Page 47 - Astounding Pulp V2

THE SMALLEST GOD 47
46 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION
miral,lv to start his mind on the way Hermes longed for the mysterious powe..r
leaving Hermes in sole possession of the s0 in an irregular fashion. He strained to s01;,e understanding of the world of mobility that made wide explorations
laboratory, except for the cat. toward it, and something clicked in his about him. possible. He tried to glean . the secret,
mind. but all that Shep knew on the subject
T abby was dreaming, but H ermes was that movement fo!Jowed desire, and
II. A LOW howling sound came from out-
couldn't know that, nor understand from side lhe laboratory, and H ermes recoiled sometimes came without any wish:
THE CLOCK in the laboratory said four whence came the pictures that seemed to mentally. drawing a picture of a huge The god came to the · conclusion that
o'clock in the morning . I ts .hum and flash across his gummy brain ; T abby and ferocious beast from his secondhand in all the "vorld the only animals that
the gentle breathing of the cat, that ex- didn't understand dreams, either. But cat's memory. Then curiosity urged could satisfy his curiosity were men.
ercised its special privileges by sleeping the little god could see some tiny crea- him to explore. If the cat's color sense H is mind wa·s still too young to be both-
·
on the cyclotron, were the only noises ture that went scurrying 1apidly across was faulty, perhaps he1· ideas on the ered with such trifles as modesty. and
to be heard. Up on the table Hermes the floor, and a much-distor ted picture subject of dogs were also wrong. H e he was quite sure there could be no ani-
stood quietly, just as Dr. Brugh had of Tabby was following it. Tabby had thrust his mind out toward the source mal with a better intelligence than· he
left him, a little white rubbei: figure out- a definitely exaggerated idea' of herself. of the sound. and again there was the had. The dog couldn't even read
lined in the light that shown through Now the little running figure began to little click that indicated a bridge be- thoughts. and H ermes had doubts about
from the outside. A very ordinary 1it- grow until it was twice the size of the tween two minds. man's ability to do the same; otherwise,
tle statue he looked. cat, and its appearance altered. I t m~cle H e liked the dog much better than why should the master have punished
But inside, where the tar had been harsh explosive noises and beat a thick the cat. There was more to be learned Shep for fighting. when the other dog
placed, something was stirring gently. tail stiffly. Tabby's picture made a noise here. and -the animal had some faint un- had clearly started it?
Faintly and· !ow at first, life began to and fled, but the other followed quickly derstanding of a great many mysteries And If he hadn·t, Shep would have
and a wide mouth opened. Tabby woke which had never interested Tabby. H er-
quiver. Consciousness began to come been home, instead of skulking around
slowly, and then a dim and hazy feel- up, and the pictures disappeared. H er- mes also found that hard. selfish emo- this place. where he sometimes came to
ing of individuality. He was different mes could make no sense of them, though tions were not the only kind. On the meet the master after work.
in being a unit not directly connected in it was plain in Tabby's mind that such whole. the m ind of Shep seemed warm H ermes tried to locate a man's mind.
things often , happened when her head and glowing after the frigid self-interest
consciousness with· the dim outlines of but there was none near. H e caught a
the laboratory. turned black inside. . of Tabby. ' vague eddy of jumbled tho~ght waves
- But the cat awake was ev~n more m- F irst in the clocr·s mind. as in all oth-
,,
What, where, when, who, why, and from someone who ,vas evidently lo-
teresting than she was sleeping. The1~e , er ·. was the thought of self, but close
how? Hermes knew none of the an- cated there to guarcl the building, but
were the largest groups of loo~~ly classi- behind was mistress and master, the
-':lwers, and the questions were only .vague there was a definite limit to the space
fied odor, sights, and sens8:t1ons to be same person whom the cat's mind had
an4 hazy in his mind, but the desire to that thought could span.
know and to understand was growing. absorbed, the nicest memories of mov- pictured filling the god. And there were The cat's brain had gone black in-
ing about and exploring the laboratory. the two little missies. Something about
H e, took in the laboratory slowly through Tl1Tough Tabby's eyes he saw the part side again, with only fitful images fli~k-
the hole that formed his partly open the dog·s mental image of one of them ering on and off. and the clog was drift-
mouth and let the light stream in against of the laboratory that was concealed aroused an odd sensation in the little ing into a similar s tate . H ermes studied
.
the resinous matter inside. At first, from him, and much of the outside in god, l,ut it w;s too confused to be of the action with keen mterest and de-
only a blu~vas visible·, but as his "~yes" the near neighborhood. H e also drew any definite interest. cided that sleep might be a very fine
grew more proficient from expen ence, a hazy picture of himself being filled, But the dog retained hazy ideas of way of passing the time until a man
he made out separate shapes. H e had but it made no sense to him, though words as a means of thought, and Her- came back to the laboratory, as he gath-
no names for them, but he recognized he gathered from the cat's mind that the mes seized on them gratefully. H e ered they did every time some big light
the difte1·ence between a J"ound tube and huge monster holding him was both to gathered that men used them as a me-
a square table top. be despised and r~spected, and was, all dium of thought conveyance, and filed shone from somewhere high up above.
The motion of the second hand caught in all, a very powerful person.· the sixty partly understood words of But as he concentrated on the matter
his attention, and he studied the clock By now his intelligence was great Shep"s vocabulary . carefully . away. of turning off his mind, he wondered
care[uUy, but could make no sense to it. enough to recognize that the world seen T here were others with tantahzmg pos- again what he was. Certainly neither
Apparently some things moved and oth- through the cat's eyes was in many ways sibilities, but they were vague._ a dog nor a cat, he had no real belief
ers didn't. What little he could see of wrong. For one thing, everything was Shep's world was much w1d r than that he was a man ; the dog ~lidn't know
7
himself didn't, even- when he made a ·in shades of white and black, with me- that of Tabby. and his general impres- about him. but the cat regarded him as a
clumsy atte"mpt l!-t forcing motion into dial grays, while he had already seen sion of color-for clogs do see colors- stone. l\tiaybe he was one, if stones
rus outthrust arm. It took longer to that there were sever al colors. Hermes ,vas much better. T he world became a ever came to life. Any\>vay, he"d find
notice the faint breathing of the·cat ; then decided that he needed another point of fascinating place as he pictured it, and out in the morning when the master
he noticed it not 011ly moved, but did view, though the cat had served ad-

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