d a m p mold into the cool of gallop. Kimbo was all dog, all
a inorning. I t was huge. I t was healthy animal. -^
lumped and crusted with its own H e leaped high over a boulder and
hateful substances, and pieces of it landed with a startled yelp as a long-
dropped, off as it went its way,, eared cony shot from its hiding •
dropped off and lay writhing; and place under the rock. Kimbo hur-
stilled, and sank putrescent into the »tled after it, grunting witli each
forest loam; great thrust of his legs. The rabbit
I t had n& mercy, no laughter, no bounced just ahead of him, keeping
beauty. I t h a d strength and great its distance, its ears flattened on itS'
intelligence. And—perhaps it could curving back and its little legs nib^
not be destroyed. I t crawled out bling away at distance hungrily. I t
of its mound in the wood and lay stopped, a n d . K i m b o pounced, and
pulsing in ^the sunlight for a long the rabbit shot away a t a tangent
moment. Patches of it shone wetly and popped into a hollow log.
in the golden 'glow, parts of it- were Kimbo yelped again and rushed
nubbled and flaked. : And whose snuffling at tile log, and knowing
dead bones had given it, the form his failure, curvetted b u t once
of a man? around the s t u m p and ran on into
. I t scrabbled painfully with its the forest. T h e thing t h a t watched
half-formed h a n d s , beating thefrom the Avood raised its crusted
ground and the bole-of a tree. I t arms and waited for K i m b o .
rolled and lifted itself up on its K i m b o sensed it there, standing
crumbling elbows, and it tore up a. dead-still b y the xpath. To. him it
great handfid of herbs and shredded vvas a bulk which smelled of car- ••
them- against its chest, and it paused rion not fit to roll.in, and he shuffled
and gazed at the gray-green juices distastefully and r a n to pass it.
with intelligent calm. I t wavered T h e thing/-let him come abrea.st
to its feet, and seized a young sap- and dropped a heavy twisted fist on
ling and destroyed it, folding the him. K i m b o saw i t coming and-
slender t r u n k back on itself again curl'ed u p tight as. he ran, a n d . t h e
and again, watching attentively the hand clipped - stunningly on his
useless, fibered splinters. And it r u m p , sending him rolling and yip-
squealed, snatching up a fear-frozen ping down the slope. K i m b o strad-
field-creature, crushing it slowly, let-dled to his feet, shook his headj
ting blood and pulpy flesh a n e t f u rshook his b o d y with a deep growl,
ooze from between its-fingers'^ ruii came_ back t o - t h e silent-thing with
down and rot on the forearms. green murder in his eyes. H e walked- /
I t began searching. stiffly, straight-legged, his tail as
low as his lowered J i e a d a n d a ruff
KiMBO, drifted through, the tall of fury round his rieck. T h e thing
grasses like a puff of dust, his bushy raised its arrris again, waited.

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Kimbo- slowed, then flipped him- witbBabehere for that stunt of hers•
self through the air at the mon- last night." The preceding evening;
ster's throat; His jaws closed on it; Babe- had kind-heartedly poured-
his teeth clicked together through pepper on the cows' salt block.
a mass of filth, and he .fell choking "Don't worry, kiddo," grinned her

w and snarling at its feet. The thing

leaned down and struck twice, and
after the dog's back was. broken, it
sat beside him and began to tear him
apart. "
uncle, "I'll bring you the bad fella's
hide if he don't get me first."

ALTON DREW^ walked up the path

toward -the" wood, thinking about
Babe. She was a phenomenon—a
" B E BACK in an hour or so;'' sa,id pampered farm child. Ah well-—she
Alton Drew; picking up his rifle from had to be. They'd both loved Clissa
the corner behind the wood box. His Drew, and she'd married Cory, and
brother laughed. : they had to love Clissa's child.
"Qld Kimbo 'bout runs yoiir life, Funny thing, love. Alton was a
Alton," he said. • . •. - man's man; and thought things out
"Ah, I know the ol' devil," said" that; way;:'and his reaction to. love
Alton. "When I whistle for him for was a strong and frightened one. He
half an hour and-he don't show up, knew what love was because he felt
he's in a jam or he's treed something it still for his brother's wife and
wuth shootin' at. The ol' son of • would feel it. as long as he lived for
a gun calls me by not answerin'." Babe. It led him through his ,life,
Cory Drew, shoved a full glass of and yet he! emb.^rrassed himself, by
miilk over to his nine-year-old- daugh- thinking of it. Loving a dog was
ter and smiled. "You think as much an easy thing, because you' and the
o' that houn'-dog o' yours as I do old devi' '".ould love one another com-
of Babe here." pletely without talking about it.
Babe slid off her chair-and ran to The smell of gun smoke^ and the
her uncle. "Gonna catch me the sihell of wet fur in the rain.were per-
bad fella. Uncle Alton?" she shrilled. fume enough for Alton^ Drew, a
The "bad fella" was Gory's inven- grunt oi satisfaction and the scream
tion—the one who lurked in corners of! something hunted and hit were
ready to pounce on little girls who poetry enough. They weren't lijic
chased - the ' chickens and .played love; for a human, that choked his
around mowing machines and hurled throat so he could hot say words
green apples with a powerful young he, could not have thought of any-
arm. at the sides of the hogs, to hear way. . So Alton loved his dog Kimbo
the synchronized thud -and <• grunt; and. his Winchester for all to see,
little girls who swore with an\ Aus- and let his. love for his brother's
trian accent like an ex-hired; man-- women, Clissa and Babe, eat at him
they had had; who dug caves in hay- . quietly and unmentioned.
stacks till they tipped over, and kept His quick eyes saw the fresh in-
pet crawfish in tomorrow's riiilk dentations in the soft earth behind
cans, and rode work horses to, a the boulder, which showed where
lather in the- night pasture. Kimbo had turned and leaped with
"Get back here and-keep .away : a .single: sui^ge,. chasing t h e rabbit.
froim Uncle Alton's gun!" said Cory.. Ignoring the tracks, he looked.for
"If you see the bad fella, Alton, the nearest .place where a rabbit
chase him back here; He has a date might hide, and strolled over to the
UN—7

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stump. Kimbo had been there, he the dusk. Night was ever a strange
saw, and had been there too late. thing, even for those of uS"who have
"You're an ol' fool," muttered Alton. known it in life. It would have been
"Y' can't catch a cony by chasin' frightening for the monster had it
it. You want to cross him up some been capable of fright, but it could
way." He gave a peculiar trilling only be curious; it could only reason
whistle, sure that Kimbo was dig- from what it had observed.
ging frantically under some nearby What was happening? It was get-
stump for a rabbit that wa,s three ting harder to see. Why? It threw
counties away by now. No answer. its shapeless head from side to side.
A little puzzled, Alton went back to It was true—things were dim, and
the path. "He never done this be- growing dimmer. Things were
fore," he said softly. There was changing shape, taking on a new
something about this he didn't like. and -darker color. What did the
He cocked his .32-40 and cradled creatures it had crushed and torn
it. At the county fair someone had apart see? How did they see? The
once said of Alton Drew that he larger one, the one that had at-.
could shoot at a handful^of salt and "tacked, had used two organs, in its
pepper thrown in the air and hit head. That must have been it, be-
only the pepper. Once he split a cause after the thing had torn off
bullet on the blade of a knife and two of the dog's legs it had struck
put two candles out. He had no- at the hairy muzzle; and the dog,-
need to fear anything that could be seeing the blow coming, had dropped
^shot at. That's what he believed. folds of skin over the organs^-closed
its eyes. Ergo, the dog saw with its
T H E THING in the woods looked eyes. But then .after the dog was
curiously down at what it had done dead, and its body still, repeated
to Kimbo, and moaned the way blows had had no effect on the
Kimbo had before he died. It stood eyes. They remained open and
a minute storing away facts in its staring. The logical conclusion was^
foul, uneiSotional mind. Blood was then, that a being that had ceased to
' warm. The sunlight was- warm. live and breathe and move about
Things that moved and bore fur lost the use of its eyes. It must be
had a muscle to force the thick that to lose sight was, conversely,
liquid through tiny tubes in their to die. Dead things did not walk
bodies. The liquid coagulated after about. They lay^down and did not
a time; The liquid on rooted green move. Therefore the thing in the
things was thinner and the loss of a- wood concluded that it must be
limb did not mean loss of life. . It dead, and so it lay down by the path,
was very interesting, but the thing, not- far away frorn Kim bo's scat-
the mold with a mind, was not tered body, lay down and believed
pleased. Neither' was it displeased. itself dead.
Its accidental urge was, a thirst for
knowledge, and it was only—inter- ALTON D R E W came up through
ested. \ the dusk to the wood. He was
It was growing late, and the sun frankly worried. Pie whistled again,
reddened and rested awhile on the and then called, and there was still
hilly horizon, teaching the clouds no response, and he said again, "The
to be inverted flarnes. The thing ol' flea-bus never done this before,"
threw up its head suddenly,, noticing and shook his heavy head. I t was

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past milking time, aiid Cory would chion'lock and slapped the Ayr-
need him. "Kimbo!" he roared. shire on the rump. The cow backed
The cry echoed through the shadows, and filled like a towboat, clattered
and Alton flipped on the safety down the line and out into the barn-
catch of his rifle and put the butt yard. "Ain't back yet."
on the ground beside the path; "Not back?" • Clissa came in and
Leaning on it, he took off his cap stood beside him as he sat by the
and scratched the back of his head, next cow, put his forehead against
wondering. The rifle butt sank the warm: flank. "But, Cory, he
into what he thought was soft said he'd—"
earth; he staggered and stepped into "Yeh, yeh, I know. He said he'd
the chest of the thing that lay be- be back fer the milkin'. I heard
side the path. His foot went up to him. WeU, he ain't."
the ankle in its yielding rottenness, "And you have to— Oh, Cory,
and he swore and juinped back. - I'll help you finish up. Alton wQuld
"Whew! Sompn sure dead as be back if he could. Maybe he's—"
hell there! Ugh!" He swabbed at "Maybe he's treed a blue-jay,"
his boot with a handful of leaves snapped her husband. "Him an'
while the monster lay in the grow- that damn dog." He gestured:
ing blackness with the edges of the hugely with one hand while the other
deep footprint in its chest sliding went on milking. " I got twenty-six
into it, filling it up. It lay there head o' cows to milk. I got pigs
regarding him dimly' out of its to feed an' chickens to put to bed.
muddy eyes, thinking it was dead I got to toss hay for the mare and
because of the ^ darkness, watching turn the team out. I got harness
the articulation of Alton . Drew's to mend and a wire down in the
joints, wondering "at this new uncau- night pasture. I got wood to split
tious creature. an' carry." He milked for a moment
Alton cleaned the butt of his gun in silence, chewing on his lip. Clissa
with more leaves and went on up ,the stood twisting her hands together,
path, whistling anxiously for Kimbo. trying to think of something to
stem the tide. I t wasn't the first
CLISSA D K E W stood in the door tinie Alton's hunting had interfered
of the milk shed, very lovely in red- with the chores. "So I got to go
checked gingham and a blue apron-. ahead with it. I can't interfere with
Her hair was clean yellow, parted in Alton's spoorin'. Every damn tinie
the middle and stretched tautly back that hound o' his smells out a squir-
to a heavy braided knot. "Cory! rel I go without my supper. I'm
Alton!" she called a little sharply; gettin' sick and'—•!'
"Well?" Cory responded gruffly "Oh, I'll help you!" said,Clissa.
from the barn, where he was strip- She was thinking of the spring,'when
ping off the Ayrshire. The dwind- Kimbo had held four hundred
ling streams of milk plopped pleas- pounds of raging black bear at bay
antly into the froth of a full pail. until Alton could put a bullet in its
"I've called and called," said brain, the time Babe had found a
Clissa. "Supper's cold," and Babe bearcub and started to carry, it
won't eat until you come. Why home, and had fallen into a freshet,
—where's Alton?" cutting her head. You can't hate
Cory grunted, heaved the stool a dog that has saved your child for
out of the way, threw over the stan- you, she thought;

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"You'll do nothin' of the kind!" looked at his broad baelj. He was

Cory growled. "Get back to the twenty-eight, and he walked and
house. You'll find work enough acted like a man ten years older, and
there. I'll be along when I can. looked like a man five years
Dammit, Clissa, don't cry! I younger. "I'll be up in a while,"
didn't meant to—• Oh, shucks!" He Clissa said. :• ' -'
got up and put his arms around her. Cory glanced at the corner behind
"I'm wrought up," he said. Go on the wood box where Alton's i^ifle «
now. I'd no call to speak that way usually stood, then made an un-
to you. I'm sorry. Qo ;,back to spellable, disgusted sound and sat
Babe. I'll put a stop to this for down to take oft' his heavy muddy
good tonight. I've had enough. shoes. ~
There's work here for four farrners "it's after nine," Clissa. volun-
an' all we've got is me an' that . . . teered tiinidly. .Cory said, nothing,
that huntsman. reaching for house slippers.
"Go on now, Clissa,"
"Cory, you're not going to—''
[ "All right," she said into his
shoulder. "But, Cory, hear him .- "Not. going to what.?"
out first when he coines back. He "Oh, nothing. I just thought that
might be unable to come back this maybe Alton—"
tirne. Maybe he . . . he^—" "Alton!" Cory flared. "The dog
"Ain't nothin' kin hurt my brother goes hunting field mice. Alton goes
that a bullet will hit. He can take hunting the dog. Now you want
care of himself. He's got no excuse me to-go hunting Alton." That's
good enough this time. Go on, now. what you want?" '
Make the kid eat." " I just— He was never this
Clissa went back to the house, her la:te before."
young face furrowed. If Cory quar- "I won't dp it! Go out lookin'
reled with Alton now and drove him for him at nine o'clock in the night?
away, what with the drought and I'll be damned! He has no call to
the creamery about to close and all, use us so, Clissa."
they just couldn't manage! Hiring
a man was out of the question. CHssa said nothing. She,>vent to
Cory'd have to work himself, to the stove, peered into the wash
death, and he just wouldn't be able boiler, set it aside at the back of
to make it. No one man could. the range. When she turned around,
She sighed and went into the house. Cory had his shoes arid, coat on
It was seven o'clock, and the milk- again.
ing not done yet. Oh, why did Al- "I knew you'd go," she said. Her
ton have to— o'' • • ' voice smiled though she did not.
Babe was in bed at nine when "I'll be back durned soon," said
Clissa heard Cbry in the shed, sling- Cory. "I don't reckon he's strayed
ing the wire cutters into a corner. iar. I t is Tate. I ain't feared for
"Alton back yet?" they both said him, but—" He broke his i2-gauge
at oiice as Cory stepped into the shotgun, looked through th6 barrels,
kitchen; and as she shook her head slipped two shells in the bi-eech and
he clumped over to the stove; and a box of them into his pocket.
lifting a: lid, spat into the coals. "Don't wait up," he said over his
"Come to bed," he said. shoulder as he went oiit. "
She lay down her stitching and "I' won't," Clissa replied to the

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closed door, and went back to her ter with you? What do I care if
stitching by the lamp. your mutt didn't answer? Where—"
"I guess because he ain't never
T H E PATH up the slope to the died before," said Alton, refusing
wood was very dark when Gory to be interrupted.
went up it, peering and calling. The "You what?" Cory clicked his
air was chill and qiiiet, and a fetid lips together twice and then said.
odor of mold hung in it. Cory blew "Alton, you turned crazy? What's
the taste of it out through impa- that you say?"
tient nostrils, drew it in again with
the next breath, and swore. "Non- "Kimbo's dead."
sense," he muttered. "Houn'-dawg. "Kim . . . oh! Oh!" Cory was
Huntin', at ten in th' night, too. seeing that picture again in his
Alton!" he bellowed. "Alton Drew!" m i n d ^ Babe sprawled unconscious
Echoes answered him, and he en- inthe freshet, and Kimbo raging and
tered the wood. The huddled thing snapping against a monster bear,
he passed in the dark heard him , holding her back until Alton could
and felt the vibrations of his foot- get there. "What happened, Alton?"
steps and did not move because it he aslfed more quietly.
thought it was dead. - "I aim to find out. Someone tore
Cory strode on, looking around him up." .
'and ahead and not down since his "Tore him up?"
feet knew the path. "There ain't a bit of him left
"Alton!" tacked together, Cory. Every damn
"That you, Cory?" joint in his body tore apart. Guts
Cory Drew froze. That corner out of him."
of the wood was thickly set and as "Good God! Bear, you reckon?"
dark as a burial vault. ' The voice
he heard was choked, quiet, pene- "No bear, nor nothin' on four
trating. legs. He's all here. None of him's
"Alton?" been et. Whoever done it just
killed him an'—tore him up."
"I found Kimbo, Cory."
"Where the hell have you been?" "Good God!" Cory said . again.
shouted Cory furiously. He dis- "Who could've—" There was a
liked this pitch-blackness; he was long silence, then. . "Come 'long
afraid at the tense .hopelessness of home," he said almost gently.
Alton's voice, and he mistrusted his "There's no call for you to set up
ability to stay angry at his brother. by him all night."
"I called him, Cory. I whistled "I'll set. I aim to be here at
at him, an' the ol' devil didn't an- . siihup, an' I'm goin' to start trackin',
swer.'' . an' I'm goin' to keep trackin' till
I find the one done this job on
"I can say the same for you, you Kimbo." .
. . . you louse. Why weren't you to "You're drunk or crazy, Alton."
milkin'? Where are you? You / "I ain't drunk. You can think
caught in a trap?" what you like about the rest of it.
"The houn' never missed answerin' , I'm sticken' here."
me before,'y6u know," said the tight, "We got a farm back yonder.
monotonous voice from the darkness. Remember? I ain't going to milk
"Alton! What the devil's the mat- twenty-six head o'- cows again in

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It was very cnrians afaout tlie doiqi's

attack—so It'tnali the dpq apart->

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the mornin' like I did jest now, within it thoughts trickled wetly.
Alton." It lay huddled, dividing its nevv-
"Somebody's got to. I can't be ' found facts, dissecting them as it
there. I guess you'll just have to, had dissected live things when there
.Cory,." . was light, comparing, concluding,
"You dirty scum!" Cory screamed. pigeonholing.
"You'll come back with me now or The trees at the top of the slope
I'll know why!" could just be seen, as their trunks
were a fraction of a shade lighter
Alton's voice was still tight, half-, than the dark sky behind them.
sleepy.- "Don't yoii come no nearer,
bud." At - length they, too, disappeared,
and for a moment sky and trees were
Cory kept moving toward Alton's a monotone. The thing knew it was
voice. ' -'•'.. • • • .' • dead now, and like many a being
"I said"—the voice was very before it,.-it wondered how long it
quiet now—"stcyp where you are." must stay like this. And then the
Cory kept coniing. - A sharp click sky beyond the trees grew a little
told of the release of the .32-40's lighter. That was a manifestly im-J
safety. . Cory stopped. ~ possible occuirence, thought the
"You got your gun on me, Alton?" thing, but it could see it and it
Cory whispered. • . ' must be so. - Did dead things live
"Thass right,, bud. You ain't again? That was curious. What
a-trompin' up these tracks for me. " about dismembered dead things?
I need 'em at sun-up." It would wait-and'see; • ! ' : -
A full minute, passed, arid the : The sun came hand over .hand
only sound in the blackness was that up a beam of light. ' A bird< some-
of Cory's pained breathing. Finally: where made ^' a high" yawning peep,
and as an owl: killed a shrew, a
"I got my gun, too, Alton. ,Come skunk pounced on another, so that
home.". - • the night shift deaiths and those .
"You.can't see to shoot me." of the day could-go on without cessa-
;"We're even on t h a t / ' tion. Two flowers nodded archly
"We ain't. I know just where to each -other, comparing their
you stand, Cory. I been here four pretty clothes.; A,dragon fly nymph
hours." . • - decided it was tired of looking seri-
"My gun scatters." ous and cracked its back open, to
"My gun kills." • >/ crawl out and dry gauzily. The
first golden ray shea,red down be-
Without another w:ord Cory Drew tween the'trees, through the grasses,
turned on his heel and stamped back passed over, the mass in the shad-
to the farm. • - . - . - owed bushes. " I am alive again,"
thought the thirig that could not
BLACK and liquescent it lay in possibly live. " I am alive, for I
the blackness, not alive, not under- - siee clearly." I t stood up on .its
standing death, believing itself dead'. thick legs,, up into the golden glow.'
Things that were alive saw and In a little while the wet flakes ^that
moved about. Things that were had grov/n during the night dried
not alive could do neither. It rested in the sun, and when it took its first
its muddy gaze on the line of trees steps, they cracked off and a little
at the crest of the rise, and deep shower of them fell away. It walked

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up the slope to find Kiiribo, to see if "What's a misbegotten, Mum?"

he, too, were alive again. . the Babe asked suddenly. Her
mother nearly dropped the dish she
BABE LET the sun- come into her was drying. "Babe! You must
room by opening her eyes. Uncle never say that again!"
Alton was gone—that was the first "Oh. Well, why is Uncle Alton,
thing that ran through her head. then?"
Dad had come home last night and "Why is he what?"
had shouted at mother for an hour.
i Babe's mouth muscled arouiid an
Alton was plumb crazy. He'd turned
a gun on his own brother. If Alton outsize spoonful, of oatmeal. . "A
ever came ten feet into Cory's land, misbe—"
Cory would fill him so full of holes "Bahel"
hfe'd look like a tumbleweed. Alton "AH right. Mum," said Babe with
was lazy, shiftless, selfish, and one her mouth full. "Well, why?"
or two other things of questionable "I told Cory not to shout last
taste but undoubted vividness. night," Clissa said half to herself.
Babe'knew her father. Uncle Alton "Wdl, whatever it means, he
would never be safe in this county. isn't," said Babe with finality. "Did
She bounced out of bed in the he go hunting again?"
enviable way of the very young, and "He went to look for Kimbo,
ran to the window. Cory was trudg- darling."
ing down to the night pasture with "Kimbo? Oh Mummy, is. Kimbo
two.bridles over his arm, to get the gone,' too? Didn't he come back
teani. There were kitchen noises either?" '
from downstajirs. "No dear. Oh, please, Babe, stop
Babe ducked her head in the asking questions!"
washbowl a;nd shook off the water ,"A1 right. Where do you think
like a terrier before she toweled. they went?"
Trailing clean shirt and dungarees, "Into the.north woods.. Be quiet."
she went to the head of the, stairs, Babe gulped away at heir break-
slid into the shirt, and began her fast. An idea struck her; and as .
morning ritual with the trousers. she thought of it she ate slower
One step down was a step through and slower, and cast more and more
the right leg. One more, and she glances ^at her mother froni under
was into the left. Then, bouncing the iashes of her tilted eyes. It
step by step on both feet, button- would be awful if daddy did any-
ing one button per step, she reached thing to -Uncle Alton. Someone
the bottom fully dressed and; ran ought to warn him.
into the kitchen. Babe was halfway to the woods
when Alton's .32-40 sent echoes gig- -
" "Didn't Uncle Alton come back gling up and down the valley.
a-tall. Mum.?"
"Morning, Babe. No, dear." CORY was in the south thirty,
Clissa was too quiet, ismiling too riding a cultiva-tor and cussing at
much. Babe thought shrewdly. the team of grays when he heard
Wasn't happy, j, , •{ the gun. "Hoa," he called to the
"Where'd he go, Mum?" " horses, and sat a moment to listen
"We don't know. Babe. Sit down to the sound. "One-two-three.
and eat your breakfast." Four," he counted. "Saw sOmeone,

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 IT 107

blasted away at him. Had a chance at the long path. He puffed up the
to take aim and give him another, slope to the woods, agonized for
careful. My God!" He threw up breath after the forty-five minutes'
the cultivator points and steered heavy going. He couldn't even no-
the • team^ into the shade of • three tice the damp smell of mold in the
oaks. He hobbled the gelding with air.
swift tosses of a spare strap, and He caught a movement in a
headed for the woods. "Alton a thicket to his right, and dropped.
killer," he murmured, and doubled Struggling to keep his breath, he
back to the house for his gun. Clissa crept forward until he could see
was standing just outside the'door. clearly. There was something in
"Get shells!" he snapped. and there, all right. Something black,
flung into the house. Clissa fol- keeping still .^ Cory relaxed his legs
lowed him. He was strapping his and torso completely to make it
hunting knife on before she could easier for his heart to pump some
get a.box off the shelf. "Cory-=—" strength back into them, and slowly,
"Hear that gun, did you? Alton's . raised the 12-gauge until it bore
off his nut. He don't waste lead.. on the thing hidden in the thicket.
He shot at someone just then, and "Come out!" Cory said when he
he wasn't fixin' to shoot pa'tridges could speak.
when I saw him last. He was out
Nothing happened.
to get a man. Gimme my gun."
"Cory, Babe—" ' "Come out or by God I'll shoot!"
"You keep her here. Oh, God, rasped Cory.
this is a helluva mess. I can't stand There was, a long moment of si-
much more." Cory ran out the lence, and his finger tightened on
door. th& trigger.
Cissa caught his arm: "Cory, I'm "You asked for it," he said, and
trying to tell you. ' Babe isn't here. . as he fired the thing leaped side-
I've called, and she isn't here." ways into the open, screaming.
-Cory's heavy, young-old face It was a thin little man dressed in
tautened. "Babe—.• Where did you sepulchral black, and bearing the
last see her?" rosiest little baby-face Cory had
"Breakfast." . Clissa was crying ever seen. The face was twisted
now. - with fright and pain. The little
"She say where she was going?" man scrambled to his feet and
. "No. She asked a lot °of ques- hopped up and down saying over
tions about Alton and where he'd and over, "Oh, my hand. Don't
gpiie."/ shoot again! Oh, my hand. Don't
"Did you s'ay?" shoot again!" He stopped after a
bit, when Cory had climbed to his
Clissa's eyes widened; and she feet, and he regarded the farmer out
nodded, biting the back of her h«nd. of sad china-blue eyes. "You shot
"You shouldn't ha,', done that, me,''.he said reproachfully, holding
Clissa," he gritted, and ran toward up a little bloody hand. "Oh, my
the woods. Clissa looking after • goodness.."' •
him, and in that moment she could Cory said, "Now, who the hell are
haye, killed herself. you?"
Cory ran with his head up, strain- , The man immediately became
ing with his legs and lungs.and eyes hysterical, mouthing such a flood

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108
'^jt^'
m^-"^
"it r i g ; n l*v» i» Ih
•;-. X - S " * * * ^ ' " ' ' V
of broken sentences that Cory
stepped back a pace and half-raised
his gun in self-defense. It seemed
• -''la ^ . - - L ' to consist mostly of "I lost my
•**?-'-5:#'^ .'^ - papers," and "I didn't do it," and
-?X "^i^-'w-K.^^ 1 "It was horrible. Horrible. Hor-
V*V-S5, • . -f'^'l rible," and "The dead.man," and
• t ' J- • -^
Oh, don't shoot again."
s •v:-' "N '-^
I * ?•' •• • . - Cory tried twice to ask him a
•J* 1 j d ' 4 h "fa. 'fr
question, and then he stepped over
^'4 ' 'y^^AfiJ..-^,- and knocked the man down. He
E A C H M O N T H W I T H • A M O D E L^ lay on the ground writhing and .
AIRPLANE YOU GET FREsf moaning and blubbering and putting
Each month during May, June, July,
his bloody hand to his mouth where
August and September, 1940, Street-&
Cory had hit him.
Smith will offer prizes for those who con- "Now what's going on around
struct a n d fly the country's best Class C here?''
rubber-powered rnodel airplanes. There The man rolled over and sat up.
" will be 100, awards—$265.00 in a l l -
"I didn't do it!" he sobbed. " I
twenty prizes each month for five months,-
OS follows: ',
didn't! I was walking along and
I heard the gun and I heard some
1st prize each m o n t h ^ $ 2 5 . 0 0 ' swearing and an awful scream and
2nd prize each month—-$10.00 I went over there arid peeped and
3 r d to 10th prizes each m o n t h ^ A . M e -
I saw the dead man and I ran away
gow .Model Kit of the Kordq-Wake- and you came and I hid and you
field World's Champion M o d e l — shot me and—"
Value $1.00 each "Shut up!" The man did, as if a -
11 th to 20th prizes each • m o n t h — A switch had been thrown. "Now,"
C o m e t . M o d e l Kit of the Cahill-Wake- said Cory, pointing along the path,
field W o r l d ' s C h a m p i o n Model—^ "you say there's a dead man up
Value $-1.00 each there?" ° -
G E T Y O U R A I R P L A N E FREE The man nodded and began ci*y-
W i t h a one year's subscription to
ing in earnest. Cory helped him up.
U N K N O W N we will send you FREE a
"Follow this path back to my fa,rm-
• "Sun Spot," Class C, rubber-powered, house," he said. "Tell my wife to
36-inch wing-spread model kit which we fix up your hand. Don't telKher-
have had designed ^'specially for this anything else. And wait there until
contest by Joe O t t a n d which you may i cortie. Hear?"
enter for tjie prizes. Full details will be "Yes. Thank you. Oh, thank
mailed you.with your model kit. . you. Snff."'
. ;"Go on now." Cory gave him a
STREET a S M I T H PUBLICATIONS. I N C .
Dept. A - N . 79 7th Ave.. New Yorb. N. Y.
gentle shove in the,right direction
and went alone, in cold fear, up the
Inclosed is $2.00 f o r "which Icindly send a
year's subscription t o U N K N O W N aiid a
path to the spot where he had found
"Sun S p o t , " Class C, rubber-powered, 36- Alton the night before..
inch wing-spread, model kit for making the He found him nere now, too, and
plane which I w i l l enter in the contest for
the monthly awards. Kimbo. Kimbo and Alton had
NAME :..'. '.: '.:::....2 •;...• :;.;:;.;i;;
spent several years together in the
deepest friendship; they had hunted
ADDRESS .....;..,
and fought and slept together, and
CITY ....;.STATE.; the lives they owed each other were

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 IT 109

finished'now.. They were dead to- though his-nostrils crinkled a little ^

gether. . ' with its foulness.
It was terrible that they died the The monster'had three little holes
same way. Cory Drew was a strong close together on its chest, and one
man, biit he gasped and fainted dead little hole in the middle of its slimy
away when he saw what the thing forehead. It had three close-set pits
of the mold had done to his brother in its back and one on the back of
and his brother's dog. i t s head. These marks were where
Alton Drew's bullets had struck and
T H E LITTLE MAN in black hurried passed through. Half of the mon-
down the path, whimpering and ster's shapeless face was sloughed
holding his injured hand as if he away, and there was a deep indenta-
rather wished he could limp with tion on its shoulder. This was what
it. After a while the whimper faded Alton Drew's gun biitt had done
away, and the hurried stride changed after he clubbed it and struck at the
to a walk as the gibbering terror of thing that would not lie down after
the last hour receded. He drew two he piit his four bullets through it. -
deep ibreaths, said: "My goodness!" When these things happened the
and felt almost normal. He bound monster was not hurt or angry. I t
a vlinen handkerchief around his only wondered why Alton Drew -
wrist, but the hand kept bleeding. acted that way. Now it followed
He tried the elbow, and that made it the little man without hurrying at
hurt. So he stuffed the handker- all, matching his stride step by step
chief back in his pocket and simply and dropping little particles of muck
waved the hand stupidly in the air behind it.
until the blood clotted. The little man went on but of the
It wasn't much of a wound. Two wood and stood with his back
of the balls of shot had struck him, against a big tree at the forest's
one passing through the fleshy part edge, and he thought. Enough had
of his thumb and the other scoring happened to him here. What good
the side. As he thought of it, he would it do to stay and face a hor-
became a little proud that he had rible , murder inquest, just to, con-
borne a gunshot wound. He strolled tinue this silly, vague quest? , There
a^long in the midmorning sunlight, was supposed to be the ruin of an
feeling a dreamy communion' with old, old hunting lodge deep in this
the boys at the front. "The whine wood somewhere, and perhaps it
of shot and shell—" Where had he would hold the evidence he wanted.
read that? Ah, what a story this But it was a vague report—vague
would make. "And there beside enough to be forgotten without re-
the"—what was the line?—"the gret. It would be the height of fool- ~
embattled farmer stood." Didn't ishness to stay for all the hick-town
the awfulest things happen in the red tape that would follow that
nicest places? This was a nice for- ghastly affair back in the wood.
est. No screeches and snakes and Ergo, it would be ridiculous to fol-
deep dark menaces. Not a story- low that farmer's a,dvice, to go to
book wood, at all. Shot by a gUn. his house and wait for him. He
How exciting! He was now—he would go back to town.
strutted-^a gentleman adventurer. The monster was leaning against
He did not see the great moist hor-
ror that clumped along behind him. the other side of the big tree.'
' The little man snuffled disgustedly

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 110 STREET & SMITH'S UNKNOWN

at a sudden overpowering odor of breath, and, went inore slowly, in-

rot. He reached for his handker- stead., _ . . .
chief, fumbled and dropped it. As At the top of the rise by t h e edge
he bent to pick it up, the monster's of the woods she stopped and looked
arm whuffed heavily in the air ,back. V Far down in the valley lay
where his head had been—a blow the south thirty. She scanned it
that would certainly have removed cai-efully, lobkiiig for .her. father.
that baby-faced protuberance. The The new furrows and the. old' were
man stood up and would have put sharply defined, and her keen eyes
the handkerchief to his nose had it saw irnrnediately; that Cory had left
not been so bloody. The creature, ilhe line with the cultivator and had
behind the tree lifted its arm again, •angled the team over to the, shade
just' as ;the little man tossed the trees . without finishing his row.
handkerchief away and stepped out That wasn't like' him. She could
into the field, heading across coun- ,see the team'now, and Cory's pale-
try to the, distant highway; that -blue denim was not in sight. •
would take him bafck to town; • The ; A little nearer, was the house; and
monster pounced on the handker- as hei" gaze fell on it she, rriovedbut
chief, picked it up, studied it, tore of the cleared p^athway. Her "father
it across several times and inspected was coming; she had seen his shot-
the' tattered edges. Then it gazed gun and he was running.^ He could „
vacantly at the disappearing figure really cover ground, when he wanted
of' the little m a n , and finding, hiixi to' He must be .chasing: her,-she
. no longer interesting,, turned back thought immediately. He'd guessed
into the woods. : that she would run toward the
sound of the shots, and he was going
'.BABE BROKE into a trot at tlie ,,to follow her tracks to Uncle Alton
sound of the shots. I t was imporr and shoot him. She^knew that he
tant; to warn . Uncle Alton about was as good a woodsman as Alton;
w;hat her father had said, but it he would most certainly see her
was more interesting' to find out tracks'. Well, she'd fix him.
what he had bagged. Oh, he'd She ran along the eidge of the
bagged it, all right. Uncle Alton wood J being careful to dig her heels
never >fired.without killing. This deeply:into the loam.: A:hundred
was about the first time she had ever" yards of this, and she angled into the
heard him i blast ..away like-that. forest arid rah uiitil she reached a
Must be a beai;, slie thought, excit- -pajpticularly. thick grove of: trees.
.edly, tripping over, a root, sprawling, .. Shinnying up like a squirrel, she
.rolling- t o ' her feet againV without; squirmed frorri one close-set tree to
noticing.the tumble. She'd love to ranother until she could go no farther
have-another bearskin in her rpom. '•' back toward the path, then dropped
Where would she put it.? •Maybe : iightly ,to the ground and crept on
they could line it and she could -her way, now stepping very gently.
have it for a blanket. Uncle: Alton Tt:woiild take him ah hour to beat
could sit on it and read to her. in the around for her trail, she thought
evening— Oh, no. No. Not with proudly, arid by that time she could
this trouble between him and dad. easily get to Uncle Alton. She gig-
Oh, if she could only do something! , gled to herself as she thought of the
She tried to run faster, worried and
anticipating, but she was out of way she had fooled her father. And
the little sound of laughter drowned

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 IT £11

*4

/i»« T " * j'Ht,!" '

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irc#'> . ' !•-
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/ ^4w(j.. •*'SV>,«*.^* H- 'J.I <ii!*\

p-^^i^:j:^-:^:.:u. ^- \
The little man didn't see It reach ant—but he started
wallkinqr just then- and-the hludQeoainy fist^ missedr-^..

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 out, for Her, the sound of Alton's
hoarse dying scream.
She reached-and crossed the i^ath
and slid through the,, brush beside
it. The shots came from up around
here somewhere. She stopped and
listened several times, and then sud-
denly heard something coming to-
ward her, fast. She ducked under
cover, terrified, and a little baby-
faced man in black, his blue eyes
wide with horror, crashed blindly
past her, the leather case he carried
catching on the branches. It spun
a moment and then fell right in
front of her. The man never missed
it. '
Babe lay there for a long moriient
LJ" a mongoose and then picked up the case and
faded into the woods. Things were
whips a cobra— happening too fast for- her. She
wanted-Uncle Alton, but she dared ,
or a cowboy not call. She stopped again and
strained her ears. Back toward the
throws a steer edge of the wood she heard her
father's voice, and another's—prob-
so does The Shadow, his eldritch lough mock- ably the man who had dropped the
brief case. She dared not go over
ing in their ears, attack the criminal hordes that there. Filled with enjoyable terror,
she thought hard, then snapped Her
infest the country and thwart their evil ends. fingers in triumph. She and Alton
had played Injun many times up
here; they had a whole repertoire of
. His thrilling story is told in pictures in full color
secret "signals. She had practiced
birdcalls until she knew them better
— o i l new—all original-^-each issue complete
than the birds themselves. What
would it be? Ah—blue jay. She
in itself. -
threw back her head and by some
youthful alchemy produced a nerve-
shattering screech that would have
. Nine other features done justice to any jay that ever
flew. She repeated it, and fhen
in the nation's thriller twice more. .
The response was immediate-—
the call of a blue jay, four times,
spaced two and two. Babe nodded
to herself happily. That was the
CENTS A COPY signal that they were to meet im-
On Sale Everywhere mediately at The Place. The Place
was. a hide-out that he had dis-
covered and shared with her, and
not another soul knew of it; an

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 IT lis
angle of rock beside a stream not far- Through the .brush he followed its
away. I t wasn't exactly a cave, but wavering spoor, amazed at the
almost. Enough so to be entrancing.. amount of filthy mold about, grad-
Babe trotted happily away toward ually associating it with the thing,
the brook. She had just known that that had killed his brother. There
Uncle Alton would remember the was nothing in the world for him
call of the blue jay, and what it any more'but'hate and doggedness.
meant. Cursing himself for not getting Alton
In the tree that arched over Al- home last night, he followed the
ton's scattered body perched a large tracks to the edge of' the woods.
jay bird, preening itself and shining They' led him" to, a big.tree there,
in the sun. Quite imconscious of and there he saw something .else—7
the presence of death, hardly noticr the footprints of the little city nian.
ing the Babe's reaUstic cry, it NearTjy lay some tattered scraps' of
screamed again four times, two and linen, and—what was that?
two. Another set of prints—small ones.
Small, stub-toed ones. Babe's.
• I T TOOK CORY more than a mo- "Babe!" Gory screamed. "Babe!"
ment to recover himself from what No answer. ~ The wind sighed.
he had seen. He turned away from Somewhere a blue jay called.
it and leaned weakly against a pine,
panting. Alton. That was Alton BABE STOPPED and turned when
lying there, in—parts. .she heard her father's voice, faint
"God! God, God, God—" with distance, piercing.
Gradually his strength returned, "Listen at him holler," she
and he forced himself to turn again. crooned delightedly. "Gee, he
Stepping carefully, he bent and sounds mad." She sent a jay bird's
picked up the .32-40. Its barrel call disrespectfully back to him and
was bright and clean, but the butt hurried to The Place.
and stock were smeared with some
kind of stinking rottenness. Where It consisted of a mammoth boul-
had he seen the stuff before? Some- der beside the brook. Some up-
where—no matter. He cleaned it heaval in the glacial, age had cleft
off absently, throwing the befouled it, cutting out a huge V-shaped
baiidanna away afterward. Through chunk. The widest part of the cleft
his mind ran Alton's words—was >was at the water's edge, and the
that only last night?—"I'm goin narrowest was hidden by bushes.'
to start trackin'. A71' I'm goin' to It made a little ceilingless room,
keep trackin till I find the one rough and uneven and full of pot-
done this job on Kimho." holes and cavelets inside, - and yet
• y'- Cory searched shrinkingly until with quite a level floor. The open
he found Alton's box of shells. The end was at the water's edge.
box was wet and sticky. That made Babe parted the bushes and peered
itrr-better, somehow. A bullet wet down the cleft.
with Alton's blood was the right "Uncle Alton!", she called ^softly.
thing to use.. He went away a short There was no answer.'Qh, well, he'd
distance, circled around till he,found be along. She " scrambled in and
heavy footprints, then came back. slid down to the floor.
"I'm a-trackin' for you, bud," he
whispered thickly, and began. She loved it here. I t was shaded
and cool, and the chattering little

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114 STREET & SMITH'S UNKNOWN

stream filled it with shifting golden the remains of his family. He collected
lights and laughing gurgles. She and removed caskets from all over the
country to fill the designated niches. Kirk
called again, on principle, and then was the last of his line; there were no rela-
perched on an outcropping to wait. tives when he died. His will stated that
I t was only then she realized that the mausoleum was to be kept in repair
she still carried the little man's brief permanently, and that a certain sum was to
case. be set aside as a reward for whoever could
produce the body of his grandfather, Roger
She turned it over a couple of Kirk, whose niche is still empty. Anyone
times and then opened it.' It was di- .finding this body is ehgible to receive a'
vided in the middle by a leather substantial fortune. *
wall. On one side were a few papers
in a large yellow envelope, and on Babe yawned vaguely over this, '
the other some sandwiches, a candy but kept on reading because there
bar, and an apple. With a young- was nothing else to do. Next was
ster's complacent acceptance of a thick sheet of business corre-
manna from heaven, Babe fell to. spondence, bearing, the letterhead of
She saved one sandwich for Alton, a firm of lawyers. The body of it
mainly because she didn't like its ran: :
highly spiced bologna. ' The rest A'

made quite a feast. , In regard to your query regarding the

will of Thaddeus Kirk, we are authorized
She was a little worried when to state that his grandfather was a man
Alton hadn't arrived, even after she about five feet,', five inches, whose left arm
had consumed the apple core^ She had been broken and who had a triangular
got up and tried to skim some flat silver plate set into his skull. There is no
pebbles across the roiling brook, and information as to the whereabouts of his
death. He disappeared and was declared le-
she stood on her hands, and she gally dead after the lapse of fourteen years.
tried to think of a story to tell The amount of the reward as stated in
herself, and she tried just waiting. the will, plus accrued interest, now
Finally, in desperation, she turned amounts' t o a fraction over sixty-two thou-
again to the brief case, took out the sand dollars. This will be paid to anyone
who produces .the remains, providing that-
papers, curled up by the rocky said remains answer, descriptions kept in our
wall and began to read them. It. private files.
was something to do, anyway.^
There was an old newspaper clip-, There was more, but Babe was
ping that told about strange wills bored. She went on to the little
that people had left. Ah old lady black notebook. There was nothing
had once left a lot of money to who- in it but penciled and highly abbre-
ever would make the trip from the viated records of visits to libraries;
Earth to the Moon and back. An- quotations rfom books with title
other had financed a home for cats like "History of Angelina and Tyler
whose masters and mistresses had Counties" and "Kirk Family His-
died. A man left thousands of tory." Babe threw that aside, too.
dollars lo the first man who could "Where could Uncle Alton be?
solve a certain mathematical prob- She began to sing tunelessly,
lem and prove his solution. But one "Tumalumaliim tum, ta ta ta," pre^
item was blue-penciled. It was tending to dance a minuet with
flowing skirts like a girl she had
One of the strangest of wills still in
force is that of Thaddeus M. Kirk, who died seen in the movies. A rustle of the
in 1920. I t apjjears that he built an elabo- bushes at the entrance to The Place
rate mausoleum with burial vaults for all stopped her. She peeped upward.

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 IT 115

saw them being thrust aside. thing was—or home in bed!

Quickly she ran to a tiny cul-de-sac The thing clumped toward -her,
in the rock wall, just big enough expressionless, moving with a slow
for her to hide in. She giggled at inevitability that was the sheer crux
the thought of how surprised Uncle of horror. Babe lay wide-eyed and
Alton would be when she jumped frozen, mounting pressure of terror
out at him. stilling her lungs, making her heart
She heard the newcomer come shake the whole world. The monster
shuffling down the steep slope of the came to the mouth of the little
crevice and land heavily on the pocketj tried to walk to her and was
floor. There was something about stopped by the sides. I t was such
the sound— "What was it.? I t oc- a narrow little fissure; and it was
curred to her that though it was a all Babe could do to get in. The
hard job for a big man like Uncle thing from the wood stood strain-
Alton to get through the httle open- ing against the rock at its shoulders,
ing in the bushes, she could hear pressing harder and harder to get
no.heavy breathing. She heard no to Babe. She sat up slowly, so near
breathing at all! ^ to the thing that its odor was almost
thick enough to see, and a wild hope
V BABE PEEPED OUT into the main burst through her voiceless fear.
cave and squealed in utmost horror. It couldn't get in! It couldn't get
Standing there was,. not Uncle in because it was too big!
Alton, but a massive caricature of The substance of its feet spread
a man: a huge thing like an irregu- slowly under the tremendous strain,
lar mud doll, clumsily made. It and at its shoulder appeared a slight
quivered and parts of it glistened crack. It widened as the monster
and parts of it were dried and unfeelingly crushed itself against the
crumby. Half of the lower left part rock, and suddenly a large piece of
of its face was gone, giving it a lop- the shoulder came away and the
sided look. I t had no perceptible being twisted slushily three feet far-
mouth or nose, and its eyes were ther in. I t lay quietly with its
crooked, one higher than the other, muddy eyes fixed on her, and then
both a dingy brown with no whites brought one thick arm up over its
at all., I t stood quite still looking head and reached.
at her, its only movement a steady Babe scrambled in the inch
unalive quivering of its body. farther she had believed impossible,
It wondered about the queer little and the filthy clubbed hand stroked
noise Babe had made. down her back, leaving a trail of
Babe crept far back against a muck on the blue denim of the shirt
little pocket of stone, her brain run- she wore. The monster surged sud-
ning round and round in tiriy circles denly and, lying full length now,
of a^ony. She opened her mouth gained that last precious inch. A
to cry out, and could not. Her eyes black hand seized one of her braids,
bulged and her face flamed with the and for Babe the lights went out.
strangling effort, and the two golden ^ W h e n she came to, she was
ropes of her braided hair twitched dangling by her hair from that same
and twitched as she hunted hope- crusted paw. The thing held her
lessly for a way out. If only she high, so that her face and its fea-
were out in the open—or in the tureless head were not more than a
wedge-shaped half-cave where the foot apart. I t gazed at her with a
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118 STREET & SMITH'S UNKNOWN

mild curiosity in. its eyes, and it ping his shotgun and. holding the
swung her slowly back and forth. ^ .32-40 ready-to. fire. He ran with
The agony of her pulled hair did such deadly panic in his heart that
what fear could not do—gave her he ran right past the huge cleft rock_
a voice. She screamed. She opened and was a hundred yards past it,
her mouth and puffed up her power- before she burst out through thepool
ful young lungs, and she sounded and ran up the bank. He had to
off. She held her throat in the po- run hard and fast to catch her, be-
sition of the first scream, and her cause anything behind her was that
chest labored and pumped more air faceless horror in-the cave, and she
through the frozen throat. Shrill was living for the one idea of getting
and monotonous _ and infinitely away from there. He caught her in
piercing, her screams. his arms and swung her to him, and
The thing did not mind. It held she screamed on and on and on. -
her as she was, and watched. When Babe didn't see Cory at all, eyen
it had learried all it could from this . when he held her and quieted her^-
phenomenon, it dropped her jar-
ringly, and looked around the half- T H E MONSTER lay in the water;,-
cave, ignoring the stunned and hud- It neither liked nor disliked this
dled Babe. I t reached oyer and new element. It-rested on the. bot-
picked up the leather brief case and tom, its massive head a foot beneath
tore it twice across as if it were the surface, and it curiously consid-,
tissue. I t saw the sandwich Babe ered the facts that.it had garnered.
had left, picked it up, crushed it, There was the little humming noise
dropped it. ~ of Babe's voice that sent the mon-
Babe opened her eyes, saw that ster questing into" the cave. There-
she-was free, and just-as the thing was the black-material of the brief
turned back"to her she dove between case that resisted so much more than
its legs and out into the shallow pool green things when he tore it. There
in front of the rock, paddled across was the little two-legged one who ,.
and -hit the other bank screaming.- sang and brought him near, and .
A vicious little light of fury burned who screamed when he came. There-
in her; she picked up a grapefriiit- was this new cold moving thing he
sized stone and hurled • it with all had fallen into. It was washing his
her frenzied haight. It flew low and body away. That had iiever hap-,
fast, and struck squashily on the pened before. That was interesting.
monster's ankle. The thing was just The monster decided to, stay and ob-
taking a step toward the water; the serve this new thing. It felt no urge
to . save itself; it could .. only be
stone caught it off -balance, and its curious. ;' . ;'
unpracticed equilibrium could not
save it. I t tottered for^a.iong, silent The brook came laughing dowii;
moment at "the edge and then out of its spring, ran down from its •
splashed into the stream. Without source, beckoning to • the sunbeams •
a second' look Babe ran shrieking and embracing freshets and helipfur^
away. brooklets. I t shouted and played
Cory Drew was foUpw^ing the little- with streamirig little- rootSj':.:and:
gobs of mold that somehow indicated f nudged the minnows and pollywogs
the path of the murderer, and he about in its tiny backwaters. I t
was nearby when he first heard her , was a happy brook. Whdn it carne
scream.- He broke into a run, drop^ to the pool by, the sloven .ro.ck it

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 IT 117

found the monster there, and angular silver plate set into t h e pale
plucked at it. I t soaked the foul skull, and the skeleton was very
substances iahd smoothed and melted clean now. T h e brook laughed
the molds, and the waters below the about it for an age.
thing eddied darkly with its diluted
matter. I t was a thorough brook. THEY FOUND the skeleton, six
I t washed all it touched, persist- grim-lipped men who came to find
ently. Where it found filth, it re- a killer. N o one had believed Babe,
moved filth; and if there were layer when she told her story days later.
on layer of foulness, then layer by I t had to be days later because B a b e
foul layer it was removed. I t was had screamed fqr seyen hours with-
a good brook. I t did not mind the out stopping, and had lain like a
poison of the monster, b u t took it dead child for a day. N o one be-
u p and thinned it and spread it in lieved her at all, because her story
little rings round rocks downstream, was all about the bad fella, and they
and let it drift to the rootlets of knew t h a t the bad fella was simply
water plants, t h a t they might grow a thing t h a t her father h a d m a d e
greener and lovelier. And the mon- up to frighten h e r with. B u t it was
ster melted. through her t h a t the skeleton was
" I am smaller," the thing thought. found, and so t h e men at t h e bank
" T h a t is interesting. I could not sent a check to t h e Drews for more
rriove now. And now this p a r t of money than they had ever dreamed
me which thinks is going, too. I t about. I t was old Roger K i r k , sure
will stop in just a moment, and drift enough, t h a t skeleton, though it was
away with the rest of the body. I t found five miles from where he had
will stop thinking and I will stop died and sank into the forest floor
being, and t h a t , too, is a very in- where the hot molds builded around
teresting thing." his skeleton and emerged—a mon-
So the monster melted and dirtied ster;
the water, and t h e water was clean So the Drews h a d a new b a r n and
again, washing and washing the fine new livestock and t h e y hired
skeleton t h a t the monster had left. four men. B u t t h e y didn't have
I t was not very big, and there was Alton. And t h e y didn't have
a badly-healed knot on the left arm. Kimbo;^ And Babe screams a t night
T h e sunlight flickered oh the tri- arid has grown very thin.

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118

by MDRIA FARWSWQHTH

@ Rome was a pleasant little "You've sure got something there."

And he. said nothing more.
villaqe — and cnrious in many Johnnie felt the flea of impatience
ways. Far instance, it was hopping on the griddle of his rising
annoyance. "Listen," he yapped,;"!
uniiiue in this: rnads led tn it — haven't any tinie to waste playing
games, no matter how much fun they
Illustrated by Schneeman are...I've got,to be in Bough. C.ity
.by noon. And if I caii't get through
THE minute Johnnie saw the on this road—where do I go?" •
tom-up road ahead, he knew what The man took off his battered hat
it meant. A detour. And detours and scratched his head. "I dunng,"
meant trouble and a-waste of valu- he said finally. "I'm a stra,nger here
able time. • myself." . .
Johnnie's annoyance whipped
But there was no help for it. The through vexation and exploded in
highway was obviously impassable anger. "Listen, you—" he. began
from this point on. Great heaps of just as the foreman of the gang
yellow sand dammed its rnouth and, : crossed the road-
just beyond, a derrick lifted skeleton "Don't get hot," the foreman ad-
fingers against the crisp, clear sky of monished amiably. "He's telling
morning.- Near at hand some work- you the truth. We're all strangers
men in a ditch maneuvered desultory here—-we're a new gang they sent up
shovels. this morning. The old gang made
"Hi, brother." Johnnie leaned a mess of things. They got every-
out the window of his sedan and thing twisted. That's why this con-
hailed the nearest laborer. '^'Where struction begins in the middle of no-
do we go from here?" where instead of at a crossroads
T h e m a n jabbedhis shovel into~a where there'd be a detour. We've
heap of the, soft' sand and ambled got to push" it up as fast as we can
over. He spat neatly and smiled a till we reach the other, road. Then
friendly smile. "Wh'ju say?"^ he everything'll be all right." -
queried conversationally. "Fine," said Johnnie. "And how
"I just want to know," said John- long will that take?"
nie, "where I go from here. There's "About two weeks."
no road and no signs. -You can't de- "And in the meantime I'm sup-
tour, you know," he explained posed to sit— Say, listen!" yelled
kindly, "without something to, de- Johnnie. "I want to get out of
tour.on." here! Out! Understand? I've got
The man grinned. "You've got to be in Bough City—"
something there," he agreed heartily. "All right, all right," said the fore-

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