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Gloge nodded. 'I injected you twice with a serum designed to accelerate cellular evolution, and I've,
come here to find out how you are.'
His gray eyes were steady; his bald head gleamed in the reflection of the light he had turned on. His face
was serious. 'Why not tell me exactly how you feel?' he asked earnestly.
This time Vince's cursing subsided after about a minute. He lay, then, staring at his captor, and something
about the pale, tense face of the scientist must have convinced him. 'I feel awful,' he said uneasily.
'Exactly how?' Gloge persisted.
Slowly, by dint of determined questioning, he drew from his reluctant victim the fact that he felt weak,
exhausted, and numb.
It was the fateful combination that had so often shown in, the animals; and Gloge knew that it was
decisive.
Without another word, he bent down and started to force the gag into Vince's mouth. Vince twisted,
wriggled, turned his head, and several times tried to bite. But inexorably Gloge pushed the gag all the way
into the other's mouth and knotted it firmly behind his head.
He now went outside and drove the van into the driveway opposite the back door of Vince's apartment.
Wrapping the young man's body in a blanket, he carried him boldly outside and into the van.
A few minutes later be was heading for the home of one of his subordinates. The man was on loan to an
eastern laboratory, and his house and yard were unoccupied.
If he had paused, if he had stopped moving, if he had even taken his foot off the accelerator, Gloge
might have faltered in his grisly plan. But his only slowdown was when he finally brought the car to a stop
at his destination. And that, in its real meaning, was a continuation of the plan.
Its final moments.
Laboriously, he dragged the gagged, handcuffed, and bound Vince across the sidewalk, through a gate,
and over to the deep end of the swimming pool. And still without pausing, he shoved the tense body over
the edge and into the water.
He straightened from his terrible act, stood there gasping for breath, exhausted, watching the trail of
bubbles that roiled the dark surface. Abruptly terrified that he might be seen, he turned and staggered
away.
As he half-fell, half-crawled into his car, the first opposing thought came, as much a feeling of horror as
an idea: 'My God, what have I done?'
But there was no opposing motion in that reaction. He did not go back. Instead, he sat there, bracing to
the realization that a few feet away a man was still in process of drowning.
When there was no longer any doubt, when the subject of his experiment was by all laws of life dead,
Gloge sighed and stirred. There was no turning back. One gone, one to go.
Next the girl!
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From a phone booth- a few blocks away, Gloge dialed Barbara Ellington's boardinghouse. The voice of
an elderly woman answered and told him Barbara had gone out.
The voice added, 'She certainly is a popular girl today.'
Gloge said uneasily, How do you mean?'
'Several men came by a little while ago and asked for her, but of course I had to tell them also that she
wasn't here.'
A sharp fear struck through Gloge. 'Did they give their names?' he asked.
'A Mr. Hammond,' was the reply'.
Hammond!' The chill of that froze Gloge. 'Thank you,' he gulped, and hung up.
He returned shakily to his car, torn between two impulses.. He had intended to return after dark to the
pool, fish Vince's body out of it, take off all the bindings, and dispose of it. He had a strong feeling now
that he should do that at once. On the other hand, he had a desperate conviction that he must return to
his office and remove the rest of the serum from the safe there.
That last suddenly seemed the more important thing to do, and the safest at this hour. The sun had gone
down below the western hills, but the sky was still bright blue. The dying day had too much light in it for
the gruesome task. of getting rid of a dead body.
IX
At ten minutes past seven, Dr Gloge unlocked the door that led directly from the corridor to his office in
the biology section of Research Alpha. He went in, closed the door behind him, walked quickly around
the big, bare desk in the center of the room, and stooped down to unlock the desk drawer where he
kept a key to one of the safes.
'Good evening, Dr Gloge,' a woman's voice said behind him.
For an instant Dr Gloge seemed unable to move. The words, the tone, sent an electrifying hope through
him. He could scarcely believe his luck: that the second person he had to dispose of had come to where
he could best deal with her.
He straightened slowly, turned around.
Barbara Ellington stood in the open door to the adjoining library, watching him, face serious and alert.
At no time in what followed did Gloge have any otherconscious awareness than that this was Barbara
Ellington.
But the very instant that he saw the girl, at some depth of his being neural readjustments took place.
Millions of them. And from that instant, subconsciously, she was his dead sister. But she was not dead
anymore. She was reassuringly alive in the person of Barbara.
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A look passed between them. It was one of complete understanding. It occurred to Gloge that it was
scientifically wrong to kill this successful victim. He even had a feeling that she was on his side and would
cooperate with him. He suppressed a fleeting impulse to pretend not to know why she was here.
He said matter-of-factly, 'How did you get in?'
'Through the specimen room.'
'Did any of the night workers see you?'
'No.' Barbara smiled slightly.
Gloge was examining her with quick evaluative look. He noted the way she stood, almost motionless,
but lightly and strongly balanced a pose of contained, absolutely prepared energy. He saw in her eyes
bright, quick intelligence.
The thought came to him: Nothing quite like this was ever on Earth before!
Barbara said suddenly, You took a long chance on us, didn't you?'
The words that burst from Dr Gloge surprised him: 'I had to do it'
Yes; I know.' Again she spoke matter-of-factly, moved forward into the room. Dr Gloge felt a surge of
alarm, a sharp, cold prickling of the skin. But she turned from him to the left, and he watched silently as
she sat down in a chair against the wall and placed the brown purse she carried on the armrest of the
chair. She spoke first.
'You must give me the third injection of the serum immediately,' she told him. 'I'll watch you do it. Then
I'll take the instrument and a supply of the serum to Vince. He '
She paused, blue eyes kindling with abrupt comprehension as she studied Dr Globe's expression. 'So
you've drowned him!' she said. She sat there, thoughtful; then: He's not dead. I sense him to be still alive.
Now, what is the instrument you use? You must still have it with you.'
'I do,' Dr Gloge admitted hoarsely. 'But,' he went on quickly, 'it is advisable to wait till morning before
administering the third shot. The chances of a further favorable development would be increased by doing
it. And you must stay here! Nobody should see you as you are. There should be tests ... you will tell me
...'
He halted, realizing he was stammering. Barbara's eyes hadn't turned from his face. And in the same way
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