Return of a LegendGallun, Raymond Z. (Raymond Zinke)
Science
Return of a Legend
Gallun, Raymond Z. (Raymond Zinke)
Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Survival -- Fiction
"After all, William was Frank's son," Dolph told Dayton. "Frank
was--what he was. But my sister and I are here to see that the boy is
located. Perhaps he can still have a normal childhood."
"We'll do what we can," Dayton replied, smiling crookedly to dampen the
man's naive and assertive air.
For the last half of the long summer the search went on, many visitors
took brief part, ranging well beyond the short tractor lines which
encompassed the tourist's usual view of Mars.
Dolph Terry was dogged, but clumsy and irritable. His sister's rugged
cheerfulness and interest in her surroundings, pleased Dayton.
Still, at the end--due as much as anything to sheer luck--it was Joe
Dayton who captured Will Terry single-handed. It was almost autumn
again. Joe flushed the scampering figure from a thicket. The boy's limp
was to Dayton's advantage. He made a flying tackle, and the savage,
grimy thing that was an eleven-year-old human, was fighting in his
grasp.
His crooned words, finding their way through the thin texture of two
air-hoods and the tenuous atmosphere between, did not soften the
ferocity of those pale eyes. Such eyes can be like a blank mask,
anyway--not unintelligent, but expressive of a different thought-plane.
"Easy, Will--easy, fella," Dayton said. "You couldn't last much longer
out here. Your compressor must be nearly worn out."
Reassurance failed. "Lemme go!" the boy snarled blurredly, his speech
rusted by solitude. Helped by his father, he had learned the tricks
of survival, here. His dimmed past was so different from his present
life that perhaps it seemed fearfully alien to him. As he bore the
struggling boy to the tractor-vehicle, Dayton had the odd idea that a
Martian, trapped by a man, might behave like this.
He recalled old yarns of boys raised by wolves or apes. Here was the
same simple loss of human ways--not by soul-migration, but the plain
molding of habit by a bizarre environment.
* * * * *
At the Port Laribee hospital, Will Terry was at first least disturbed
when left alone. But his whimpers at night reminded Dayton of the
mewling of a Martian storm.
Dolph Terry cursed the waiting for an Earth-liner and the lack of a
psychiatrist on Mars. Doran had no luck either at making friends with
Will. Meanwhile the tempests began.
But Doran had an idea. Visitors were still awaiting passage home, among
them children.
"Kids are kids, Joe," she told Dayton. "They may be able to reach Will.
I talked it over with Doc Lorring."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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