Ole Doc Methuselah Part 15

The lancet glittered under the flas.h.i.+ng arc and with a neat perfection which could separate cell from cell, nerve from tissue, nay the very elements from one another, Ole Doc continued on his intent way.

"Next!"

"Next!"

"Next!"

And then, "Hippocrates, look at these slides for me."

There was one from each and the little creature bent a microscope over them and counted in a shrill singsong.

"Right," said Ole Doc. "Anaemia. Anaemia bad enough to kill. Now what disease would cause that?"

Phonograph-record-wise Hippocrates began to intone the sixty-nine thousand seven hundred and four known diseases but Ole Doc was not listening. He was looking at the remains of the girl who would have died from Grave's Disease anyway and then at the window of George Jasper Arlington's office.

"Next," said Ole Doc hopelessly.

It was a scrawny woman who had obviously suffered for some time from malnutrition. And Ole Doc, with something like pity, began his work once more.

The snick of blade and the drip from the table were all the sounds in the chilly street. And then a sharp excla- mation from Ole Doc.

He seized the liver and held it closer to the light and then, with a barked command at Hippocrates, raced up the steps and kicked open the door of George Jasper Arlington's office.

The big man stared in alarm and then stumbled away from the grisly thing in Ole Doc's hand.

"You've got to return the slaves to Sirius Sixty-eight!"

said Ole Doc.

"Return them? Get out of here with that thing. Why should I spend a fortune doing that? Get out!"

"You'll spend it because I tell you to," said Ole Doc.

"If you mean they've caused the plague and will contin- ue it, I'll have them shot but that's all."

"Oh no you won't," said Ole Doc. "And if you see fit to disobey me and shoot them, at least wait until I have departed. If you kill them, you'll leave the poison here for ever."

"Poison!"

"There is an old tale of a man who poisoned his daughter gradually until she was immune and then sent her to kill his rival's son. I am afraid you are up against that. You'll die-everyone on this planet and you included will die if you shoot those slaves. And you will die if you keep them."

"Get out!" said George Arlington.

Ole Doc looked at the thing he carried and smiled wryly through his helmet face. "Then you don't leave me much chance."

"Chance for what?"

"To save you. For unless you do this thing, I have no recourse."

From a pocket in the hem of his golden cloak he drew a sheaf of yellow papers. Dropping his burden on the desk he seized a pen and wrote:

George Jasper Arlington Never

"What is that?"

"A personal yellow ticket. I go now to give them to all your s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps, all your captains, all your towns and villages. No one will come to you, ever. No one can go from here ever. There will be no export, no import. I abandon you and all s.p.a.ce abandons you. I condemn you to the death you sought to give your slaves. I have spoken."

And he threw the yellow paper on the desk before Arlington and turned to leave.

"Wait. Have you got that power? Look! Listen to rea-

son. Listen, doctor. You can't do this. I haven't tried to buck you. I am trying to co-operate. I'll-Wait! What is wrong? What is the disease, the poison?"

"This," said Ole Doc, "is the remains of a malignant and commonly fatal tumor of the particular specie of colloid. It is a cancer, Arlington. And now I am going about my business since you will not attend to yours."

"Cancer! But that's not catching! I know that's not catching."

"Look at it," said Ole Doc.

Arlington looked away. "What did you say I was to do?"

"Take all available transport and return the Kufra peo- ple to Sirius Sixty-eight. Every one of them. Only then can you live. I will have to treat your crews and make other arrangements before departure. But I will only do this if you promise that no single slave will be shot or mauled.

That is vital, understand?"

"What have I done to deserve this? It will cost me hah!

my fortune. I will have no laborers. Isn't there-"

"There is not," said Ole Doc. "I suggest you employ the best engineers in the Galaxy to provide machinery for your timber work. When you have done that I will send you a formula so that human beings can stand the cold for a short time without injury. I will do this. But there is your communicator."

George Jasper Arlington began to look hopeful. But it was fear which made him give the orders, fear and the thing in Ole Doc's hand.

Four hours later, at the main s.p.a.ceport, Ole Doc finished giving his orders to the departing crews. They were men of s.p.a.ce and they knew their galaxies. They listened reverently to the commands of a Soldier of Light, painted their clothing and helmets as he told them, fixed their compartments at his orders and then began the load- ing of the suddenly docile slaves.

In the semi-darkness of the sub-surface hangars, a few moments before the first s.h.i.+p would burst out into the freedom of s.p.a.ce, on course of Sirius Sixty-eight, Ole Doc nodded to the cithw.

The ancient one would have shaken Ole Doc's hand but Ole Doc adroitly avoided it, smiling through his visor.

"We are grateful," said the ancient one. "You have delivered us, Soldier of Light, and to you we shall build a

shrine so that all our people may know. To you we shall send prayers as to any other G.o.d. You have delivered us."

Ole Doc smiled. And from his kit he took a certificate, brilliant yellow, of eternium satin. It stated:

Quarantine!

Know all wanderers of s.p.a.ce, all captains of s.h.i.+ps, gen- erals of armies, ministers of governments, princes, kings and rulers whatsoever that this

Planet Sinus Sixty-eight

Has been declared in perpetual quarantine forever and that no inhabitant of this planet is to depart from it for any cause or reason whatsoever until the end of time.