Gaddon"s mind fought to the fore, took control of that feline man-shape that was his, struggled to its feet and moved in a lithe bound to the opposite side of the chamber. A clawed hand reached up where Gaddon knew the release mechanism of the door lay, and pressed it.
The door slid back with a sliding sound and the cool night air rushed in upon it.
Gaddon moved his cat-body through the opening and bounded to the ground in a lithe, powerful movement. He felt new muscles react as he landed on the ground, and knew that there was a great strength in them. Strength that was waiting to be used.
And he felt the other thoughts starting to move forward in his mind again and he forced them back. He knew he must keep control of that mind. For there was something that he must do.
He thought desperately about it. And the pattern became clearer in his mind.
The cosmic rays. The reaction in his body. He had sought immortality in the door to outer s.p.a.ce and had found a monster waiting for him. A force that had changed his glands, grown the s.h.a.ggy fur on his body. Glands that had warped his mind. Opened an age-old cunning of feline thought.
Glands.
Gaddon"s thoughts whipped the word. Held it. Knew it must be the answer. And then it found a prayer of hope. And a name that went with that thought.
"Fenwick! I"ve got to reach Fenwick before it"s too late. Before it"s too late!"
His voice came hoa.r.s.ely, strangely formed. And he looked wildly about him. He saw, off in the distance, a glowing of lights in the night. And he knew somehow that it was the city of Tucson.
And in that city, at its very edge, was a house he must reach.
He stumbled away into the darkness, feeling his limbs move rapidly then, smoothly, covering the ground in great leaping strides.
And though Gaddon"s thoughts kept the balance of control, deep inside his mind, the monster growled with a cunning laughter ...
Fred Trent pulled the last sheet of paper from his typewriter and leaned back in his chair exhausted. That was it, the end of the story. He waved his hand at a copy boy and the boy ran up to take the final page. Each sheet had been taken like that, to be immediately set in the composing room. Now it was finished, the story of the year.
And as Trent slowly lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, he knew that he had done a good job on the story. And a smile crossed his face as he thought of it. His future was a.s.sured now. There could be no more stopgaps, no more delays in his plans to marry Joan and settle down. And the girl would have to agree. For the first time in many months, Fred felt that his troubles were over with. And the feeling was nice. It spread through him and he was content.
He glanced at his wrist watch and frowned. The story had taken longer than he had antic.i.p.ated. It was nearly eleven. Some of the enthusiasm ran out of him as he thought of Joan waiting for him at Fenwick"s. He could imagine how angry she must be by now.
He got up quickly from his desk and reached for his hat. As he started to walk away, the phone on his desk rang.
He stepped back and picked up the receiver.
"Trent speaking."
"Fred!"
Trent heard his name uttered in terror across the wire and he felt a chill run through him as he recognized the voice. It was Joan Drake.
"Joan, what"s wrong?" he asked anxiously.
"Fred! Come quickly! Bring help before it"s too late--he"ll kill us!"
"Joan! For G.o.d"s sake, calm down! Now what"s the matter?" His voice held a tenseness in it as he spoke.
"It"s Gaddon, Fred! Only it isn"t Gaddon--it"s a monster! He"ll kill us!"
"Gaddon?" Trent"s voice spoke incredulously. "But that"s imposs--"
"Oh, Fred, hurry-- I--oh--no--no! Keep away--"
He heard the girl scream over the phone then. And he heard something else. A growling sound. A sound of animal noise unlike any other sound he had ever heard. And then as he shouted into the phone: "Joan! Joan!" the line went dead.
He stood for a moment, staring stupidly at the receiver in his hand. Then he slammed it back on its cradle and turned. He nearly knocked over the copy boy who hollered at him.
"Hey, Trent, the boss wants you in his office!"
But he swept by the boy unheeding. He didn"t wait for the elevator. He took the stairs in leaping bounds, and then he was on the main floor of the building and out on the street.
He slammed the door of his car shut and started the motor. His hands trembled as he meshed the gears and shot the coupe away from the curb. Then he was moving swiftly through the traffic.
As he turned down the street where Fenwick"s office was, Fred Trent"s mind was a whirl of confused thought.
There was fear there. Fear and dread. And there was puzzlement too. A puzzlement that made his brain spin. Joan had spoken with terror in her voice. Terror that had said somebody was going to kill. And Joan was not a girl to be easily frightened. And she had mentioned Gaddon"s name. Gaddon, the man who had shot into the heavens in an experimental rocket. Gaddon, who was supposed to be dead.
He felt now that same feeling that had crept through him after the launching. The feeling that had whispered in his mind that maybe Gaddon had been right after all. That maybe he wouldn"t die. That maybe ... And now the dread swept him. For he thought of the sound he had heard over the phone. The last sound before the line went dead. The sound of an animal growling in wrath. And he remembered the girl"s scream about a monster.
A cold sweat was on his forehead as he pulled the coupe into the curb in front of the Fenwick house. He switched off the motor and closed the car door after him.
Then he was hurrying up the walk to the front door, his eyes taking in the house in a swift glance, noting that the lights were lit in the consultation room. Lights that slivered out from the closed venetian blinds.
He stood then on the front porch, his hand closing over the k.n.o.b of the door.
It was locked.
He pressed the bell then and heard its clarion sound inside the house. But other than that there was nothing to be heard. A deep, ominous silence that somehow brought a feeling of panic to him. Was he too late?
And then suddenly the panel in the front of the door opened and a face peered out at him.
Fred Trent felt the blood drain from his lips. A paralysis seemed to grip his body at what he saw framed in the opening.
For it was not the face of a human being. And yet, it was not the face of an animal. It was a horrible, twisted, cat-like visage that peered out at him, furred and ugly, with bared teeth and glowing, feline eyes.
And as he looked, a sound came from the twisted lips. It was the same sound he had heard over the telephone. The sound of a growling rage.
And as the sound hit his ears, a terrible realization swept over him. For his eyes, riveted on that monstrous countenance, had registered an impossible fact upon his mind.
As twisted as it was, as horribly changed into an animal grimace, it was the face of someone he knew--the English scientist, Blair Gaddon!
And then suddenly the face vanished from the opening. And Fred Trent felt his paralysis leave him. He knew now that he should never have come alone. That he should have called the police first. That he-- The door swung open then and Trent found himself facing the thing that had been Gaddon.
He took a backward step and started to turn and run for his car and help, but he was too slow.
An arm shot out and a claw-like hand suddenly gripped his shoulder in a swift, steel-like movement. He felt himself being pulled forward and into the house, as another growl snarled from the lips of the creature.
Trent tried to break the grip of that vise-like hand. He tried to smash his fist into the ugly visage of a face that confronted him. But he was like a child in that grip. And like a child, he was hurled across the hall, and he heard the door slam shut behind him.
As he got slowly to his feet and turned to face the creature, he heard a sobbing sound from the open door of the consultation room. It was the voice of Joan Drake.
And then the monster had reached him and the clawed hand reached out and spun him through the doorway, into the consultation room. And he heard a growling voice utter harshly: "You will regret this interference, Trent!"
And he knew that it was the voice of Blair Gaddon. And yet he also knew that it was not the same voice. It was changed. It had a b.e.s.t.i.a.l quality to it.
Then Trent looked around him. He saw Joan Drake, huddled in a corner of the room, beside Dr. Stanley Fenwick. The specialist was sitting in a chair, holding his right hand to his mouth. Fred could see blood oozing from a gash in the surgeon"s lips.
And then he heard another sound. A sound from without the house, coming from the rear. It was the baying of Brutus. The big dog must have sensed the presence of the monster. And it was protesting in its animal voice, a mournful dirge.
Then his attention was drawn once again to the animal body of Blair Gaddon. And now that the first shock had left him, Trent stared at the man. He heard the girl sob.
"Fred! I told you to bring help--"
"Be quiet!" the voice of Gaddon issued from the twisted lips. And the girl"s sob stifled itself in a look of dread.
Then the face that had been Gaddon turned to Trent. There was a twisted leer to it, and Fred sensed that there was a struggle going on in that warped mind.
"You are Gaddon? The Blair Gaddon who went up with the experimental rocket?" Trent"s voice came incredulously.
The face of the creature twisted in a grimace of acknowledgment.
"Yes, Trent. I am Blair Gaddon. I am not a pretty sight to look at, am I?" Words left the twisted lips, and there was a b.e.s.t.i.a.l pain in them.
"But--you"re supposed to be dead! Mathieson--"
A strange sound of irony came from Gaddon.
"Mathieson was right about the cosmic rays--I know that now. Look at me! You see what has happened to me? I sought immortality through the life energy of s.p.a.ce--and look at me!"
Horror reflected in Fred"s eyes in that moment. For he felt the pained terror in the voice of the animal shape before him. And he saw the claw-like hands clench spasmodically.
"My glands!" the voice screamed. "The cosmic rays reacted on them--fed the essence of the cat into them--changed me into this monstrous being!"
Trent stared at the rage-filled face. Felt the emotion that was sweeping through the creature. Felt a sudden compa.s.sion that was erased by the b.e.s.t.i.a.l look that came into the monster"s eyes.
And then it turned toward the chair where Fenwick sat. The doctor was looking at the creature, his eyes wide and terrified.
"But what do you expect me to do for you, Gaddon? Why do you stand here threatening--" Fenwick"s voice came hoa.r.s.ely.
"Why? You fool! Because there is so little time! I am changing! Even now my human instincts are nearly gone!... You"re a gland specialist! There is something you can do--stop this change--stop it!"
Fenwick shook his head slowly. "You"re raving like a madman, Gaddon. I"m not a G.o.d--do you think I can change something that is beyond human understanding? If you"ll only let me call in the authorities ..."
A growl of rage left Gaddon"s animal lips. "Authorities! So you can have me put in cage like a wild beast? So you and your medical experts can stand and watch me as you would a freak? You"re a fool! You"ll help me now! You"ll do something--before it"s too late! Do you hear me?"
The creature advanced slowly upon the doctor, and the girl backed away to the far wall, fear mirrored in her eyes.
Then Fred Trent stepped forward, his voice tense.
"Hold on, Gaddon--of course the doctor will help you--won"t you, Fenwick?"
There was an urgent emphasis in Trent"s last words, and his eyes caught those of the surgeon"s, and held them in a meaningful look. He couldn"t say what he wanted to, but the message in his eyes was imparted to Fenwick, and the doctor suddenly nodded.
"Yes--yes, of course ... But you"ll have to remain quiet, Gaddon, and be patient a moment...."
The creature stopped its advance upon Fenwick then. And a growl rumbled in Gaddon"s animal throat.
Then Fred watched as the doctor stepped swiftly to a table with instruments and hurriedly began to prepare a hypodermic.
"I"ll give you a special extract injection to start...." Fenwick explained as he worked.
And Trent knew that the doctor was preparing an injection that would subdue the monster. That would enable them to call the police....
And the eyes of Gaddon watched the fingers of the surgeon prepare the hypodermic. And for a single moment the human part of Gaddon"s monster mind relaxed its tenacious hold.
There was a rumble of raging thought deep within his twisted brain. It swept up, gripped the human element, and enveloped it. A hoa.r.s.e mewing sound left the twisted lips as the mind became a single, b.e.s.t.i.a.l thing.
And now it thought with a viciousness. It knew now that it was finally in control. That the full change had been completed. And it knew suddenly what it wanted.
Its animal eyes stared at the three humans. And it felt a hatred for the men who did not understand it. And it felt a desire for the woman who feared it. A desire that crept out of the primeval jungles. That swept through it to find one of its kind. And there was the vague instinct that was Gaddon, who told it how to fulfill that desire. Gaddon, who knew where the secret lay.
And then there was the driving urge that swept up from the animal ages. The urge to kill, to destroy what was hated. And the eyes of the monster fastened on the figure of Fenwick as the doctor turned from the table, the hypodermic in his hand.
"All right, Gaddon ..."
The voice of Fenwick trailed off. And Fred Trent stared at the face of the monster. What he saw there brought a chill to his being. And he heard the girl gasp from the far corner of the room, as her eyes too saw the change that had spread over the face of the creature.
For there was no longer any vestige of human recognition in that face. There was no longer any trace of the man who had been Gaddon. There was only the monster now. The twisted, leering lips of an animal mind.
A harsh growl left those lips then and the creature moved forward toward the surgeon.
Trent knew what was happening, and he knew what he must do. There was death on that b.e.s.t.i.a.l face. Death that was reaching out ...
He heard the dim baying of the Great Dane from the rear of the house as he leaped forward.
Then his fist lashed out and caught the animal face in a lashing blow. His knuckles felt numb as he screamed: "The hypodermic--doctor--quick!"
Then the creature turned on him and a long arm shot out. Trent felt a claw rake across his face and felt the burning bite of that claw sink into his flesh. Then, as he tried to dodge away from the beast and bring his fist up again, the monster leaped at him and Trent felt a powerful blow crash against his chin.
He spun back, falling to the floor, his head hitting the edge of an examining table. His senses reeled and he felt the blood running down his cheek, a warm, sticky stream that dripped to the floor.