Amazing Stories, August, 1928
The Grim Inheritance
by Carl Clausen
An Unexpected Development
worn puff sleeves. Some years later, at the age of eight, Austin had come across a fashion
USTIN CRANE’S earliest
plate in an old magazine. All the figures wore
recollection was that of having to take
puff sleeves. He had wondered mildly to
A his medicine, literally speaking. Every whom these ladies fed orange-colored morning his nurse would give him an orange-capsules before breakfast.
colored transparent capsule. He was warned
Being an inquisitive child he had also
not to chew it like candy, but to swallow it
wondered about certain other things. Why, for
right down with the drink of water which she
instance, was he not permitted to go to school
had ready for bun. This recollection dated
with other children? The big handsome
back to a period when he was between three
schoolhouse with its Doric columns had
and four years old.
always fascinated him. When he rode past it
The first nurse he remembered had with his tutor, and Gulp, the liveried chauffeur
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slowed up the car at the school crossing, If there was anything wrong with him he Austin would peer through the glass at the
wanted to know it. He decided to speak to his
words, “Knowledge is Power” which were
mother about it that night after Doctor
chiseled in gold letters above the door. As he
Goldwin had gone, but abandoned the idea
watched the army of shouting children at play,
when he remembered that in doing so he
an almost uncontrollable impulse to fling the
would indict himself for eavesdropping. The
door of the car open and to run out and join
physician’s words, “He’s a perfect specimen
the shouting mob would sweep over him. He
of manhood,” kept ringing in his ears. What
wanted to yell with than, to be yelled at by
did Doctor Goldwin mean? And why
them and above all he wanted to be let in on
shouldn’t he be a perfect specimen?
his share of the power which was advertised in
He crossed to the window and stood
the golden letters above the door.
looking out into the Long Island Sound. In the
At such moments he vaguely felt that
cove at the foot of the garden his sloop lay
somehow or other life had cheated him, that
moored. His mother had bought it for him two
there was something lacking in his existence
years before, and on fine days he and Mr.
which neither Gulp, the chauffeur, Sims, the
Henley cruised about the Sound in it. Beyond
butler, Mr. Henry, the tutor, or his mother
the wide, sun-hot expanse of the Sound the
could supply. He also felt that a sort of low cliffs of the Connecticut shore lay traced conspiracy to cheat him of something, he faintly in the late afternoon mist. He wondered hardly knew what, was going on between what manner of people lived there. He felt these people and old Doctor Goldwin, who
suddenly a strong desire to go and see—to
came down on the first of every month and
bolt from the odious restraint of his daily
looked over and left a fresh supply of orange-
routine of lessons, exercises, and walks and to colored capsules with his mother.
escape the spying eyes of Sims, Gulp, Mr.
It was on one of these monthly visits
Henley and his mother.
when Austin was eighteen years old that he
Turning, he walked to the cheval
overheard a discussion of himself between her
mirror at the end of the room. He looked
and the doctor. He had not meant to be himself over critically. He could judge himself eavesdropping. He was coming down the soft-only by comparison with the few people with
carpeted stairway when he heard the voices of
whom he came in daily contact. He knew that
his mother and the physician in the living
he was taller than Mr. Henley, the tutor,
room. Doctor Goldwin said:
almost as tall as Gulp, the chauffeur, and that
“The boy is entering young manhood
he carried himself nearly as straight as Sims,
with every normal manifestation. You need
the butler; certainly with more ease. He knew
not worry. He is a perfect specimen of that his blue eyes were much clearer than manhood. His physical and mental status is
Gulp’s and that his light hair was of much
decidedly above par.”
finer quality. He wondered if these were signs
Austin heard his mother reply:
of perfect manhood. He had always rather
“Rut suppose he wishes to marry some
admired the chauffeur’s wiry hair and the way
day—and the day must inevitably come?”
Gulp wore his cap pulled forward over his
“I see no reason why he shouldn’t,”
shaggy eyebrows.
the doctor had replied.
Austin tiptoed back upstairs to his HE had thought about this episode for weeks.
room. He pondered deeply upon what he had
He was burning to know about himself, but he
overheard. He wondered what they had meant.
knew that any move on his part in that
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3
direction would be met by rebuffs. A hint
rapid foreshortening of all horizons, the
dropped to Mr. Henley one day had elicited
shifting of the wind and the blotting out of the nothing but a hurried and ill-concealed anxiety land, forward and aft. An hour later, after
to change the subject.
tacking about double-reefed in the teeth of the Austin gave up definitely the idea of
gale, he was forced to give her sheet and run
questioning his mother, partly because he felt
off free. Another hour and he knew that he
very sure that she was at the bottom of the
was being blown out to sea at the rate of ten
conspiracy and partly because he loved her
miles an hour.
dearly and shrank from the thought of causing
He was not frightened. His elation at
her pain. She was a fragile dark-eyed person
his new-found liberty left no room for fear.
with white hair, a quick eager manner and tiny
For the first time in his life he was going
soft hands that were always reaching for him
about the business of living independently. He
with caresses. He admired her as greatly as he
felt like one who had claimed at last some
loved her.
long deferred birthright.
An inkling of the truth came to him in
After six days of knocking about the
quite an unexpected manner. During his Atlantic with a box of sea-biscuits and a small mother’s absence in New York one rainy day,
breaker of water as the only fo
od and drink, he and while Mr. Henley was writing some was picked up by a Gloucester-man returning letters in his room, Austin stole down to the
homeward, full to the deck with halibut. He
sloop unobserved by the rest of the household,
slept in one of its bunks nearly all the way
cast the boat loose, hoisted the sail, and stood back to Gloucester while the stoop was towed
out into the open Sound in a brisk north-
astern. He was completely exhausted. The
wester with his eyes on the distant exhilaration was gone. His body seemed in the Connecticut shore line. He was a good sailor,
grip of some monstrous apathy from which he
and he had learned to handle the little craft
was unable to rouse himself. Even after being
with the skill of a veteran, so the increasing of drenched with sleep he felt a curious
wind did not disturb him. He merely took a
disinclination to stir.
reef in the mainsail and went on. He had no
The authorities at Gloucester
definite idea of where he was going. He communicated with his mother at once. She merely felt the immediate need of the open, of
arrived in her car, accompanied by Doctor
wind and rain sweeping down upon him from
Goldwin and Henley that same afternoon, with
terror in her dark eyes, which Austin searched
It was not long before he noticed that
his tired mind in vain to account for. He had
more clouds were gathering in the north. He
expected a scolding but none came. Doctor
wondered if a storm was coming up and in the
Goldwin gave him one of the orange-colored
same breath hoped that one was. He felt elated
capsules and the four returned, a silent party.
at the thought, curiously light, and free from
Austin had never seen his mother so
restraint. Tiller in hand he watched the green
tender before. She cried nearly all the way
seas come tumbling along the rail as the sloop
down the coast. She took his face between her
heeled to the pressure of her sails. She clove
small soft hands and searched his eyes with a
the crested seas, shaking the spume and sort of breathless intentness that puzzled him.
smother from her bows at each leap. Spindrift
He tried to respond to her caresses, but they
lashed his face. He shouted with exultation.
left him cold and apathetic. He was conscious
So engrossed was he with his newly-
even of a slight feeling of nausea at her
acquired freedom that he did not notice the
demonstrativeness. He glanced at Mr. Henley
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for an explanation of this extraordinary
When he was twenty-two years old his
phenomenon, but the tutor averted his face as
mother died. The day before she had been well
if loath to meet his questioning eyes. and happy. They had motored to Montauk Drowsiness overtook him at last. He sank
Point and had lunched at a wayside inn. Upon
back in the cushioned seat and slept.
returning she had complained of a slight
headache and had retired early. The following
WHEN he opened his eyes the next morning
morning, Elaine the maid had gone into her
he found that he was in bed in his own room.
room to awaken her and had found her lying
He lay for a long time trying to review the
dead upon the canopied bed with her white
happenings of the last ten days but his brain
head thrown back and her small hands
refused to respond to any orderly survey. He
clutching the silken covers. She had scarcely
felt no desire for anything except to lie prone, stirred. Death had been instantaneous and
but he did not get any feeling of rest or except for the tightly-closed hands, there was relaxation from the thought of remaining in
no evidence of pain or struggle. Her heart had
bed. He glanced about the chamber. He had a
simply stopped.
momentary illusion of being in a strange
Austin was left in a daze by the
room. Even the most familiar object seemed
unexpectedness of it; and the confusion of the
remote and unreal.
household robbed of its governing hand,
He was conscious of being thirsty, but
added to his misery. He stayed beside her until it took him several minutes to make up his
Doctor Goldwin arrived and ordered him to
mind to arise and search for a glass in the
leave the room. Even then he could hardly tear
bathroom. As he passed the cheval mirror on
himself away. He gave the still form on the
his way back to bed he caught sight of himself
bed one last look and stumbled downstairs
therein and paused, blinking at the image he
after old Sims, then outdoors and down to the
saw there: a sallow face with lacklustre sloop.
eyeballs set deeply in narrowed slits. He ran
He sailed on the Sound that afternoon,
his fingers through his hair as if by this motion his mind a blank. When he returned he found
to brush away the vision that confronted him
in the mirror and noted that his hair felt been made up. He wandered about its crypt-curiously dry and brittle to the touch.
like emptiness and touched her things one by
He stood staring at himself for some
one. On the dressing table there was a small
moments, then crept back to bed. He didn’t
silver casket containing a few long strands of
understand what had happened and his mind
white hair. She had told him laughingly one
was too tired to grapple with the problem.
day that she was saving them toward a switch
When the nurse brought him his capsule for old age. He touched the strands lightly fifteen minutes later he swallowed it and said
with the tips of his fingers, now. They seemed
nothing.
still a part of her living, fragile self.
During his convalescence he tried to
He opened the door of the clothes
screw up courage to get out of bed and look at
closet. Doll-like dresses hung there in orderly himself in the mirror, and when he finally did
rows and a dozen pairs of tiny Cinderella
get the courage to do so at the end of the
slippers stood against the wall. Her warm
second week, he saw there a well set-up youth
eager personality seemed to be expressed in
with clear blue eyes, soft wavy hair and a
every pair, to be lingering in every last fold of healthy ruddy skin. He decided that he had
each dainty garment He wanted to gather them
dreamed that other image.
up in his arms, and take them to some
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5
secluded spot and cry over them, but he
“Yes?” he replied, breathlessly.
couldn’t cry....
“You have wondered often about
A week after the funeral there was a
certain things—I refer particularly to the
meeting in the library between several men.
medicine?”
With t
he exception of Dr. Goldwin all were
Austin nodded. He gripped the arms of
strangers to Austin. The will was read by a
his chair. He was on the brink of a momentous
heavy-faced man with a porcine brow and a
discovery. The realization of it made him
flattened skull about which a fringe of coarse
inarticulate.
iron gray hair rode like a misplaced halo.
“I am going to tell you what I consider
Austin listened, abstractedly. He necessary for you to know,” the physician gathered from the stilted, legal phraseology
went on; “against my advice your mother kept
that he was the only heir; later that the heavy-it from you. I tried to make her see her error
faced man whose name was Stoddard, and
and to make her realize the danger she
who seemed to be a distant relative of his dead exposed you to by keeping you in ignorance
father, had succeeded in getting himself of certain things but she wouldn’t listen.
appointed by the court as administrator. In the Women are that way. Sentimental and
discussion that followed the reading of the
unwilling to face the truths of life.” He paused will, Austin discovered that his mother had
and glanced at the white face staring up at him lived far beyond her income for years and that
from the depths of the cushioned chair.
the estate was heavily encumbered. The man
“There’s nothing to be frightened at, lad,” he
Stoddard informed all present in somewhat
said, “pull yourself together and listen to me.”
pompous tone that he would do his best to
“I am listening,” Austin replied with
save what was left of the Crane fortune.
an effort to keep his voice steady.
Austin looked at the speaker and said
“Do you know what a CRETIN is?”
nothing. Finance was a closed book to him,
the physician asked.