Page:Amazing Stories Volume 21 Number 06.djvu/60

60 on its song of evolutionary magic.

Swiftly, swiftly, the wonder mounted in Zigor's face, and his arm, which he had involuntarily thrown aloft as he felt a ray upon him, fearing death from the unseen source of the ray, dropped again, as the miracle of the transformation sent the ecstasy of mighty growth through every cell of his body. Swiftly the body of Zigor became that which it would have been had he had been raised in one of the nurseries of the Elder race. And as that wonder grew within his body, as the evil of dis-infection died within his mind and the wonder of curative integrant force took its place within his mind, that ancient spirit which the Elder race had left to guard the ruins of Eg Notha turned within the under rock and quietly went again to sleep. For with the change in Zigor, the danger for the world which had been potentially present in Zigor Mephisto disappeared.

"Chlio, Chlio, God's hand is upon me, I change! Ah—what has happened—what have I done? Father, father—" Zigor sank again upon the throne and burst into tears, for a lifetime of struggle with his father had to be atoned for within moments of sudden realization, and he could not bear it.

YDIA, who had given Zigor double the dose of ray that she had given the dwarf, now swung the ray upon Chlio, and all that beauty that had been hers began to blossom fiercely, to become the most beautiful woman of all earth.

"By the Gods, those elder men knew what to want on this green earth," swore old Mephisto, watching his beloved Chlio become a symphony of terrific lure! A vital aura of womanhood pulsed about her as the rays transformed her who had been merely "beautiful and good" into the vast, and ultimate, end-product of an age of beautiful and good forebears! Chlio, the most beautiful woman living on the whole earth. Ecstasy spread over her shuddering form, the sleeping mind awoke to a wonder it had never conceived possible—every cell of her lovely body quivered into a change into the perfect cell.

A long, long time Nydia kept the ray upon Chlio, then swung it again, looking for me. Yes, that is why I am able to tell you this, and get it published—because she found me with that ray, and the thing that was a mere mindless tool of Zigor's will awoke again to life—the body that had been a mere, ordinary, well meaning human's became—well, not the best looking man on earth, but Nydia loves me vastly more than formerly.

So it was that an end to trouble within the ancient walls of Eg Notha came about through the miracle of growth. So it was that the old cynical, beaten man we met when we entered the sinister ancient fortress is now younger, handsomer and wiser than any other now alive.

And so it was that we sent our flying globe back again to our former encampment, and the little band who had fought for life with the evil things that beseiged us moved—to Eg Notha, and left the besiegers holding an empty bag. And when they come to attack us in Eg Notha, I think the Mephistos will be ready for them. 



IR FRANCIS GALTON, English anthropologist was born on February 16, 1822, at Birmingham and received his education at Birmingham hospital, at King's college, London, and at Trinity college, Cambridge.

He was a man of many tastes in science with 