[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Blinded by an atomic blast, Dan Gresham
joins forces with the radiant Swimmers
to preserve an undersea civilization!
The Albacore was eight hundred miles out of Suva, feeling her waythrough the Pacific toward a destination unmarked except on the charts.She was a Navy cruiser jury-rigged into a floating laboratory, Navymanned, but carrying a dozen specialized technicians as passengers.
For days she had waited outside the danger area, till circling planesradioed word that the test atomic blast had apparently subsided. Thenthe Albacore went into a flurry of preparations. It was a miracle thatthe watch had sighted Gresham in his rubber boat, and a triple miraclethat he was alive.
His eyes bandaged, he sat out on deck, while Black, the neurologist,leaned on the rail beside him and stared aft. Presently Black took out apack of cigarettes, automatically held it out to Gresham, and thenremembered that the man was blind.
“Cigarette?” he said.
“Yes, thanks. Is that you, Dr. Black?” Gresham’s voice was very low.
“Uh-huh. Here. I was watching that shark. He’s followed us from Suva.”
“Big one?”
“One of the biggest I ever saw,” Black said. “That’s the baby who triedto take a chunk out of you when we picked you up. He kept biting at ouroars!”
“A pity he didn’t get me,” Gresham said. He tossed the cigarette away.“No use. If I can’t see the smoke, I can’t enjoy it.”
The neurologist studied his patient.
“We don’t know that you’re permanently blinded, after all. This is sonew.”
“I was looking straight at it,” Gresham said bitterly. “It must havebeen miles and miles away, but I could feel it burning my eyes out inone flash. Don’t tell me!”
“All right. I won’t. But this is a completely new type of atomic blast.It isn’t uranium. It’s a controlled chain reaction based on anartificial element—there must be new types of radiation involved.”
“Fine. The next time there’s a war, we can blind everybody.” Greshamlaughed grimly. “I’ll be sorry for myself for a few months, probably.Then I’ll get a Seeing-Eye dog and become a useful member of societyagain. Huh!” He paused. When he spoke again his voice was different,doubtful, as if he didn’t quite realize he spoke aloud. “Or maybe not,”he said. “Maybe I’ll never be—useful—any more. Maybe I’m not justimagining....”
“Imagining?” Black said, interested. “What?”
Gresham jerked his bandaged face away.
“Nothing!” he declared sharply. “Forget it.”
Black shrugged. “Tell me about yourself, Gresham,” he suggested. “Wehaven’t had much time yet to get acquainted. How did you happen to beout here just now?”
Gresham shook his head irritably. “Just at the wrong spot and the wrongtime? Maybe it was meant that way from the start. Predestination—how doI know? Oh, I had enough after the war. I bummed around the islands.I—like the sea.” His voice softened. “Like isn’t strong enough. I lovethe sea. I can’t stay away from it. There’s a fascination—I signed onhere and there as a deck-hand, a stevedore—I didn’t care what. I justwanted to soak myself in the big things. Sun and sea and sky. Well, Ican still feel the sun and the wind, and I can hear the water. But Ican’t see it.”
There was no real conviction in the way he finished that last sentence.He turned his bandaged eyes a little to Black’s left and his face grewstrained, as if he were