Unknown v04n04 (1940-12)British Ed. 1940.pdf

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STREET & SMITH’S
T IT L E R E G ISTE R E D U .S . P A T E N T OFFICE
The editorial contents of this m agazine have not been published before, are protected by
copyrigh t and cannot be reprinted w ithout the pu blish ers’ perm ission .
Vol. IV No. 4
December 1940
Contents
9
Novel
DARKER THAN YOU THINK .
.
Jack W illiamson
2
The germs o f the witch folk live today— and perhaps you yourself carry
them! And man is losing the
Novelette
TW O FOR A BARGAIN . . . .
D orothy Quick .
64
Elsbeth hated that tight New England colonial town— and turned to
w itchcraft to punish it. But—
Short Story
TH R E SH O LD ......................................Henry Kuttner .
Applied psychology vs. dem onology, and naturally the demon would
com e out the loser— wouldn’t he? Or would he—
55
Poem
BLACK C A T S......................................Cristel Hastings .
80
The characters and events depicted in these stories are purely fictitious, and the
Publishers do not admit any liability for same.
2
DARKER
THAN YOU
THINK
by JACK WILLIAMSON
Illustrated by Edd Cartier
The germs o f the witch
folk hide in your blood— and
Man’s fast losing the r a c e !
T
his
story is presented as pure
fiction. The publishers, the editors,
and the writer neither possess nor
have seen any evidence of its truth,
not included in the manuscript itself.
strict fairness to the reader,
however, we feel compelled
to point "out that it
might
be true.
D A R K E R THAN YOU TH IN K
If it is true, there is danger even in the
reading of it— danger to somewhat more
than one’s peace of mind. Perhaps several
hundred thousand may safely share a burden
of knowledge that was fatal to a few brave
men. But— we can’t be
sure l
The sources of this material cannot now
be traced. It reached us in a manner that
leaves it cleverly and completely anonymous.
It was accompanied only by the request
that it be made public in this manner— if
writer, editor and publisher cared to take
the risk.
Somebody, then, believes. When one
does believe— or when he allows himself even
to suspect— it is impossible to do nothing.
Life becomes a kind of walking nightmare;
one simply must do something.
For there is still time, or so at least it
seems, somebody believes.
It is true that the contents of Mondrick’s
green box have been destroyed, but the
green box, we must remind the reader,
contained but a few crowning items of
evidence. Most of the facts that Mondrick
gathered to support his theory still surround
us, in our homes and on the streets. They
speak in the voices of our friends, whisper
from our newspapers, shriek from our radios,
murmur from our own secret hearts. They
haunt our very dreams.
Scientific theories are commonly evaluated
by a principle of economy. Other things
being equal, the scientific thinker will
prefer that explanation which uses the
fewest and simplest assumptions to fit
together the greatest number of observed
phenomena.
From that point alone, even without the
contents of the green box, Dr. Mondrick’s
theory is worth grave consideration. On a
very simple basis, it accounts for a great
many things that are otherwise difficult
to explain, and for some that cannot other­
wise be explained at all.
The professional anthropologists whom
we have consulted are very cautious in their
attitude toward Mondrick’s Homo lycan-
thropus. A typical reaction, from a veteran
in this field :
“ The genus Homo has doubtless been
represented by scores, or even hundreds of
species. Most of them, for want of any
material remains at all, are known only by
the sketchiest sort of inference.
“ These lost types of man certainly differed
very much in their physical and mental
3
characteristics. What we know of such
recent ones as the Cro-Magnon and the
Neanderthal shows that clearly.
They
must often have been deadly enemies. Some­
times they may have interbred. No one
could say that Homo lycanthropus is
im possible; there is, in fact, an immense
field of evidence that such types did exist.
“ Fragments of one skull, remember,
found by Charles Dawson at Piltdown,
were enough to establish Eoanthropus. A
skull cap, left thigh bone, and three teeth
established the Java man, Pithecanthropus
erectus. Mondrick’s discovery appears to
have been equally important. The loss of
the green box is a tragic blow to anthrop­
ology.”
Masterpiece, that may be, of under­
statement !
One prominent ethnologist took a more
positive interest in this manuscript.
“ The primitive belief in magic and witch­
craft and lycanthropy is absolutely uni­
versal,” he commented. “ It exists in com­
munities, from Europe to Tasmania, that
have no cultural connection whatever. Dr.
Mondrick offers the only convincing explana­
tion of that fact that I have seen.”
But we will leave this strange study of
our own troubled times and our own secret
lives to the reader’s judgment.
I.
T
he girl
came up to Will Barbee, on
the seaplane pier at New York’s new
LaGuardia Airport, while they were waiting
for the Lisbon
Clipper.
There was no
reason for the sudden shiver that grated
his teeth together— unless it was a fresh
blast of the damp east wind. Because the
girl looked cool-and modem and beautiful
as a streamlined electric icebox.
She had a million dollars’ worth of flame-
red hair. White, soft, sweetly serious, her
face confirmed Barbee’s first dazzled impres­
sion. Her rather large mouth appeared
humorous and quickly expressive. Barbee
looked twice into her alert, grave eyes and
decided that they were distinctly greenish.
He searched her for the cause of that,
intuitive alarm— and began to feel a strong,
unreasoned attraction. Her green gabardine
business suit looked stylish, becoming, and
expensive. Against the windy chill of this

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