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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..0daf10c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64631 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64631) diff --git a/old/64631-0.txt b/old/64631-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d5cb3e1..0000000 --- a/old/64631-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,936 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Let the Ants Try, by James MacCreigh - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Let the Ants Try - -Author: James MacCreigh - -Release Date: February 25, 2021 [eBook #64631] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LET THE ANTS TRY *** - - - - - Let The Ants Try - - By JAMES MacCREIGH - - Dr. Salva Gordy looked at the radioactive smear that - had been Detroit. Then he looked down at the boiling - anthill. Why not, he thought excitedly, why not?... - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Winter 1949. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Gordy survived the Three-Hour War, even though Detroit didn't; he was -on his way to Washington, with his blueprints and models in his bag, -when the bombs struck. - -He had left his wife behind in the city, and not even a trace of her -body was ever found. The children, of course, weren't as lucky as that. -Their summer camp was less than twenty miles away, and unfortunately -in the direction of the prevailing wind. But they were not in any pain -until the last few days of the month they had left to live. Gordy -managed to fight his way back through the snarled, frantic airline -controls to them. Even though he knew they would certainly die of -radiation sickness, and they suspected it, there was still a whole -blessed week of companionship before the pain got too bad. - -That was about all the companionship Gordy had for the whole year of -1960. - -He came back to Detroit, as soon as the radioactivity had died down; -he had nowhere else to go. He found a house on the outskirts of the -city, and tried to locate someone to buy it from. But the Emergency -Administration laughed at him. "Move in, if you're crazy enough to -stay." - -When Gordy thought about it all, it occurred to him that he was in -a sort of state of shock. His fine, trained mind almost stopped -functioning. He ate and slept, and when it grew cold he shivered and -built fires, and that was all. The War Department wrote him two or -three times, and finally a government man came around to ask what had -happened to the things that Gordy had promised to bring to Washington. -But he looked queerly at the pink, hairless mice that fed unmolested in -the filthy kitchen, and he stood a careful distance away from Gordy's -hairy face and torn clothes. - -He said, "The Secretary sent me here, Mr. Gordy. He takes a personal -interest in your discovery." - -Gordy shook his head. "The Secretary is dead," he said. "They were all -killed when Washington went." - -"There's a new Secretary," the man explained. He puffed on his -cigarette and tossed it into the patch Gordy was scrabbling into a -truck garden. "Arnold Cavanagh. He knows a great deal about you, and he -told me, 'If Salva Gordy has a weapon, we must have it. Our strength -has been shattered. Tell Gordy we need his help'." - -Gordy crossed his hands like a lean Buddha. - -"I haven't got a weapon," he said. - -"You have something that can be used as a weapon. You wrote to -Washington, before the War came, and said--" - -"The War is over," said Salva Gordy. The government man sighed, and -tried again, but in the end he went away. He never came back. The -thing, Gordy thought, was undoubtedly written off as a crackpot idea -after the man made his report; it was exactly that kind of a discovery, -anyhow. - - * * * * * - -It was May when John de Terry appeared. Gordy was spading his garden. -"Give me something to eat," said the voice behind Gordy's back. - -Salva Gordy turned around and saw the small, dirty man who spoke. He -rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. "You'll have to work for -it," he said. - -"All right." The newcomer set down his pack. "My name is John de Terry. -I used to live here in Detroit." - -Salva Gordy said, "So did I." - -Gordy fed the man, and accepted a cigarette from him after they had -eaten. The first puffs made him light-headed--it had been that long -since he'd smoked--and through the smoke he looked at John de Terry -amiably enough. Company would be all right, he thought. The pink mice -had been company, of a sort--but it turned out that the mutation that -made them hairless had also given them an appetite for meat. And after -the morning when he had awakened to find tiny tooth-marks in his leg, -he'd had to destroy them. And there had been no other animal since, -nothing but the ants. - -"Are you going to stay?" Gordy asked. - -De Terry said, "If I can. What's your name?" When Gordy told him, some -of the animal look went out of his eyes, and wonder took its place. -"_Doctor_ Salva Gordy?" he asked. "Mathematics and physics in Pasadena?" - -"Yes, I used to teach at Pasadena." - -"And I studied there." John de Terry rubbed absently at his ruined -clothes. "That was a long time ago. You didn't know me; I majored in -biology. But I knew you." - -Gordy stood up and carefully put out the stub of his cigarette. "It was -too long ago," he said. "I hardly remember. Shall we work in the garden -now?" - -Together they sweated in the spring sunlight that afternoon, and Gordy -discovered that what had been hard work for one man went quickly enough -for two. They worked clear to the edge of the plot before the sun -reached the horizon. John de Terry stopped and leaned on his spade, -panting. - -He gestured to the rank growth beyond Gordy's patch. "We can make a -bigger garden," he said. "Clear out that truck, and plant more food. We -might even--" He stopped. Gordy was shaking his head. - -"You can't clear it out," said Gordy. "It's rank stuff, a sort of -crabgrass with a particularly tough root. I can't even cut it. It's all -around here, and it's spreading." - -De Terry grimaced. "Mutation?" - -"I think so. And look." Gordy beckoned to the other man and led him to -the very edge of the cleared area. He bent down, picked up something -red and wriggling between his thumb and forefinger. - -De Terry took it from his hand. "Another mutation?" He brought -the thing close to his eyes. "It's almost like an ant," he said. -"Except--well, the thorax is all wrong. And it's soft-bodied." He fell -silent, examining the thing. - -He said something under his breath, and threw the insect from him. -"You wouldn't have a microscope, I suppose? No--and yet, that thing is -hard to believe. It's an ant, but it doesn't seem to have a tracheal -breathing system at all. It's something different." - -"Everything's different," Gordy said. He pointed to a couple of -abandoned rows. "I had carrots there. At least, I thought they were -carrots; when I tried to eat them they made me sick." He sighed -heavily. "Humanity has had its chance, John," he said. "The atomic bomb -wasn't enough; we had to turn everything into a weapon. Even I, I made -a weapon out of something that had nothing to do with war. And our -weapons have blown up in our faces." - -De Terry grinned. "Maybe the ants will do better. It's their turn now." - -"I wish it were." Gordy stirred earth over the boiling entrance to an -anthole and watched the insects in their consternation. "They're too -small, I'm afraid." - -"Why, no. These ants are different, Dr. Gordy. Insects have always been -small because their breathing system is so poor. But these are mutated. -I think--I think they actually have lungs. They could grow, Dr. Gordy. -And if ants were the size of men ... they'd rule the world." - -"Lunged ants!" Gordy's eyes gleamed. "Perhaps they will rule the world, -John. Perhaps when the human race finally blows itself up once and for -all...." - -De Terry shook his head, and looked down again at his tattered, filthy -clothes. "The next blow-up is the last blow-up," he said. "The ants -come too late, by millions and millions of years." - -He picked up his spade. "I'm hungry again, Dr. Gordy," he said. - -They went back to the house and, without conversation, they ate. Gordy -was preoccupied, and de Terry was too new in the household to force him -to talk. - -It was sundown when they had finished, and Gordy moved slowly to light -a lamp. Then he stopped. - -"It's your first night, John," he said. "Come down cellar. We'll start -the generator and have real electric lights in your honor." - -De Terry followed the older man down a flight of stairs, groping in -the dark. By candlelight they worked over a gasoline generator; it was -stiff from disuse, but once it started it ran cleanly. "I salvaged it -from my own," Gordy explained. "The generator--and that." - -He swept an arm toward a corner of the basement. "I told you I invented -a weapon," he added. "That's it." - -De Terry looked. It was as much like a cage as anything, he -thought--the height of a man and almost cubical. "What does it do?" he -asked. - -For the first time in months, Salva Gordy smiled. "I can't tell you in -English," he said. "And I doubt that you speak mathematics. The closest -I can come is to say that it displaces temporal co-ordinates. Is that -gibberish?" - -"It is," said de Terry. "What does it do?" - -"Well, the War Department had a name for it--a name they borrowed from -H. G. Wells. They called it a Time Machine." He met de Terry's shocked, -bewildered stare calmly. "A time machine," he repeated. "You see, John, -we can give the ants a chance after all, if you like." - - * * * * * - -Fourteen hours later they stepped into the cage, its batteries charged -again and its strange motor whining.... - -And, forty million years earlier, they stepped out onto quaking humid -soil. - -Gordy felt himself trembling, and with an effort managed to stop. "No -dinosaurs or saber-toothed tigers in sight," he reported. - -"Not for a long time yet," de Terry agreed. Then, "My Lord!" - -He looked around him with his mouth open wide. There was no wind, and -the air was warm and wet. Large trees were clustered quite thickly -around them--or what looked like trees; de Terry decided they were -rather some sort of soft-stemmed ferns or fungi. Overhead was deep -cloud. - -Gordy shivered. "Give me the ants," he ordered. - -Silently de Terry handed them over. Gordy poked a hole in the soft -earth with his finger and carefully tilted the flask, dropped one of -the ant queens he had unearthed in the back yard. From her belly hung -a slimy mass of eggs. A few yards away--it should have been farther, -he thought, but he was afraid to get too far from de Terry and the -machine--he made another hole and repeated the process. - -There were eight queens. When the eighth was buried he flung the bottle -away and came back to de Terry. - -"That's it," he said. - -De Terry exhaled. His solemn face cracked in a sudden embarrassed -smile. "I--I guess I feel like God," he said. "Good lord, Dr. Gordy! -Talk about your great moments in history--this is all of them! I've -been thinking about it, and the only event I can remember that measures -up is the Flood. Not even that. We've created a race!" - -"If they survive, we have." Gordy wiped a drop of condensed moisture -off the side of his time machine and puffed. "I wonder how they'll get -along with mankind," he said. - -They were silent for a moment, considering. From somewhere in the -fern jungle came a raucous animal cry. Both men looked up in quick -apprehension, but moments passed and the animal did not appear. - -Finally de Terry said, "Maybe we'd better go back." - -"All right." Stiffly they climbed into the closet-sized interior of the -time machine. - -Gordy stood with his hand on the control wheel, thinking about the -ants. Assuming that they survived--assuming that in 40,000,000 years -they grew larger and developed brains--what would happen? Would men -be able to live in peace with them? Would it--might it not make men -brothers, joined against an alien race? - -Might this thing prevent human war, and--his thoughts took an insane -leap--could it have prevented the war that destroyed Gordy's family! - -Beside him, de Terry stirred restlessly. Gordy jumped, and turned the -wheel, and was in the dark mathematical vortex which might have been a -fourth dimension. - - * * * * * - -They stopped the machine in the middle of a city, but the city was not -Detroit. It was not a human city at all. - -The machine was at rest in a narrow street, half blocking it. Around -them towered conical metal structures, some of them a hundred feet -high. There were vehicles moving in the street, one coming toward them -and stopping. - -"Dr. Gordy!" de Terry whispered. "Do you see them?" - -Salva Gordy swallowed. "I see them," he said. - -He stepped out of the time machine and stood waiting to greet the race -to which he had given life. - -For these were the children of ants in the three-wheeled vehicle. -Behind a transparent windshield he could see them clearly. - -De Terry was standing close behind him now, and Gordy could feel the -younger man's body shaking. "They're ugly things," Gordy said mildly. - -"Ugly! They're filthy!" - -The antlike creatures were as big as a man, but hard-looking and as -obnoxious as blackbeetles. Their eyes, Gordy saw with surprise, had -mutated more than their bodies. For, instead of faceted insect eyes, -they possessed iris, cornea and pupil,--not round, or vertical like -a cat's eyes, or horizontal like a horse's eyes, but irregular and -blotchy. But they seemed like vertebrate's eyes, and they were strange -and unnatural in the parchment blackness of an ant's bulged head. - -Gordy stepped forward, and simultaneously the ants came out of their -vehicle. For a moment they faced each other, the humans and the ants, -silently. - -"What do I do now?" Gordy asked de Terry over his shoulder. - -De Terry laughed--or gasped. Gordy wasn't sure. "Talk to them," he -said. "What else is there to do?" - -Gordy swallowed. He resolutely did not attempt to speak in English -to these creatures, knowing as surely as he knew his name that -English--and probably any other language involving sound--would be -incomprehensible to them. But he found himself smiling pacifically to -them, and that was of course as bad ... the things had no expressions -of their own, that he could see, and certainly they would have no -precedent to help interpret a human smile. - -Gordy raised his hand in the semantically sound gesture of peace, and -waited to see what the insects would do. - -They did nothing. - -Gordy bit his lip and, feeling idiotic, bowed stiffly to the ants. - - * * * * * - -The ants did nothing. De Terry said from behind, "Try talking to them, -Dr. Gordy." - -"That's silly," Gordy said. "They can't hear." But it was no sillier -than anything else. Irritably, but making the words very clear, he -said, "We ... are ... friends." - -The ants did nothing. They just stood there, with the unwinking pupiled -eyes fixed on Gordy. They didn't shift from foot to foot as a human -might, or scratch themselves, or even show the small movement of human -breathing. They just stood there. - -"Oh, for heaven's sake," said de Terry. "Here let me try." - -He stepped in front of Gordy and faced the ant-things. He pointed to -himself. "I am human," he said. "Mammalian." He pointed to the ants. -"You are insects. That--" he pointed to the time machine--"took us to -the past, where we made it possible for you to exist." He waited for -reaction, but there wasn't any. De Terry clicked his tongue and began -again. He pointed to the tapering metal structures. "This is your -city," he said. - -Gordy, listening to him, felt the hopelessness of the effort. Something -disturbed the thin hairs at the back of his skull, and he reached -absently to smooth them down. His hand encountered something hard and -inanimate--not cold, but, like spongy wood, without temperature at all. -He turned around. Behind them were half a dozen larger ants. Drones, he -thought--or did ants have drones? "John," he said softly ... and the -inefficient, fragile-looking pincer that had touched him clamped his -shoulder. There was no strength to it, he thought at once. Until he -moved, instinctively, to get away, and then a thousand sharp serrations -slipped through the cloth of his coat and into the skin. It was like -catching oneself on a cluster of tiny fishhooks. He shouted, "John! -Watch out!" - -De Terry, bending low for the purpose of pointing at the caterpillar -treads of the ant vehicle, straightened up, startled. He turned to run, -and was caught in a step. Gordy heard him yell, but Gordy had troubles -of his own and could spare no further attention for de Terry. - -When two of the ants had him, Gordy stopped struggling. He felt warm -blood roll down his arm, and the pain was like being flayed. From where -he hung between the ants, he could see the first two, still standing -before their vehicle, still motionless. - -There was a sour reek in his nostrils, and he traced it to the ants -that held him, and wondered if he smelled as bad to them. The two -smaller ants abruptly stirred and moved forward rapidly on eight thin -legs to the time machine. Gordy's captors turned and followed them, and -for the first time since the scuffle he saw de Terry. The younger man -was hanging limp from the lifted forelegs of a single ant, with two -more standing guard beside. There was pulsing blood from a wound on de -Terry's neck. Unconscious, Gordy thought mechanically, and turned his -head to watch the ants at the machine. - -It was a disappointing sight. They merely stood there, and no one -moved. Then Gordy heard de Terry grunt and swear weakly. "How are you, -John?" he called. - -De Terry grimaced. "Not very good. What happened?" - -Gordy shook his head, and sought for words to answer. But the two ants -turned in unison from the time machine and glided toward de Terry, and -Gordy's words died in his throat. Delicately one of them extended a -foreleg to touch de Terry's chest. - -Gordy saw it coming. "John!" he shrieked--and then it was all over, and -de Terry's scream was harsh in his ear and he turned his head away. -Dimly from the corner of his eye he could see the sawlike claws moving -up and down, but there was no life left in Terry to protest. - - * * * * * - -Salva Gordy sat against a wall and looked at the ants who were looking -at him. If it hadn't been for that which was done to de Terry, he -thought, there would really be nothing to complain about. - -It was true that the ants had given him none of the comforts that -humanity lavishes on even its criminals ... but they had fed him, and -allowed him to sleep--when it suited their convenience, of course--and -there were small signs that they were interested in his comfort, in -their fashion. When the pulpy mush they first offered him came up -thirty minutes later, his multi-legged hosts brought him a variety -of foods, of which he was able to swallow some fairly palatable -fruits. He was housed in a warm room. And, if it had neither chairs or -windows, Gordy thought, that was only because ants had no use for these -themselves. And he couldn't ask for them. - -That was the big drawback, he thought. That ... and the memory of John -de Terry. - -He squirmed on the hard floor until his shoulder-blades found a new -spot to prop themselves against, and stared again at the committee of -ants who had come to see him. - -They were working an angular thing that looked like a camera--at least, -it had a glittering something that might be a lens. Gordy stared into -it sullenly. The sour reek was in his nostrils again.... - -Gordy admitted to himself that things hadn't worked out just as he had -planned. Deep under the surface of his mind--just now beginning to -come out where he could see it--there had been a furtive hope. He had -hoped that the rise of the ants, with the help he had given them, would -aid and speed the rise of mankind. For hatred, Gordy knew, started in -the recoil from things that were different. A man's first enemy is his -family--for he sees them first--but he sides with them against the -families across the way. And still his neighbors are allies against the -Ghettos and Harlems of his town--and his town to him is the heart of -the nation--and his nation commands life and death in war. - -For Gordy, there had been a buried hope that a separate race would -make a whipping-boy for the passions of humanity. And that, if there -were struggle, it would not be between man and man, but between the -humans ... and the ants. - -There had been this buried hope, but the hope was denied. For the ants -simply had not allowed man to rise. - -The ants put up their camera-like machine and Gordy looked up in -expectation. Half a dozen of them left, and two stayed on. One was the -smallish creature with a bangle on the foreleg which seemed to be his -personal jailer; the other a stranger to Gordy, as far as he could tell. - -The two ants stood motionless for a period of time that Gordy found -tedious. He changed his position, and lay on the floor, and thought of -sleeping. But sleep would not come. There was no evading the knowledge -that he had wiped out his own race--annihilated them by preventing them -from birth, forty million years before his own time. He was like no -other murderer since Cain, Gordy thought, and wondered that he felt no -blood on his hands. - -There was a signal that he could not perceive, and his guardian ant -came forward to him, nudged him outward from the wall. He moved as he -was directed--out the low exit-hole (he had to navigate it on hands and -knees) and down a corridor to the bright day outside. - -The light set Gordy blinking. Half blind, he followed the bangled -ant across a square to a conical shed. More ants were waiting there, -circled around a litter of metal parts. - -Gordy recognized them at once. It was his time machine, stripped piece -by piece. - -After a moment the ant nudged him again, impatiently, and Gordy -understood what they wanted. They had taken the machine apart for -study, and they wanted it put together again. - -Pleased with the prospect of something to do with his fingers and his -brain, Gordy grinned and reached for the curious ant-made tools.... - -He ate four times, and slept once, never moving from the neighborhood -of the cone-shaped shed. And then he was finished. - -Gordy stepped back. "It's all yours," he said proudly. "It'll take you -anywhere. A present from humanity to you." - -The ants were very silent. Gordy looked at them and saw that there were -drone-ants in the group, all still as statues. - -"Hey!" he said in startlement, unthinking. And then the needle-jawed -ant claw took him from behind. - -Gordy had a moment of nausea--and then terror and hatred swept it away. - -Heedless of the needles that laced his skin, he struggled and kicked -against the creatures that held him. One arm came free, leaving gobbets -of flesh behind, and his heavy shod foot plunged into a pulpy eye. The -ant made a whistling, gasping sound and stood erect on four hairy legs. - -Gordy felt himself jerked a dozen feet into the air, then flung free in -the wild, silent agony of the ant. He crashed into the ground, cowering -away from the staggering monster. Sobbing, he pushed himself to his -feet; the machine was behind him; he turned and blundered into it a -step ahead of the other ants, and spun the wheel. - - * * * * * - -A hollow insect leg, detached from the ant that had been closest to -him, was flopping about on the floor of the machine; it had been that -close. - -Gordy stopped the machine where it had started, on the same quivering, -primordial bog, and lay crouched over the controls for a long time -before he moved. - -He had made a mistake, he and de Terry; there weren't any doubts left -at all. And there was ... there _might_ be a way to right it. - -He looked out at the Coal Measure forest. The fern trees were not the -fern trees he had seen before; the machine had been moved in space. -But the time, he knew was identically the same; trust the machine for -that. He thought: I gave the world to the ants, right here. I can take -it back. I can find the ants I buried and crush them underfoot ... or -intercept myself before I bury them.... - -He got out of the machine, suddenly panicky. Urgency squinted his eyes -as he peered around him. - -Death had been very close in the ant city; the reaction still left -Gordy limp. And was he safe here? He remembered the violent animal -scream he had heard before, and shuddered at the thought of furnishing -a casual meal to some dinosaur ... while the ant queens lived safely to -produce their horrid young. - -A gleam of metal through the fern trees made his heart leap. Burnished -metal here could mean but one thing--the machine! - -Around a clump of fern trees, their bases covered with thick club -mosses, he ran, and saw the machine ahead. He raced toward it--then -came to a sudden stop, slipping on the damp ground. - -For there were _two_ machines in sight. - -The farther machine was his own, and through the screening mosses he -could see two figures standing in it, his own and de Terry's. - -But the nearer was a larger machine, and a strange design. - -And from it came a hastening mob--not a mob of men, but of black insect -shapes racing toward him. - -Of course, thought Gordy, as he turned hopelessly to run--of course, -the ants had infinite time to work in. Time enough to build a machine -after the pattern of his own--and time to realize what they had to do -to him, to insure their own race safety. - -Gordy stumbled, and the first of the black things was upon him. - -As his panicky lungs filled with air for the last time, Gordy knew what -animal had screamed in the depths of the Coal Measure forest. - -[Illustration: _He filled his lungs for one last scream._] - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LET THE ANTS TRY *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Let the Ants Try</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: James MacCreigh</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 25, 2021 [eBook #64631]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LET THE ANTS TRY ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Let The Ants Try</h1> - -<h2>By JAMES MacCREIGH</h2> - -<p>Dr. Salva Gordy looked at the radioactive smear that<br /> -had been Detroit. Then he looked down at the boiling<br /> -anthill. Why not, he thought excitedly, why not?...</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Winter 1949.<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>Gordy survived the Three-Hour War, even though Detroit didn't; he was -on his way to Washington, with his blueprints and models in his bag, -when the bombs struck.</p> - -<p>He had left his wife behind in the city, and not even a trace of her -body was ever found. The children, of course, weren't as lucky as that. -Their summer camp was less than twenty miles away, and unfortunately -in the direction of the prevailing wind. But they were not in any pain -until the last few days of the month they had left to live. Gordy -managed to fight his way back through the snarled, frantic airline -controls to them. Even though he knew they would certainly die of -radiation sickness, and they suspected it, there was still a whole -blessed week of companionship before the pain got too bad.</p> - -<p>That was about all the companionship Gordy had for the whole year of -1960.</p> - -<p>He came back to Detroit, as soon as the radioactivity had died down; -he had nowhere else to go. He found a house on the outskirts of the -city, and tried to locate someone to buy it from. But the Emergency -Administration laughed at him. "Move in, if you're crazy enough to -stay."</p> - -<p>When Gordy thought about it all, it occurred to him that he was in -a sort of state of shock. His fine, trained mind almost stopped -functioning. He ate and slept, and when it grew cold he shivered and -built fires, and that was all. The War Department wrote him two or -three times, and finally a government man came around to ask what had -happened to the things that Gordy had promised to bring to Washington. -But he looked queerly at the pink, hairless mice that fed unmolested in -the filthy kitchen, and he stood a careful distance away from Gordy's -hairy face and torn clothes.</p> - -<p>He said, "The Secretary sent me here, Mr. Gordy. He takes a personal -interest in your discovery."</p> - -<p>Gordy shook his head. "The Secretary is dead," he said. "They were all -killed when Washington went."</p> - -<p>"There's a new Secretary," the man explained. He puffed on his -cigarette and tossed it into the patch Gordy was scrabbling into a -truck garden. "Arnold Cavanagh. He knows a great deal about you, and he -told me, 'If Salva Gordy has a weapon, we must have it. Our strength -has been shattered. Tell Gordy we need his help'."</p> - -<p>Gordy crossed his hands like a lean Buddha.</p> - -<p>"I haven't got a weapon," he said.</p> - -<p>"You have something that can be used as a weapon. You wrote to -Washington, before the War came, and said—"</p> - -<p>"The War is over," said Salva Gordy. The government man sighed, and -tried again, but in the end he went away. He never came back. The -thing, Gordy thought, was undoubtedly written off as a crackpot idea -after the man made his report; it was exactly that kind of a discovery, -anyhow.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was May when John de Terry appeared. Gordy was spading his garden. -"Give me something to eat," said the voice behind Gordy's back.</p> - -<p>Salva Gordy turned around and saw the small, dirty man who spoke. He -rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. "You'll have to work for -it," he said.</p> - -<p>"All right." The newcomer set down his pack. "My name is John de Terry. -I used to live here in Detroit."</p> - -<p>Salva Gordy said, "So did I."</p> - -<p>Gordy fed the man, and accepted a cigarette from him after they had -eaten. The first puffs made him light-headed—it had been that long -since he'd smoked—and through the smoke he looked at John de Terry -amiably enough. Company would be all right, he thought. The pink mice -had been company, of a sort—but it turned out that the mutation that -made them hairless had also given them an appetite for meat. And after -the morning when he had awakened to find tiny tooth-marks in his leg, -he'd had to destroy them. And there had been no other animal since, -nothing but the ants.</p> - -<p>"Are you going to stay?" Gordy asked.</p> - -<p>De Terry said, "If I can. What's your name?" When Gordy told him, some -of the animal look went out of his eyes, and wonder took its place. -"<i>Doctor</i> Salva Gordy?" he asked. "Mathematics and physics in Pasadena?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, I used to teach at Pasadena."</p> - -<p>"And I studied there." John de Terry rubbed absently at his ruined -clothes. "That was a long time ago. You didn't know me; I majored in -biology. But I knew you."</p> - -<p>Gordy stood up and carefully put out the stub of his cigarette. "It was -too long ago," he said. "I hardly remember. Shall we work in the garden -now?"</p> - -<p>Together they sweated in the spring sunlight that afternoon, and Gordy -discovered that what had been hard work for one man went quickly enough -for two. They worked clear to the edge of the plot before the sun -reached the horizon. John de Terry stopped and leaned on his spade, -panting.</p> - -<p>He gestured to the rank growth beyond Gordy's patch. "We can make a -bigger garden," he said. "Clear out that truck, and plant more food. We -might even—" He stopped. Gordy was shaking his head.</p> - -<p>"You can't clear it out," said Gordy. "It's rank stuff, a sort of -crabgrass with a particularly tough root. I can't even cut it. It's all -around here, and it's spreading."</p> - -<p>De Terry grimaced. "Mutation?"</p> - -<p>"I think so. And look." Gordy beckoned to the other man and led him to -the very edge of the cleared area. He bent down, picked up something -red and wriggling between his thumb and forefinger.</p> - -<p>De Terry took it from his hand. "Another mutation?" He brought -the thing close to his eyes. "It's almost like an ant," he said. -"Except—well, the thorax is all wrong. And it's soft-bodied." He fell -silent, examining the thing.</p> - -<p>He said something under his breath, and threw the insect from him. -"You wouldn't have a microscope, I suppose? No—and yet, that thing is -hard to believe. It's an ant, but it doesn't seem to have a tracheal -breathing system at all. It's something different."</p> - -<p>"Everything's different," Gordy said. He pointed to a couple of -abandoned rows. "I had carrots there. At least, I thought they were -carrots; when I tried to eat them they made me sick." He sighed -heavily. "Humanity has had its chance, John," he said. "The atomic bomb -wasn't enough; we had to turn everything into a weapon. Even I, I made -a weapon out of something that had nothing to do with war. And our -weapons have blown up in our faces."</p> - -<p>De Terry grinned. "Maybe the ants will do better. It's their turn now."</p> - -<p>"I wish it were." Gordy stirred earth over the boiling entrance to an -anthole and watched the insects in their consternation. "They're too -small, I'm afraid."</p> - -<p>"Why, no. These ants are different, Dr. Gordy. Insects have always been -small because their breathing system is so poor. But these are mutated. -I think—I think they actually have lungs. They could grow, Dr. Gordy. -And if ants were the size of men ... they'd rule the world."</p> - -<p>"Lunged ants!" Gordy's eyes gleamed. "Perhaps they will rule the world, -John. Perhaps when the human race finally blows itself up once and for -all...."</p> - -<p>De Terry shook his head, and looked down again at his tattered, filthy -clothes. "The next blow-up is the last blow-up," he said. "The ants -come too late, by millions and millions of years."</p> - -<p>He picked up his spade. "I'm hungry again, Dr. Gordy," he said.</p> - -<p>They went back to the house and, without conversation, they ate. Gordy -was preoccupied, and de Terry was too new in the household to force him -to talk.</p> - -<p>It was sundown when they had finished, and Gordy moved slowly to light -a lamp. Then he stopped.</p> - -<p>"It's your first night, John," he said. "Come down cellar. We'll start -the generator and have real electric lights in your honor."</p> - -<p>De Terry followed the older man down a flight of stairs, groping in -the dark. By candlelight they worked over a gasoline generator; it was -stiff from disuse, but once it started it ran cleanly. "I salvaged it -from my own," Gordy explained. "The generator—and that."</p> - -<p>He swept an arm toward a corner of the basement. "I told you I invented -a weapon," he added. "That's it."</p> - -<p>De Terry looked. It was as much like a cage as anything, he -thought—the height of a man and almost cubical. "What does it do?" he -asked.</p> - -<p>For the first time in months, Salva Gordy smiled. "I can't tell you in -English," he said. "And I doubt that you speak mathematics. The closest -I can come is to say that it displaces temporal co-ordinates. Is that -gibberish?"</p> - -<p>"It is," said de Terry. "What does it do?"</p> - -<p>"Well, the War Department had a name for it—a name they borrowed from -H. G. Wells. They called it a Time Machine." He met de Terry's shocked, -bewildered stare calmly. "A time machine," he repeated. "You see, John, -we can give the ants a chance after all, if you like."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Fourteen hours later they stepped into the cage, its batteries charged -again and its strange motor whining....</p> - -<p>And, forty million years earlier, they stepped out onto quaking humid -soil.</p> - -<p>Gordy felt himself trembling, and with an effort managed to stop. "No -dinosaurs or saber-toothed tigers in sight," he reported.</p> - -<p>"Not for a long time yet," de Terry agreed. Then, "My Lord!"</p> - -<p>He looked around him with his mouth open wide. There was no wind, and -the air was warm and wet. Large trees were clustered quite thickly -around them—or what looked like trees; de Terry decided they were -rather some sort of soft-stemmed ferns or fungi. Overhead was deep -cloud.</p> - -<p>Gordy shivered. "Give me the ants," he ordered.</p> - -<p>Silently de Terry handed them over. Gordy poked a hole in the soft -earth with his finger and carefully tilted the flask, dropped one of -the ant queens he had unearthed in the back yard. From her belly hung -a slimy mass of eggs. A few yards away—it should have been farther, -he thought, but he was afraid to get too far from de Terry and the -machine—he made another hole and repeated the process.</p> - -<p>There were eight queens. When the eighth was buried he flung the bottle -away and came back to de Terry.</p> - -<p>"That's it," he said.</p> - -<p>De Terry exhaled. His solemn face cracked in a sudden embarrassed -smile. "I—I guess I feel like God," he said. "Good lord, Dr. Gordy! -Talk about your great moments in history—this is all of them! I've -been thinking about it, and the only event I can remember that measures -up is the Flood. Not even that. We've created a race!"</p> - -<p>"If they survive, we have." Gordy wiped a drop of condensed moisture -off the side of his time machine and puffed. "I wonder how they'll get -along with mankind," he said.</p> - -<p>They were silent for a moment, considering. From somewhere in the -fern jungle came a raucous animal cry. Both men looked up in quick -apprehension, but moments passed and the animal did not appear.</p> - -<p>Finally de Terry said, "Maybe we'd better go back."</p> - -<p>"All right." Stiffly they climbed into the closet-sized interior of the -time machine.</p> - -<p>Gordy stood with his hand on the control wheel, thinking about the -ants. Assuming that they survived—assuming that in 40,000,000 years -they grew larger and developed brains—what would happen? Would men -be able to live in peace with them? Would it—might it not make men -brothers, joined against an alien race?</p> - -<p>Might this thing prevent human war, and—his thoughts took an insane -leap—could it have prevented the war that destroyed Gordy's family!</p> - -<p>Beside him, de Terry stirred restlessly. Gordy jumped, and turned the -wheel, and was in the dark mathematical vortex which might have been a -fourth dimension.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They stopped the machine in the middle of a city, but the city was not -Detroit. It was not a human city at all.</p> - -<p>The machine was at rest in a narrow street, half blocking it. Around -them towered conical metal structures, some of them a hundred feet -high. There were vehicles moving in the street, one coming toward them -and stopping.</p> - -<p>"Dr. Gordy!" de Terry whispered. "Do you see them?"</p> - -<p>Salva Gordy swallowed. "I see them," he said.</p> - -<p>He stepped out of the time machine and stood waiting to greet the race -to which he had given life.</p> - -<p>For these were the children of ants in the three-wheeled vehicle. -Behind a transparent windshield he could see them clearly.</p> - -<p>De Terry was standing close behind him now, and Gordy could feel the -younger man's body shaking. "They're ugly things," Gordy said mildly.</p> - -<p>"Ugly! They're filthy!"</p> - -<p>The antlike creatures were as big as a man, but hard-looking and as -obnoxious as blackbeetles. Their eyes, Gordy saw with surprise, had -mutated more than their bodies. For, instead of faceted insect eyes, -they possessed iris, cornea and pupil,—not round, or vertical like -a cat's eyes, or horizontal like a horse's eyes, but irregular and -blotchy. But they seemed like vertebrate's eyes, and they were strange -and unnatural in the parchment blackness of an ant's bulged head.</p> - -<p>Gordy stepped forward, and simultaneously the ants came out of their -vehicle. For a moment they faced each other, the humans and the ants, -silently.</p> - -<p>"What do I do now?" Gordy asked de Terry over his shoulder.</p> - -<p>De Terry laughed—or gasped. Gordy wasn't sure. "Talk to them," he -said. "What else is there to do?"</p> - -<p>Gordy swallowed. He resolutely did not attempt to speak in English -to these creatures, knowing as surely as he knew his name that -English—and probably any other language involving sound—would be -incomprehensible to them. But he found himself smiling pacifically to -them, and that was of course as bad ... the things had no expressions -of their own, that he could see, and certainly they would have no -precedent to help interpret a human smile.</p> - -<p>Gordy raised his hand in the semantically sound gesture of peace, and -waited to see what the insects would do.</p> - -<p>They did nothing.</p> - -<p>Gordy bit his lip and, feeling idiotic, bowed stiffly to the ants.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The ants did nothing. De Terry said from behind, "Try talking to them, -Dr. Gordy."</p> - -<p>"That's silly," Gordy said. "They can't hear." But it was no sillier -than anything else. Irritably, but making the words very clear, he -said, "We ... are ... friends."</p> - -<p>The ants did nothing. They just stood there, with the unwinking pupiled -eyes fixed on Gordy. They didn't shift from foot to foot as a human -might, or scratch themselves, or even show the small movement of human -breathing. They just stood there.</p> - -<p>"Oh, for heaven's sake," said de Terry. "Here let me try."</p> - -<p>He stepped in front of Gordy and faced the ant-things. He pointed to -himself. "I am human," he said. "Mammalian." He pointed to the ants. -"You are insects. That—" he pointed to the time machine—"took us to -the past, where we made it possible for you to exist." He waited for -reaction, but there wasn't any. De Terry clicked his tongue and began -again. He pointed to the tapering metal structures. "This is your -city," he said.</p> - -<p>Gordy, listening to him, felt the hopelessness of the effort. Something -disturbed the thin hairs at the back of his skull, and he reached -absently to smooth them down. His hand encountered something hard and -inanimate—not cold, but, like spongy wood, without temperature at all. -He turned around. Behind them were half a dozen larger ants. Drones, he -thought—or did ants have drones? "John," he said softly ... and the -inefficient, fragile-looking pincer that had touched him clamped his -shoulder. There was no strength to it, he thought at once. Until he -moved, instinctively, to get away, and then a thousand sharp serrations -slipped through the cloth of his coat and into the skin. It was like -catching oneself on a cluster of tiny fishhooks. He shouted, "John! -Watch out!"</p> - -<p>De Terry, bending low for the purpose of pointing at the caterpillar -treads of the ant vehicle, straightened up, startled. He turned to run, -and was caught in a step. Gordy heard him yell, but Gordy had troubles -of his own and could spare no further attention for de Terry.</p> - -<p>When two of the ants had him, Gordy stopped struggling. He felt warm -blood roll down his arm, and the pain was like being flayed. From where -he hung between the ants, he could see the first two, still standing -before their vehicle, still motionless.</p> - -<p>There was a sour reek in his nostrils, and he traced it to the ants -that held him, and wondered if he smelled as bad to them. The two -smaller ants abruptly stirred and moved forward rapidly on eight thin -legs to the time machine. Gordy's captors turned and followed them, and -for the first time since the scuffle he saw de Terry. The younger man -was hanging limp from the lifted forelegs of a single ant, with two -more standing guard beside. There was pulsing blood from a wound on de -Terry's neck. Unconscious, Gordy thought mechanically, and turned his -head to watch the ants at the machine.</p> - -<p>It was a disappointing sight. They merely stood there, and no one -moved. Then Gordy heard de Terry grunt and swear weakly. "How are you, -John?" he called.</p> - -<p>De Terry grimaced. "Not very good. What happened?"</p> - -<p>Gordy shook his head, and sought for words to answer. But the two ants -turned in unison from the time machine and glided toward de Terry, and -Gordy's words died in his throat. Delicately one of them extended a -foreleg to touch de Terry's chest.</p> - -<p>Gordy saw it coming. "John!" he shrieked—and then it was all over, and -de Terry's scream was harsh in his ear and he turned his head away. -Dimly from the corner of his eye he could see the sawlike claws moving -up and down, but there was no life left in Terry to protest.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Salva Gordy sat against a wall and looked at the ants who were looking -at him. If it hadn't been for that which was done to de Terry, he -thought, there would really be nothing to complain about.</p> - -<p>It was true that the ants had given him none of the comforts that -humanity lavishes on even its criminals ... but they had fed him, and -allowed him to sleep—when it suited their convenience, of course—and -there were small signs that they were interested in his comfort, in -their fashion. When the pulpy mush they first offered him came up -thirty minutes later, his multi-legged hosts brought him a variety -of foods, of which he was able to swallow some fairly palatable -fruits. He was housed in a warm room. And, if it had neither chairs or -windows, Gordy thought, that was only because ants had no use for these -themselves. And he couldn't ask for them.</p> - -<p>That was the big drawback, he thought. That ... and the memory of John -de Terry.</p> - -<p>He squirmed on the hard floor until his shoulder-blades found a new -spot to prop themselves against, and stared again at the committee of -ants who had come to see him.</p> - -<p>They were working an angular thing that looked like a camera—at least, -it had a glittering something that might be a lens. Gordy stared into -it sullenly. The sour reek was in his nostrils again....</p> - -<p>Gordy admitted to himself that things hadn't worked out just as he had -planned. Deep under the surface of his mind—just now beginning to -come out where he could see it—there had been a furtive hope. He had -hoped that the rise of the ants, with the help he had given them, would -aid and speed the rise of mankind. For hatred, Gordy knew, started in -the recoil from things that were different. A man's first enemy is his -family—for he sees them first—but he sides with them against the -families across the way. And still his neighbors are allies against the -Ghettos and Harlems of his town—and his town to him is the heart of -the nation—and his nation commands life and death in war.</p> - -<p>For Gordy, there had been a buried hope that a separate race would -make a whipping-boy for the passions of humanity. And that, if there -were struggle, it would not be between man and man, but between the -humans ... and the ants.</p> - -<p>There had been this buried hope, but the hope was denied. For the ants -simply had not allowed man to rise.</p> - -<p>The ants put up their camera-like machine and Gordy looked up in -expectation. Half a dozen of them left, and two stayed on. One was the -smallish creature with a bangle on the foreleg which seemed to be his -personal jailer; the other a stranger to Gordy, as far as he could tell.</p> - -<p>The two ants stood motionless for a period of time that Gordy found -tedious. He changed his position, and lay on the floor, and thought of -sleeping. But sleep would not come. There was no evading the knowledge -that he had wiped out his own race—annihilated them by preventing them -from birth, forty million years before his own time. He was like no -other murderer since Cain, Gordy thought, and wondered that he felt no -blood on his hands.</p> - -<p>There was a signal that he could not perceive, and his guardian ant -came forward to him, nudged him outward from the wall. He moved as he -was directed—out the low exit-hole (he had to navigate it on hands and -knees) and down a corridor to the bright day outside.</p> - -<p>The light set Gordy blinking. Half blind, he followed the bangled -ant across a square to a conical shed. More ants were waiting there, -circled around a litter of metal parts.</p> - -<p>Gordy recognized them at once. It was his time machine, stripped piece -by piece.</p> - -<p>After a moment the ant nudged him again, impatiently, and Gordy -understood what they wanted. They had taken the machine apart for -study, and they wanted it put together again.</p> - -<p>Pleased with the prospect of something to do with his fingers and his -brain, Gordy grinned and reached for the curious ant-made tools....</p> - -<p>He ate four times, and slept once, never moving from the neighborhood -of the cone-shaped shed. And then he was finished.</p> - -<p>Gordy stepped back. "It's all yours," he said proudly. "It'll take you -anywhere. A present from humanity to you."</p> - -<p>The ants were very silent. Gordy looked at them and saw that there were -drone-ants in the group, all still as statues.</p> - -<p>"Hey!" he said in startlement, unthinking. And then the needle-jawed -ant claw took him from behind.</p> - -<p>Gordy had a moment of nausea—and then terror and hatred swept it away.</p> - -<p>Heedless of the needles that laced his skin, he struggled and kicked -against the creatures that held him. One arm came free, leaving gobbets -of flesh behind, and his heavy shod foot plunged into a pulpy eye. The -ant made a whistling, gasping sound and stood erect on four hairy legs.</p> - -<p>Gordy felt himself jerked a dozen feet into the air, then flung free in -the wild, silent agony of the ant. He crashed into the ground, cowering -away from the staggering monster. Sobbing, he pushed himself to his -feet; the machine was behind him; he turned and blundered into it a -step ahead of the other ants, and spun the wheel.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A hollow insect leg, detached from the ant that had been closest to -him, was flopping about on the floor of the machine; it had been that -close.</p> - -<p>Gordy stopped the machine where it had started, on the same quivering, -primordial bog, and lay crouched over the controls for a long time -before he moved.</p> - -<p>He had made a mistake, he and de Terry; there weren't any doubts left -at all. And there was ... there <i>might</i> be a way to right it.</p> - -<p>He looked out at the Coal Measure forest. The fern trees were not the -fern trees he had seen before; the machine had been moved in space. -But the time, he knew was identically the same; trust the machine for -that. He thought: I gave the world to the ants, right here. I can take -it back. I can find the ants I buried and crush them underfoot ... or -intercept myself before I bury them....</p> - -<p>He got out of the machine, suddenly panicky. Urgency squinted his eyes -as he peered around him.</p> - -<p>Death had been very close in the ant city; the reaction still left -Gordy limp. And was he safe here? He remembered the violent animal -scream he had heard before, and shuddered at the thought of furnishing -a casual meal to some dinosaur ... while the ant queens lived safely to -produce their horrid young.</p> - -<p>A gleam of metal through the fern trees made his heart leap. Burnished -metal here could mean but one thing—the machine!</p> - -<p>Around a clump of fern trees, their bases covered with thick club -mosses, he ran, and saw the machine ahead. He raced toward it—then -came to a sudden stop, slipping on the damp ground.</p> - -<p>For there were <i>two</i> machines in sight.</p> - -<p>The farther machine was his own, and through the screening mosses he -could see two figures standing in it, his own and de Terry's.</p> - -<p>But the nearer was a larger machine, and a strange design.</p> - -<p>And from it came a hastening mob—not a mob of men, but of black insect -shapes racing toward him.</p> - -<p>Of course, thought Gordy, as he turned hopelessly to run—of course, -the ants had infinite time to work in. Time enough to build a machine -after the pattern of his own—and time to realize what they had to do -to him, to insure their own race safety.</p> - -<p>Gordy stumbled, and the first of the black things was upon him.</p> - -<p>As his panicky lungs filled with air for the last time, Gordy knew what -animal had screamed in the depths of the Coal Measure forest.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>He filled his lungs for one last scream.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LET THE ANTS TRY ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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