The Bloodless Peril by Will Garth (Henry Kuttner) Read online

  This second laboratory was about

  yawning, closed it as flashing death struck thirty feet high and as large as a football it, sagged to the peat moss bed, then grew field. Its light was different. Looking up, green and tall again. There were perennials Storm saw that only half the bank of lights too: plants taking longer than a season to were on. There were no tanks in here, save grow. These mushroomed in three-second

  a small one nearby which was empty; a

  spurts until they were tall trees, dropped temporary forcing bed of some sort no

  fantastic blooms, then died again.

  longer used but not yet taken from the big

  “Plants as rulers of Earth,” Laura

  room. The plant life of the place grew from Hart said softly, as she unlocked the inner peat moss on the floor, open and

  door. “Flowers as overlords. There will be unrestricted.

  peace when human beings are gone. Plants

  And what plant life!

  have no greed for power, no instinct for

  Each plant was twelve to fifteen

  murder. They do not kill as men do.”

  feet tall and as large around as a man’s

  Storm was awed by this woman thigh. Its Upper half was a naked stalk who had gone as far in botany as he had in crowned with a blazing orange bloom as

  bacteriology. But he couldn’t let that pass.

  big as a hogshead.

  “A world of cabbages!” he snorted.

  A forest of the things stretched

  “Peace? It will be the peace of a turnip! I’d from door to far wall of the secret

  rather be ruled by bloody despots than by laboratory. And though there was no breeze milkweeds!”

  in here, they swayed a little as though

  He stared curiously at her.

  imbued with animate life.

  “You know,” he said in a different

  “The common day-lily,” said Laura

  tone, “I’m wondering if this sweet future Hart. “At least it was the common day-lily world of yours will be as serene as you

  a million generations ago. Now it is as you think! It may be that some law of survival see it—the probable future ruler of Earth.”

  of the fittest will hold true even then. There

  “The sweet flower king, eh?”

  are warlike plants, you know. And all will growled Ryder. “But I don’t believe it.

  fight for the root-spread that means their What are these things, after all, but

  existence.”

  overgrown yellow flowers? Any beast that

  browses can cut them down. There may be

  LAURA smiled. The smile made Ryder’s

  evolving insects to kill them. Or man—the hands clench. It was so unmoved and scientist of the future—can find ways to impersonal. If he could only reach this annihilate their whole species.”

  woman—hurt her—do anything so she

  “Insects?” smiled Laura Hart.

  would become a human being instead of a

  “These plants have developed sap that is

  pacifistic thinking machine!

  poisonous, searing. Man? If humanity

  “I have worked with plants all my

  doesn’t decimate itself in war, it will refuse life, Ryder. I know them. Animals, to work together—as always in history—

  including man, are vile and murderous. until too late. Beasts? They can’t harm Plants are clean and placid. But you shall them unless they develop higher reasoning see.”

  powers than these flowers possess.”

  Storm followed her into the inner

  Storm stared at her.

  The Bloodless Peril

  7

  “You

  mean

  to

  say—these

  grimly, “your beautiful plants which will vegetables can reason?”

  some day make this a better world—seem

  “Yes. They can. They possess not to be so peaceful after all. There goes intelligence, Ryder. I don’t profess to know the last of your peonies. The lilies have what kind, or what sort of nervous system devoured them!”

  produces it. But they have it. And

  Laura’s hand was at her throat. Her

  experiments prove that they are face was like death, as she saw the limp occasionally mobile; they can move from

  roots of the lesser plant slowly and grimly place to place as animal things can. That drawn into the beautiful bloom of the

  means they could move from dry spots to

  larger.

  moist ones, from barren ground to fertile.”

  To her this was supreme tragedy.

  She stopped and frowned.

  For half her life she had built her ideas on

  “That’s odd,” she said, looking the thought that some day the world would down between rows of enormous, weaving

  be governed by things of peace—plant-

  flower stalks. “There was a bed of giant

  things among which there would be none

  peonies in here. I don’t see them now.”

  of the wars and destruction practiced by

  “They may have evolved right out

  humans. She had dreamed of a brighter,

  of the picture,” Storm grunted.

  better day; and, dreaming, she hadn’t cared Laura took the sentence seriously.

  in the least what happened to humankind

  “No. I stopped the rapid growth-

  including herself.

  span of these plants at this perfect stage.

  And now—one species of her

  The proper chemicals are in their peat moss super-plant had warred on another! Had

  bed, but they must have the violet light for warred and won, and devoured the losers!

  rapid evolution.”

  Storm, guessing her tragic thoughts,

  She

  pointed

  upward.

  took her hand in his.

  “As you see, the violet ray tubes are

  “Don’t feel like that,” he said

  not on. Only ordinary sunlight tubes. So the gently. “You’re a great scientist, but you’ve peonies could not have completed their made the mistake so many pacifists make.

  evolutionary span while I was away—”

  That is, to ignore the rule that life Is a battle. Nothing lives that doesn’t have to AGAIN she stopped. Her eyes widened.

  fight something else for its life. In your

  “Ryder — something is wrong in

  future, which turns out to be not so sublime here! I can feel it—”

  after all, the lilies are crowded by the

  “Yes, I think something is!” Storm

  peonies, so they war on them and the war

  exclaimed. “And I think I can tell you

  can only end in the extinction of one or the where your peonies are! Look!”

  other. In the present, the yellow race feels He pointed to a great plant. The big

  crowded by the white, so there is a war that yellow bloom was closed. But from the

  can end only in—”

  tight-closed rim a wilted green length

  He stopped. His hand tightened

  trailed. It was like a vine tendril trailing over hers.

  from the mouth of a tightly closed sack. Or

  “What is it?” Laura asked

  like the tail of a small serpent protruding apathetically.

  from the swallowing jaws of a larger,

  “The door. Look toward the door.”

  cannibalistic one!

  Laura turned. Slowly the desperate

  “Your sweet flowers,” Storm said

  disillusion in her eyes was replaced by an

  Thrilling Wonder Stories 8

  emotion that had nothing to do with general living quarters, but there are two intellect: the emotion of stark fear.

  locked metal d
oors between us and them.

  Between them and the door, where

  We can’t get out because of the lilies. Help there had been a wide, clear aisle, there was can’t come to us because of the locks—”

  now a weaving triple row of gigantic day-

  All the great flowers had their roots

  lilies!

  exposed now. And all were advancing, rank

  “Ryder! What does it mean?”

  on rank, closing in on the two.

  Storm had his arm defensively

  “I’ll try to get to the door,” said

  around her shoulders.

  Storm, with his forced calm. “These things

  “The things have surrounded us—to

  can’t be able to move fast.”

  give us the same fate as the peonies! It

  He walked toward the front rank of

  means they’re so warlike that they’ll attack the plant-things that had got between them anything moving and living within their

  and the exit. He leaped forward, big arms range!”

  driving to tear a way between the stalks.

  “But it can’t be! I’ve been in here

  Like a flash the nearest stalks

  many times before, alone, and they haven’t whipped down. Green tentacles coiled

  acted like this.”

  around his arms and body.

  “Probably because they were

  “Ryder!” screamed the woman.

  weakened and dull from too rapid growth.

  But Storm was only too desperately

  You have now slowed their growth to aware of what had just happened. With normal, and they have gathered normal their swift moves, the plants had dropped strength—and mobility!”

  the big flowers from their stalks. Like giant He stared at the nearest lily, nerves

  toads, the blooms hit the moss-covered

  crawling in his body.

  cave floor with a dreadful soft plopping

  The roots of the thing were slowly

  sound. But they did not lie there.

  withdrawing from the peat moss. Like

  With the instant of their landing,

  bloodless worms creeping, they came out

  they began to move on weaving fringes

  of the bed; and when they were bared, the toward the big red-bearded man.

  plant they supported moved teeteringly

  “Ryder—”

  toward them.

  One of the separated blooms

  enveloped him to the hips. Its curling,

  NEAR the door the lily stalks all stood on lovely cup sucked tight. From sections of exposed roots. They joined in the slow

  its vast rim came slow trickles of some sort march toward Laura and Storm.

  of digestive acid.

  Intelligence? Yes, they did have

  Sweat beaded Storm’s forehead.

  some sort of intelligence. Must have it!

  The muscles of his arms and barrel chest

  Only reason could have made them move

  writhed as he fought to tear free. Death

  between the man and woman and their one

  stared at him. Then, with a cracking of

  way of exit.

  shoulder tendons, he wrenched his arms

  “They’re coming closer—”

  from the green coils. He fell back over the whispered Laura, primeval fear in her eyes.

  blossom that had clamped his legs together,

  “What can we do?”

  and rolled away.

  “Have you an ax?” asked Storm,

  Laura ran to him. With raking nails

  keeping his voice calm.

  she clawed at the ferocious flower cup. Its

  “Not in here. There are some in the

  walls were thin but tough, like orange-

  The Bloodless Peril

  9

  enamelled patent-leather. They defied her to lift the lid, too, and get in to them!

  hands. But some of the rim reached

  The blunt, fiowerless end of one of

  hungrily for her, and with that slight them found the overhang of the lid. It lessening of the deadly grip, Storm tore

  moved up, with the lid opening as it

  free.

  moved.

  His eyes thanked her for the help—

  “We’ll fix that,” Storm said thickly.

  probably the first destructive move she had He motioned Laura to the side of the case ever made. But he only said jerkily:

  on which was the lid hinge. He leaned

  “That tank! Run, before they cut us

  powerfully against the glass wall, and she off from that too!”

  added her weight to his. The glass tilted, Behind them was the glass fell on its side. The green coil which had experimental tank, noted before by Storm.

  entered was wrenched out by the

  Empty, unused, it offered a forlorn haven.

  movement of the case. Again—and the

  A whipping stalk looped down glass tank lay on its top, sealing the lid shut before them as they ran for the tank. The with its own weight.

  flower dropped from it, to plop on the moss

  “They can’t get in now.”

  and start inching toward them. Storm

  No, they could not get in. But

  seized the thick stalk and wrenched at it.

  neither could the two victims get out!

  He did not succeed in tearing it in two, but Storm exclaimed suddenly. His

  the whole plant shivered and jerked back, clothes from the waist down were

  leaving the way clear for a few seconds.

  beginning to smoke. The skin of his legs

  felt as though bathed in liquid flame.

  THE tank had a glass top as well as glass The digestive acid dripped by the

  sides. The top was hinged, a glass lid.

  first flower cup was eating in.

  Storm lifted it up.

  He tore the garments from him,

  “In,

  Laura!”

  then ripped off the tunic of his shirt and The woman climbed in. Storm wiped the deadly stuff from his legs. He slithered after her. The lid banged down.

  straightened, big torso bared from the waist The two stared at each other with

  up, and his breath hissed between his teeth.

  eyes in which horror was only a little

  Flower cups were clustered against

  lessened. The tank was a haven for the

  the glass tank like bees on honey. From

  moment. It would probably be their coffin each dripped the viscous stuff they secreted in a little while!

  for absorption of victims. And under the

  Moving with amazing quickness on

  slow drip of that stuff the unbreakable glass their wormlike roots, the giant stalks had was turning milky—and was pitting!

  surrounded the tank. On all sides, the big

  “They can actually disintegrate

  orange blooms crawled toward the glass,

  glass!” Storm exclaimed. “See those pits!

  separated from their stems. They piled up They’ll be through in an hour or less!”

  around the case, sucking at it with acid-

  Laura Hart nodded in a dazed sort

  dripping rims, trying to reach the two. And of way. Her eyes were filled with despair.

  then they proved again that they were able

  “We’re going to die in this tank.

  somehow to see and reason.

  We’re going to be killed and eaten—by the These two creatures had entered the

  creations I thought so peaceable and

  glass case through an uplifted lid—

  superior to humanity.”

  promptly the tough stalks felt along the top She began to shudder, almost

  Thrilling Wonder Stories 10

  rhythmically. Storm held
her close.

  Besides, the rapid evolutionary process

  “We’re not dead yet.”

  can’t help but weaken the plants. Laura,

  Then he thrust her from him. He

  where’s that switch?”

  cursed deep in his throat, at himself, curses Hope dulled again in her sea-blue

  that sounded like prayers.

  eyes.

  “What an idiot! There is a way—”

  “It’s over on that panel.” She

  pointed toward the wall of the subterranean HE caught Laura’s shoulder. “Where is the laboratory forty feet away. “We can’t

  switch controlling the overhead ultra-

  possibly reach it. There are dozens of the violet-tubes?”

  things between this tank and it.”

  “The violet-tubes?” repeated Laura.

  “But we can reach it! We can get to

  “Yes. Listen—You said you had it simply by rolling this tank over and over slowed the evolution of these damnable

  toward it. We rolled it over on its top to things by shutting off the violet rays clamp the lid shut, didn’t we? Then why overhead.”

  couldn’t we roll it some more—to reach a

  Laura nodded, eyes mystified.

  definite goal?”

  “All right. Suppose we could switch

  “Ryder—”

  Laura’s

  fingers bit into

  them on again. The rapid growth-span of

  his arm. “I really think we could. But if we the plants in here would be resumed, can do that, why not simply roll to the door wouldn’t it? They’d pick up their quick

  and escape?”

  progress in evolution wouldn’t they, with

  “Because the door happens to open