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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6bf3f3f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51337 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51337) diff --git a/old/51337-h.zip b/old/51337-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index acd07e7..0000000 --- a/old/51337-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51337-h/51337-h.htm b/old/51337-h/51337-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 2b421d5..0000000 --- a/old/51337-h/51337-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1355 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Man Outside, by Evelyn E. 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Smith - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Man Outside - -Author: Evelyn E. Smith - -Release Date: March 1, 2016 [EBook #51337] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OUTSIDE *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>THE MAN OUTSIDE</h1> - -<p>By EVELYN E. SMITH</p> - -<p>Illustrated by DILLON</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Science Fiction August 1957.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>No one, least of all Martin, could dispute<br /> -that a man's life should be guarded by his<br /> -kin—but by those who hadn't been born yet?</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Nobody in the neighborhood was surprised when Martin's mother -disappeared and Ninian came to take care of him. Mothers had a way -of disappearing around those parts and the kids were often better -off without them. Martin was no exception. He'd never had it this -good while he was living with his old lady. As for his father, Martin -had never had one. He'd been a war baby, born of one of the tides of -soldiers—enemies and allies, both—that had engulfed the country in -successive waves and bought or taken the women. So there was no trouble -that way.</p> - -<p>Sometimes he wondered who Ninian really was. Obviously that story -about her coming from the future was just a gag. Besides, if she really -was his great-great-grand-daughter, as she said, why would she tell -him to call her "<i>Aunt Ninian</i>"? Maybe he was only eleven, but he'd -been around and he knew just what the score was. At first he'd thought -maybe she was some new kind of social worker, but she acted a little -too crazy for that.</p> - -<p>He loved to bait her, as he had loved to bait his mother. It was safer -with Ninian, though, because when he pushed her too far, she would cry -instead of mopping up the floor with him.</p> - -<p>"But I can't understand," he would say, keeping his face straight. "Why -do you have to come from the future to protect me against your cousin -Conrad?"</p> - -<p>"Because he's coming to kill you."</p> - -<p>"Why should he kill me? I ain't done him nothing."</p> - -<p>Ninian sighed. "He's dissatisfied with the current social order and -killing you is part of an elaborate plan he's formulated to change it. -You wouldn't understand."</p> - -<p>"You're damn right. I <i>don't</i> understand. What's it all about in -straight gas?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, just don't ask any questions," Ninian said petulantly. "When you -get older, someone will explain the whole thing to you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>So Martin held his peace, because, on the whole, he liked things the -way they were. Ninian really was the limit, though. All the people he -knew lived in scabrous tenement apartments like his, but she seemed to -think it was disgusting.</p> - -<p>"So if you don't like it, clean it up," he suggested.</p> - -<p>She looked at him as if he were out of his mind.</p> - -<p>"Hire a maid, then!" he jeered.</p> - -<p>And darned if that dope didn't go out and get a woman to come clean up -the place! He was so embarrassed, he didn't even dare show his face in -the streets—especially with the women buttonholing him and demanding -to know what gave. They tried talking to Ninian, but she certainly knew -how to give them the cold shoulder.</p> - -<p>One day the truant officer came to ask why Martin hadn't been coming -to school. Very few of the neighborhood kids attended classes very -regularly, so this was just routine. But Ninian didn't know that and -she went into a real tizzy, babbling that Martin had been sick and -would make up the work. Martin nearly did get sick from laughing so -hard inside.</p> - -<p>But he laughed out of the other side of his mouth when she went out and -hired a private tutor for him. A tutor—in that neighborhood! Martin -had to beat up every kid on the block before he could walk a step -without hearing "Fancy Pants!" yelled after him.</p> - -<p>Ninian worried all the time. It wasn't that she cared what these people -thought of her, for she made no secret of regarding them as little -better than animals, but she was shy of attracting attention. There -were an awful lot of people in that neighborhood who felt exactly the -same way, only she didn't know that, either. She was really pretty -dumb, Martin thought, for all her fancy lingo.</p> - -<p>"It's so hard to think these things out without any prior practical -application to go by," she told him.</p> - -<p>He nodded, knowing what she meant was that everything was coming out -wrong. But he didn't try to help her; he just watched to see what -she'd do next. Already he had begun to assume the detached role of a -spectator.</p> - -<p>When it became clear that his mother was never going to show up again, -Ninian bought one of those smallish, almost identical houses that -mushroom on the fringes of a city after every war, particularly where -intensive bombing has created a number of desirable building sites.</p> - -<p>"This is a much better neighborhood for a boy to grow up in," she -declared. "Besides, it's easier to keep an eye on you here."</p> - -<p>And keep an eye on him she did—she or a rather foppish young man who -came to stay with them occasionally. Martin was told to call him Uncle -Raymond.</p> - -<p>From time to time, there were other visitors—Uncles Ives and -Bartholomew and Olaf, Aunts Ottillie and Grania and Lalage, and many -more—all cousins to one another, he was told, all descendants of his.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Martin was never left alone for a minute. He wasn't allowed to play -with the other kids in the new neighborhood. Not that their parents -would have let them, anyway. The adults obviously figured that if -a one-car family hired private tutors for their kid, there must be -something pretty wrong with him. So Martin and Ninian were just as -conspicuous as before. But he didn't tip her off. She was grown up; she -was supposed to know better than he did.</p> - -<p>He lived well. He had food to eat that he'd never dreamed of before, -warm clothes that no one had ever worn before him. He was surrounded by -more luxury than he knew what to do with.</p> - -<p>The furniture was the latest New Grand Rapids African modern. There -were tidy, colorful Picasso and Braque prints on the walls. And every -inch of the floor was modestly covered by carpeting, though the walls -were mostly unabashed glass. There were hot water and heat all the time -and a freezer well stocked with food—somewhat erratically chosen, for -Ninian didn't know much about meals.</p> - -<p>The non-glass part of the house was of neat, natural-toned wood, with a -neat green lawn in front and a neat parti-colored garden in back.</p> - -<p>Martin missed the old neighborhood, though. He missed having other -kids to play with. He even missed his mother. Sure, she hadn't given -him enough to eat and she'd beaten him up so hard sometimes that she'd -nearly killed him—but then there had also been times when she'd hugged -and kissed him and soaked his collar with her tears. She'd done all -she could for him, supporting him in the only way she knew how—and if -respectable society didn't like it, the hell with respectable society.</p> - -<p>From Ninian and her cousins, there was only an impersonal kindness. -They made no bones about the fact that they were there only to carry -out a rather unpleasant duty. Though they were in the house with him, -in their minds and in their talk they were living in another world—a -world of warmth and peace and plenty where nobody worked, except in the -government service or the essential professions. And they seemed to -think even that kind of job was pretty low-class, though better than -actually doing anything with the hands.</p> - -<p>In their world, Martin came to understand, nobody worked with hands; -everything was done by machinery. All the people ever did was wear -pretty clothes and have good times and eat all they wanted. There was -no devastation, no war, no unhappiness, none of the concomitants of -normal living.</p> - -<p>It was then that Martin began to realize that either the whole lot of -them were insane, or what Ninian had told him at first was the truth. -They came from the future.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When Martin was sixteen, Raymond took him aside for the talk Ninian had -promised five years before.</p> - -<p>"The whole thing's all my brother Conrad's fault. You see, he's an -idealist," Raymond explained, pronouncing the last word with distaste.</p> - -<p>Martin nodded gravely. He was a quiet boy now, his brief past a dim and -rather ridiculous memory. Who could ever imagine him robbing a grocery -store or wielding a broken bottle now? He still was rather undersized -and he'd read so much that he'd weakened his eyes and had to wear -glasses. His face was pallid, because he spent little time in the sun, -and his speech rather overbred, his mentors from the future having -carefully eradicated all current vulgarities.</p> - -<p>"And Conrad really got upset over the way Earth has been exploiting -the not so intelligent life-forms on the other planets," Raymond -continued. "Which <i>is</i> distressing—though, of course, it's not as -if they were people. Besides, the government has been talking about -passing laws to do away with the—well, abuses and things like that, -and I'm sure someday everything will come out all right. However, -Conrad is so impatient."</p> - -<p>"I thought, in your world, machines did all the work," Martin suggested.</p> - -<p>"I've told you—our world is precisely the same as this one!" Raymond -snapped. "We just come a couple of centuries or so later, that's all. -But remember, our interests are identical. We're virtually the same -people ... although it is amazing what a difference two hundred odd -years of progress and polish can make in a species, isn't it?"</p> - -<p>He continued more mildly: "However, even you ought to be able to -understand that we can't make machinery without metal. We need food. -All that sort of thing comes from the out-system planets. And, on those -worlds, it's far cheaper to use native labor than to ship out all that -expensive machinery. After all, if we didn't give the natives jobs, how -would they manage to live?"</p> - -<p>"How did they live before? Come to think of it, if you don't work, how -do <i>you</i> live now?... I don't mean in the now for me, but the now for -you," Martin explained laboriously. It was so difficult to live in the -past and think in the future.</p> - -<p>"I'm trying to talk to you as if you were an adult," Raymond said, "but -if you will persist in these childish interruptions—"</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry," Martin said.</p> - -<p>But he wasn't, for by now he had little respect left for any of -his descendants. They were all exceedingly handsome and cultivated -young people, with superior educations, smooth ways of speaking and -considerable self-confidence, but they just weren't very bright. And -he had discovered that Raymond was perhaps the most intelligent of the -lot. Somewhere in that relatively short span of time, his line or—more -frightening—his race had lost something vital.</p> - -<p>Unaware of the near-contempt in which his young ancestor held him, -Raymond went on blandly: "Anyhow, Conrad took it upon himself to -feel particularly guilty, because, he decided, if it hadn't been for -the fact that our great-grandfather discovered the super-drive, we -might never have reached the stars. Which is ridiculous—his feeling -guilty, I mean. Perhaps a great-grandfather is responsible for his -great-grandchildren, but a great-grandchild can hardly be held -accountable for his great-grandfather."</p> - -<p>"How about a great-great-grandchild?" Martin couldn't help asking.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Raymond flushed a delicate pink. "Do you want to hear the rest of this -or don't you?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, I do!" Martin said. He had pieced the whole thing together for -himself long since, but he wanted to hear how Raymond would put it.</p> - -<p>"Unfortunately, Professor Farkas has just perfected the time -transmitter. Those government scientists are so infernally -officious—always inventing such senseless things. It's supposed to -be hush-hush, but you know how news will leak out when one is always -desperate for a fresh topic of conversation."</p> - -<p>Anyhow, Raymond went on to explain, Conrad had bribed one of Farkas' -assistants for a set of the plans. Conrad's idea had been to go back -in time and "eliminate!" their common great-grandfather. In that way, -there would be no space-drive, and, hence, the Terrestrials would never -get to the other planets and oppress the local aborigines.</p> - -<p>"Sounds like a good way of dealing with the problem," Martin observed.</p> - -<p>Raymond looked annoyed. "It's the <i>adolescent</i> way," he said, "to do -away with it, rather than find a solution. Would you destroy a whole -society in order to root out a single injustice?"</p> - -<p>"Not if it were a good one otherwise."</p> - -<p>"Well, there's your answer. Conrad got the apparatus built, or perhaps -he built it himself. One doesn't inquire too closely into such -matters. But when it came to the point, Conrad couldn't bear the idea -of eliminating our great-grandfather—because our great-grandfather -was such a <i>good</i> man, you know." Raymond's expressive upper lip -curled. "So Conrad decided to go further back still and get rid of -his great-grandfather's father—who'd been, by all accounts, a pretty -worthless character."</p> - -<p>"That would be me, I suppose," Martin said quietly.</p> - -<p>Raymond turned a deep rose. "Well, doesn't that just go to prove you -mustn't believe everything you hear?" The next sentence tumbled out in -a rush. "I wormed the whole thing out of him and all of us—the other -cousins and me—held a council of war, as it were, and we decided it -was our moral duty to go back in time ourselves and protect you." He -beamed at Martin.</p> - -<p>The boy smiled slowly. "Of course. You had to. If Conrad succeeded in -<i>eliminating</i> me, then none of you would exist, would you?"</p> - -<p>Raymond frowned. Then he shrugged cheerfully. "Well, you didn't really -suppose we were going to all this trouble and expense out of sheer -altruism, did you?" he asked, turning on the charm which all the -cousins possessed to a consternating degree.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Martin had, of course, no illusions on that score; he had learned long -ago that nobody did anything for nothing. But saying so was unwise.</p> - -<p>"We bribed another set of plans out of another of the professor's -assistants," Raymond continued, as if Martin had answered, -"and—ah—induced a handicraft enthusiast to build the gadget for us."</p> - -<p><i>Induced</i>, Martin knew, could have meant anything from blackmail to the -use of the iron maiden.</p> - -<p>"Then we were all ready to forestall Conrad. If one of us guarded you -night and day, he would never be able to carry out his plot. So we made -our counter-plan, set the machine as far back as it would go—and here -we are!"</p> - -<p>"I see," Martin said.</p> - -<p>Raymond didn't seem to think he really did. "After all," he pointed -out defensively, "whatever our motives, it has turned into a good -thing for you. Nice home, cultured companions, all the contemporary -conveniences, plus some handy anachronisms—I don't see what more you -could ask for. You're getting the best of all possible worlds. Of -course Ninian <i>was</i> a ninny to locate in a mercantile suburb where any -little thing out of the way will cause talk. How thankful I am that our -era has completely disposed of the mercantiles—"</p> - -<p>"What did you do with them?" Martin asked.</p> - -<p>But Raymond rushed on: "Soon as Ninian goes and I'm in full charge, -we'll get a more isolated place and run it on a far grander scale. -Ostentation—that's the way to live here and now; the richer you are, -the more eccentricity you can get away with. And," he added, "I might -as well be as comfortable as possible while I suffer through this -wretched historical stint."</p> - -<p>"So Ninian's going," said Martin, wondering why the news made him feel -curiously desolate. Because, although he supposed he liked her in a -remote kind of way, he had no fondness for her—or she, he knew, for -him.</p> - -<p>"Well, five years is rather a long stretch for any girl to spend in -exile," Raymond explained, "even though our life spans are a bit longer -than yours. Besides, you're getting too old now to be under petticoat -government." He looked inquisitively at Martin. "You're not going to -go all weepy and make a scene when she leaves, are you?"</p> - -<p>"No...." Martin said hesitantly. "Oh, I suppose I will miss her. But we -aren't very close, so it won't make a real difference." That was the -sad part: he already knew it wouldn't make a difference.</p> - -<p>Raymond clapped him on the shoulder. "I knew you weren't a sloppy -sentimentalist like Conrad. Though you do have rather a look of him, -you know."</p> - -<p>Suddenly that seemed to make Conrad real. Martin felt a vague stirring -of alarm. He kept his voice composed, however. "How do you plan to -protect me when he comes?"</p> - -<p>"Well, each one of us is armed to the teeth, of course," Raymond said -with modest pride, displaying something that looked like a child's -combination spaceman's gun and death ray, but which, Martin had no -doubt, was a perfectly genuine—and lethal—weapon. "And we've got a -rather elaborate burglar alarm system."</p> - -<p>Martin inspected the system and made one or two changes in the wiring -which, he felt, would increase its efficiency. But still he was -dubious. "Maybe it'll work on someone coming from outside this <i>house</i>, -but do you think it will work on someone coming from outside this -<i>time</i>?"</p> - -<p>"Never fear—it has a temporal radius," Raymond replied. "Factory -guarantee and all that."</p> - -<p>"Just to be on the safe side," Martin said, "I think I'd better have -one of those guns, too."</p> - -<p>"A splendid idea!" enthused Raymond. "I was just about to think of that -myself!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When it came time for the parting, it was Ninian who cried—tears at -her own inadequacy, Martin knew, not of sorrow. He was getting skillful -at understanding his descendants, far better than they at understanding -him. But then they never really tried. Ninian kissed him wetly on the -cheek and said she was sure everything would work out all right and -that she'd come see him again. She never did, though, except at the -very last.</p> - -<p>Raymond and Martin moved into a luxurious mansion in a remote area. The -site proved a well-chosen one; when the Second Atomic War came, half a -dozen years later, they weren't touched. Martin was never sure whether -this had been sheer luck or expert planning. Probably luck, because his -descendants were exceedingly inept planners.</p> - -<p>Few people in the world then could afford to live as stylishly as -Martin and his guardian. The place not only contained every possible -convenience and gadget but was crammed with bibelots and antiques, -carefully chosen by Raymond and disputed by Martin, for, to the man -from the future, all available artifacts were antiques. Otherwise, -Martin accepted his new surroundings. His sense of wonder had become -dulled by now and the pink pseudo-Spanish castle—"architecturally -dreadful, of course," Raymond had said, "but so hilariously -typical"—impressed him far less than had the suburban split-level -aquarium.</p> - -<p>"How about a moat?" Martin suggested when they first came. "It seems to -go with a castle."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="600" height="271" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Do you think a moat could stop Conrad?" Raymond asked, amused.</p> - -<p>"No," Martin smiled, feeling rather silly, "but it would make the place -seem safer somehow."</p> - -<p>The threat of Conrad was beginning to make him grow more and more -nervous. He got Raymond's permission to take two suits of armor that -stood in the front hall and present them to a local museum, because -several times he fancied he saw them move. He also became an adept with -the ray gun and changed the surrounding landscape quite a bit with it, -until Raymond warned that this might lead Conrad to them.</p> - -<p>During those early years, Martin's tutors were exchanged for the -higher-degreed ones that were now needful. The question inevitably -arose of what the youth's vocation in that life was going to be. At -least twenty of the cousins came back through time to hold one of -their vigorous family councils. Martin was still young enough to enjoy -such occasions, finding them vastly superior to all other forms of -entertainment.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"This sort of problem wouldn't arise in our day, Martin," Raymond -commented as he took his place at the head of the table, "because, -unless one specifically feels a call to some profession or other, one -just—well, drifts along happily."</p> - -<p>"Ours is a wonderful world," Grania sighed at Martin. "I only wish we -could take you there. I'm sure you would like it."</p> - -<p>"Don't be a fool, Grania!" Raymond snapped. "Well, Martin, have you -made up your mind what you want to be?"</p> - -<p>Martin affected to think. "A physicist," he said, not without malice. -"Or perhaps an engineer."</p> - -<p>There was a loud, excited chorus of dissent. He chuckled inwardly.</p> - -<p>"Can't do that," Ives said. "Might pick up some concepts from us. Don't -know how; none of us knows a thing about science. But it could happen. -Subconscious osmosis, if there is such a thing. That way, you might -invent something ahead of time. And the fellow we got the plans from -particularly cautioned us against that. Changing history. Dangerous."</p> - -<p>"Might mess up our time frightfully," Bartholomew contributed, "though, -to be perfectly frank, I can't quite understand how."</p> - -<p>"I am not going to sit down and explain the whole thing to you all over -again, Bart!" Raymond said impatiently. "Well, Martin?"</p> - -<p>"What would you suggest?" Martin asked.</p> - -<p>"How about becoming a painter? Art is eternal. And quite gentlemanly. -Besides, artists are always expected to be either behind or ahead of -their times."</p> - -<p>"Furthermore," Ottillie added, "one more artist couldn't make much -difference in history. There were so many of them all through the ages."</p> - -<p>Martin couldn't hold back his question. "What was I, actually, in that -other time?"</p> - -<p>There was a chilly silence.</p> - -<p>"Let's not talk about it, dear," Lalage finally said. "Let's just be -thankful we've saved you from <i>that</i>!"</p> - -<p>So drawing teachers were engaged and Martin became a very competent -second-rate artist. He knew he would never be able to achieve first -rank because, even though he was still so young, his work was almost -purely intellectual. The only emotion he seemed able to feel was -fear—the ever-present fear that someday he would turn a corridor and -walk into a man who looked like him—a man who wanted to kill him for -the sake of an ideal.</p> - -<p>But the fear did not show in Martin's pictures. They were pretty -pictures.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Cousin Ives—now that Martin was older, he was told to call the -descendants <i>cousin</i>—next assumed guardianship. Ives took his -responsibilities more seriously than the others did. He even arranged -to have Martin's work shown at an art gallery. The paintings received -critical approval, but failed to evoke any enthusiasm. The modest -sale they enjoyed was mostly to interior decorators. Museums were not -interested.</p> - -<p>"Takes time," Ives tried to reassure him. "One day they'll be buying -your pictures, Martin. Wait and see."</p> - -<p>Ives was the only one of the descendants who seemed to think of Martin -as an individual. When his efforts to make contact with the other young -man failed, he got worried and decided that what Martin needed was a -change of air and scenery.</p> - -<p>"'Course you can't go on the Grand Tour. Your son hasn't invented -space travel yet. But we can go see this world. What's left of it. -Tourists always like ruins best, anyway."</p> - -<p>So he drew on the family's vast future resources and bought a yacht, -which Martin christened <i>The Interregnum</i>. They traveled about from sea -to ocean and from ocean to sea, touching at various ports and making -trips inland. Martin saw the civilized world—mostly in fragments; the -nearly intact semi-civilized world and the uncivilized world, much the -same as it had been for centuries. It was like visiting an enormous -museum; he couldn't seem to identify with his own time any more.</p> - -<p>The other cousins appeared to find the yacht a congenial head-quarters, -largely because they could spend so much time far away from the -contemporary inhabitants of the planet and relax and be themselves. So -they never moved back to land. Martin spent the rest of his life on -<i>The Interregnum</i>. He felt curiously safer from Conrad there, although -there was no valid reason why an ocean should stop a traveler through -time.</p> - -<p>More cousins were in residence at once than ever before, because -they came for the ocean voyage. They spent most of their time aboard -ship, giving each other parties and playing an <i>avant-garde</i> form of -shuffleboard and gambling on future sporting events. That last usually -ended in a brawl, because one cousin was sure to accuse another of -having got advance information about the results.</p> - -<p>Martin didn't care much for their company and associated with them only -when not to have done so would have been palpably rude. And, though -they were gregarious young people for the most part, they didn't court -his society. He suspected that he made them feel uncomfortable.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He rather liked Ives, though. Sometimes the two of them would be alone -together; then Ives would tell Martin of the future world he had come -from. The picture drawn by Raymond and Ninian had not been entirely -accurate, Ives admitted. True, there was no war or poverty on Earth -proper, but that was because there were only a couple of million people -left on the planet. It was an enclave for the highly privileged, highly -interbred aristocracy, to which Martin's descendants belonged by virtue -of their distinguished ancestry.</p> - -<p>"Rather feudal, isn't it?" Martin asked.</p> - -<p>Ives agreed, adding that the system had, however, been deliberately -planned, rather than the result of haphazard natural development. -Everything potentially unpleasant, like the mercantiles, had been -deported.</p> - -<p>"Not only natives livin' on the other worlds," Ives said as the two -of them stood at the ship's rail, surrounded by the limitless expanse -of some ocean or other. "People, too. Mostly lower classes, except -for officials and things. With wars and want and suffering," he added -regretfully, "same as in your day.... Like now, I mean," he corrected -himself. "Maybe it <i>is</i> worse, the way Conrad thinks. More planets -for us to make trouble on. Three that were habitable aren't any more. -Bombed. Very thorough job."</p> - -<p>"Oh," Martin murmured, trying to sound shocked, horrified—interested, -even.</p> - -<p>"Sometimes I'm not altogether sure Conrad was wrong," Ives said, after -a pause. "Tried to keep us from getting to the stars, hurting the -people—I expect you could call them people—there. Still—" he smiled -shamefacedly—"couldn't stand by and see my own way of life destroyed, -could I?"</p> - -<p>"I suppose not," Martin said.</p> - -<p>"Would take moral courage. I don't have it. None of us does, except -Conrad, and even he—" Ives looked out over the sea. "Must be a better -way out than Conrad's," he said without conviction. "And everything -will work out all right in the end. Bound to. No sense to—to anything, -if it doesn't." He glanced wistfully at Martin.</p> - -<p>"I hope so," said Martin. But he couldn't hope; he couldn't feel; he -couldn't even seem to care.</p> - -<p>During all this time, Conrad still did not put in an appearance. Martin -had gotten to be such a crack shot with the ray pistol that he almost -wished his descendant would show up, so there would be some excitement. -But he didn't come. And Martin got to thinking....</p> - -<p>He always felt that if any of the cousins could have come to realize -the basic flaw in the elaborate plan they had concocted, it would have -been Ives. However, when the yacht touched at Tierra del Fuego one -bitter winter, Ives took a severe chill. They sent for a doctor from -the future—one of the descendants who had been eccentric enough to -take a medical degree—but he wasn't able to save Ives. The body was -buried in the frozen ground at Ushuaia, on the southern tip of the -continent, a hundred years or more before the date of his birth.</p> - -<p>A great many of the cousins turned up at the simple ceremony. All were -dressed in overwhelming black and showed a great deal of grief. Raymond -read the burial service, because they didn't dare summon a clerical -cousin from the future; they were afraid he might prove rather stuffy -about the entire undertaking.</p> - -<p>"He died for all of us," Raymond concluded his funeral eulogy over -Ives, "so his death was not in vain."</p> - -<p>But Martin disagreed.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The ceaseless voyaging began again. <i>The Interregnum</i> voyaged to every -ocean and every sea. Some were blue and some green and some dun. After -a while, Martin couldn't tell one from another. Cousin after cousin -came to watch over him and eventually they were as hard for him to tell -apart as the different oceans.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="209" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>All the cousins were young, for, though they came at different times in -his life, they had all started out from the same time in theirs. Only -the young ones had been included in the venture; they did not trust -their elders.</p> - -<p>As the years went by, Martin began to lose even his detached interest -in the land and its doings. Although the yacht frequently touched port -for fuel or supplies—it was more economical to purchase them in that -era than to have them shipped from the future—he seldom went ashore, -and then only at the urging of a newly assigned cousin anxious to see -the sights. Most of the time Martin spent in watching the sea—and -sometimes he painted it. There seemed to be a depth to his seascapes -that his other work lacked.</p> - -<p>When he was pressed by the current cousin to make a land visit -somewhere, he decided to exhibit a few of his sea paintings. That way, -he could fool himself into thinking that there was some purpose to this -journey. He'd come to believe that perhaps what his life lacked was -purpose, and for a while he kept looking for meaning everywhere, to the -cousin's utter disgust.</p> - -<p>"Eat, drink and be merry, or whatever you Romans say when you do as you -do," the cousin—who was rather woolly in history; the descendants were -scraping bottom now—advised.</p> - -<p>Martin showed his work in Italy, so that the cousin could be -disillusioned by the current crop of Romans. He found that neither -purpose nor malice was enough; he was still immeasurably bored. -However, a museum bought two of the paintings. Martin thought of Ives -and felt an uncomfortable pang of a sensation he could no longer -understand.</p> - -<p>"Where do you suppose Conrad has been all this time?" Martin idly asked -the current cousin—who was passing as his nephew by now.</p> - -<p>The young man jumped, then glanced around him uncomfortably. "Conrad's -a very shrewd fellow," he whispered. "He's biding his time—waiting -until we're off guard. And then—pow!—he'll attack!"</p> - -<p>"Oh, I see," Martin said.</p> - -<p>He had often fancied that Conrad would prove to be the most stimulating -member of the whole generation. But it seemed unlikely that he would -ever have a chance for a conversation with the young man. More than one -conversation, anyhow.</p> - -<p>"When he does show up, I'll protect you," the cousin vowed, touching -his ray gun. "You haven't a thing to worry about."</p> - -<p>Martin smiled with all the charm he'd had nothing to do but acquire. "I -have every confidence in you," he told his descendant. He himself had -given up carrying a gun long ago.</p> - -<p>There was a war in the Northern Hemisphere and so <i>The Interregnum</i> -voyaged to southern waters. There was a war in the south and they hid -out in the Arctic. All the nations became too drained of power—fuel -and man and will—to fight, so there was a sterile peace for a long -time. <i>The Interregnum</i> roamed the seas restlessly, with her load of -passengers from the future, plus one bored and aging contemporary. She -bore big guns now, because of the ever-present danger of pirates.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Perhaps it was the traditionally bracing effect of sea air—perhaps it -was the sheltered life—but Martin lived to be a very old man. He was a -hundred and four when his last illness came. It was a great relief when -the family doctor, called in again from the future, said there was no -hope. Martin didn't think he could have borne another year of life.</p> - -<p>All the cousins gathered at the yacht to pay their last respects to -their progenitor. He saw Ninian again, after all these years, and -Raymond—all the others, dozens of them, thronging around his bed, -spilling out of the cabin and into the passageways and out onto the -deck, making their usual clamor, even though their voices were hushed.</p> - -<p>Only Ives was missing. He'd been the lucky one, Martin knew. He had -been spared the tragedy that was going to befall these blooming young -people—all the same age as when Martin had last seen them and doomed -never to grow any older. Underneath their masks of woe, he could see -relief at the thought that at last they were going to be rid of their -responsibility. And underneath Martin's death mask lay an impersonal -pity for those poor, stupid descendants of his who had blundered so -irretrievably.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="600" height="229" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>There was only one face which Martin had never seen before. It wasn't -a strange face, however, because Martin had seen one very like it in -the looking glass when he was a young man.</p> - -<p>"You must be Conrad," Martin called across the cabin in a voice that -was still clear. "I've been looking forward to meeting you for some -time."</p> - -<p>The other cousins whirled to face the newcomer.</p> - -<p>"You're too late, Con," Raymond gloated for the whole generation. "He's -lived out his life."</p> - -<p>"But he hasn't lived out his life," Conrad contradicted. "He's lived -out the life <i>you</i> created for him. And for yourselves, too."</p> - -<p>For the first time, Martin saw compassion in the eyes of one of his -lineage and found it vaguely disturbing. It didn't seem to belong there.</p> - -<p>"Don't you realize even yet," Conrad went on, "that as soon as he goes, -you'll go, too—present, past, future, wherever you are, you'll go up -in the air like puffs of smoke?"</p> - -<p>"What do you mean?" Ninian quavered, her soft, pretty face alarmed.</p> - -<p>Martin answered Conrad's rueful smile, but left the explanations up to -him. It was his show, after all.</p> - -<p>"Because you will never have existed," Conrad said. "You have no right -to existence; it was you yourselves who watched him all the time, -so he didn't have a chance to lead a normal life, get married, <i>have -children</i>...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Most of the cousins gasped as the truth began to percolate through.</p> - -<p>"I knew from the very beginning," Conrad finished, "that I didn't -have to do anything at all. I just had to wait and you would destroy -yourselves."</p> - -<p>"I don't understand," Bartholomew protested, searching the faces of the -cousins closest to him. "What does he mean, we have never existed? -We're here, aren't we? What—"</p> - -<p>"Shut up!" Raymond snapped. He turned on Martin. "You don't seem -surprised."</p> - -<p>The old man grinned. "I'm not. I figured it all out years ago."</p> - -<p>At first, he had wondered what he should do. Would it be better to -throw them into a futile panic by telling them or to do nothing? He -had decided on the latter; that was the role they had assigned him—to -watch and wait and keep out of things—and that was the role he would -play.</p> - -<p>"You knew all the time and you didn't tell us!" Raymond spluttered. -"After we'd been so good to you, making a gentleman out of you instead -of a criminal.... That's right," he snarled, "a criminal! An alcoholic, -a thief, a derelict! How do you like that?"</p> - -<p>"Sounds like a rich, full life," Martin said wistfully.</p> - -<p>What an exciting existence they must have done him out of! But then, he -couldn't help thinking, he—he and Conrad together, of course—had done -them out of <i>any</i> kind of existence. It wasn't his responsibility, -though; he had done nothing but let matters take whatever course was -destined for them. If only he could be sure that it was the better -course, perhaps he wouldn't feel that nagging sense of guilt inside -him. Strange—where, in his hermetic life, could he possibly have -developed such a queer thing as a conscience?</p> - -<p>"Then we've wasted all this time," Ninian sobbed, "all this energy, all -this money, for nothing!"</p> - -<p>"But you were nothing to begin with," Martin told them. And then, -after a pause, he added, "I only wish I could be sure there had been -some purpose to this."</p> - -<p>He didn't know whether it was approaching death that dimmed his sight, -or whether the frightened crowd that pressed around him was growing -shadowy.</p> - -<p>"I wish I could feel that some good had been done in letting you be -wiped out of existence," he went on voicing his thoughts. "But I know -that the same thing that happened to your worlds and my world will -happen all over again. To other people, in other times, but again. It's -bound to happen. There isn't any hope for humanity."</p> - -<p>One man couldn't really change the course of human history, he told -himself. Two men, that was—one real, one a shadow.</p> - -<p>Conrad came close to the old man's bed. He was almost transparent.</p> - -<p>"No," he said, "there is hope. They didn't know the time transmitter -works two ways. I used it for going into the past only once—just this -once. But I've gone into the future with it many times. And—" he -pressed Martin's hand—"believe me, what I did—what <i>we</i> did, you and -I—serves a purpose. It will change things for the better. Everything -is going to be all right."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Was Conrad telling him the truth, Martin wondered, or was he just -giving the conventional reassurance to the dying? More than that, was -he trying to convince himself that what he had done was the right -thing? Every cousin had assured Martin that things were going to be all -right.</p> - -<p>Was Conrad <i>actually</i> different from the rest?</p> - -<p>His plan had worked and the others' hadn't, but then all his plan had -consisted of was doing nothing. That was all he and Martin had done ... -nothing. Were they absolved of all responsibility merely because they -had stood aside and taken advantage of the others' weaknesses?</p> - -<p>"Why," Martin said to himself, "in a sense, it could be said that I -have fulfilled my original destiny—that I am a criminal."</p> - -<p>Well, it didn't matter; whatever happened, no one could hold him to -blame. He held no stake in the future that was to come. It was other -men's future—other men's problem. He died very peacefully then, and, -since he was the only one left on the ship, there was nobody to bury -him.</p> - -<p>The unmanned yacht drifted about the seas for years and gave rise to -many legends, none of them as unbelievable as the truth.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man Outside, by Evelyn E. 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Smith - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Man Outside - -Author: Evelyn E. Smith - -Release Date: March 1, 2016 [EBook #51337] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OUTSIDE *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - THE MAN OUTSIDE - - By EVELYN E. SMITH - - Illustrated by DILLON - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction August 1957. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - No one, least of all Martin, could dispute - that a man's life should be guarded by his - kin--but by those who hadn't been born yet? - - -Nobody in the neighborhood was surprised when Martin's mother -disappeared and Ninian came to take care of him. Mothers had a way -of disappearing around those parts and the kids were often better -off without them. Martin was no exception. He'd never had it this -good while he was living with his old lady. As for his father, Martin -had never had one. He'd been a war baby, born of one of the tides of -soldiers--enemies and allies, both--that had engulfed the country in -successive waves and bought or taken the women. So there was no trouble -that way. - -Sometimes he wondered who Ninian really was. Obviously that story -about her coming from the future was just a gag. Besides, if she really -was his great-great-grand-daughter, as she said, why would she tell -him to call her "_Aunt Ninian_"? Maybe he was only eleven, but he'd -been around and he knew just what the score was. At first he'd thought -maybe she was some new kind of social worker, but she acted a little -too crazy for that. - -He loved to bait her, as he had loved to bait his mother. It was safer -with Ninian, though, because when he pushed her too far, she would cry -instead of mopping up the floor with him. - -"But I can't understand," he would say, keeping his face straight. "Why -do you have to come from the future to protect me against your cousin -Conrad?" - -"Because he's coming to kill you." - -"Why should he kill me? I ain't done him nothing." - -Ninian sighed. "He's dissatisfied with the current social order and -killing you is part of an elaborate plan he's formulated to change it. -You wouldn't understand." - -"You're damn right. I _don't_ understand. What's it all about in -straight gas?" - -"Oh, just don't ask any questions," Ninian said petulantly. "When you -get older, someone will explain the whole thing to you." - - * * * * * - -So Martin held his peace, because, on the whole, he liked things the -way they were. Ninian really was the limit, though. All the people he -knew lived in scabrous tenement apartments like his, but she seemed to -think it was disgusting. - -"So if you don't like it, clean it up," he suggested. - -She looked at him as if he were out of his mind. - -"Hire a maid, then!" he jeered. - -And darned if that dope didn't go out and get a woman to come clean up -the place! He was so embarrassed, he didn't even dare show his face in -the streets--especially with the women buttonholing him and demanding -to know what gave. They tried talking to Ninian, but she certainly knew -how to give them the cold shoulder. - -One day the truant officer came to ask why Martin hadn't been coming -to school. Very few of the neighborhood kids attended classes very -regularly, so this was just routine. But Ninian didn't know that and -she went into a real tizzy, babbling that Martin had been sick and -would make up the work. Martin nearly did get sick from laughing so -hard inside. - -But he laughed out of the other side of his mouth when she went out and -hired a private tutor for him. A tutor--in that neighborhood! Martin -had to beat up every kid on the block before he could walk a step -without hearing "Fancy Pants!" yelled after him. - -Ninian worried all the time. It wasn't that she cared what these people -thought of her, for she made no secret of regarding them as little -better than animals, but she was shy of attracting attention. There -were an awful lot of people in that neighborhood who felt exactly the -same way, only she didn't know that, either. She was really pretty -dumb, Martin thought, for all her fancy lingo. - -"It's so hard to think these things out without any prior practical -application to go by," she told him. - -He nodded, knowing what she meant was that everything was coming out -wrong. But he didn't try to help her; he just watched to see what -she'd do next. Already he had begun to assume the detached role of a -spectator. - -When it became clear that his mother was never going to show up again, -Ninian bought one of those smallish, almost identical houses that -mushroom on the fringes of a city after every war, particularly where -intensive bombing has created a number of desirable building sites. - -"This is a much better neighborhood for a boy to grow up in," she -declared. "Besides, it's easier to keep an eye on you here." - -And keep an eye on him she did--she or a rather foppish young man who -came to stay with them occasionally. Martin was told to call him Uncle -Raymond. - -From time to time, there were other visitors--Uncles Ives and -Bartholomew and Olaf, Aunts Ottillie and Grania and Lalage, and many -more--all cousins to one another, he was told, all descendants of his. - - * * * * * - -Martin was never left alone for a minute. He wasn't allowed to play -with the other kids in the new neighborhood. Not that their parents -would have let them, anyway. The adults obviously figured that if -a one-car family hired private tutors for their kid, there must be -something pretty wrong with him. So Martin and Ninian were just as -conspicuous as before. But he didn't tip her off. She was grown up; she -was supposed to know better than he did. - -He lived well. He had food to eat that he'd never dreamed of before, -warm clothes that no one had ever worn before him. He was surrounded by -more luxury than he knew what to do with. - -The furniture was the latest New Grand Rapids African modern. There -were tidy, colorful Picasso and Braque prints on the walls. And every -inch of the floor was modestly covered by carpeting, though the walls -were mostly unabashed glass. There were hot water and heat all the time -and a freezer well stocked with food--somewhat erratically chosen, for -Ninian didn't know much about meals. - -The non-glass part of the house was of neat, natural-toned wood, with a -neat green lawn in front and a neat parti-colored garden in back. - -Martin missed the old neighborhood, though. He missed having other -kids to play with. He even missed his mother. Sure, she hadn't given -him enough to eat and she'd beaten him up so hard sometimes that she'd -nearly killed him--but then there had also been times when she'd hugged -and kissed him and soaked his collar with her tears. She'd done all -she could for him, supporting him in the only way she knew how--and if -respectable society didn't like it, the hell with respectable society. - -From Ninian and her cousins, there was only an impersonal kindness. -They made no bones about the fact that they were there only to carry -out a rather unpleasant duty. Though they were in the house with him, -in their minds and in their talk they were living in another world--a -world of warmth and peace and plenty where nobody worked, except in the -government service or the essential professions. And they seemed to -think even that kind of job was pretty low-class, though better than -actually doing anything with the hands. - -In their world, Martin came to understand, nobody worked with hands; -everything was done by machinery. All the people ever did was wear -pretty clothes and have good times and eat all they wanted. There was -no devastation, no war, no unhappiness, none of the concomitants of -normal living. - -It was then that Martin began to realize that either the whole lot of -them were insane, or what Ninian had told him at first was the truth. -They came from the future. - - * * * * * - -When Martin was sixteen, Raymond took him aside for the talk Ninian had -promised five years before. - -"The whole thing's all my brother Conrad's fault. You see, he's an -idealist," Raymond explained, pronouncing the last word with distaste. - -Martin nodded gravely. He was a quiet boy now, his brief past a dim and -rather ridiculous memory. Who could ever imagine him robbing a grocery -store or wielding a broken bottle now? He still was rather undersized -and he'd read so much that he'd weakened his eyes and had to wear -glasses. His face was pallid, because he spent little time in the sun, -and his speech rather overbred, his mentors from the future having -carefully eradicated all current vulgarities. - -"And Conrad really got upset over the way Earth has been exploiting -the not so intelligent life-forms on the other planets," Raymond -continued. "Which _is_ distressing--though, of course, it's not as -if they were people. Besides, the government has been talking about -passing laws to do away with the--well, abuses and things like that, -and I'm sure someday everything will come out all right. However, -Conrad is so impatient." - -"I thought, in your world, machines did all the work," Martin suggested. - -"I've told you--our world is precisely the same as this one!" Raymond -snapped. "We just come a couple of centuries or so later, that's all. -But remember, our interests are identical. We're virtually the same -people ... although it is amazing what a difference two hundred odd -years of progress and polish can make in a species, isn't it?" - -He continued more mildly: "However, even you ought to be able to -understand that we can't make machinery without metal. We need food. -All that sort of thing comes from the out-system planets. And, on those -worlds, it's far cheaper to use native labor than to ship out all that -expensive machinery. After all, if we didn't give the natives jobs, how -would they manage to live?" - -"How did they live before? Come to think of it, if you don't work, how -do _you_ live now?... I don't mean in the now for me, but the now for -you," Martin explained laboriously. It was so difficult to live in the -past and think in the future. - -"I'm trying to talk to you as if you were an adult," Raymond said, "but -if you will persist in these childish interruptions--" - -"I'm sorry," Martin said. - -But he wasn't, for by now he had little respect left for any of -his descendants. They were all exceedingly handsome and cultivated -young people, with superior educations, smooth ways of speaking and -considerable self-confidence, but they just weren't very bright. And -he had discovered that Raymond was perhaps the most intelligent of the -lot. Somewhere in that relatively short span of time, his line or--more -frightening--his race had lost something vital. - -Unaware of the near-contempt in which his young ancestor held him, -Raymond went on blandly: "Anyhow, Conrad took it upon himself to -feel particularly guilty, because, he decided, if it hadn't been for -the fact that our great-grandfather discovered the super-drive, we -might never have reached the stars. Which is ridiculous--his feeling -guilty, I mean. Perhaps a great-grandfather is responsible for his -great-grandchildren, but a great-grandchild can hardly be held -accountable for his great-grandfather." - -"How about a great-great-grandchild?" Martin couldn't help asking. - - * * * * * - -Raymond flushed a delicate pink. "Do you want to hear the rest of this -or don't you?" - -"Oh, I do!" Martin said. He had pieced the whole thing together for -himself long since, but he wanted to hear how Raymond would put it. - -"Unfortunately, Professor Farkas has just perfected the time -transmitter. Those government scientists are so infernally -officious--always inventing such senseless things. It's supposed to -be hush-hush, but you know how news will leak out when one is always -desperate for a fresh topic of conversation." - -Anyhow, Raymond went on to explain, Conrad had bribed one of Farkas' -assistants for a set of the plans. Conrad's idea had been to go back -in time and "eliminate!" their common great-grandfather. In that way, -there would be no space-drive, and, hence, the Terrestrials would never -get to the other planets and oppress the local aborigines. - -"Sounds like a good way of dealing with the problem," Martin observed. - -Raymond looked annoyed. "It's the _adolescent_ way," he said, "to do -away with it, rather than find a solution. Would you destroy a whole -society in order to root out a single injustice?" - -"Not if it were a good one otherwise." - -"Well, there's your answer. Conrad got the apparatus built, or perhaps -he built it himself. One doesn't inquire too closely into such -matters. But when it came to the point, Conrad couldn't bear the idea -of eliminating our great-grandfather--because our great-grandfather -was such a _good_ man, you know." Raymond's expressive upper lip -curled. "So Conrad decided to go further back still and get rid of -his great-grandfather's father--who'd been, by all accounts, a pretty -worthless character." - -"That would be me, I suppose," Martin said quietly. - -Raymond turned a deep rose. "Well, doesn't that just go to prove you -mustn't believe everything you hear?" The next sentence tumbled out in -a rush. "I wormed the whole thing out of him and all of us--the other -cousins and me--held a council of war, as it were, and we decided it -was our moral duty to go back in time ourselves and protect you." He -beamed at Martin. - -The boy smiled slowly. "Of course. You had to. If Conrad succeeded in -_eliminating_ me, then none of you would exist, would you?" - -Raymond frowned. Then he shrugged cheerfully. "Well, you didn't really -suppose we were going to all this trouble and expense out of sheer -altruism, did you?" he asked, turning on the charm which all the -cousins possessed to a consternating degree. - - * * * * * - -Martin had, of course, no illusions on that score; he had learned long -ago that nobody did anything for nothing. But saying so was unwise. - -"We bribed another set of plans out of another of the professor's -assistants," Raymond continued, as if Martin had answered, -"and--ah--induced a handicraft enthusiast to build the gadget for us." - -_Induced_, Martin knew, could have meant anything from blackmail to the -use of the iron maiden. - -"Then we were all ready to forestall Conrad. If one of us guarded you -night and day, he would never be able to carry out his plot. So we made -our counter-plan, set the machine as far back as it would go--and here -we are!" - -"I see," Martin said. - -Raymond didn't seem to think he really did. "After all," he pointed -out defensively, "whatever our motives, it has turned into a good -thing for you. Nice home, cultured companions, all the contemporary -conveniences, plus some handy anachronisms--I don't see what more you -could ask for. You're getting the best of all possible worlds. Of -course Ninian _was_ a ninny to locate in a mercantile suburb where any -little thing out of the way will cause talk. How thankful I am that our -era has completely disposed of the mercantiles--" - -"What did you do with them?" Martin asked. - -But Raymond rushed on: "Soon as Ninian goes and I'm in full charge, -we'll get a more isolated place and run it on a far grander scale. -Ostentation--that's the way to live here and now; the richer you are, -the more eccentricity you can get away with. And," he added, "I might -as well be as comfortable as possible while I suffer through this -wretched historical stint." - -"So Ninian's going," said Martin, wondering why the news made him feel -curiously desolate. Because, although he supposed he liked her in a -remote kind of way, he had no fondness for her--or she, he knew, for -him. - -"Well, five years is rather a long stretch for any girl to spend in -exile," Raymond explained, "even though our life spans are a bit longer -than yours. Besides, you're getting too old now to be under petticoat -government." He looked inquisitively at Martin. "You're not going to -go all weepy and make a scene when she leaves, are you?" - -"No...." Martin said hesitantly. "Oh, I suppose I will miss her. But we -aren't very close, so it won't make a real difference." That was the -sad part: he already knew it wouldn't make a difference. - -Raymond clapped him on the shoulder. "I knew you weren't a sloppy -sentimentalist like Conrad. Though you do have rather a look of him, -you know." - -Suddenly that seemed to make Conrad real. Martin felt a vague stirring -of alarm. He kept his voice composed, however. "How do you plan to -protect me when he comes?" - -"Well, each one of us is armed to the teeth, of course," Raymond said -with modest pride, displaying something that looked like a child's -combination spaceman's gun and death ray, but which, Martin had no -doubt, was a perfectly genuine--and lethal--weapon. "And we've got a -rather elaborate burglar alarm system." - -Martin inspected the system and made one or two changes in the wiring -which, he felt, would increase its efficiency. But still he was -dubious. "Maybe it'll work on someone coming from outside this _house_, -but do you think it will work on someone coming from outside this -_time_?" - -"Never fear--it has a temporal radius," Raymond replied. "Factory -guarantee and all that." - -"Just to be on the safe side," Martin said, "I think I'd better have -one of those guns, too." - -"A splendid idea!" enthused Raymond. "I was just about to think of that -myself!" - - * * * * * - -When it came time for the parting, it was Ninian who cried--tears at -her own inadequacy, Martin knew, not of sorrow. He was getting skillful -at understanding his descendants, far better than they at understanding -him. But then they never really tried. Ninian kissed him wetly on the -cheek and said she was sure everything would work out all right and -that she'd come see him again. She never did, though, except at the -very last. - -Raymond and Martin moved into a luxurious mansion in a remote area. The -site proved a well-chosen one; when the Second Atomic War came, half a -dozen years later, they weren't touched. Martin was never sure whether -this had been sheer luck or expert planning. Probably luck, because his -descendants were exceedingly inept planners. - -Few people in the world then could afford to live as stylishly as -Martin and his guardian. The place not only contained every possible -convenience and gadget but was crammed with bibelots and antiques, -carefully chosen by Raymond and disputed by Martin, for, to the man -from the future, all available artifacts were antiques. Otherwise, -Martin accepted his new surroundings. His sense of wonder had become -dulled by now and the pink pseudo-Spanish castle--"architecturally -dreadful, of course," Raymond had said, "but so hilariously -typical"--impressed him far less than had the suburban split-level -aquarium. - -"How about a moat?" Martin suggested when they first came. "It seems to -go with a castle." - -"Do you think a moat could stop Conrad?" Raymond asked, amused. - -"No," Martin smiled, feeling rather silly, "but it would make the place -seem safer somehow." - -The threat of Conrad was beginning to make him grow more and more -nervous. He got Raymond's permission to take two suits of armor that -stood in the front hall and present them to a local museum, because -several times he fancied he saw them move. He also became an adept with -the ray gun and changed the surrounding landscape quite a bit with it, -until Raymond warned that this might lead Conrad to them. - -During those early years, Martin's tutors were exchanged for the -higher-degreed ones that were now needful. The question inevitably -arose of what the youth's vocation in that life was going to be. At -least twenty of the cousins came back through time to hold one of -their vigorous family councils. Martin was still young enough to enjoy -such occasions, finding them vastly superior to all other forms of -entertainment. - - * * * * * - -"This sort of problem wouldn't arise in our day, Martin," Raymond -commented as he took his place at the head of the table, "because, -unless one specifically feels a call to some profession or other, one -just--well, drifts along happily." - -"Ours is a wonderful world," Grania sighed at Martin. "I only wish we -could take you there. I'm sure you would like it." - -"Don't be a fool, Grania!" Raymond snapped. "Well, Martin, have you -made up your mind what you want to be?" - -Martin affected to think. "A physicist," he said, not without malice. -"Or perhaps an engineer." - -There was a loud, excited chorus of dissent. He chuckled inwardly. - -"Can't do that," Ives said. "Might pick up some concepts from us. Don't -know how; none of us knows a thing about science. But it could happen. -Subconscious osmosis, if there is such a thing. That way, you might -invent something ahead of time. And the fellow we got the plans from -particularly cautioned us against that. Changing history. Dangerous." - -"Might mess up our time frightfully," Bartholomew contributed, "though, -to be perfectly frank, I can't quite understand how." - -"I am not going to sit down and explain the whole thing to you all over -again, Bart!" Raymond said impatiently. "Well, Martin?" - -"What would you suggest?" Martin asked. - -"How about becoming a painter? Art is eternal. And quite gentlemanly. -Besides, artists are always expected to be either behind or ahead of -their times." - -"Furthermore," Ottillie added, "one more artist couldn't make much -difference in history. There were so many of them all through the ages." - -Martin couldn't hold back his question. "What was I, actually, in that -other time?" - -There was a chilly silence. - -"Let's not talk about it, dear," Lalage finally said. "Let's just be -thankful we've saved you from _that_!" - -So drawing teachers were engaged and Martin became a very competent -second-rate artist. He knew he would never be able to achieve first -rank because, even though he was still so young, his work was almost -purely intellectual. The only emotion he seemed able to feel was -fear--the ever-present fear that someday he would turn a corridor and -walk into a man who looked like him--a man who wanted to kill him for -the sake of an ideal. - -But the fear did not show in Martin's pictures. They were pretty -pictures. - - * * * * * - -Cousin Ives--now that Martin was older, he was told to call the -descendants _cousin_--next assumed guardianship. Ives took his -responsibilities more seriously than the others did. He even arranged -to have Martin's work shown at an art gallery. The paintings received -critical approval, but failed to evoke any enthusiasm. The modest -sale they enjoyed was mostly to interior decorators. Museums were not -interested. - -"Takes time," Ives tried to reassure him. "One day they'll be buying -your pictures, Martin. Wait and see." - -Ives was the only one of the descendants who seemed to think of Martin -as an individual. When his efforts to make contact with the other young -man failed, he got worried and decided that what Martin needed was a -change of air and scenery. - -"'Course you can't go on the Grand Tour. Your son hasn't invented -space travel yet. But we can go see this world. What's left of it. -Tourists always like ruins best, anyway." - -So he drew on the family's vast future resources and bought a yacht, -which Martin christened _The Interregnum_. They traveled about from sea -to ocean and from ocean to sea, touching at various ports and making -trips inland. Martin saw the civilized world--mostly in fragments; the -nearly intact semi-civilized world and the uncivilized world, much the -same as it had been for centuries. It was like visiting an enormous -museum; he couldn't seem to identify with his own time any more. - -The other cousins appeared to find the yacht a congenial head-quarters, -largely because they could spend so much time far away from the -contemporary inhabitants of the planet and relax and be themselves. So -they never moved back to land. Martin spent the rest of his life on -_The Interregnum_. He felt curiously safer from Conrad there, although -there was no valid reason why an ocean should stop a traveler through -time. - -More cousins were in residence at once than ever before, because -they came for the ocean voyage. They spent most of their time aboard -ship, giving each other parties and playing an _avant-garde_ form of -shuffleboard and gambling on future sporting events. That last usually -ended in a brawl, because one cousin was sure to accuse another of -having got advance information about the results. - -Martin didn't care much for their company and associated with them only -when not to have done so would have been palpably rude. And, though -they were gregarious young people for the most part, they didn't court -his society. He suspected that he made them feel uncomfortable. - - * * * * * - -He rather liked Ives, though. Sometimes the two of them would be alone -together; then Ives would tell Martin of the future world he had come -from. The picture drawn by Raymond and Ninian had not been entirely -accurate, Ives admitted. True, there was no war or poverty on Earth -proper, but that was because there were only a couple of million people -left on the planet. It was an enclave for the highly privileged, highly -interbred aristocracy, to which Martin's descendants belonged by virtue -of their distinguished ancestry. - -"Rather feudal, isn't it?" Martin asked. - -Ives agreed, adding that the system had, however, been deliberately -planned, rather than the result of haphazard natural development. -Everything potentially unpleasant, like the mercantiles, had been -deported. - -"Not only natives livin' on the other worlds," Ives said as the two -of them stood at the ship's rail, surrounded by the limitless expanse -of some ocean or other. "People, too. Mostly lower classes, except -for officials and things. With wars and want and suffering," he added -regretfully, "same as in your day.... Like now, I mean," he corrected -himself. "Maybe it _is_ worse, the way Conrad thinks. More planets -for us to make trouble on. Three that were habitable aren't any more. -Bombed. Very thorough job." - -"Oh," Martin murmured, trying to sound shocked, horrified--interested, -even. - -"Sometimes I'm not altogether sure Conrad was wrong," Ives said, after -a pause. "Tried to keep us from getting to the stars, hurting the -people--I expect you could call them people--there. Still--" he smiled -shamefacedly--"couldn't stand by and see my own way of life destroyed, -could I?" - -"I suppose not," Martin said. - -"Would take moral courage. I don't have it. None of us does, except -Conrad, and even he--" Ives looked out over the sea. "Must be a better -way out than Conrad's," he said without conviction. "And everything -will work out all right in the end. Bound to. No sense to--to anything, -if it doesn't." He glanced wistfully at Martin. - -"I hope so," said Martin. But he couldn't hope; he couldn't feel; he -couldn't even seem to care. - -During all this time, Conrad still did not put in an appearance. Martin -had gotten to be such a crack shot with the ray pistol that he almost -wished his descendant would show up, so there would be some excitement. -But he didn't come. And Martin got to thinking.... - -He always felt that if any of the cousins could have come to realize -the basic flaw in the elaborate plan they had concocted, it would have -been Ives. However, when the yacht touched at Tierra del Fuego one -bitter winter, Ives took a severe chill. They sent for a doctor from -the future--one of the descendants who had been eccentric enough to -take a medical degree--but he wasn't able to save Ives. The body was -buried in the frozen ground at Ushuaia, on the southern tip of the -continent, a hundred years or more before the date of his birth. - -A great many of the cousins turned up at the simple ceremony. All were -dressed in overwhelming black and showed a great deal of grief. Raymond -read the burial service, because they didn't dare summon a clerical -cousin from the future; they were afraid he might prove rather stuffy -about the entire undertaking. - -"He died for all of us," Raymond concluded his funeral eulogy over -Ives, "so his death was not in vain." - -But Martin disagreed. - - * * * * * - -The ceaseless voyaging began again. _The Interregnum_ voyaged to every -ocean and every sea. Some were blue and some green and some dun. After -a while, Martin couldn't tell one from another. Cousin after cousin -came to watch over him and eventually they were as hard for him to tell -apart as the different oceans. - -All the cousins were young, for, though they came at different times in -his life, they had all started out from the same time in theirs. Only -the young ones had been included in the venture; they did not trust -their elders. - -As the years went by, Martin began to lose even his detached interest -in the land and its doings. Although the yacht frequently touched port -for fuel or supplies--it was more economical to purchase them in that -era than to have them shipped from the future--he seldom went ashore, -and then only at the urging of a newly assigned cousin anxious to see -the sights. Most of the time Martin spent in watching the sea--and -sometimes he painted it. There seemed to be a depth to his seascapes -that his other work lacked. - -When he was pressed by the current cousin to make a land visit -somewhere, he decided to exhibit a few of his sea paintings. That way, -he could fool himself into thinking that there was some purpose to this -journey. He'd come to believe that perhaps what his life lacked was -purpose, and for a while he kept looking for meaning everywhere, to the -cousin's utter disgust. - -"Eat, drink and be merry, or whatever you Romans say when you do as you -do," the cousin--who was rather woolly in history; the descendants were -scraping bottom now--advised. - -Martin showed his work in Italy, so that the cousin could be -disillusioned by the current crop of Romans. He found that neither -purpose nor malice was enough; he was still immeasurably bored. -However, a museum bought two of the paintings. Martin thought of Ives -and felt an uncomfortable pang of a sensation he could no longer -understand. - -"Where do you suppose Conrad has been all this time?" Martin idly asked -the current cousin--who was passing as his nephew by now. - -The young man jumped, then glanced around him uncomfortably. "Conrad's -a very shrewd fellow," he whispered. "He's biding his time--waiting -until we're off guard. And then--pow!--he'll attack!" - -"Oh, I see," Martin said. - -He had often fancied that Conrad would prove to be the most stimulating -member of the whole generation. But it seemed unlikely that he would -ever have a chance for a conversation with the young man. More than one -conversation, anyhow. - -"When he does show up, I'll protect you," the cousin vowed, touching -his ray gun. "You haven't a thing to worry about." - -Martin smiled with all the charm he'd had nothing to do but acquire. "I -have every confidence in you," he told his descendant. He himself had -given up carrying a gun long ago. - -There was a war in the Northern Hemisphere and so _The Interregnum_ -voyaged to southern waters. There was a war in the south and they hid -out in the Arctic. All the nations became too drained of power--fuel -and man and will--to fight, so there was a sterile peace for a long -time. _The Interregnum_ roamed the seas restlessly, with her load of -passengers from the future, plus one bored and aging contemporary. She -bore big guns now, because of the ever-present danger of pirates. - - * * * * * - -Perhaps it was the traditionally bracing effect of sea air--perhaps it -was the sheltered life--but Martin lived to be a very old man. He was a -hundred and four when his last illness came. It was a great relief when -the family doctor, called in again from the future, said there was no -hope. Martin didn't think he could have borne another year of life. - -All the cousins gathered at the yacht to pay their last respects to -their progenitor. He saw Ninian again, after all these years, and -Raymond--all the others, dozens of them, thronging around his bed, -spilling out of the cabin and into the passageways and out onto the -deck, making their usual clamor, even though their voices were hushed. - -Only Ives was missing. He'd been the lucky one, Martin knew. He had -been spared the tragedy that was going to befall these blooming young -people--all the same age as when Martin had last seen them and doomed -never to grow any older. Underneath their masks of woe, he could see -relief at the thought that at last they were going to be rid of their -responsibility. And underneath Martin's death mask lay an impersonal -pity for those poor, stupid descendants of his who had blundered so -irretrievably. - -There was only one face which Martin had never seen before. It wasn't -a strange face, however, because Martin had seen one very like it in -the looking glass when he was a young man. - -"You must be Conrad," Martin called across the cabin in a voice that -was still clear. "I've been looking forward to meeting you for some -time." - -The other cousins whirled to face the newcomer. - -"You're too late, Con," Raymond gloated for the whole generation. "He's -lived out his life." - -"But he hasn't lived out his life," Conrad contradicted. "He's lived -out the life _you_ created for him. And for yourselves, too." - -For the first time, Martin saw compassion in the eyes of one of his -lineage and found it vaguely disturbing. It didn't seem to belong there. - -"Don't you realize even yet," Conrad went on, "that as soon as he goes, -you'll go, too--present, past, future, wherever you are, you'll go up -in the air like puffs of smoke?" - -"What do you mean?" Ninian quavered, her soft, pretty face alarmed. - -Martin answered Conrad's rueful smile, but left the explanations up to -him. It was his show, after all. - -"Because you will never have existed," Conrad said. "You have no right -to existence; it was you yourselves who watched him all the time, -so he didn't have a chance to lead a normal life, get married, _have -children_...." - - * * * * * - -Most of the cousins gasped as the truth began to percolate through. - -"I knew from the very beginning," Conrad finished, "that I didn't -have to do anything at all. I just had to wait and you would destroy -yourselves." - -"I don't understand," Bartholomew protested, searching the faces of the -cousins closest to him. "What does he mean, we have never existed? -We're here, aren't we? What--" - -"Shut up!" Raymond snapped. He turned on Martin. "You don't seem -surprised." - -The old man grinned. "I'm not. I figured it all out years ago." - -At first, he had wondered what he should do. Would it be better to -throw them into a futile panic by telling them or to do nothing? He -had decided on the latter; that was the role they had assigned him--to -watch and wait and keep out of things--and that was the role he would -play. - -"You knew all the time and you didn't tell us!" Raymond spluttered. -"After we'd been so good to you, making a gentleman out of you instead -of a criminal.... That's right," he snarled, "a criminal! An alcoholic, -a thief, a derelict! How do you like that?" - -"Sounds like a rich, full life," Martin said wistfully. - -What an exciting existence they must have done him out of! But then, he -couldn't help thinking, he--he and Conrad together, of course--had done -them out of _any_ kind of existence. It wasn't his responsibility, -though; he had done nothing but let matters take whatever course was -destined for them. If only he could be sure that it was the better -course, perhaps he wouldn't feel that nagging sense of guilt inside -him. Strange--where, in his hermetic life, could he possibly have -developed such a queer thing as a conscience? - -"Then we've wasted all this time," Ninian sobbed, "all this energy, all -this money, for nothing!" - -"But you were nothing to begin with," Martin told them. And then, -after a pause, he added, "I only wish I could be sure there had been -some purpose to this." - -He didn't know whether it was approaching death that dimmed his sight, -or whether the frightened crowd that pressed around him was growing -shadowy. - -"I wish I could feel that some good had been done in letting you be -wiped out of existence," he went on voicing his thoughts. "But I know -that the same thing that happened to your worlds and my world will -happen all over again. To other people, in other times, but again. It's -bound to happen. There isn't any hope for humanity." - -One man couldn't really change the course of human history, he told -himself. Two men, that was--one real, one a shadow. - -Conrad came close to the old man's bed. He was almost transparent. - -"No," he said, "there is hope. They didn't know the time transmitter -works two ways. I used it for going into the past only once--just this -once. But I've gone into the future with it many times. And--" he -pressed Martin's hand--"believe me, what I did--what _we_ did, you and -I--serves a purpose. It will change things for the better. Everything -is going to be all right." - - * * * * * - -Was Conrad telling him the truth, Martin wondered, or was he just -giving the conventional reassurance to the dying? More than that, was -he trying to convince himself that what he had done was the right -thing? Every cousin had assured Martin that things were going to be all -right. - -Was Conrad _actually_ different from the rest? - -His plan had worked and the others' hadn't, but then all his plan had -consisted of was doing nothing. That was all he and Martin had done ... -nothing. Were they absolved of all responsibility merely because they -had stood aside and taken advantage of the others' weaknesses? - -"Why," Martin said to himself, "in a sense, it could be said that I -have fulfilled my original destiny--that I am a criminal." - -Well, it didn't matter; whatever happened, no one could hold him to -blame. He held no stake in the future that was to come. It was other -men's future--other men's problem. He died very peacefully then, and, -since he was the only one left on the ship, there was nobody to bury -him. - -The unmanned yacht drifted about the seas for years and gave rise to -many legends, none of them as unbelievable as the truth. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man Outside, by Evelyn E. 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