"'The portions of a woman's anatomy,'" Grundy was singing when Jimmy
entered the bar, "'that appeal to man's depravity, are fashioned with
considerable care....'" He broke off his song when he saw Comstock.
"Buddy boy!"
Bowdler rushed over and threw his arms around Jimmy, "How's the old
kid?"
"Fine, just fine. How about a drink?" Comstock found himself asking,
just as though he'd been a bar-room habitue all his life.
The corpse revivers served their functions admirably, Jimmy found. In
fact in just short of an hour, he was high on a cloud, feeling no pain.
That was when Grundy, whom Jimmy had thought was quite drunk, had
drawn Bowdler and Comstock to a quiet table in the back of the saloon.
Carrying their drinks they joined him. Jimmy was puzzled, for suddenly
Grundy had become very serious. Bowdler seemed to know what was in the
wind.
When they were seated comfortably and Jimmy was sipping happily at
his drink, Grundy looked around conspiratorially before he whispered,
"Jimmy, how old is The Grandfather?"
The question was a double shocker. First because Jimmy was positive
that this was the first time that holy name had ever been mentioned in
such unhallowed precincts, and second because the veriest infant knew
the answer. He said, "The Grandfather was, is and always will be."
Grundy grinned. "How do you know that to be true?"
Comstock's world stopped spinning. His breath froze in his lungs. Then
he felt a heart attack coming on. He fell face forward onto the floor.
Bowdler said, "Now see what you've done! You should have led up to it
more gradually."
"Let's see if we can revive him." Grundy's normally jolly face was set
and strained.
When Comstock opened his eyes and felt consciousness return he found
that his friends had him propped up in his chair and were pouring
liquor down his throat. Gasping, he spluttered, "All right, all right.
I'm okay now."
There was a pause, then Comstock asked, "What happened to me?"
The two other men avoided his eyes. Bowdler said at long last, "I guess
you're not quite drunk enough."
He ordered another round of drinks and as they waited for the elderly
waitress to bring them to the table Jimmy found himself remembering
what had happened.
The only thing that prevented his passing out again was that the s..y
waitress returned with their corpse revivers. He took a big slug,
considered her bent back as she walked away and said, "I ... seem to
remember your asking me something about...."
"I did." Grundy's face was set with determination. "Now hold onto
yourself, laddy boy. How do you know that The Grandfather has always
been and always will be?"
The traumatic shock was strong again but he had drunk some more and
so was able to hold on while all the blood drained out of his head.
He finally managed to say weakly, "Because everyone knows that to be
true." Life without Grandfather was inconceivable. Who would look after
them? Protect them? To whom could a man turn if not to The Grandfather?
Grundy and Bowdler exchanged meaningful glances. "If He always was,
how come there's no record of His having made the trip from Earth?"
* * * * *
A trifle drunkenly, Comstock considered the question. Earth? Oh, yes
that was the fable, the children's tale that his people had emigrated
from some other planet. He had dismissed the whole thing as the usual
kind of Father Goose story that kiddies were told. Aloud he asked, "You
mean you two think there really is another inhabited planet?"
"Think?" Both men spoke simultaneously, but it was Grundy who
continued. "We know it. Look, Jimmy, we're risking a great deal, and
before we go on, we'll have to swear you to secrecy. Whether you join
us in what we have in mind, or not, you must swear on your father's
memory that you will be silent as the grave...."
They waited, poised on the edge of their chairs with nervousness.
When he deliberated so long that their nerves were jangling, Bowdler
said, "Look, Jimmy, do you want to have to live and die as a drunk,
just because it's the only known cure for your disease?"
Things were popping too fast for Comstock to be able to grapple with
them intelligently. He mumbled, "Nothin' wrong with being a drunk. I
like it fine."
Grundy sprang to the attack. "That's too bad, old man, because it means
the cure won't work. You should know that, the doc should have told
you! The vice must be distasteful or the cure doesn't work!"
Looking back on the Comstock of yesterday, Jimmy could see why the
doctor had not felt it necessary to make this point. It certainly had
been unpredictable that he'd enjoy drinking. But it was his new friends
who had made it fun.... Had they done it deliberately? Too much to
grapple with ... he'd better wait and see what they had in mind. He
said, "I swear to keep silent."
Bowdler said, "Go ahead, Grundy, it's your story." Parenthetically, he
explained to Jimmy, "You know, or I guess maybe you don't, that before
Bowdler here, got sick, he was Head Genealogist."
"No kidding!" Comstock was amazed. Head Genealogist! Whew ... that was
a post that almost ranked with being a Father! Bowdler was ... or had
been, a big man!
"As part of my job," Bowdler said, "I went back to the beginning. I
checked the passenger list on the Bon Aventure, the space ship that
brought the original Thirty to this planet from Earth."
Gulping down his drink, hurriedly Comstock ordered another round. To
mention the Thirty ... it was almost as blasphemous as talking about
The Grandfather! These two were dangerous men. He'd listen to what
they said, but then he must, literally _must_, report them to the
authorities! He was sorry for them for he liked them, but blasphemy
like this had to be punished.
Bowdler went on, "That was the first time the thought occurred to me to
wonder about ole Grandpop!"
Grandpop! Blasphemy piled on blasphemy. Comstock could feel his ears
burning.
"And you know something," Bowdler lowered his voice to the veriest
whisper of communicable sound, "There was no record of His having made
the trip! None at all!"
* * * * *
The silence dragged itself out. Comstock was in a condition bordering
on insanity. Although he managed to keep his face still. The temerity
of these two ... apostates!
"As a matter of cold brutal fact," Bowdler said broodingly, "there is
no record of The Grandfather at all until about five hundred years
ago! I checked, I read books that no one, absolutely no one has even
looked at for centuries ... and by Grandpop himself, there's not even a
mention of Him, till about a hundred years after they killed off the
last scientists."
No one had ever before discussed these things openly, or covertly,
with Comstock. A new emotion was beginning to make itself felt. He was
becoming interested. The last scientists ... he remembered all about
them from school. The monsters! It was a good thing they had been wiped
out. But even so it was exciting hearing it talked about. He leaned
forward on the table and sipped his drink more slowly. There was plenty
of time to report Bowdler and Grundy. After all, the authorities would
want as much information as he could get.
Grundy spoke for the first time in a long time. He said, "That's where
I come in. I used to be custodian of the hall of records."
Jimmy felt a little better. After all, a janitor! His job before he'd
become ill had been better than that. He had been a law clerk at the
Bureau of Commandments ... it didn't compare with the office that
Bowdler had held, and yet it was certainly a lot better than.... But
Grundy was speaking. He said, "Bowdler got his heart attack when he
began to wonder about where The Grandfather had come from. I got mine
when I was ordered by the Board of Fathers...." "Oops," Comstock
thought, a janitor working for the Fathers was nothing to be sneezed
at, he'd better wait and see what was coming.
Grundy went on, "The only reason I even looked at the record I was
supposed to burn was because I had glanced at it and had seen a G. I
wondered if it had something to do with my family...." He put his hands
to his forehead. "If only I hadn't ... I'd still be happily at work ...
with no heart trouble ... and with no need to drink this stuff...." He
gulped down some of his drink.
"Buck up, old man," Bowdler said. "What's done is done."
"You're right. I must be a man." He shook his head dolefully. "It
wasn't about my family at all. It was about the Gantrys ... and you
know how powerful that blood line is. I don't have to tell you! Ever
since Elmer the First, they've been on top of the heap!"
Comstock nodded. As if any sane person would even question the
qualifications of the Gantrys to be leaders! These two men were even
more dangerous than he had suspected. It was up to him to keep his
mouth shut and his ears open, by The Grandfather it was!
* * * * *
The furrows in Grundy's forehead were deeper now. His elbows on the
table, his head in his hands, he looked off into the middle distance.
He said, and he was almost speaking to himself, his voice was so low,
"It was only when I examined the records that I began to wonder if it
was truly ordained that the Gantrys were the leaders and would be the
leaders, under The Grandfather's eagle eye. Funny," he mused, "all it
takes is the tiniest notion to question these eternal verities, and
then without your even being aware of it, the questions begin to demand
answers...."
Bowdler broke in. "That was the mood Grundy was in when he and I met
here in the saloon. Two men, both possessed of a tiny bit of knowledge
not shared by anyone else on New Australia, and by chance we met
here...."
Jimmy drained his glass and the action of tilting his head back brought
the level of his eyes higher than it had been. That was the only reason
he saw the face that was framed in a little window at the back of the
bar-room.
His breath shot out of his lungs as though he had been hit by the hind
legs of an astrobat. He gulped, "Grundy! Bowdler!"
Their heads swivelled and they too saw what had frightened him.
"One of the Father's Right Arms!" Bowdler said. Then, with a visible
attempt to keep his voice down and his face from showing the fear that
gripped all three of them, he said, "This is what we had to be prepared
for; are you with us, Comstock?"
Now was the moment for decision. If, Jimmy thought, he were to act
bravely, throw himself on the two apostates and wait for the R.A. to
get to them, he could then explain what horrors the two evil men had
been discussing. But, and the canker of indecision gnawed at him, but,
what after all had he really learned? Only that these two men were
questioning the eternal verities. There was more to it, much more, of
that he was convinced.
There was perhaps an inch of liquor left in Jimmy's glass. Draining
it, he made the decision which he was instantly to regret. He said,
"I'm with you two. What shall we do?" Better, he had decided, to go
along with Grundy and Bowdler and pretend to be part of their horrid
scheme, that was the only way that later on he could report fully to
the Fathers.
Grundy and Bowdler smiled at each other. Grundy said, "He's with us!
Let's go!"
* * * * *
All this time the R.A. had been watching them, his little eyes
preternaturally alert, his gaunt hand steadily holding the gun that
pointed straight at them, his attention completely focussed on the trio.
Bowdler leaned forward on the table till his head was close to Jimmy's.
He whispered, "When I say three, duck to the floor. Stay there till I
grab you."
All around the three men the life of the saloon went on blithely.
The other heart disease patients were drinking; some solemnly, some
gaily, the aged waitresses were busy with their Hebe-like duties, the
bartenders were mixing drinks, but to Jimmy, the whole of life ... and
perhaps death were contingent upon the next three seconds.
"One." Bowdler's voice whispered.
Jimmy could see Grundy bunching his heavy muscles for some kind of
action.
"Two."
Watching the R.A. out of the corner of his eyes, Jimmy wondered if it
was just his imagination or if he had really seen the R.A.'s trigger
finger tighten on the stungun's trigger.
"Three!"