That would explain many things, including the paradox of two
individuals in one--who were not two, had never been two, yet were
different.
Postulate a gorilla, reborn in a man. His racial memories come to life
after a certain period of time. He is still a man, has the reasoning
ability of a man, is thoroughly Homo sapiens in everything, except
that suddenly he can swing through the trees and can think in a manner
strange to man--a furtive, sly, cunning, beastly way, if you like, but
a way that will help to preserve him even in the stone jungles of man.
As I said this to myself, I caught at one phrase therein. _Swing
through the trees._
It was obvious that my physical powers had undergone a terrific
change. I did not remember my hands ever being so powerful before.
Never, certainly, had my reflexes been so flawless. Why, take but
one instance: my leap from the second floor of the museum. That leap
yesterday would more than likely have cost me two fractured ankles.
Superstitiously I looked in the mirror again and felt my muscles. Had
they grown overnight, bulging out into the great biceps of whatever
primitive entity had emerged within me? So far as I could tell, they
were just my old muscles--not bad for a writer, because I swam a lot
and did calisthenics regularly, but surely no marvels as muscles go.
The change appeared to be in my use of them. Instinctively I could
employ them in the most effective way. What could that be but a racial
memory acting beneath the surface of the skin?
Other implausible explanations of the business occurred to me as I
packed. I discarded them. Nothing seemed to fit except the abrupt
return of a personality from eons ago, some great brute out of my
lineage. That chimed with the curious recollection I had had in the
cave, and with the accent I had several times put upon the word _man_
to describe my enemies. A gorilla? I laughed to myself. An intriguing
thought, indeed! I did not for a minute believe it. But what?
CHAPTER V
I caught the five A.M. train for another big city--never mind which. I
had about two hundred dollars in my wallet, a fair selection of clothes
and essentials in my Gladstone, and the portable typewriter in its
beat-up case. For a while I was well enough provided for. I settled
back in the reclining chair, watched the dawn come up beyond the
windows of the train, and listened with half an ear to the whispering
voice that was calling to me from the unknown.
An hour passed. I was drowsing, comfortably, my eyes shut. Then in
an instant I was wide awake. Someone was watching me. I felt their
gaze through my eyelids. As though moving in my sleep I turned myself
around, opened my eyes the merest slit. It was the girl across
the aisle. I observed her carefully. She was a pretty blonde, and
yesterday's Bill Cuff would have been flattered to find her regarding
him. Not I! A steady regard was a menacing thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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