In one way the half hour just vanished. In another, it lasted longer
than all the rest of Comstock's life put together. While he stood in
the doorway, his back to Grundy and the impassioned l..e scene that
Helen and Grundy were enacting as what might be their last farewell, he
wondered how thirty minutes which had seemed to go on so long, seemed
to fly past so quickly.
He could hear Grundy almost moan, "'Helen thy beauty is to me as ...'",
and then harsh and strident, drowning out all other sound, seeming like
the sound that was the ultimate that human ears could ever bear to hear
there came an enormously amplified voice.
Comstock had never heard The Grandfather speak, and yet, now hunching
himself into a pre-natal ball, his hands pressed tight against his
ears, he knew that no other voice could have held that command, that
awe-inspiring tone, that this voice held which now threatened to
deafen him permanently.
The words that smote at Comstock were, "I am displeased."
Grundy ran to Comstock, gripped him by the shoulders, pulled Comstock's
hands away from his ears and roared, "Follow me! They've got a speaker
hidden someplace near here. I never knew they'd found Helen."
The girl's face was washed clean of every emotion but that of anger.
She stood at Grundy's side, her hands on her hips and the words she
spat out, hurt Comstock's ears even more than the larger than life roar
of The Grandfather.
She said, "What a cheap trick!"
"Darling, I can't leave you here now. You must come with us!" Grundy's
face was tortured.
"I know," she assented and waited for his orders.
Somehow Comstock forced himself to his feet. He would not, could not,
allow himself to be shamed by this girl child. It was unmanly.
The voice of The Grandfather said, "My grandchildren are being naughty.
I do not like this conduct. I am afraid, very afraid that you three
need punishment."
The tones mumbled a long time after the words were no longer separable.
It was like the aftermath of thunder. Comstock moaned in horrified
torment.
All his fears were back. The Grandfather was omnipotent just as he had
always been taught. And yet, and yet ... that little canker of doubt
in the back of his head kept muttering, if that were so, how could the
girl have called it all a cheap trick? Were there even more things,
that he, Comstock, did not understand?
As far as his fevered eye could see there was no sign of humanity.
Comstock knew that behind the drawn blinds of the houses on the street
people like him were huddled in fear, hoping desperately that the voice
did not refer to them.
Grundy said, "If they've got a speaker planted near here, that means
we're under surveillance."
"Of course," Helen agreed, "that's obvious. What do we do about it?"
"I wish I'd never gotten you involved in this, dear," Grundy said.
"I'm glad. For if you hadn't, we'd never have had what little we have
had out of life. I think it's been worth it, and more."
The smile on Grundy's face was so radiant, the renewed courage he
clearly had received from what she said, made Comstock think that
perhaps Bowdler had been right, perhaps there were indeed rewards for
being a whole man.
Grundy blew a kiss to Helen, and then a smile that oddly enough
reminded Comstock of Bowdler crossed his face. He walked from the
entrance of the house out into the center of the street. Then, feet
separated, again so like Bowdler, his hands on his hips, he threw his
head back and looking at the sky he roared out a challenge.
"Come and get us! Don't treat us like sorry grandchildren, come and get
us. I dare you!"
Across the street Comstock saw a curtain being pulled slightly to
one side. Then a frightened eye stared out. The Grandfather or his
representatives would have to answer Grundy's challenge, he realized
with a little thrill of pride.
The powers-that-be dared not allow the people to see a man defy The
Grandfather.
It was, Comstock thought, rather a wonderful thing to be a rebel.
But the feeling passed quickly when, with a speed that defied his
understanding, a kind of vehicle he had never before seen appeared
roaring out of the distance. It had four wheels, and a carriage-like
body, but no team of astrobats drew it. Instead it seemed to be
propelled by magic. It was rather a noisy magic for a series of
explosions seemed to come from the front of it constantly.
Above the low roar of the carriage's explosions rose the voice of The
Grandfather. "I have dispatched a chariot for you. Beware my wrath and
come quietly."
Helen looked jubilant. She said, "We're forcing their hand. This is the
first time in centuries they've found it necessary to use a car!"
"If we only had more strength," Grundy said, "I'd almost be optimistic.
We sure have them worried."
Then the object Helen had called a "car" drew up in front of them and a
door opened. Four of the leanest, hardest R.A.'s that Comstock had ever
seen pointed stun-guns at the three of them. The man who sat behind a
wheel said, "Get 'em in quick. No sense in having too many of these
slobs see this car."
Comstock flashed a look of inquiry at Grundy.
"Sure let's join them. It's easier to be driven there, than to have to
walk as I'd figured!"
The vehicle was obviously not designed to hold seven people and since
the four R.A.'s drew away from Helen with the same kind of sick
disquietude that Comstock had felt, the small remaining space left for
Grundy, the girl and Comstock made them all wedge in rather tightly.
Helen's flesh was soft and warm, Comstock realized with a shock, and
the clean, sweet smell of her in his flaring nostrils was a warning
that Bowdler and Grundy might well be right. There was something about
young women ... something unlike the emotion he had felt on his monthly
visits to his elderly lady friends in the b.....l.
The "car" raced through the deserted streets with a speed that would
have scared Comstock out of a year's growth if he had not had so many
other larger worries tearing at him.
* * * * *
Most baffling to him was the fact that despite the fact that they were
going before a tribunal which would sentence them to death, Grundy was
able to lean closer to Helen and whisper to her a poem that Comstock
had never heard before and the words of which failed to make any sense.
He was saying, "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?"
And then he k....d her.
In the Grandfather's "car" with four R.A.'s right there, Grundy was
k.....g Helen!
It was flabbergasting to Comstock and in a strange way that he could
not quite understand he felt a little pang of jealousy. He found he
would have liked to have had a Helen next to him.... Someone young and
brave ... and soft ... and warm ... who smelled like the girl now
pressed so close against him.
Something of what he was thinking must have communicated itself to the
girl for she turned from her beloved and said, "Poor Comstock. It's not
as though you were all alone. We're with you!"
Then her full-soft lips were pressed on his forehead.
The blood pounding into his head made his face flare crimson.
Sounds of disgust from the four R.A.'s made him angry instead of upset
as they might have.
What did they, poor fools, know of the feelings of a rebel? Of a ...
hero?
The kiss buoyed him up all the way to the House of the Fathers. But
then, when the ominous, tall, round building rose up in front of them,
and he could see the two circular perispheres at the base of the
trylon-like structure, fear returned.
In one of the completely round low buildings was the House of the
Fathers. The other, on the right hand side, was the meeting place of
the Elders. And high above in the very tip of the tall round building
was The Grandfather's Retreat.
It was awe-inspiring because never before had he been closer to it
than a mile and that only on those days sacred to the memory of The
Grandfather.
The car jolted to a halt right in front of the trylon.
The R.A.'s hustled the three of them out of the vehicle. Where were
they to be taken? Comstock watched wide-eyed. Their guards took them
past the door on the right. So they were not to be taken before the
Elders!
There was no sign that they were going to be forced over to the left.
That meant they were not to go before the Fathers.
Instead they were marched through the center door.
Breathing became almost impossible for Comstock. They were being taken
into The Grandfather's Retreat.
Never before had he heard of such a thing happening. But then, of
course, never before had anyone challenged The Grandfather. At least
not to Comstock's knowledge.
Inside the doorway there were broad windows. Through one of them
Comstock could see into the room where all the Elders were met in
solemn conclave. Their aged incredibly wise faces were heavy with
responsibility. All of the seamed faces were turned so that the Elders
could see the three who had defied authority.
The force of all the red-rimmed eyes staring at Comstock was enough to
turn his knees to jelly. Instantly Grundy was at his side, words of
encouragement on his lips.
He said, "Forget the old codgers. They're so senile they don't even
know what's happening."
In some way Grundy's blasphemy was like a jolt of fresh air, or a
couple of corpse revivers. With the thought of liquor, Comstock
suddenly realized that he should be sick. His heart should be bothering
him. It had been ages and ages since he had had a drink. And yet,
despite all the alarums and excursions, his heart had not bothered him.
That was odd....
But all thought, and almost all consciousness ebbed away when that
voice came thundering down.
It said, "Take them before The Fathers before you bring them to me!"
The R.A.'s paused in their tracks and then changed the direction in
which they had been going.
Ahead was the biggest door that Comstock had ever seen. Discreetly
lettered on it was a sign. It read, "The Fathers."
The leader of the R.A.'s opened the door and then Helen, Grundy and he
were pushed through the door into an ante-room. It was small and on the
far side of it was an even bigger door than the one by which they had
entered.
All around the walls of the little room were chairs.
Comstock realized with horror that the door was all that separated
them from the united might of the Fathers. They must be meeting in
solemn conclave, deciding what should be done with the three guilty
ones.
And then the R.A.'s left, their halos shining more brightly than
Comstock had ever seen any R.A.'s halo shine.
The three were alone.
The Fathers in the next room, and above all brooding in titantic
majesty was The Grandfather ... waiting....
Helen sat down, crossed her legs, with a flourish that revealed not
only her slim a....s but, Comstock gulped as he watched in awed
fascination, he could see her c....s! They were round and full.
Throwing himself into a chair next to her, Grundy said, "It's their
next move, blast them! I hope they hurry it up!"
Unable to do anything but pace back and forth, sneaking an occasional
look at Helen's l..s, Comstock brooded about what had happened to him.
Nightmarish in essence, he yet wondered whether it hadn't been worth
it. He was no braver than ever, but there were new emotions, new
sensations raging through him. After all, he was a man. And as a man,
he was, when all was said and done, capable of being a father. For that
matter right at that moment, and looking almost boldly at Helen's
c....s, he felt that he would kind of like to be a real Father! Not
with Helen, after all she was Grundy's, but with some other girl like
her....
He had not ever felt that way about any of the elderly ladies he had
seen, and certainly never with the woman he visited once a month.
Turning he faced the door behind which the Fathers were sitting and
considering his case. The arrogance of them! To think that if his
friend's hypothesis was correct, these men had their pick of all the
young girls on the planet with whom to.... Even then, he could not
think the word, but the anger was real.
He still could not watch when Grundy k....d Helen and touched her, but
he found that it was for a different reason.
Then Helen gasped and Grundy swore, and Comstock turned to look in the
direction of their gaze.
The door of the Fathers' room had opened.
And through it walked Bowdler. Big as life!