Samuel Mines

“ We are men, not beasts. There is food for all. Must the women always weep for the dead, must children always wail for mothers and fathers slain?"
Ngeel's bushy eyebrows drew down. "In my father's day," he said, "men were truly wiser. Now we breed a race of fools. The world is very old, my father told me, and there has always been war. Men will always kill. Do you think to stop it with words? If we kill more of the Forest Men than they kill us, there will be no more war."
Krug shrugged massive shoulders. ”

“ Professor Weedlemeyer regarded them sourly.
"I think I take back what I said about the intelligence of humans," he grumbled. "Movies—when science offers you the world! Bah, less intelligence than donkeys you have."
"You keep the science, daddy," Myrtle said generously. "I'll do better with what I have."
She turned her eyes on Egan again and the reporter, feeling his bones begin to soften like butter, agreed with no mental reservations.
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child!" Weedlemeyer groaned. ”

“ The professor, of course, continued his interminable monologue on intelligence.
"... not only the learning ability," he would drone earnestly, pounding it home with a pudgy fist, "but sagacity—the ability to apply what is learned. How many absent-minded professors do you know who have memorized the encyclopedia, but who cannot fix a leaking hot water bottle? They lack sagacity—they cannot apply their learning!"
But Jon Egan was much too much taken up with the gorgeous Myrtle to be amused by Professor Weedlemeyer's mutterings. ”

“ Curtis said as they began to walk down the path. "The female of the species wishes to be conquered. Hence, whatever her intellectual endowments, instinct triumphs over intellect and she succumbs to the animal magnetism of brute force."
"But it's Clarissa!" Professor Dexter said weakly.
"Even Clarissa. Oh, of course if she married him she would soon awake to her horrible mistake. She would weary of an endless conversation about basketball and foot racing. She would yearn for the rarified heights of our discussions. ”

“ As Ngeel watched, hairy mouth agape, Krug began to swing the loaded contraption round his head. Faster and faster it went, until it whistled through the air and dissolved into a blur. Then he let one of the thongs slip from his fingers.
Sheer luck played its part that day as it so often does. Had the stone fallen harmlessly, the effect would have been lost. But the astonished cavemen saw the missile scream through the air with a force that no hand-thrown rock could match. Out, out, it arched, far beyond any man's throwing distance.
A Forest Man, staring, slack-jawed, was slow to duck. ”

“ I never intended, nor expected, to put the machine to such frivolous uses. I had dedicated it to pure science. But what is science, after all, but a tool which man should use for a better life? And our lives are now affected, Professor. We must use science to solve our own problems."
"Admirably put."
Professor Dexter laid his hand on a huge shining cathode tube, whose terminal ends were clamped in the shining copper embrace of a massive induction coil. ”

“ The mule with the reins tossed them to his fellow and dropped awkwardly off the wagon seat, nearly falling, but managing to regain its four feet.
Egan knew they were licked. What could even a stout club do against the lethal hoofs of a mule? And a smart mule at that who could probably outthink both of them.
But he kept charging. There was nothing else to do except turn and run, which was undignified. Interruption came from an unexpected quarter.
The unhappy Professor Weedlemeyer straightened in his harness and with a flash of the old fire sent his voice at them.
"Jon! No! The wire—the wire!" ”

“ And the menace of radioactive dust? And germ warfare? Remember people talking about the end of the human race as though it were just around the corner?" He nodded gloomily at the test tube. "Well, there it is, the real thing, if that stuff ever gets loose."
The uneasiness had fled Goodwin's face. His jowls were alight with excitement. He seized Bartok's hand, pumping it like a driveshaft.
"Congratulations," he beamed. "This puts us at the top of the heap again. It'll mean a lot to the Nelson Foundation, John. And to you. I've got to call the War Department!" ”

“ Excitement began to pop in Professor Curtis' voluable face.
"You did it?" he stammered.
"I did it. Needing only reduced power, I scaled down the cyclotron and incorporated the electron stream in this cathode tube. What I have here is essentially a pocket-sized cyclotron which I am satisfied will have no lethal effect upon living tissue."
"But what will it do?"
Professor Dexter shrugged bony shoulders.
"Anything. By exerting the proper kind of force on the electrons I can crowd them together, thus reducing anything in size. ”

“ We do all the work and what do we get? Do we get a fair crack at that life, liberty and pursuit of happiness you like to talk about?"
Senator Foghorn fell backwards off the platform. The sheriff and the mayor, who had been retreating all the time the mule was speaking, scrambled hastily down and fled for their lives, abandoning their hapless political colleague. Women screamed wildly and there was a vast trampling of feet as the crowd left.
On the outskirts, Jon Egan pulled Myrtle hastily into a doorway to let the maddened throng stream fast. ”

“ Professor Dexter said, snapping on the lights in his laboratory, "is to shift my research away from destructive metallurgy and turn the light of new atom discoveries upon protoplasmic tissue. If the atoms of metal can be shifted, altered or broken apart, why not living tissue?" ”

“ Goodwin said. "Anything as terrible as you say this is could never be used. Just having it—and letting other nations know we have it—is insurance against anybody jumping on us. Keep them scared to death."
He beamed upon the silent Bartok. "I'll call General McComber to come down at once." The swinging door squealed and flapped behind his confident exit.
Dr. John Bartok took his cigarette and himself into the chair in front of the lab table and slumped down to stare at the gently fuming test tube. ”

“ He was Krug of the Cave Dwellers, and this was his home. Behind him was a bustle and Ngeel, the chief, came out on the ledge. He was a stocky, powerful man, wearing the leopard skin of authority, plus a bustling official manner, plus a belief that his tribesmen were his by right.
Ngeel squatted down beside Krug and chuckled deep in his throat. "They come, the Forest Men," he grunted. "They think to kill. We shall kill many and there will be much feasting." ”

“ Professor Weedlemeyer sputtered in his eagerness, making large gestures with his hands.
"Of course!" he shouted, his accent becoming thicker with his excitement. "It is lunacy to think only man will increase in his intelligence! ”

“ Two identical machines stood near each other on the lab floor, shining cathode tubes poised like a pair of futuristic ray guns.
In all this time they had no word from Professor Clarissa Wilkins.
"Probably baking cookies for Jake Donahue," Dexter said bitterly.
"If he eats enough of them he'll get fat and lose his figure," Curtis said. "But it would take too long."
They finished early one afternoon and by common consent made their plans to go through with the experiment the next morning. Though neither man would admit it they were just a little scared. They went home and made their wills. ”

“ They were returning from the movies, strolling hand in hand, this warm spring night. Jasmine and magnolia were in full, fragrant bloom and the night air was alive with romance. On a street corner a political meeting was in full progress. ”

“ Clarissa transferred the plate of cookies to his side. He munched. And a surprising thing happened. Mere muscle could never triumph over intellect, yet the Professors Dexter and Curtis found themselves pocketed, side-tracked and elbowed aside. ”

“ A hearty voice boomed greeting. "Well, John!"
Dr. Goodwin, head of the Nelson Foundation, thought it part of his duties to boom heartily. He was a plump man in morning coat and striped trousers with the inevitable pince-nez on a black ribbon. ”

“ The darkness was alive with the richness of new grass, the vagrant perfumes of verbena, alyssum, calendula, nemophila and ageratum, not to mention lobelia, mignonette, nicotiana, scabiosa, Kochia and salpiglossis. ”

“ Myrtle gasped. "The mules driving men!"
"It's democracy," Egan said, grinning a little in spite of himself. But he sobered quickly. "Look," he said pointing.
The lead man in the team was Professor Weedlemeyer.
Tarzan in a breech-clout is one thing—or Uncas. But a fat and past middle-aged professor has no dignity without his clothes. Professor Weedlemeyer was a sorry wreck of his normal rubicund self. ”

“ So, engaged officially, they went hand in hand to seek Papa Weedlemeyer and break the news.
They found him peering myopically through a comparison microscope.
"So?" he grunted. "Am I supposed to be surprised? Any donkey could have seen it coming long ago. ”

“ You will all the time fight and be perfectly happy and miserable. Now away go and talk your foolishness and let me work."
The roseate daze in which Myrtle and Egan were now enveloped left no room for curiosity about the nature of Professor Weedlemeyer's work. ”