Happy Ending Page 4

not have harmed him. It harms not a man to tie him to a tree."

  Kallana considered well, for the safety of his people was at stake.Considering, he remembered how Alwa and Nrana had died.

  He said, "It is right."

  The waiting drummer began the rhythm of the council-end, and those ofthe men who were young and fleet lighted torches in the fire and wentout into the forest to seek the _kifs_, who were still in their seasonof marching.

  And after a while, having found what they sought, they returned.

  They took the Earthling out with them, then, and tied him to a tree.They left him there, and they left the gag over his lips because theydid not wish to hear his screams when the _kifs_ came.

  The cloth of the gag would be eaten, too, but by that time, there wouldbe no flesh under it from which a scream might come.

  They left him, and went back to the compound, and the drums took up therhythm of propitiation to the gods for what they had done. For they had,they knew, cut very close to the corner of a tabu--but the provocationhad been great and they hoped they would not be punished.

  All night the drums would throb.

  * * * * *

  The man tied to the tree struggled with his bonds, but they were strongand his writhings made the knots but tighten.

  His eyes became accustomed to the darkness.

  He tried to shout, "I am Number One, Lord of--"

  And then, because he could not shout and because he could not loosenhimself, there came a rift in his madness. He remembered who he was, andall the old hatreds and bitterness welled up in him.

  He remembered, too, what had happened in the compound, and wondered whythe Venusian natives had not killed him. Why, instead, they had tied himhere alone in the darkness of the jungle.

  Afar, he heard the throbbing of the drums, and they were like thebeating of the heart of night, and there was a louder, nearer sound thatwas the pulse of blood in his ears as the fear came to him.

  The fear that he knew why they had tied him here. The horrible,gibbering fear that, for the last time, an army marched against him.

  He had time to savor that fear to the uttermost, to have it become acreeping certainty that crawled into the black corners of his soul aswould the soldiers of the coming army crawl into his ears and nostrilswhile others would eat away his eyelids to get at the eyes behind them.

  And then, and only then, did he hear the sound that was like the rustleof dry leaves, in a dank, black jungle where there were no dry leaves torustle nor breeze to rustle them.

  Horribly, Number One, the last of the dictators, did not go mad again;not exactly, but he laughed, and laughed and laughed....

  Transcriber's Note:

  This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ September 1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.