and an instinctive distrust of the man kept him Austin shook his head.
silent. After much arguing pro and con it was
“I am not going to go into obscure
decided that the servants were to be medical terminology that would only confuse discharged, the heavily mortgaged house you: A cretin is a man or a woman in whom, offered for sale and that Austin was to live
from some pathological defect, the cause or
with the Stoddards in New York until other
origin of which is as yet unknown, a certain
arrangements could be made.
gland functions improperly or not at all. By administering extracts of such a gland taken
THE men gathered up their legal documents
from animals, the missing ingredients can be
and brief cases and left. Doctor Goldwin alone
supplied artificially and with the identical
remained. When the sound of their motor had
results attained in nature’s most wonderful
died away in the distance the physician laboratory, the human body.”
stopped pacing the floor and said:
“You were born a cretin. This need not
“I’m going to tell you something, my
frighten you. There are thousands of them. We
boy—something that ought to have been told
rub shoulders with them every day, but no one
you long before this.”
except the most intimate members of their
Austin felt a shock pass through his
families know it. They are being constantly
body as his eyes met the serious, kindly ones
watched and supplied with the missing
of the old physician bent upon him ingredients which keeps them normal and searchingly.
healthy. It is only when deprived of these
Amazing Stories
6
through ignorance or by not being themselves
all this for your own protection and to warn
informed about their affliction, that the you not to be without it anywhere for more tragedy of retrogression occurs.”
than twenty-four hours.”
“What d’you mean?” Austin asked,
breathlessly.
Austin Crane’s Readjustment
“I mean that they will return to the
cretinous state if the supply of glandular HIS life with the Stoddards in New York was extract is cut off or withheld. The a series of adjustments and compromises for retrogression begins almost at once. Even in a
Austin. Hitherto the world had revolved about
few days there is a marked change. The pulse
him; now he found himself suddenly in the
becomes slow, the mind, sluggish. The body
role of satellite. From the position of prince
begins to shrink, the features change, the skin royal with every whim or wish anticipated and
becomes dry and sallow and the hair brittle. If gratified, he had descended at once to the level you could have seen yourself four years ago
of commoner. At home someone had always
when we brought you back from your attempt
stood between himself and the realities of life.
at crossing the Atlantic in the sloop, after
In the Stoddard mansion on upper Fifth
being deprived of your medicine for ten days,
Avenue, no one seemed to care what he did,
you’d know what I mean.”
nor when or how he did it. The most ordinary
“I did see myself in the mirror of my
things which every man does for himself as a
room,” Austin replied in a small, tense voice.
matter of course in the daily prosecution of
The physician started.
existence, presented themselves as problems
“And you’ve been carrying that picture
to Austin.
in your mind unexplained ever since? You
At first he was confused and unhappy
poor lad.”
but gradually his untrained mind began to
“I—I thought that I dreamed it—
adjust itself to the new manner of things. Little afterwards.”
by little his dormant faculties began to react to
“I see. I understand. The recovery the new influences and responsibilities. Each when the extract is again supplied is as rapid
experience was a draft upon his resources that
as the retrogression”
Austin was silent. The answers to a
fascinating sport, with his soul and integrity as thousand questions crowded into his mind at
the stakes.
once. But one question was still burning there
He was quick to learn. He did not
unanswered.
know that within the human brain lies the
“What would happen to me if this knowledge of all things, and that only by medicine was cut off entirely and forever?” he
contact with problems this knowledge comes
asked.
forth. He merely knew that he must learn or
The physician held up his hand in perish. He was confronted with problems protest.
which boys of ten had assimilated before their
“The picture would be too unpleasant
milk teeth were gone. His twenty-two year old
for me to paint and for you to contemplate.
mind bridged the chasm in an instant. There
Remember what you saw in the mirror four
was nothing to unlearn. His brain sensitized to years ago and imagine that magnified a receive whatever might come its way, was like hundred fold? But there is no reason to fear its a virgin phonograph record awaiting the
supply being cut off. It is easily accessible and recording needle.
not particularly expensive. I merely tell you
The Stoddard household puzzled him.
The Grim Inheritance
7
His dislike of the man Stoddard was deep-
were aloof and impersonal, not like old
rooted and it increased as time went on. He
tender-hearted Sims and friendly, garrulous
had never encountered a human of predatory
Gulp. The only person he felt anything in
habits before. There was no precedent to guide
common with was the girl Ann. He was
him. His distrust was instinctive.
unable to account for this feeling, but there
There was a Mrs. Stoddard, a florid
were times when he wanted to take her aside
coarse woman as heavy as her husband, with
and tell her about his mother. At such times he prominent china-blue eyes and a great pile of
wondered if her hands were soft and cool like
over-bright yellow hair which in spite of its
his mother’s.
elaborate dressing, always seemed in
Once a month He called at Doctor
imminent danger of tumbling about her ears.
Goldwin’s offices for a fresh supply of his
Austin encountered her rarely except at medicine. He always looked forward to these mealtimes. She ignored him utterly. For both
visits. They talked about his mother and the
circumstances he was thankful. When she ate,
old place on the North Shore of Long Island
her tiered chin reminded him of the pouch of a
which the doctor informed him was being
pelican. She seemed to divide her time equally
subdivided into suburban lots by the Stoddard
between her suite of rooms in the east wing of
Development Company. On one of these
the big house and her showy automobile.
visits, Austin asked the physician if Stoddard
The Stoddards were childless but there
knew of his affliction.
was another member of the household whose
“No one knows about it except
exact status Austin was unable to determine.
yourself and me,” the physician replied. “You
Her name was Ann Barrert and she seemed to
mustn’t think of it in the terms of an affliction.
occupy the position of a servant, who was
If anything, you’re a grade above the average,
displayed as a poor relation only at mealtimes
both physically and mentally. There’s no
or when company was present for the sake of
reason why you shouldn’t live a long and
appearances. She also was a distant relative of useful life. What you need is an interest. Get
Mr. Stoddard and had become indigent it that and forget the other and you’ll be happy.”
seemed shortly after joining the household.
He went to his desk and opened a
She was a quiet, self-effacing creature, who
drawer from which he took a slip of paper.
rarely spoke except when addressed, and
“This is the prescription for your
whose brown eyes Austin caught now and
medicine,” he said. “I meant to give it to you
then regarding him with a sort of repressed
last time you were here, but I forgot. You will warning across the table, or when he find the address of the laboratory that prepares encountered her in the dim, cavernous it on the reverse side. Don’t lose it. In the hallways. He had the curious feeling that she
event of my death, they’ll supply it to you
was forever on the point of telling him direct.”
something, but that she was not sure whether
Austin gripped the arms of his chair.
she ought to.
“But you’re not going to die—soon,”
Altogether it was a strange household.
he said in sudden panic.
A person of experience would have been
The physician smiled.
warned, but in Austin’s limited contact with
“I hope not. But one never knows.” He
life he had not yet encountered knavery. He
paused and regarded his frightened young
felt merely a sense of restlessness and visitor sternly. “You must stop depending depression that was accentuated by the tomb-upon others, Son. Go out and mix with people.
like air of the big house. Even the servants
Make friends. Go into some sort of business,
Amazing Stories
8
or learn a trade or a profession. Get away from digested.
yourself. Learn to love work, and to—love,”
He had been with the Stoddards a little
he added.
over a year when the first inkling of disaster
“I—I will,” Austin replied, as he came to him. His monthly allowance was cut folded up the slip of paper and put it in his
off. Stoddard explained to him in the library
pocket.
one evening a week or so later that due to
unfortunate conditions over which he had no
FOR days he thought about his talk with control, the remnants of the Crane fortune had Doctor Goldwin. At home on Long Island his
been swept away.
mother had set aside a small plot of ground for
“You mean that I have no money at
him for a garden. He had loved this little spot.
all?” Austin asked.
On summer mornings he would awaken while
Stoddard replied that because of his
it was still dark and lie waiting impatiently for mother’s mismanagement such was the case,
the sun to rise, and then bolt his breakfast and but added magnanimously that Austin was
hurry down to see how much his plants had
welcome to the hospitality of his roof until he grown during the night He had felt an could find something to do. Austin glanced at immense responsibility for their welfare. the mottled face of his distant relative. The When a Spring gale broke one of his young
man’s small furtive eyes seemed to flit about
trees he had wept over it for days. A month
the room as if in an effort to evade his own.
later new shoots had appeared below the break
The young man wondered if the documents
and the wound was healed over with rosin. On
which he had signed now and then at
all sides he saw the constant feverish effort of Stoddard’s request, during the past year had
all loving things to create, to perpetuate anything to do with the loss of the money.
themselves against great odds.
He went upstairs without a word. He
“Learn to love work and to—love,”
had seen enough of poverty in his wanderings
Doctor Goldwin had said. It was odd that,
about town to make him thoughtful. Beggars
with this sentence running through his mind,
had stopped him now and then with hands
Austin should think of Ann Barrett. When he
outstretched for alms, depressing-looking,
met her in the halls, he felt the impulse to
slinking creatures in soiled garments into
gather her in his arms. Somehow, she seemed
whose trembling palms he had dropped coins.
to hold within her small, compact body the joy
The thought of what might become of him, if
of creating, the promise of perpetuation.
there was no money for his monthly supply of
He felt vaguely ashamed of himself.
medicine, made his brain reel. He clutched the
He was infinitely better equipped for battle
bannister for support.
than the poor broken tree.
At a turn in the dark hall he was
The months that followed were busy
confronted by the girl, Ann. Her finger was
ones for him. His talk with the physician raised to her lips in an admonitory gesture.
awakened in him a desire to know all about
“I was listening,” she whispered. “I
himself and the world into which he had been
heard what he told you in the library. Oh, why
so suddenly projected. He spent his days didn’t I warn you long ago? He stole my wandering about the city, observing what men
money and now he has stolen yours.”
had done while his mind had been asleep. He
Austin searched her face in the gloom.
spent his nights in reading and study. His
His mind was so full of his own problems that
ability to assimilate was as great as his thirst the significance of what she told him did not
for knowledge. He saw, noted, and mentally
impress him at once.
The Grim Inheritance
9
“He stole your money?” he reiterated.
felt a sudden impulse to arise and denounce
“Yes, yes. The court made him my
him and to sink his fingers into the bovine
guardian after my father’s death ten years ago.
neck. The only thing that deterred him was the
I’m doing the work of a servant here while
warning glance from the brown eyes at the
they live in luxury on my money.”
other side of the table. They seemed to say:
Austin drew a deep breath. His distrust
“Not yet! Bide your-time. Plan; th
ink!”
of Stoddard flamed into suspicion, then
He slept not at all that night. His brain
certitude, in an instant. He looked down at the was seething with vague plans and half-small face upturned to his in the darkness. Pity formed ideas. He had no definite notion of
for her made him forget his own problems.
what he intended to do. He only knew that the
She seemed so small, so abandoned. He did
girl’s kisses still burned on his lips. For her not know how it happened but somehow their
sake he must find a way to bring Stoddard to
lips met, and at that moment life with its
account.
infinite possibilities was opened to him. He
kissed not only her lips but her eyes and her
Crane Secures Employment
hair, and when he finally released her,
frightened at his own vehemence, she did not
IT was with this thing in mind that he
run away. They stood looking at one another
approached Stoddard the following day with
as if a miracle, which their senses could not
the request that since he was now penniless,
credit, had been performed before their eyes.
he might take him into his office to learn the
Then, at a sudden slamming of a door
real estate business. Stoddard regarded him in
behind them, the girl turned and fled down the
heavy-lidded silence before replying, then
ball in the direction of Mrs. Stoddard’s suite.
said:
Dinner was being served when Austin
“I’ll give you a try-out. But mind you,
entered the dining room that evening. Neither
no foolishness. You’ve been pampered all
Stoddard nor his wife as much as glanced at
your life. I don’t pamper my employees. I’ll