Part 33 (1/2)

(Chorus) Spoken: Flee hence?

Spoken: Uh-fly hence?

(Chorus) Three Red Hearts and Three Gold Ly-hence!

Now to blast their hopes asunder, They find that they must go under Neath a mountain, where a troll Lurks in his disgusting hole.

They kill him and head towards their goal; Holger says, ”Now, bless my soul, That was worse than fighting giants.”

(Chorus) Three Red Hearts and Three Gold Liants!

Now, though it's no place for women, They come to church of St. Grimmin.

Round the altar they all flock: Holger pries up big stone block There is sword beneath the rock; Holger says, ”Now, this I grok!

We found it, though surrounded by haunts.”

(Chorus) Three Red Hearts and Three Gold Ly-haunts!

End of story! Jesu Christe!

Seems to me it's kind of misty.

He should be belted and earled, But through s.p.a.ce-time he is hurled, And, un-knighted and un-girled, He ends up in our own dull world.

His future's vague as that of Zion's.

(Chorus) Three Red Hearts and Three Gold Lions!

JOHN W. CAMBELL'S.

”WHO GOES THERE?”.

By Randall Garrett

John Campbell had his first story published in 1931, in the old Hugo Gernsback Amazing Stories. During the next seven years, he not only began to rival E. E. Smith as a writer of far-out s.p.a.ce opera, but, under the pen name ”Don A. Stuart,” wrote some very perceptive and sensitive stories in quite another style. He became editor of Astounding in 1938, and wrote very little thereafter except for his thought-provoking land often just plain provoking) editorials for the magazine.

Who Goes There? was published in 1938 under the Stuart byline, and when I first read it, I didn't know Stuart was Campbell. What I did know is that it scared the daylights out of me. It still does.

A very bad movie called The Thing from Outer s.p.a.ce was presumably based on it about 1950, but the resemblance was slight. James Arness stalked through it, looking like a cross between Frankenstein's monster and a triffid, and bearing no similarity whatever to Campbell's horror.

When I showed this verse to John, his only comment was: ”Well, it's a h.e.l.l of a lot better than The Thing.”

Here's a tale of chilling horror For the sort of guy who more or Less thinks being an explorer Is the kind of life for him.

If he finds his life a bore, he Ought to read this gory story, For he'll find exploratory Work is really rather grim.

For the story starts by stating That some guys investigating The Antarctic are debating On exactly what to do With a monster they've found frozen Near the campsite they have chose, And the quarrel grows and grows, un- Til they're in an awful stew.

There's a guy named Blair who wants to r- Eally check up on this monster And dissect it. To his conster- Nation, everyone's in doubt.

So, of course, he starts in pleading, And the rest of them start heeding All his statements, and conceding That the Thing should be thawed out.

So they let this Thing of evil Start to melt from its primeval Sheath of ice; they don't perceive a l- Ot of trouble will ensue.

When the Thing is thawed, it neatly Comes to life, and smiling sweetly, It absorbs some men completely, Changing them to monsters, too!

Now we reach the story's nub, il Luminating all the trouble; Each new monster is a double For the men they each replace.

Since it seems a man's own mother Couldn't tell one from the other, These guys all watch one another, Each with fear upon his face.

And so then the men are tested To see who has been digested, And who's been left unmolested, But the test don't work! It's hexed!

So each man just sits there, shrinking From the others, madly thinking, As he watches with unblinking Gaze, and wonders-Who Goes Next?

Now, they've found that executing Monsters can't be done by shooting; They require electrocuting, Or cremation with a torch.

When they find these Things, they grab 'em; They don't try to shoot or stab 'em; With high-voltage wires, they jab 'em 'Til their flesh begins to scorch.

So the entire expedition Eye each other with suspicion, For they're in a bad position, And there's no denying that!

Now, to clear this awful scramble, The ingenious Mr. Campbell, Suddenly, without preamble, Pulls a rabbit from the hat.

Here's the way they solve the muddle: They discover that a puddle Of a pseudo-human's blood'll Be a little monster, too!

With this test for separating Men from monsters, without waiting, They start right in liquidating All the monsters in the crew.