_The Strange Guard_
There confronted him the hugest figure of a man he had ever seen.
Hilary was not lacking in inches himself--he was well over six feet;
but the giant staring quizzically down at him was nearer seven, with
shoulders to match. The features of his face were gargantuan in their
ruggedness, yet singularly open, while a pair of mild blue eyes,
childlike in expression, looked in perpetual wonder out upon the
world.
In spite of his annoyance, Hilary instinctively liked the giant.
"What do you want?" he inquired gruffly.
The Colossus surveyed him with his child's eyes.
"Man, you are crazy." He spoke in a deep bass rumble, without emotion
or inflection. He was simply stating a fact.
A surge of annoyance swept over the returned wanderer from the far
spaces. This was the last straw.
"I may be," he admitted coldly, "but I like my particular form of
craziness."
"You know the penalty of course for what you are doing?" the big man
inquired unemotionally.
Hilary swore deeply. "Damn the penalties, whatever you mean by that.
Here's a man who has been tortured unmercifully--chained like a dog. I
intend to free him."
The mild blue eyes contained the hint of a gleam.
"But you know the penalties," he repeated. His murmur sounded like the
rumble of a distant earthquake.
Hilary straightened sharply, poked his finger at the midriff of the
giant.
"I don't know what you are talking about," he stabbed. "What is the
meaning of all this? Who is this unfortunate, and why did everyone
disappear as though I had the plague when I sat next to him?"
* * * * *
A look of bewilderment swept over the massive face, bewilderment
tinged with a dawning suspicion of the questioner's sanity.
"You mean to say you don't know?" The tone held incredulity.
"I've just told you so," Hilary pointed out. He felt a growing unease.
The giant eyed him closely. "Man, where on earth have you been these
last three years?"
Hilary grinned. "I haven't."
"You haven't?" echoed the other. Suspicion hardened the childlike eyes
into cold flame. The man was dangerous when aroused. He thrust his jaw
down at Hilary. "If you are jesting with me...." He left the sentence
unfinished, but the clenching of a huge fist left no doubt as to his
intention.
"I am not jesting," Hilary assured him grimly. "I have been away from
the Earth for five years. I've just returned."
The great hand clenched tighter. "Now I know you are crazy, or--Who
are you?" he ended abruptly.
"Hilary Grendon."
"Hilary Grendon--Hilary Grendon," rumbled the other in manifest
perplexity. It was evident the name meant nothing to him.
This then was the homecoming he had dreamed of in the unfathomable
reaches of space. Hilary thought bitterly. Five short years and he was
already forgotten. Then the irony of it struck him, and he laughed
aloud.
"Yes," he said. "Five years ago I led the Grendon Expedition to
explore interplanetary space in the space-ship I had invented. I've
come back--alone."
It was amazing to watch long-overlaid memories struggling up through
the subconscious. At last the giant spoke.
"Oh, yes," he said meditatively, "I seem to remember something about
it." He surveyed Hilary with a new interest. "So you were one of those
chaps, eh?"
The explorer admitted it, humbly. Of such are the uses of fame.
"Well, now," said the giant, "that might explain it. Though it sure
beats all." And he shook his head as though he still did not
understand.
"Who is that man?" Hilary stabbed a forefinger at the blind man, who
sat immobile as before, his worn etched face ever to the front. "It's
monstrous. Amos Peabody shall hear of it."
The Colossus looked at him mildly.
"That," he said, "_is_ Amos Peabody!"
* * * * *
Silence lay like a live thing between them. Hilary whirled in a
kaleidoscope of emotion. Was this wasted, tortured being the portly,
dignified President of the United States who had bade him Godspeed at
the start of his tremendous journey five years before? His pitying
eyes searched the lineaments of the poor wretch. There was no doubt of
it now; it _was_ Amos Peabody.
Hilary gripped his informant's arm. His voice was deadly calm. "I want
the truth about this, and I want it fast."
"The truth," echoed the big man with strange laughter; "now that is
something--"
His eyes widened over Hilary's shoulder. With a swiftness remarkable
in one of his bulk he shook off Hilary's restraining grip, caught him
by the shoulder and thrust him, all in one motion, into a chair
several removed from Peabody. In a trice his huge bulk was safely
ensconced in the adjoining one.
Hilary's hand went to the butt of the automatic within his blouse. The
giant saw the movement. He leaned forward.
"Don't make a move," he warned, "the guard is coming."
"What guard?"
"You'll see fast enough. Appear unconcerned if you value your life.
Don't look back."
Hilary complied. His face became an expressionless mask as he lounged
in his chair, but his thoughts seethed and boiled. What terrible
mystery had enveloped the Earth during his absence? Why was Amos
Peabody tortured and made into a public mockery?
There was a slight whirring noise behind him. Heedful of his
companion's admonition he relaxed in apparent unconcern, but his hand
stole once more to the fold in his blouse. His long fingers rested
caressingly upon the butt of his automatic. There were still three
good Earth bullets in the chamber.
The whirring ceased. There was a slight jar as of something landing
on the speeding conveyor. Yet Hilary did not look back, though his
grip tightened. A heavy body stumbled toward them, cursing in strange
phrases. It passed from behind, came to a halt before the giant.
Hilary shot a sharp glance upward from under veiled lids. An
exclamation sprang full-throated to his lips, died unheard under a
tremendous effort of his will.
* * * * *
Before them stood a being--it could not be called a man. He was no
denizen of the Earth, that was evident, yet Hilary had visited all the
planets outward from our own without encountering such a monster.
He hulked before them like a behemoth, even dwarfing Hilary's
companion with his enormous stature; but it was noticeable that he
supported his weight ill, as if Earth's gravitation was too strong for
him. Manlike he was in every essential, but the skin of his face was a
pasty dull gray, and ridged and furrowed with warty excrescences. Two
enormous pink eyes, unlidded, but capable of being sheathed with a
filmy membrane, stared down at them with manifest suspicion. A gray,
three-fingered hand held an angled tube significantly. A lens gleamed
transparent in the sunlight from the open end.
Hilary did not move under the stare, nor did his companion. The mild
blue eyes were childlike as ever. The guard's gaze shifted from them
to the trembling figure of Amos Peabody. He bent over him, thrust at
him with ungentle hand. The automatic under Hilary's fingers crept
farther out from the blouse, but a warning gesture from his companion
stopped him.
The guard amused himself with shaking the blind man; then he bent
suddenly. He had seen the broken links. With ominous deliberation he
turned his vast weight upon them. His baleful pink eyes fastened upon
Hilary's companion.
"You!" he growled throatily, "what do you know about this?" He spoke
in English, but it was obviously not his native tongue.
Mildly innocent was the giant's face.
"I know nothing, Magnificent," he said humbly. "I am on my way to
Great New York on my own insignificant affairs, and I bother my head
with nothing else."
"The bonds of this dog, Peabody, have been severed," the guard
insisted, "and recently, too. Speak up, Earthman, or--you know the
penalty."
"I know the penalty," he answered respectfully, "but I have been
seated here only five minutes, and I know nothing of this Peabody."
The guard fingered his tube.
"Let me see your tag," he said suddenly.
* * * * *
* * * * *
The other opened his blouse obediently and exposed a thin copper disk
suspended on his chest. The guard tugged at it brutally to bring it
within range of his vision. The pull jerked the giant's head forward,
and the thin metal strand cut cruelly into the back of his neck.
Hilary saw a flush of red sweep like a wave up to his forehead, and
the mild blue eyes turned hard like glinting blue pebbles. But not a
word escaped his lips.
"Grim Morgan," the guard read, "A46823 Great New York. Pah, what
barbarous names you Earthmen have." He shoved the giant back heavily
into his seat, and turned his baleful glare upon Hilary.
"You, what do you know about this?"
Grim Morgan interposed hastily. "Nothing, Magnificent. He came on the
express conveyor after I did."
The guard's free hand went back. Very deliberately he struck him
across the face with three ridged fingers. An angry welt raised.
"That will teach you to keep your mouth shut when not spoken to."
The big man's eyes were mild, but his hands tensed as though they were
curled around a throat. He said nothing.
The guard turned to Hilary again. "Answer me," he barked.
"My friend told the truth," Grendon said simply.
"Your tag?"
"I have none."
Suspicion flared openly in the pink eyes.
"Where is it?"
"I never had one."
"Ah!" There was a world of meaning to the exhalation. "You know of
course that every Earthman must be registered. The penalty for
non-obedience is--death."
The angled tube came up with the swiftness of light. Grim Morgan cried
out sharply, lunged out of his seat. Hilary tore at his gun, knowing
sickeningly that the draw would be slower than the action of the
strange weapon in the guard's hand.
There was a sneer on the monster as he pressed something on the tube.
Hilary's automatic was only half out of his blouse. Grim's lunge would
never reach in time. He was too far away.