Charles L. Fontenay

“ A murderer in prison has no influence. He cannot battle evil, recruiting to his shining leadership an army of righteous people. Truggles dropped his hand to his lap and said calmly:
"You speak as though they could love no one else. Is polygamy, then, to be a characteristic of the long-heralded superman?"
"Polygamy and monogamy, as such, have no moral values, for man or superman," replied Forsythe, speaking to the window. "Polygamy was a part of man's social scheme for centuries. ”

“ Before he could say more, Lois was on her feet.
"Mr. Truggles, wait!" she exclaimed. "You told me you were going to try to get Blan to give up polygamy. I wouldn't have come here and helped you if I'd known you were going to try to arouse his friends against him!"
"My poor child, it's too late," answered Truggles loudly. "I tried to persuade the man to give up his life of sin, and his heart was as stone. He must feel the lash of just retribution!" ”

“ Allison laid his half-smoked cigar carefully on the edge of the ashtray and gazed at Truggles through his spectacles.
"Blan Forsythe is a new species," he said slowly. "He is not man. Everyone has theorized that a superman might arise from a mutation, perhaps caused by radiation. My God, a hundred mutations of individual genes wouldn't make a superman overnight! But Blan Forsythe is one—a tetraploid man—a superman." ”

“ He thought Trella appeared reluctant when he stopped and pushed open the door, but she did not protest.
"Why are you weeping, my child?" asked Truggles, after he had talked with her for a moment.
"I must leave," she explained. "I've been married to Blan two years tomorrow, and I haven't given him a child."
"That's the most inhuman thing I ever heard of!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to say he gives you this little time of happiness, and then if you don't produce progeny for him he casts you off like an old shoe?" ”

“ His back to the crowd, Truggles feared with a terrible fear that it was already too late. He was chancing making himself ridiculous.
But his heart leaped as the voices of a few hotheads arose in his support behind him, and he felt, rather than heard, some of the people surge forward. How many? He didn't know, but a few would be enough to start the rest again.
Allison was leaning over the porch rail, his face white, looking not at Truggles but past him.
"Donald!" he cried in a low voice that carried intensely across the grass. "Do as your mother says! I won't punish you. Use the Power!" ”

“ Allison's son."
Truggles brushed that aside.
"That's no excuse for what you're doing," he said.
"One of the major duties of any individual, of whatever species, is to reproduce his kind, if he can," answered Forsythe soberly. "In the human community, safe as a race through its very numbers, that has been lost sight of and overlaid with social responsibilities. I'm different. I can't ignore it.
"How was the misconception ever begotten that a superman—again, it's your term, not mine—would merely mate with the daughters of men and, lo! a new race? The superman is a new species. ”

“ As for Allison, Truggles detested a man like that. The "scientific" mind, always so sure of its own theories. Such men could not see beyond the material, into the living realm of possession and power, the struggle between good and evil.
This theory that Forsythe was a superior creature ... Truggles shivered with resentment. Man was the apex, the conqueror—the conqueror through his service to the good way, the right way, through his militant demand that things be good and right. ”

“ Allison remained in his study when Truggles left, and Phyllis stepped from the darkened doorway of the dining room as Truggles opened the front door.
"Mr. Truggles," she said, placing her hand on his arm, "I don't know what your object is, but don't make any trouble for Blan Forsythe."
"My poor child, I am not trying to make trouble for him," said Truggles sadly. "I hope only to convince him that his unfortunate differences do not privilege him to flout the sound social customs of other men. If there is any trouble, it will be made by the man himself." ”

“ Zinnias, marigolds, phlox cast their colorful bounty to the air.
"I'm afraid I'm not much of a horticulturist," apologized Truggles.
"Well, it's like this," said Sands. "Every cell of every plant of the same species has the same number of chromosomes—you know, those bright little threads that hold the guiding genes of growth and development. Mutations in plants come when there are changes in individual genes from time to time. But when you hit them with colchicine, the chromosomes sometimes double without the cell dividing. Creates a new species, usually bigger, stronger, slower growing. ”

“ Phyllis is my niece and I was sorry to see them break up, but the young people have to live their own lives. Blan has some ideas us old stick-in-the-muds might not understand, Mr. Truggles, but he's all right."
"A dozen women live with him in that big house of his," insisted Truggles. "I've found out there's a turnover, too. When one moves out, another moves in."
"I don't poke my nose into other people's business," said Sands bluntly. "But Dr. Allison tells me Blan maintains a staff, and it's convenient for them to live in that big house. ”

“ Mice, he thought. The idea that man descended from a mouse was even more repellant than that man descended from monkey. But, if evolution had any basis in fact, mice might have certain claims. They lived in human habitations, they ate human foods. Their psychology was studied in mazes, and their physical makeup made them good subjects for experimentation in human diseases.
Mice. Truggles shrugged and walked on.
Masefield Truggles had seen Blan Forsythe at a distance, walking along the streets of Marston Hill, but Forsythe's appearance at close range was a severe shock. ”

“ Truggles rented the city's ancient, rickety auditorium for the meetings, and invited Mayor Ben Sands to speak at the first one.
Lois Forsythe sat on the platform that first afternoon, but Truggles did not call on her. Sands made a routine talk, the kind any mayor of a small town might, on the conscientiousness of Marston Hill's three-man police force, the lack of crime in the town, the recreational facilities and educational methods being utilized to see that the young people did not stray on the wrong path. ”

“ Truggles?" she cried, peering into his face. "What are all these people doing?"
"I'm sorry you came here, Mrs. Allison," he answered, shouting to make himself heard over the uproar of the people around them. "These people are determined to right the wrong this man has done you."
Outside lights from the mansion suddenly lit the entire lawn, and the mob that stirred restlessly on it. A momentary silence fell. Their numbers did not seem as great, their ranks not so solid, in the glare of the lights.
"Come on, Forsythe!" shouted Truggles in a great voice. "Come out and face your judges!" ”

“ He is bigger spiritually, emotionally. He thinks. He has a—"
"Ben Sands told me about his talk with you. So you don't believe in evolution? You don't believe the ancestors of men and monkeys came from a common stock?"
"I do not, sir. It is inconceivable...."
"How would mice strike you, then? Would you rather believe that men descended from mice than monkeys?"
Again the bewildered Truggles found himself physically incapable of answering.
"I have done a great deal of research, with the kind assistance of Blan Forsythe," said Allison precisely. "Blan is my friend. ”

“ Allison has tested him, and Donald has the normal 48 chromosomes."
"Can't you accept the verdict of nature, Forsythe?" demanded Truggles. "If you were born a eunuch, you could never reproduce."
"While there's hope, I have the responsibility," said Forsythe slowly. "If the stream of life is to progress, something greater than man must arise from him. I know, Truggles—I know—I am that superior thing. ”

“ The genuine love of a man for a woman does not die. Do you think even a superman—it's your term, Truggles, not mine—enjoys loneliness? The worship of other women, my affection for them as human beings, can't fill the gap left by the loss of someone who shared complete understanding with me."
He laughed shortly.
"Besides," he added, "you're trying to talk me into committing an immoral act, Truggles. You forget that Phyllis is Dr. Allison's wife now, and Donald is Dr. ”

“ Mice. The common house mouse. There is also a variety of squirrel that carries 24 chromosomes. The peromyscus and apodemus families of mice—and some other animals, including the rhesus monkey—have 48—cousins whose chromosome doubling eons ago started them up different paths from ours. Mr. Truggles, the ancestor of man was a rodent whose doubled chromosomes gave him new attributes that worked to his evolutionary advantage."
"Is that what is called a mutation?" asked Truggles, interested in spite of himself.
"Mutation? A mutation is a change in one gene. Men mutate every day. ”

“ Blan Forsythe is the real originator of this theory, as a result of his very personal interest in sudden evolutionary changes through doubling of chromosomes. It is reasonable to suppose that the ancestor of man himself, with all of his survival advantages, arose through such a process. Man has 48 chromosomes. Now, Mr. Truggles, what sort of animal would you guess has half that number—24 chromosomes? ”

“ Does he recall that I complained to him not long ago about the activities of Blan Forsythe, and what the tenor of the conversation was?"
"Why, yes," answered Sands, surprised. "You accused Blan of practicing polygamy. I told you that you'd been listening to too much gossip, and that Blan was doing biological research. I don't believe these good people would be interested in the nature of the research."
"I do," answered Truggles, "and it will be the subject of tomorrow's meeting. I have investigated these experiments, and they are well worth hearing about. Thank you, Mr. Mayor." ”

“ He has been my associate, even my experimental animal. I am preparing a paper on what I consider a revolutionary contribution to the theory of evolution—that men are related directly to the genus rodentia, and only more distantly so to the primates. ”