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Cosmic Tales, v. 2, issue 1, Summer 1939
Page 35
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COSMIC TALES 35 marching on. We are on the verge of the discovery of atomic power, the secret of immortality, and many other things - now we have suspended animation. You'll awake a hundred years hence, and -" He was cut short as the great professor entered the room, made a final survey, and ordered the injection to be given. Bartholomew shuddered slightly as they hyperdermic bit into his skin, and then he felt someone push him gently backwards on to the table. The room was swiftly becoming hazy, and a blue mist rose before his eyes. He tried to make a comment but a veil of darkness descended, and he sank back...still, motionless... ************************* Bartholomew Briggs opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. It looked exactly as it has when he had lain down, and, here was the same doctor bending, over him, not aged in the least .. "What's the matter?" he asked anxiously, sitting up with a jerk. "Hasn't the experiment succeeded?" "Sure it's succeeded," said the doctor cheerfully. "You're now a hundred years ahead of the time you started." Briggs looked around in bewilderment. He recognized two or three of the other men present in the laboratory, and surely - yes, there was the old professor himself, looking exactly the same ... "Look here," he said angrily. "Are you trying to be funny with me? Everyone's exactly the same as when I left. They wouldn't be like this after a hundred years !" The doctor laughed. "That's where you're wrong," he said "Do you remember what I said to you before we put you to sleep? I said we were on the verge of discovering the secret of immortality - and only a few months after you were given the injection the secret was found." Bartholomew gave a gasp. This search of science was a bit to swift for his puny mind to follow. A nurse in a spotless white uniform came thru a door on his left, and walked quietly across to him. "There's a lady waiting outside to see you," she said sweetly. "A lady?" asked Bartholomew wonderingly, "Yes" replied the nurse. "She says she's your mother-in-law. She must have had some of the immortality injection and now she's here to greet you as you awakened. Isn't that nice of her !" There was a gentle sigh as Bartholomew Briggs slid to the floor in a dead faint. ----THE END---- ONE CAN NEVER KNOW (continued from page 33) strong face was drawn and seamed with age; a gleaming skull was all that remained of his luxurious hair. Slowly he lifted his hands and stared at the weak, shrivelled claws. Horror seized his heart. So this was the price he had had to pay -- Youth! Life! He was old, old, OLD!! Strange emotions struggled for expression within him, and he longed to strangle the beautiful creature who had brot this upon him. But he was growing older so rapidly that it seemed he could feel his limb shriveling up. "Who are you ?" he managed to croak, striving vainly to get a glimpse of her with his swiftly dimming eyesight. Again she laughed. It was merry, youthful, lilting: it was young, and yet it was old. "I am Time," she said softly. "I am envisioned as an old, old man, but I am ageless and I am a woman. And to touch me is to grow old, and to die from extreme age. I am sorry in a way that this had to happen to you, but I've made you realize that your life is worth living, and now it is too late .. (continued on page [?])
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COSMIC TALES 35 marching on. We are on the verge of the discovery of atomic power, the secret of immortality, and many other things - now we have suspended animation. You'll awake a hundred years hence, and -" He was cut short as the great professor entered the room, made a final survey, and ordered the injection to be given. Bartholomew shuddered slightly as they hyperdermic bit into his skin, and then he felt someone push him gently backwards on to the table. The room was swiftly becoming hazy, and a blue mist rose before his eyes. He tried to make a comment but a veil of darkness descended, and he sank back...still, motionless... ************************* Bartholomew Briggs opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. It looked exactly as it has when he had lain down, and, here was the same doctor bending, over him, not aged in the least .. "What's the matter?" he asked anxiously, sitting up with a jerk. "Hasn't the experiment succeeded?" "Sure it's succeeded," said the doctor cheerfully. "You're now a hundred years ahead of the time you started." Briggs looked around in bewilderment. He recognized two or three of the other men present in the laboratory, and surely - yes, there was the old professor himself, looking exactly the same ... "Look here," he said angrily. "Are you trying to be funny with me? Everyone's exactly the same as when I left. They wouldn't be like this after a hundred years !" The doctor laughed. "That's where you're wrong," he said "Do you remember what I said to you before we put you to sleep? I said we were on the verge of discovering the secret of immortality - and only a few months after you were given the injection the secret was found." Bartholomew gave a gasp. This search of science was a bit to swift for his puny mind to follow. A nurse in a spotless white uniform came thru a door on his left, and walked quietly across to him. "There's a lady waiting outside to see you," she said sweetly. "A lady?" asked Bartholomew wonderingly, "Yes" replied the nurse. "She says she's your mother-in-law. She must have had some of the immortality injection and now she's here to greet you as you awakened. Isn't that nice of her !" There was a gentle sigh as Bartholomew Briggs slid to the floor in a dead faint. ----THE END---- ONE CAN NEVER KNOW (continued from page 33) strong face was drawn and seamed with age; a gleaming skull was all that remained of his luxurious hair. Slowly he lifted his hands and stared at the weak, shrivelled claws. Horror seized his heart. So this was the price he had had to pay -- Youth! Life! He was old, old, OLD!! Strange emotions struggled for expression within him, and he longed to strangle the beautiful creature who had brot this upon him. But he was growing older so rapidly that it seemed he could feel his limb shriveling up. "Who are you ?" he managed to croak, striving vainly to get a glimpse of her with his swiftly dimming eyesight. Again she laughed. It was merry, youthful, lilting: it was young, and yet it was old. "I am Time," she said softly. "I am envisioned as an old, old man, but I am ageless and I am a woman. And to touch me is to grow old, and to die from extreme age. I am sorry in a way that this had to happen to you, but I've made you realize that your life is worth living, and now it is too late .. (continued on page [?])
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