Page:Weird Tales volume 38 number 03 CAN.djvu/79

 but must work on the trial and error method. It eradicates its own mistakes, and thus we see the passing of the giant reptiles. But sometimes it approaches that which it desires, and for an example of this we have only to consider the dog.

"Ample evidence points to the fact that the dog, as we know it today, is the descendent of some giant creatures which, except for its size, was very much like our present-day house pets and hunting companions. The size of these ancient dogs surpasses human imagination. How long they roved the earth no man knows. But the restless brain which created them perceived at last that, as they were, they did not fit into the general scheme and eradicated them—or rather—let them eradicate themselves.

"That was accomplished by a simple, natural process. In the first place, the appetites of things so huge must have been enormous. There was just not enough food for them, Then, too, there was nothing save hunger to challenge them or keep them alert, and as a consequence their brains deteriorated to the point where they could no longer adapt themselves to changing conditions. Such a dog, accustomed to living within a certain area, would not possess even the intelligence to forage into another district when its food supply ran out, Thus it died of starvation, and thus the other great dogs died.

"Though this applied generally, it did not apply completely. Some dogs, doubtless the smaller and more adaptable, survived. They, and their descendants, had to compete for the available food with predators more nearly their own size. Thus their brains were sharpened and their adaptability developed. Gradually the dog as we know it today has evolved. True, man has taken that dog and by selective breeding has produced half a hundred forms and sizes which never would have been present had their development been unimpeded and uninterrupted. But there is within every dog an immutable something which man can never change! The smallest and most effete poodle bears within itself the same germ that its giant ancestor bore.

"Do not think that the great dogs were merely a passing phase, or that the creatures which once inhabited the earth are forever gone! The intelligence that created them can at any time bring them back. It would merely be, as I have proven to my own satisfaction, a matter of applying certain hormosones and hormosone products. Tsan-Lo, the Chinese scientist; originated such applications.

"We can go backward as far as we care to go. Now, can we discover the secret of going forward? Can we"

HE book went on to discuss other animals and to say that this vast intelligence, this thing that ruled the earth, and perhaps the universe, was capable of adapting itself to various forms and some day might even appear as a human being. You couldn't help getting the impression, in the closing paragraphs, that that man had already been born in the person of one Ibellius Grut.

Whew! No wonder they'd had him in two insane asylums! The miracle was that they'd ever let him out of either. But he was in Wind City and I was here, and if he suddenly took it in his head to alter the universe he'd probably start on subjects within reach. Besides it was not up to me to question a man's sanity or his morals, but to train his dog.