Adventure Magazine Cover — page 77: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

x —s - ae 2 “2 nd Fall is Without a word he took out his hypoder- -mic case and gave me a tube of quarters. Then he smiled, but his smile was horribly forced. “Don’t go and get the habit,” he said, making the last jest of a man famous for joshing his intimates. I tried to cheer him up. | : “Tt may not get us all,” I said as con- vincingly as I could. “PERHAPS—” _ he stopped. , He was staring across the street at a cigar store. Two men had been stand- ing there, talking. I say two men “had” been, because those two men were suddenly standing there no longer. With an awful suddenness they lost all but the outward semblance of humanity and virtually lost even that. They began to gape, as if forced to sleep by some powerful drug, dropping almost immediately to their hands and knees, imi- tating, to the best of their ability, the sheep they had been commanded to imitate by the hypnotists, believing they actually were sheep. Yet that is hardly correct, for the word belief implies some power of thought, and these could not think. Perhaps, for a ‘moment before becoming sheep, belief had been with them, but, with the becoming, began and ‘they were sheep in so far as they could © be; mentally they were on the sheep’s level. | While they were gaping, they had thrown away every vestige of clothing. You can not imagine how weirdly awful that un- dressing seemed, in the fading light of early evening and on the open street. Then, fearfully it seemed, they began sniffing as they made their ungainly way along, get- ting off the sidewalk at once, as if made to by some shepherd dog. I can see no other explanation of their sniffing but that they were smelling for grass to eat. The doctor, a strong-willed man, im- mensely wealthy, too, as I remember, began to laugh like a hysterical girl. “My God, Barney, I’m going!” His voice grew even more shrill. ‘TI feel it coming over me. - I must do it! I must! I know - I must because —because——”’ Here his voice dropped and he spoke as =— > —_, i it a - . = : a | 3 =p . ae oe = - > I ,. = Sct Ss ge = — —_ <Sg ee <— sagas ee nn a om — Ke Se SS = oa a lw - en for him. “Because I was told how contented the sheep are out in the clear air!” Then, the knowledge of the man and all his experience and understanding fighting furiously against the soothing influence which jhe knew was luring him to destruc- — tion, he screamed: “No! No! I won’t! I won’t! Help me, help me, Barney! I don’t want to, I don’t want to—to— Keep me awake, for God’s sake, keep me awake! I can not—stop— myself. = His voice dropped, as of one sinking into ° sleep, and he turned his piteous, pleading eyes upon me, while I watched the light of intelligence leaving them. At the instant of his first cry I had gripped him. I was a more powerful man . than Fecpik, although he was taller and heavier, and I held him, shaking him with all my strength, as one would try to keep a man from going to sleep. From the be- ginning I felt he had a tendency to sink to the ground and that I was forced to uphold him. I saw that shaking was of*no use, so I held him, saying as calmly and forcibly as I could: “You are all right. You will not go to sleep. You are you,” and so on, doing my best to prevent the working of the hypno- sis. But, as I said, it was useless. It was far worse than watching a man die, to see those-piteous eyes telling me he understood what was happening to him, worse than watching a drowning man who can not be saved. To watch the soul leave his eyes was worse, far, far worse than to see eyes filled with terror. And Fecpik was my oldest and dearest friend. I suffered agony, in sympathy, and my own strength™left me, Gaping vacantly, my friend threw away his clothing and dropped to his hands and knees. Then I saw he was afraid of me. Helpless, I watched him shuffle fearfully away from me, an awiul, ungainly sight, for he was six feet four. And I could do nothing but watch him go the way the others had gone, for when I moved as if to approach him—it, I should say, for there was no longer a man—it showed such fear of me that my agony = = = was increased, we pee I felt that fea if he had cuddealy bocotee aware. of some ~ its was also. 7 i © = ae é > * cabs. a Saws - wonderful happiness saviediately in store z Se = ——_— ho ae CR ae Wen ee Wiss ly y*y . ae ah TE Re ~ Jak, — = omic boole com