Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space travelers -- Fiction
The temperature on this world was ideal. It stayed perpetually between
seventy and eighty-five, hardly ever varying above or below these
figures as rated on the Fahrenheit scale. Therefore there was no
necessity of window panes to keep out the cold. Even without a door
there was infinitely more privacy in these apartments than any man
had ever known on Earth. The golden men never entered without first
telepathizing their intentions in advance. Nor did anyone ever gaze
into another's apartment or home. These people strictly maintained the
ideal that a man's home is his castle.
His mind was surging with many thoughts. These Griffs, if he remembered
correctly, though fiercely armed, had showed definite evidences of
cowardice. He remembered the way they squealed when hurt. Their furious
attempts to escape when soundly beaten. There was a possibility they
could be trained. By force, if need be, but surely it would not hurt to
try.
Then, too, those strange blossoms that acted as an anesthetic upon the
golden people--perhaps they might act similarly upon the Griffs? It was
a theory worth investigating.
The next morning he left the city, a long coil of hemplike rope around
his arm. He found a group of the flowers he was looking for after a
brief search, and quickly snapped a number of the largest blossoms
at the stems. Their odor lent charm to the beauty of the scenery he
passed. It struck him that these flowers were the very personification
of the adage "one man's meat is another man's poison."
As though they knew he was searching for them, the Griffs seemed to
elude him. The day wore on and the sun began to set and still he had
found no Griffs. He began to wonder if the people of the golden city
would be worried as to his whereabouts.
But as the long fingers of evening began to stretch gray paths across
the sky, he was startled out of his thoughts by a fierce squealing. He
turned rapidly, and there, emerging from an almost unnoticed cavelike
formation was a red-eyed Griff, its teeth gnashing angrily.
Quickly Drawers formed the rope into a lasso. He gave it a few quick
turns around his head and let fly at the Griff. The noose settled
around the charging animal's neck. With a flick of his wrist Drawers
tightened the noose, then, utilizing all of his strength, pulled
the rope with a jerk to the right. The Griff choked and stumbled
momentarily. In a twinkling of an eye Drawers was drowning the beast
with the blossoms from the flowers he was carrying. The animal began
to cough. It made an attempt to rise, and then settled back. It was
panting now. Now its eyelids were closing and its breathing becoming
harder and harder.
Drawers kicked the creature in the ribs. It did not respond.
Drawers removed the blossoms from the animal's nostrils. Then he took
his rope and securely tied up its great jaws. With the happy whistle of
a boy released from school, he made his way back to the city of Saeve,
dragging the great beast behind him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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