1 files changed, 1291 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/59643-0.txt b/59643-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ceccfae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/59643-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1291 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59643 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              FAMILY TREE
+
+                        BY CHARLES L. FONTENAY
+
+                 _You don't like Darwin's theory of
+                 Evolution? Maybe you're right. Maybe
+           Man's ancestors weren't monkeys after all...._
+
+           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
+             Worlds of If Science Fiction, December 1956.
+         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+How do you get rid of a superman?
+
+The method Masefield Truggles used was the tried-and-true Masefield
+Truggles method. Of course, he didn't know at the beginning that Blan
+Forsythe was a superman. But Forsythe had lived in Marston Hill most of
+his life--born there, in fact--while Truggles had been there only two
+years. So Truggles gave the case the full treatment with flourishes,
+including a careful reconnaissance to determine vulnerable spots in
+Forsythe's reputation.
+
+Truggles determined that reform or removal of Forsythe would be his
+contribution to the moral welfare of Marston Hill as soon as he heard
+the rumors, some joking, some serious, about Forsythe's polygamous
+tendencies. This was a ready-made situation for Truggles.
+
+Truggles began his research with Forsythe's ex-wife, Phyllis Allison.
+He had learned from experience that an ex-wife usually is a good source
+of information about vulnerable spots.
+
+She served him tea in the parlor of her modest home. After a routine
+round of chit-chat designed to put her at ease, Truggles approached the
+point.
+
+"As you may know, Mrs. Allison, I am president of our Social Standards
+Protective League," he said, fixing his deep blue eyes on her face.
+
+"I've heard of it, Mr. Truggles," she said in a low voice. "My duties
+at home keep me too busy to belong to any organizations, though."
+
+As if to emphasize her point, she put her arm around the shoulders
+of her young son. The boy sat quietly beside her, watching Truggles
+like a young animal. Truggles figured he must be about five years
+old--certainly he would be below school age, for school was in
+session--but he was big for his age. There was something disturbing
+about his intent gaze.
+
+"I'm not here in the interest of your joining the League, Mrs. Allison,
+though we'd be glad to have you," said Truggles. "I came to ask you
+for some confidential information about the shameful way your former
+husband mistreated you."
+
+Her eyes opened wide.
+
+"Why, Blan never mistreated me!" she exclaimed. "Whoever told you such
+a thing? I loved Blan, and he loved me. I still love him."
+
+"If he loved you, why did he leave you?" demanded Truggles triumphantly.
+
+"I think you're asking questions about something that isn't any of
+your business, Mr. Truggles," said Phyllis Allison, her eyes flashing
+ominously. "Blan Forsythe is ... different. We agreed to separate
+because it appeared I could give him no children. We were wrong, but it
+was too late, then."
+
+"So he turned to polygamy through a mad desire to produce children,"
+murmured Truggles happily. "You say you were wrong? I thought the boy
+was your only child."
+
+"Donald is my only child, but he is Blan's child," said Phyllis,
+patting the boy on the shoulder.
+
+Truggles raised bushy eyebrows.
+
+"Wasn't it seven years ago you and Mr. Forsythe were divorced?" he
+asked pointedly.
+
+"Yes, and Donald is only five," she answered defiantly. "My
+husband--Dr. Allison--tells me I'm foolish to have the feeling I do
+that Donald is Blan's son. He says it's impossible. But I know it's
+true. I've been working with Donnie, and, Mr. Truggles...."
+
+She leaned forward intently and fixed her gaze gravely on Truggles'
+face.
+
+"... Donnie has the Power!" she said in a tense whisper.
+
+Truggles blinked. Phyllis Allison sat back and looked embarrassed, as
+though she had not intended to confide so much.
+
+Truggles asked no more questions. He did not pursue the line of
+inquiry this revelation at once brought to mind. He took his leave as
+graciously as possible and left the house.
+
+He knew that both Phyllis Allison and her son watched him as he walked
+out the door with shoulders bent in a show of humility. But it was the
+boy's eyes he felt.
+
+Phyllis Allison. The fresh memory of her slender beauty, her wide,
+honest eyes, struck pain in Truggles' heart. They were rare--but why
+did he seem to run across them so often?--these women who reminded him
+of _her_. His lost love, his long-lost love, the smiling fairy with the
+dancing heart, without whom life never had been quite complete again.
+
+The woman really believed the boy was Blan Forsythe's child. It was
+pathetic. And that reference to Donald's having "the power:" Truggles
+wondered how many women he had known who thought their sons were
+"different," who even convinced themselves that the children had been
+sired by a dream prince or such like. Deluded souls, to so excuse their
+sins!
+
+He straightened and ran his fingers through his short-clipped gray hair
+as he strode along the walk. The extensive lawn of Blan Forsythe's
+mansion stretched only two doors away from the bungalow he had just
+left. It was decked with flower beds and evergreens.
+
+Truggles was too circumspect to do anything openly at this stage. But
+he shook a fist at the stone pile, mentally.
+
+Behind him, Truggles had a record of nothing but successes. There had
+been the alcoholic in Hantown, the Negro fortuneteller in New Bacon,
+the member of some queer religious sect in Steckleville. Truggles had
+set his face against them. He had shown the people of these towns what
+manner of creatures they harbored in their bosoms. They had been driven
+out (it was unfortunate, in a way, that the alcoholic had been hit
+by a brick and killed in the confusion of public reaction, but such
+accidents happen); and eventually Truggles himself, purring inwardly at
+the consciousness of a job well done, had moved on to fields of further
+effort.
+
+Blan Forsythe was not big enough to escape his righteousness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If the mayor of Marston Hill would cooperate, it would save Masefield
+Truggles a lot of work and possibly some unpleasantness for everyone.
+Sometimes mayors did cooperate, especially when elections weren't far
+off.
+
+Truggles was not offended that Mayor Ben Sands received him in the
+garden of his home on the edge of town. He had known many fine
+gentlemen with dirt on their hands who abhorred dirt in the mind.
+
+"I haven't seen Blan much lately, but he used to spend a lot of time
+out here," said Sands, taking his battered pipe from his mouth to
+speak. "He was interested in the flowers. Those asters, now. They're
+tetraploid. He developed 'em. Used colchicine."
+
+He looked at Truggles inquiringly, to see if he understood. Truggles
+allowed a smile to quirk his lips and shook his head slightly.
+
+"Extract from the autumn crocus," said Sands. "Makes plants tend to
+double their chromosomes."
+
+Around them, the garden was a solid blaze of color. Zinnias, marigolds,
+phlox cast their colorful bounty to the air.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm not much of a horticulturist," apologized Truggles.
+
+"Well, it's like this," said Sands. "Every cell of every plant of the
+same species has the same number of chromosomes--you know, those bright
+little threads that hold the guiding genes of growth and development.
+Mutations in plants come when there are changes in individual genes
+from time to time. But when you hit them with colchicine, the
+chromosomes sometimes double without the cell dividing. Creates a
+new species, usually bigger, stronger, slower growing. Call them
+tetraploids. I've heard it called 'cataclysmic evolution.'"
+
+"You mean man tampers with the basic laws of nature?" asked Truggles,
+awed and disturbed.
+
+"I reckon you could call it that. Lots of plants have been treated that
+way--tomatoes, snapdragons, alyssum. Of course, it happens naturally,
+too. Wheat developed from the crossing of an inferior early species,
+einkorn, with a wild grass. Einkorn and the grass had seven chromosomes
+each, but in crossing the chromosomes were doubled. The result was
+Persian wheat, a superior variety with 14 chromosomes."
+
+Sands took the pipe from his mouth and knocked the ashes out against
+the sole of his shoe. Pulling a sack of tobacco thoughtfully from his
+hip pocket, he began to refill it.
+
+"Blan had a theory," he said, "that doubling of chromosomes in animals
+in the past could have given rise to new species and explain a lot of
+gaps in evolution. Man has 48 chromosomes in every cell, and Blan
+pointed out to me that 48 is double 24, which is double 12, which is
+double six, which is double three. He thought that was too much of a
+coincidence. I reckon I do, too."
+
+He paused and struck a wooden match, holding it against the bowl of his
+pipe and sucking noisily.
+
+"I don't hold with the evolutionary theory," said Truggles stiffly.
+"What I really wanted to ask you, Mayor Sands, was whether you are
+aware that Blan Forsythe is practicing polygamy, right here in Marston
+Hill?"
+
+"You've been listening to those old hens gossip," accused Sands.
+"Look, I knew Blan right well when he was married to Phyllis Allison.
+Phyllis is my niece and I was sorry to see them break up, but the
+young people have to live their own lives. Blan has some ideas us old
+stick-in-the-muds might not understand, Mr. Truggles, but he's all
+right."
+
+"A dozen women live with him in that big house of his," insisted
+Truggles. "I've found out there's a turnover, too. When one moves out,
+another moves in."
+
+"I don't poke my nose into other people's business," said Sands
+bluntly. "But Dr. Allison tells me Blan maintains a staff, and it's
+convenient for them to live in that big house. He's doing biological
+research, along the lines I just explained."
+
+"Biological research, I have no doubt," said Truggles, assuming his
+best organ-like tone. He fixed his blue eyes on Sands, but Sands' eyes
+were just as blue. They showed a gleam of anger. "You refuse to take
+any action against this abomination, then, Mayor?"
+
+"I refuse to believe idle rumors," said Sands firmly. "And before
+you attempt to stir things up around here with your Social Standards
+Protective League, Mr. Truggles, I would recommend that you make some
+effort to secure accurate information. Dr. Allison is Blan's research
+assistant, and he can tell you much more of Blan's current experiments
+than I can."
+
+Truggles bowed slightly and turned away. The sharp scent of the
+marigolds tickled his nostrils, making him want to sneeze.
+
+"Dr. Allison," said Sands behind him, raising his voice slightly as
+Truggles walked away, "may even consent to tell you why Blan Forsythe's
+face is liver-colored. From what I hear of you, Mr. Truggles, that
+probably is your principal complaint against him."
+
+Truggles straightened as though stabbed between the shoulder blades. He
+quickened his pace.
+
+That had been a telling blow. Could Sands know? No, it was impossible.
+The recurring waves of time and travel had long since obliterated
+Truggles' distant past. The Brazilian was a secret demon in his own
+heart, his private, bitter hatred, the swarthy ogre who had crushed the
+flower of his life and whose face arose to torment him only in times of
+bitterness.
+
+Sands was an idiot. All of these people in Marston Hill were idiots,
+letting a man like Forsythe fool them, liking him, looking up to him.
+They were empty shells, people, to be possessed alike by the strong,
+whether angel or demon. He, Truggles, would pit his strength against
+Forsythe.
+
+As for Sands....
+
+Old fool! Entrenched politician! Truggles had dealt with such civic
+laxity before. Direct action would be necessary.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was a touch of frost on the grass the evening Masefield Truggles
+went again to the Allison home. Dr. Alex Allison, a chubby man with
+rimless spectacles, admitted him.
+
+Truggles caught a glimpse of Phyllis Allison and the boy, Donald, in
+the kitchen as Allison led him through the dining room. They mounted a
+short flight of stairs to Allison's study.
+
+Allison offered him wine and a cigar. Truggles refused. Allison placed
+the wine decanter back on the shelf unopened, but lit a cigar and
+settled back comfortably in his chair.
+
+"Well, Mr. Truggles?" he asked briskly, with the air of a man who had
+no time to waste. Truggles looked him over, assessing him, and decided
+on the direct attack.
+
+"I wonder if you are aware, Dr. Allison," he said softly, "that your
+employer is breaking up your home?"
+
+He waited for the reaction. There was none. Allison puffed calmly on
+his cigar and waited. The light glinted from his spectacles as he kept
+his eyes fixed steadily on Truggles' face.
+
+"Dr. Allison, your wife confessed to me that she still loves her former
+husband, Blan Forsythe," said Truggles, emphasizing every word.
+
+"I was aware of that," said Allison unconcernedly. "Most women who know
+Blan are desperately in love with him. Is that all you came to see me
+about?"
+
+He half rose from his chair. Truggles made a hurried gesture of
+protest. He realized he had tried to move too fast.
+
+"No, no," said Truggles hastily. "Forgive me, Dr. Allison, but I was
+agitated over the situation. What I really came here for was to ask you
+to give me some information about Mr. Forsythe."
+
+"Why?" asked Allison.
+
+The flat question caught Truggles unprepared. He was aware that his
+mouth hung open foolishly as he tried desperately to frame an answer
+that would not be too revealing.
+
+"Why--I was trying to lay to rest some rumors," he stammered at last.
+"Mayor Sands said you might tell me something about Mr. Forsythe."
+
+Allison was silent for a long minute. He took the cigar from his mouth,
+knocked half an inch of ash into an ashtray and resumed his puffing.
+
+"Mr. Truggles, how much do you know about mice?" Allison asked.
+
+Truggles stared at him, unable to answer. This interview was beginning
+to take on a nightmarish aspect.
+
+"What do you consider to be the principal difference between mice and
+men, Mr. Truggles?" pursued Allison.
+
+"Really, Dr. Allison, I don't see--I don't know what point you're
+trying to make, but a mouse is an animal and a man is--well, a man."
+
+"Nothing else?"
+
+"Well, a man is bigger than a mouse." He began to feel familiar ground
+under his feet. "A man is bigger more ways than physically. He is
+bigger spiritually, emotionally. He thinks. He has a--"
+
+"Ben Sands told me about his talk with you. So you don't believe in
+evolution? You don't believe the ancestors of men and monkeys came from
+a common stock?"
+
+"I do not, sir. It is inconceivable...."
+
+"How would mice strike you, then? Would you rather believe that men
+descended from mice than monkeys?"
+
+Again the bewildered Truggles found himself physically incapable of
+answering.
+
+"I have done a great deal of research, with the kind assistance of
+Blan Forsythe," said Allison precisely. "Blan is my friend. He has
+been my associate, even my experimental animal. I am preparing a paper
+on what I consider a revolutionary contribution to the theory of
+evolution--that men are related directly to the genus _rodentia_, and
+only more distantly so to the primates.
+
+"Blan Forsythe is the real originator of this theory, as a result of
+his very personal interest in sudden evolutionary changes through
+doubling of chromosomes. It is reasonable to suppose that the ancestor
+of man himself, with all of his survival advantages, arose through such
+a process. Man has 48 chromosomes. Now, Mr. Truggles, what sort of
+animal would you guess has half that number--24 chromosomes?"
+
+"Mice?" hazarded Truggles thinly.
+
+"Precisely. Mice. The common house mouse. There is also a variety of
+squirrel that carries 24 chromosomes. The _peromyscus_ and _apodemus_
+families of mice--and some other animals, including the rhesus
+monkey--have 48--cousins whose chromosome doubling eons ago started
+them up different paths from ours. Mr. Truggles, the ancestor of man
+was a rodent whose doubled chromosomes gave him new attributes that
+worked to his evolutionary advantage."
+
+"Is that what is called a mutation?" asked Truggles, interested in
+spite of himself.
+
+"Mutation? A mutation is a change in one gene. Men mutate every day.
+How many millions upon millions of years do you think it would take
+simple mutations to build a man from a rodent--or a lemur, either, for
+that matter?"
+
+"Well, really, Dr. Allison, I believe you misunderstand what I
+asked you. Your theory is fine, I'm sure, among scientists, but I'm
+interested in information about Blan Forsythe."
+
+"That's what I've given you. Blan Forsythe is a tetraploid man. His
+cells carry 96 chromosomes instead of the normal 48. Every cell of his
+body is doubled."
+
+"Is that why his skin is liver-colored?" asked Truggles, remembering
+what Sands had said.
+
+Allison smiled.
+
+"Coincidence," he said. "It's true that liver cells have doubled
+chromosomes, but that isn't the reason for the color."
+
+"What does all this mean, then?" asked Truggles.
+
+Allison laid his half-smoked cigar carefully on the edge of the ashtray
+and gazed at Truggles through his spectacles.
+
+"Blan Forsythe is a new species," he said slowly. "He is not man.
+Everyone has theorized that a superman might arise from a mutation,
+perhaps caused by radiation. My God, a hundred mutations of individual
+genes wouldn't make a superman overnight! But Blan Forsythe is one--a
+tetraploid man--a superman."
+
+"And what is a superman, Dr. Allison?" asked Truggles drily, thinking
+of Nietzsche and the Sunday comic strips.
+
+"Who knows? How can you and I comprehend the novel qualities, the
+undreamed-of abilities of such a creature? Do you think a mouse could
+understand a man's ability to reason, to talk, to build machines? Blan
+may not realize them himself. After all, he was reared in a human
+society, and no doubt the tetraploid rodent which is our ancestor
+seemed little different from his associates. There are two things I'm
+sure of: the differences are there, and they are qualities you and I
+could never point to and say, 'This is an ability of the superman.'"
+
+Truggles' mouth twisted in a crooked smile. Allison had allowed his
+enthusiasm to draw him out. Allison was vulnerable now.
+
+"And because this man--this creature--is different, you allow him to
+cuckold you?" he demanded in a low, ugly voice.
+
+Allison was not vulnerable.
+
+"Don't let Phyllis mislead you," he said quietly. "She thinks Donald
+is Blan's child because she always yearned to give Blan the child he
+wanted. Donald was born two years after they were divorced."
+
+"She seems very sure," insinuated Truggles.
+
+"It is possible for a tetraploid to be fertile in a mating with a
+normal diploid," said Allison. "Persian wheat, with 14 chromosomes,
+crossed with a grass which has seven chromosomes, to produce common
+wheat. That was Blan's hope while he and Phyllis were married, and it's
+still his hope with the others. I was his doctor and associate then, as
+I am now. Neither Phyllis nor Donald has more than the normal number of
+chromosomes, and Blan has not seen Phyllis since they were divorced."
+
+"What, then, Dr. Allison, is this 'Power' that your wife says the boy
+has?"
+
+Allison's face froze.
+
+"That is a family matter, Mr. Truggles," he said icily. "I do not
+discuss my son's characteristics with strangers. Good night, sir."
+
+Truggles saw Phyllis Allison as he left the house. Dr. Allison remained
+in his study when Truggles left, and Phyllis stepped from the darkened
+doorway of the dining room as Truggles opened the front door.
+
+"Mr. Truggles," she said, placing her hand on his arm, "I don't know
+what your object is, but don't make any trouble for Blan Forsythe."
+
+"My poor child, I am not trying to make trouble for him," said Truggles
+sadly. "I hope only to convince him that his unfortunate differences do
+not privilege him to flout the sound social customs of other men. If
+there is any trouble, it will be made by the man himself."
+
+"You'll see him, then?"
+
+"Certainly, I intend to try to convince him personally that what he is
+doing is wrong."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"I wish I could see him again," she murmured.
+
+For this unhappy woman's sake if for no other reason, it would
+certainly be the thing to do to talk to Forsythe himself, Truggles
+thought as he left the house. The anticipation had a certain zest to
+it. Besides, Truggles believed in being fair. He always liked to give a
+man a chance to reform voluntarily, to bow to his righteous persuasion.
+
+As for Allison, Truggles detested a man like that. The "scientific"
+mind, always so sure of its own theories. Such men could not see beyond
+the material, into the living realm of possession and power, the
+struggle between good and evil.
+
+This theory that Forsythe was a superior creature ... Truggles shivered
+with resentment. Man was the apex, the conqueror--the conqueror through
+his service to the good way, the right way, through his militant
+demand that things be good and right.
+
+A superior being. Truggles trembled again, this time overwhelmed by a
+feeling he hated, the feeling of inferiority. It swept over him from
+long, long ago, that bitter night when he had stood in tears before the
+Brazilian, when he had implored on his knees the only woman he had ever
+loved.
+
+Something small and dark scurried across the walk in front of him.
+
+Mice, he thought. The idea that man descended from a mouse was even
+more repellant than that man descended from monkey. But, if evolution
+had any basis in fact, mice might have certain claims. They lived in
+human habitations, they ate human foods. Their psychology was studied
+in mazes, and their physical makeup made them good subjects for
+experimentation in human diseases.
+
+Mice. Truggles shrugged and walked on.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Masefield Truggles had seen Blan Forsythe at a distance, walking along
+the streets of Marston Hill, but Forsythe's appearance at close range
+was a severe shock.
+
+The tetraploid man's skin was, as Sands and Allison had described it,
+the deep red color and texture of liver. His hair was short, mole-gray
+fur over the top of his head, and his eyes were a jade green that
+glowed with inner fires. Truggles was a tall man, but Forsythe stood a
+head taller and was massively built.
+
+Forsythe's rugged features were not repulsive, when one became
+accustomed to their hue. Still, Truggles could not understand how a
+woman could be attracted to him. But the adoration that shone from the
+eyes of the pretty secretary who escorted him into Forsythe's office
+was unmistakable.
+
+It was a spacious office, on the second floor of the mansion
+Truggles had passed so often. Why a man needed a business office to
+conduct private biological research was something Truggles could not
+understand, but this one would have fitted very well in a metropolitan
+skyscraper.
+
+The weight of the pistol in its shoulder holster was comforting to
+Truggles. Others might not believe Forsythe dangerous. He did. He was
+protected.
+
+"I understand you are determined to run me out of town, Mr. Truggles,"
+said Forsythe pleasantly, leaning back in his swivel chair and putting
+his fingertips together. With his back to the window, his face was in
+slight shadow and he looked like a well-tanned business executive.
+
+"You either have a well-organized spy network or some of the strange
+powers your associates attribute to you, Mr. Forsythe," replied
+Truggles easily. It would have been easier to deal with a man who did
+not exhibit such self-confidence, who was a little worried and nervous,
+but everyone seemed to be conspiring to make this project difficult for
+Truggles.
+
+Forsythe smiled, and his teeth were white as shining ivory in his dark
+face.
+
+"My extraordinary powers don't lie along those lines," he said. "I'd be
+obliged to someone who could tell me along what lines they do lie. I've
+had flashes of them from time to time, but I'm afraid they couldn't be
+explained to you."
+
+"I don't want to see you run out of town, Mr. Forsythe," said Truggles.
+"I came here in the hope of offering you friendship and help. The
+people of Marston Hill are disturbed--I might say, aroused--at your
+insistence on polygamous practices. I hope to persuade you to abandon
+such unsocial behavior, so I may have some background for reasoning
+with them in your behalf."
+
+Truggles expected the usual retort--that the people of the town had
+minded their own business (i.e., been blind to what was going on) until
+Truggles came to town. Instead, Forsythe said:
+
+"I have conformed to human social standards. My formal religious
+affiliation is Mohammedan."
+
+Truggles quivered with shock.
+
+"Mohammedan!" he exclaimed, possibly more outraged by that than by his
+original suspicion of polygamy.
+
+"The Koran allows us four wives, Mr. Truggles. The rest must be
+concubines."
+
+"You admit it! You admit that your so-called research is only a blind
+for a den of iniquity!"
+
+Forsythe rose, and stepped from behind his desk. Suddenly alarmed,
+Truggles cringed. Forsythe was a very big man. Truggles' fingers
+strayed toward the shoulder holster. But Forsythe smiled.
+
+"The research is genuine," he said. "Come with me, Mr. Truggles. I'd
+like for you to meet several of my wives. You may ask them questions if
+you wish."
+
+He took the nervous Truggles firmly by the arm, lifted him almost
+bodily from his chair and escorted him into the anteroom. The pretty
+secretary looked up from her desk.
+
+"Mr. Truggles, this is Trella, my youngest wife," said Forsythe.
+"Fortunately, she has had secretarial training, so she fits well in
+this office."
+
+The young woman smiled at Truggles, without embarrassment. He was not
+so fortunate. He dropped his eyes, the deep blue eyes that had so often
+been the nemesis of evil-doers.
+
+"You said I might question the--the young lady?" he murmured.
+
+Forsythe laughed.
+
+"I'll leave so you may feel more free," he said, and went back into his
+office.
+
+Truggles looked upon Trella Forsythe with more self-assurance. She was
+a pert, brown-eyed blonde, in her early twenties. Remembering Phyllis
+Allison, Truggles could not but admire Forsythe's appreciation of
+beauty.
+
+"How long have you been married to Mr. Forsythe, Mrs.--uh, Miss
+Trella?" he asked.
+
+"Only about six months," she answered. "I hope I'll prove satisfactory."
+
+"Satisfactory?"
+
+"I don't want to have to leave Blan after two years," she said. "I love
+him."
+
+"My dear child, how can you love a man who has a dozen other wives? How
+can you lower yourself to be part of such a scheme?"
+
+"Why is it that some men never understand women?" she countered, a
+little angrily. "A woman may be jealous of her man's other loves, but
+if he's a real man the thing that matters is that he loves _her_. I get
+along fine with Blan's other wives. We have something in common--we all
+love him."
+
+Truggles resisted a strong temptation to attempt to convert her to
+sanity on the spot. His powers of convincing women were potent ones,
+as experience had proved. But, in this case, the root of the evil was
+Forsythe himself and there was no point in wasting any time on the
+wives.
+
+Truggles had expected Forsythe to conduct him on a tour of what he
+already had labeled, in his mind, "the harem." But Forsythe remained
+closeted in his office, and it was Trella who escorted Truggles through
+a portion of the building.
+
+They met three other women, busy at various tasks, all of them
+young and attractive. Truggles questioned them briefly. He found
+substantially the same reaction he had received from Trella.
+
+When they had mounted the wide stairs again, on their way back to the
+office, Truggles was introduced to another wife, Lois. The door of a
+room stood ajar as they came to it, and he happened to see her sitting
+inside, weeping.
+
+He thought Trella appeared reluctant when he stopped and pushed open
+the door, but she did not protest.
+
+"Why are you weeping, my child?" asked Truggles, after he had talked
+with her for a moment.
+
+"I must leave," she explained. "I've been married to Blan two years
+tomorrow, and I haven't given him a child."
+
+"That's the most inhuman thing I ever heard of!" he exclaimed. "Do you
+mean to say he gives you this little time of happiness, and then if you
+don't produce progeny for him he casts you off like an old shoe?"
+
+"It's Dr. Allison's advice to him," said Lois. "Dr. Allison thinks it
+would be bad for him to have too many wives around at one time, and he
+considers two years long enough to prove certainly whether a woman can
+be fertile with Blan. I'm not the first. I won't be the last. But it's
+hard to have to go away and never see him again."
+
+These women he had seen today, these wives of Forsythe: they aroused
+no bitter feelings in Truggles. He felt clean and strong talking to
+them. They were like the many women to whom he had held out sympathy
+and understanding over the years, who had been stubborn and wilful at
+first, only to melt at last and see the truth. If only he could get
+them from Forsythe's influence, he thought he could save these women.
+
+Truggles turned to Trella.
+
+"Do you see what's in store for you, young woman?" he demanded. "Do you
+still think it's worth ruining your life to live here in sin with this
+man?"
+
+"I may be different," she answered calmly. "And if I'm not, tell me,
+Mr. Truggles: does a mouse have the right to question the motives of a
+man?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Truggles went back into Forsythe's office. The tetraploid man had
+swung his chair away from his desk and was staring moodily out the big
+window. He inclined his head at Truggles' entrance, but did not speak.
+
+"Forsythe, this has been the most amazing, the most revolting,
+revelation I have ever experienced," opened Truggles. His indignation
+fueled his courage now, and his voice held the commanding resonance of
+a pipe organ. "You claim to be superhuman. I say you are inhuman, to
+force these poor young women to live in servitude, sharing you with
+each other, and then to discard them with brutal unconcern when you
+find they cannot fulfill your insane dream of foisting others of your
+kind on the earth!"
+
+"They love me and I have a great affection for all of them," said
+Forsythe, not turning. "I provide for them when they leave me. Because
+the great experience of love cannot last a lifetime, should it be
+denied altogether?"
+
+The ancient bitterness swept over Truggles in a consuming wave. Yes,
+yes, cried his soul, far better never to have loved, never to have
+known the meaning of love, than to have it snatched from the grasp
+in full flower! Forsythe was a monster. How could he know? Did the
+superman have telepathic powers? Or was it again chance, this dropping
+of a remark that burned deep into his writhing memories?
+
+Forsythe's face was turned from him. One shot and this incredible
+thing, this liver-hued monstrosity that sat before him would be removed
+from the face of the earth. Truggles put his hand inside his coat. The
+butt of the pistol was cool under his fingers.
+
+No. A murderer in prison has no influence. He cannot battle evil,
+recruiting to his shining leadership an army of righteous people.
+Truggles dropped his hand to his lap and said calmly:
+
+"You speak as though they could love no one else. Is polygamy, then, to
+be a characteristic of the long-heralded superman?"
+
+"Polygamy and monogamy, as such, have no moral values, for man or
+superman," replied Forsythe, speaking to the window. "Polygamy was a
+part of man's social scheme for centuries. Monogamy has been replacing
+it as a more desirable scheme; but to attribute moral values to it is
+propaganda. I challenge you to find an edict against polygamy in the
+basic writings of any religion--Christianity, Judaism, any of them.
+Remember Solomon? Monogamy has the advantage of closer companionship
+between man and woman, and for that reason I would prefer it."
+
+A great thrill shot through Truggles' breast at these words. Was it
+possible that Forsythe had weakened? Was it possible that he could lead
+this strange man back to the path of truth?
+
+"Why not give it up, Forsythe?" he asked in a low, compelling voice.
+"Why not eschew your dream of a new race and leave such things to
+higher powers? Send these poor women back to their homes and turn back
+to your one true, legal wife, Phyllis, and your son."
+
+Forsythe swung to face him. The green eyes were deep and haunted.
+
+"Don't you think that's what I would prefer, above all else?" he asked
+in a low voice. "Perhaps you didn't know it, but I married Phyllis
+before I knew I was--different; other than my appearance, I mean. The
+genuine love of a man for a woman does not die. Do you think even
+a superman--it's your term, Truggles, not mine--enjoys loneliness?
+The worship of other women, my affection for them as human beings,
+can't fill the gap left by the loss of someone who shared complete
+understanding with me."
+
+He laughed shortly.
+
+"Besides," he added, "you're trying to talk me into committing an
+immoral act, Truggles. You forget that Phyllis is Dr. Allison's wife
+now, and Donald is Dr. Allison's son."
+
+Truggles brushed that aside.
+
+"That's no excuse for what you're doing," he said.
+
+"One of the major duties of any individual, of whatever species, is
+to reproduce his kind, if he can," answered Forsythe soberly. "In the
+human community, safe as a race through its very numbers, that has been
+lost sight of and overlaid with social responsibilities. I'm different.
+I can't ignore it.
+
+"How was the misconception ever begotten that a superman--again, it's
+your term, not mine--would merely mate with the daughters of men
+and, lo! a new race? The superman is a new species. Species do not
+interbreed fertilely very often, even when closely related.
+
+"Dr. Allison found I was tetraploid, while Phyllis and I were still
+married. He and I have been searching for a tetraploid woman, without
+success. Meanwhile, I try and still hope for fertile matings with a
+normal diploid woman, for the tetraploid has been fertile with the
+diploid sometimes in plants.
+
+"No, Donald can't be my son, whatever Phyllis says. There's more
+involved than the time of his birth--two years after our divorce. Dr.
+Allison has tested him, and Donald has the normal 48 chromosomes."
+
+"Can't you accept the verdict of nature, Forsythe?" demanded Truggles.
+"If you were born a eunuch, you could never reproduce."
+
+"While there's hope, I have the responsibility," said Forsythe slowly.
+"If the stream of life is to progress, something greater than man must
+arise from him. I know, Truggles--I _know_--I am that superior thing.
+And I think back in history to the geniuses, the superior men, who died
+without progeny and I wonder how many of them were tetraploid, as I am,
+but could not pass on their new abilities to the world."
+
+Truggles shook his head angrily and arose.
+
+"You can't succeed by flouting the social conventions man has built
+up," he said stiffly. "I'm afraid you'll find that out to your sorrow,
+Forsythe."
+
+His mind caressed the gun inside his coat pocket. Such a direct
+solution appealed to him. But he resisted it. There was a better, safer
+way. He turned his back on Forsythe and left.
+
+As he walked past the Allison home, and covered half a block toward
+town, seething inwardly at Forsythe's stubbornness; a woman arose from
+a sidewalk bench to accost him. It was Lois, Forsythe's dark-haired
+wife to whom he had talked while she wept half an hour earlier.
+
+"Why, Mrs. For--Miss Lois!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Did
+you escape?"
+
+"Escape?" she repeated. Her eyes were shadowed from weeping. "Blan
+doesn't keep us prisoners. We come and go as we please. It's just that
+most of us prefer not to go out into town."
+
+"I can understand that," he said drily. "Can I help you, Miss Lois?"
+
+"Perhaps I can help myself, by helping you. Mr. Truggles, aren't you
+trying to stop Blan from keeping more than one wife?"
+
+"I am, indeed. I expect to seek an indictment against him on bigamy
+charges."
+
+"You won't succeed. He'll just sue you for false arrest, and ruin you.
+You don't think Blan would overlook something like that, do you? None
+of the girls would admit they lived with him as his wives. I wouldn't
+either, if it would hurt Blan."
+
+Truggles was taken aback. After a moment, he asked: "What did you have
+in mind?"
+
+"Nothing. But I thought if I could help you persuade him--as the wife
+who's been with him longest, I'd be the one to stay, wouldn't I?"
+
+Thinking of an unknown number of others who might have been sent away
+previously, Truggles was inclined to doubt it. But he would not let
+such an opinion interfere with this opportunity.
+
+"Probably," he said. "Will you help me if I promise to take no legal
+action against Forsythe?"
+
+"What do you want me to do?" she asked.
+
+"You say you're free to come and go as you please?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I just want you to tell the truth about what he's doing, as I've
+learned it, at a few meetings of good, sympathetic citizens during the
+next few weeks."
+
+"I'll do it if you're sure it won't hurt Blan in any way," she said.
+
+"I'm positive it won't," Truggles lied.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Social Standards Protective League was a small organization,
+composed largely of elderly women and a few men. Masefield Truggles had
+never meant for it to serve as anything more than a nucleus. Before he
+lit the flame, he spent a week building up his tinder pile.
+
+He announced, by word of mouth and through the columns of _The
+Clarion_, Marston Hill's small daily newspaper, that the Social
+Standards Protective League would hold a series of special meetings
+every afternoon for a week. The public would be welcome, he said, and
+there would be startling revelations of vice conditions in Marston
+Hill. Truggles rented the city's ancient, rickety auditorium for the
+meetings, and invited Mayor Ben Sands to speak at the first one.
+
+Lois Forsythe sat on the platform that first afternoon, but Truggles
+did not call on her. Sands made a routine talk, the kind any mayor
+of a small town might, on the conscientiousness of Marston Hill's
+three-man police force, the lack of crime in the town, the recreational
+facilities and educational methods being utilized to see that the young
+people did not stray on the wrong path. He received polite applause.
+
+When he had finished, Truggles arose and said:
+
+"Sometimes after talks of this kind, we throw our meetings open to
+questions from the audience. Instead, I would like to ask Mayor Sands
+one question. Does he recall that I complained to him not long ago
+about the activities of Blan Forsythe, and what the tenor of the
+conversation was?"
+
+"Why, yes," answered Sands, surprised. "You accused Blan of practicing
+polygamy. I told you that you'd been listening to too much gossip, and
+that Blan was doing biological research. I don't believe these good
+people would be interested in the nature of the research."
+
+"I do," answered Truggles, "and it will be the subject of tomorrow's
+meeting. I have investigated these experiments, and they are well worth
+hearing about. Thank you, Mr. Mayor."
+
+Truggles was a past master at building tension. The next day, he
+apologized for changing the program and gave a lecture on polygamy in
+human society. Backgrounded with considerable research at the Marston
+Hill public library, he described polygamy in Biblical times, in savage
+communities, in China and the Mohammedan world and among the early
+Mormons in the United States. He told of the social objections to
+polygamy and the progress made in eliminating it as a way of life.
+
+The following day, he described Forsythe's research with tetraploid
+plants--not too accurately, but that didn't matter with this
+audience--and skillfully translated chromosome doubling into human
+terms until his final revelation that Forsythe was a tetraploid man
+left them gasping. And, the fourth day, he told, with some embroidery,
+of Forsythe's polygamy.
+
+During each of these talks, Lois sat on the stage. Polygamy was a
+known, routine affair to her. Truggles was able to word his talks so
+that, to Lois, his revelations appeared calm and unbiased; but at the
+same time they were insinuating and inflammatory to his audiences, to
+whom polygamy was something strange and monstrous.
+
+During none of the first four talks did he call on Lois. But at the end
+of the fourth, he announced:
+
+"I have described to you what Forsythe told me himself. Perhaps you
+have been wondering who this attractive young lady is. She is none
+other than one of Forsythe's multiple wives, and tomorrow evening you
+shall hear a description of a polygamous household from her own lips."
+
+The first meeting had contained only the members of the small group
+which Truggles himself had organized, and two or three visitors
+attracted by the mayor's presence. But such words as "polygamy,"
+"harem," "strange research," "monstrous plants and people" got around,
+as Truggles intended they should. The audience grew by leaps and
+bounds. By the night of the final meeting, the old auditorium was
+filled to overflowing; they were standing in the aisles.
+
+Calmly, and yet not without some hint of the tragedy she herself
+felt, Lois described the day-to-day life of Forsythe's household; the
+friendship among the wives, their jealousies, their hopes and regrets.
+She did not realize that her words, like those of Truggles the day
+before, were building anger in the breasts of her hearers at something
+they had not experienced and could not understand.
+
+When she had finished, Truggles took the stage, and now the calmness,
+the factualness, was gone from him.
+
+"You have heard what this poor woman told you!" he cried. "You have
+heard how this man, this Forsythe, took advantage of her. Remember, her
+sisters are as unfortunate as she. Shall this lecher, this monster, go
+unpunished?"
+
+Before he could say more, Lois was on her feet.
+
+"Mr. Truggles, wait!" she exclaimed. "You told me you were going to try
+to get Blan to give up polygamy. I wouldn't have come here and helped
+you if I'd known you were going to try to arouse his friends against
+him!"
+
+"My poor child, it's too late," answered Truggles loudly. "I tried
+to persuade the man to give up his life of sin, and his heart was as
+stone. He must feel the lash of just retribution!"
+
+She stared at him, her eyes widening in slow realization. Then she
+burst into tears and ran from the stage. She fled down the aisle and
+out of the auditorium.
+
+"Do you see?" cried Truggles to his audience. His blue eyes flashed and
+his voice rang like a trumpet. "Even now she cannot break his devilish
+hold on her! Think! Are your daughters safe from him? Are your wives,
+even? Do you know that the wife of his best friend, Dr. Allison, admits
+that her child is the child of this man, this monster?"
+
+For five minutes, he shouted, he wept, he shook his fists, he raised
+his hands to heaven. Then, striding to the edge of the platform, he
+demanded in a low, compelling tone:
+
+"Who will take up the sword of righteousness and go with me to drive
+this creature from our midst?"
+
+For a moment, there was dead silence. Then a young man stood up in the
+middle of the auditorium.
+
+"By God, I will!" he shouted.
+
+"I reckon I will, too," called an older man near the rear. One by
+one, then all at once, they were on their feet, shouting and milling
+around. Truggles leaped from the stage and forced his way through the
+crowd to the door. They surged out of the auditorium at his heels and
+poured down the middle of the street toward the home of Blan Forsythe,
+yelling.
+
+With Truggles in the lead, the excited citizens swept onto the broad
+lawn in front of the big mansion, spread out over the grass, trampling
+the flower beds. There were fifty to a hundred of them.
+
+Porch lights went on all over the neighborhood. From the same direction
+from which the crowd had come, two figures ran across the yards in the
+dimness and, circling the edge of the crowd, came up to Truggles. He
+recognized Phyllis Allison and her son, Donald.
+
+"What is this, Mr. Truggles?" she cried, peering into his face. "What
+are all these people doing?"
+
+"I'm sorry you came here, Mrs. Allison," he answered, shouting to make
+himself heard over the uproar of the people around them. "These people
+are determined to right the wrong this man has done you."
+
+Outside lights from the mansion suddenly lit the entire lawn, and the
+mob that stirred restlessly on it. A momentary silence fell. Their
+numbers did not seem as great, their ranks not so solid, in the glare
+of the lights.
+
+"Come on, Forsythe!" shouted Truggles in a great voice. "Come out and
+face your judges!"
+
+The front door opened and Allison stepped out on the railinged porch.
+Truggles, at the front of the crowd, was about seventy feet from him.
+
+"What is this?" demanded Allison. "What are you people doing here?"
+
+"We've come for Forsythe," answered Truggles, and a murmur from the
+crowd backed him up. "Where is he?"
+
+"I'm surprised at you, all of you," said Allison. "You people are my
+friends and Blan's friends. Why, you--"
+
+He broke off as he caught sight of Phyllis and Donald.
+
+"Phyllis!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Take that boy home!"
+
+Obediently, she turned away, but Truggles caught her by the arm.
+
+"Get Forsythe out here!" he cried. "Let him face the woman he wronged!"
+
+At that moment, Forsythe himself came out of the door and stood at
+Allison's side. A wordless cry ran through the mob at the sight of the
+tetraploid man's face, topped with its cap of mole-gray fuzz.
+
+"I see you're still taking an active interest in my affairs, Truggles,"
+said Forsythe. He did not raise his voice, but it carried across the
+lawn.
+
+"Evil is every man's business," answered Truggles boldly. "These
+good people are enraged that you should flout the laws of society so
+brazenly."
+
+"Naturally," replied Forsythe, smiling. "And you enraged them. As long
+as everyone here minded his own business, no harm was done."
+
+"I expected you to take that attitude, Forsythe," shouted Truggles.
+"Have you no sense of responsibility, no respect for the customs that
+others have established for their protection?"
+
+"Certainly," said Forsythe, but he added, logically: "Would you be
+bound by the customs of a colony of mice, if they interfered with your
+pursuit of greater ends?"
+
+"Listen at him!" cried Truggles, turning to the crowd and spreading his
+hands. "You see what high regard he has for you, who have befriended
+him? He scorns you! He calls you mice!"
+
+He turned back to the mansion with clenched fists and took a step
+forward.
+
+"You monster!" he shouted. "Even mice can be dangerous!"
+
+The crowd behind him surged forward with a roar. Forsythe's voice rang
+out above it.
+
+"Wait!" he cried. "I appeal to your reason! I have no higher power. I
+can't strike you dead, or vanish from your sight. All I can do is ask
+you one question. Will you destroy me because I violate your customs,
+when I represent the hope of your race to become something greater?"
+
+His words fell on deaf ears. The crowd inched forward, ugly, dangerous.
+
+A figure brushed past Truggles. It was Phyllis Allison, and she tugged
+the boy Donald with her.
+
+"Stop her!" cried Truggles. "Don't let her get in his clutches!"
+
+Alone, for these words seemed only to confuse those near him, Truggles
+ran after Phyllis and the boy. But they stopped, halfway to the porch,
+and Truggles reached them. He placed his hand on Phyllis' arm and
+pulled at her compellingly.
+
+He was close enough to her to hear her words to the boy.
+
+"Donnie!" she urged anxiously. "You remember the game we played? Use
+the Power!"
+
+The boy looked apprehensively toward the porch.
+
+"Daddy said don't," he demurred.
+
+Dr. Alex Allison stood, his hands gripping the rail of the porch,
+looking out over the ugly crowd. There was no mistaking the moment. At
+any instant, the mob would surge over the porch.
+
+"Blan, I can't let them kill you because I've wronged you," said
+Allison in a clear, agonized voice. "Donald is your son!"
+
+There was a cry from Phyllis and she clutched the boy convulsively,
+twisting free of Truggles' grip. The people on the lawn fell silent,
+their upturned faces white in the light, waiting, sensing the import of
+the revelation.
+
+"I told you there was the possibility that the tetraploid could
+reproduce with the diploid," said Allison. "It's true Donald's cells
+don't contain 96 chromosomes--but neither do they contain just 48. They
+contain 72 chromosomes--an even number, a viable number! Not always,
+but sometimes the hybrid is superior to both diploid and tetraploid.
+Blan, with all your unexplored qualities, you're just the vehicle of
+the new race. Donald is the superman!"
+
+"But it's impossible!" exclaimed Forsythe. "I haven't even seen Phyllis
+since we were divorced."
+
+"Did you think the tetraploid, the new species, would have the same
+gestation period as man?" asked Allison. "The gestation period is
+thirty months. Phyllis was pregnant when you were divorced, Blan,
+but I loved her and I didn't let either of you know. I wanted her for
+myself."
+
+"So that's why you recommended polygamy so enthusiastically," remarked
+Forsythe.
+
+"That's why I recommended a two-year limit on keeping any of your
+wives, and why I made sure they were sent far away," admitted Allison.
+"I couldn't let you know. You have half a dozen sons and daughters now,
+Blan, and Lois is going to be a mother."
+
+There was happiness in Forsythe's dark face as he looked out over the
+crowd. To see happiness on _his_ face cut Truggles' soul like a knife.
+
+And all this small talk was losing his crowd. The seething emotions he
+had nurtured so carefully were simmering down in harmless curiosity
+aroused by the small private drama that had unfolded before the people
+on the lawn.
+
+"It's a conspiracy to mislead you!" he howled. "If no one else will
+throw the first stone, I will!"
+
+It was a symbolic gesture, his scooping up a harmless clod and hurling
+it to explode against the porch as he marched on the man he hated. His
+back to the crowd, Truggles feared with a terrible fear that it was
+already too late. He was chancing making himself ridiculous.
+
+But his heart leaped as the voices of a few hotheads arose in his
+support behind him, and he felt, rather than heard, some of the people
+surge forward. How many? He didn't know, but a few would be enough to
+start the rest again.
+
+Allison was leaning over the porch rail, his face white, looking not
+at Truggles but past him.
+
+"Donald!" he cried in a low voice that carried intensely across the
+grass. "Do as your mother says! I won't punish you. Use the Power!"
+
+And Truggles faltered and stopped in his tracks. He looked around him,
+confused, as some unseen force seemed to take his will and disperse it.
+
+The harsh glare of the lights faded in the glow of a greater, softer,
+more glorious illumination. A soundless music filled the air, so deep
+and majestic that it was felt, rather than heard. Almost, Truggles
+expected the sky to open and a heavenly choir to appear.
+
+Around him, he saw the familiar things of Marston Hill with new eyes.
+Life coursed through the green grass, bade a winter's farewell from the
+turning leaves of the trees. He felt for the first time that he was not
+a creature alone, but a part of all life around him.
+
+The faces of the people around him showed that they, too, felt what he
+felt. They saw beauty in the air, in the world. As he looked on them,
+Truggles realized, for the first time in the heart of him, that their
+small faults were not vices, not innate evil--not even the hatred and
+fear that had been in their hearts when they stormed here with him was
+evil. There were only the well-meaning flaws that sprang from earnest
+eagerness.
+
+Even the face of Forsythe, when Truggles looked at it, mirrored the
+ecstatic understanding of something that he had experienced only
+partially before. And Truggles knew that the type of understanding
+that had opened up to Forsythe was something he himself never could
+comprehend.
+
+And in the midst of this experience that transcended understanding, the
+boy Donald took his mother's hand and the two of them floated _up_,
+into the air, above Truggles' head, and forward to alight gently at
+Forsythe's side on the porch.
+
+But, amazing as that was, Truggles recognized it was only a small
+outward manifestation of the Power. The Power of the superman was what
+he and all these others felt, a weapon greater than fire or sword,
+greater than will or reason. Under its influence, no man could raise
+his hand against his brother, for he _understood_.
+
+The vision, if vision it was, faded, and only a crowd of murmuring
+people stood around sheepishly in the cold glare of the lights on
+Forsythe's lawn.
+
+"Truggles, you've won your point," said Forsythe, and there was no
+animosity in his voice. "I don't need to experiment any more. I'm
+leaving Marston Hill with my wife and son...."
+
+He caught himself and looked at Allison.
+
+"I can't hold her," said Allison in a low tone. "I won't try to. I'll
+give her a divorce."
+
+"... With my only wife and son," resumed Forsythe happily. "I'm going
+to find my other children. And I don't think any of you will ever hear
+of us again."
+
+He turned and entered the house with Phyllis and Donald. Allison
+followed them, his head bowed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Truggles sat in his small, sparsely-furnished room and fought his soul.
+
+For a long time, the memory of what the boy Donald had somehow shown
+the people of Marston Hill lingered with him: the conception of a world
+that was all good, all beauty, everything right. Truggles tried to
+cling to it, but gradually it slipped from him. There was something in
+him that prevented him holding it. At last, he still could remember it,
+but the memory was a logical thing, a thing that was incredible to him
+because it had no roots in emotion.
+
+As that happened, the old torment returned ten-fold, as though it had
+battered outside of the vision's barrier fruitlessly until it could
+burst on him with renewed vigor.
+
+Writhing inwardly, twisting his hands, Truggles stared unseeing at
+the room about him while he relived the agony of the past. He held
+Margaret--how long, how many years had it been, since he had let
+himself even think that name?--he held her in his arms and felt her
+cool lips against his. He talked with her, he felt the closeness of
+something infinitely good and right for him.
+
+He lived again the angry, shouting interview when she stood with the
+arm of the Brazilian, De Castro, around her shoulders and said: "I'm
+sorry, Masefield. I like you and for a while I thought it was something
+more. But I've found love with a man who's so far superior to either
+of us that I still can't believe he's mine."
+
+"That foreigner?" he shouted again, and tears sprang to his eyes as
+they had then. "You turn me down for him? You think I'm inferior to
+him?"
+
+And again he lived through the shame of falling on his knees before
+her, turning up his weeping face to her, imploring her to no avail. He
+saw on her face and the Brazilian's face the pity, the scorn, before
+they walked out together, leaving him to sob alone.
+
+Truggles beat his hands helplessly on the arm of the chair. Of all the
+hapless people he had tracked down and tossed to the ravening, outraged
+contempt of the public, he had wanted most of all to conquer Forsythe.
+He had wanted to see Forsythe cower and whimper, beg before they hung
+him.
+
+And Forsythe had won. What mattered it that he was leaving Marston
+Hill? Truggles had thought that would be a victory, to make Forsythe
+run away. But Forsythe was not going alone and hunted. He was taking
+with him the woman he loved, who reminded Truggles of the clean beauty
+of Margaret; the one woman who understood him as none of those others
+could.
+
+And the boy. Was it a defeat to a man to know that his son was greater
+than he? Truggles knew it was not. A vision rose before him of a race
+of men and women who walked among the clouds, who saw only beauty in
+the world and looked down with sympathetic pity upon the poor creeping
+humans below. The new race, greater than Truggles could even imagine
+himself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Truggles stirred, and awoke to his surroundings, bitterly. He would
+have to leave Marston Hill himself. The people would not thank him for
+arousing them against Forsythe. From them, he could expect only anger,
+contempt, perhaps even....
+
+There was a sudden rattling behind him. Truggles jumped to his feet,
+alarmed, fearful, his heart beating fast. His apprehensive eyes
+searched the room.
+
+A paper moved in a corner. It was only a mouse.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Family Tree, by Charles L. Fontenay
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59643 ***