Page:Weird Tales volume 24 number 03.djvu/72

Rh microscope stood a small glass-stoppered bottle nearly full of a transparent umber fluid which had been expressed from the pulp.

Still doubtful, hesitating, never convinced, Haverland delayed his investigation one moment more. He approached a locker and removed from it a soggy paper package. With as much deliberation as he could muster, he opened it and produced a large piece of raw meat. He walked to the window with it, opened the window, and then, lingering still, stepped back. Wind outside plucked at the tower of vines, and its whole length undulated with a confusion of whispers.

Haverland wiped his brow, sagging with perspiration, and flung the meat outside. The vine thrashed out across the window. In a moment the meat had been torn into minute shreds, and the whole disappeared among the foliage. Haverland slammed the window and leaned against it. When the leaves patted the glass against his back he sobbed. Pound after pound of fresh, raw meat, vanishing thus in midair. Below the window, if he desired to look, was a sprinkling of clean-picked bones, even to the skeleton of a bird or two. There remained one certain test which the engineer felt was final.

As he stood before the odd collection of objects on the laboratory table, silent and thoughtful, he was aware of remarkable hootings and whisperings outside the building. It was as though the wind, finding small apertures and irregularities in the construction of the place, were deriding him and his work, making sport of his loneliness.

The day had been overcast. The light breeze that had begun the day before had blown up banks of clouds all day long, till by late afternoon the sky was obscured with a thick, uninterrupted blanket the color of dusty metal, that seemed to serve as a sounding-board for dull thunders in the distance.

CHOMMER, since he lived near by and wanted to finish up the business of the night before, had called for his chief in the morning. Early as they were, when they had passed through South and entered the road leading through the woods below the South laboratories they found their way blocked by a man at work.

Eric Shane, who lived at the far end of South, was one of the more capable laborers among the community of foreigners. Because of his war record, when such things were of importance in employment, he held the position of road patrolman along the network leading out of South. His grader, built after the fashion of the war-time tanks with which he was familiar, was stalled in the middle of the road. He was proceeding on foot along the ditch at one side, industriously wielding a scythe. At the sound of Schommer's brakes he turned about.

After observing the two in the car silently for a moment, he said deliberately,

"Wery juicy."

"What's that, Eric?" asked Schommer.

"The wines. Wery juicy," Shane repeated. He held out his scythe, from which yellow sap was dripping.

"Vines? Well," said Schommer, puzzled, "what're you cutting 'em for?"

"Big fellahs," said Shane, shaking his head. "Across the road, blowing around from the wind. Lots easier to cut."

"I don't see any," said Schommer, craning his neck to look beyond the grader. "Cut the rest of them already?"

Shane looked steadily up the road, then stared owlishly at the two engineers as though he had seen them for the first time.