RESTRICTED TOOL
By Malcolm B. Morehart, Jr.
[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories ofScience and Fantasy January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover anyevidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Richard Clark loaded his shotgun. He glanced up the canyon, gray andmisty under a cold dawn sky. A cotton-tail darted from a nearby bush andbounced away. Clark's gunsights followed in a weaving line after hisbobbing target. Before he could draw a bead, the rabbit vanished behinda distant scrub oak. Clark stalked him quietly. He knew he'd bag thisone without trouble, but any others around him would take cover at hisfirst shot.
His boots crunched loudly on gravel. At the sound the rabbit sprang intothe open and zigzagged toward a thicket. Furious at his clumsiness,Clark blasted away with both barrels. He charged up the canyon, fumblingin his parka for more shells, and crashed through dank high brush into ashadowy clearing. A soft rustling sound quickly faded.
"Well, there he goes," Clark grumbled.
Something metallic glittered in a low, thorny shrub, and he bent down,curious. From a black cord caught in its branches dangled a silverypocket flashlight. He smiled faintly as he pulled it loose. After monthsof testing and inspecting complicated electronic devices, he foundsimple gadgets amusing. He pressed a button on one end and eyed a whiteknob on the other. When it didn't light up, he stuffed it in a pocket,finishing reloading, and sighed, "At least I bagged something."
"Quite true!" a voice shrilled behind him.
Clark whirled around and gasped in astonishment. Two squat dwarfish mencrouched at the far side of the clearing. When he swung up his 16 gauge,two lights flashed, and it slid out of his hands. He buckled dizzilywith weakness and nausea, but then an invisible force jolted him uprightand motionless. He felt rigid as stone.
"Who are you?" Clark called out hoarsely.
They approached, jabbering in a strange tongue. Bluish dawnlight seemedto tint their scrawny bare arms and legs a deeper, ghastly blue. Fromweazel-shaped heads bulged enormous dark eyes which stared at himunblinkingly. As they waddled closer they puffed under the weight ofheavy belts sagging with rows of odd, translucent instruments. Onecreature wore ear-phones. The other, his bald head sunken between hisshoulders, opened a round, moist, pink-rimmed mouth and bowed stiffly.
"Forgive us, please," he piped. "My biologist friend has brokenregulations."
"Who are you?" Clark choked again.
The bald one's eyes closed and his belly quivered with high, tremulouslaughter. "Tell him, Ursi!"
"Don't blame me!" the one called Ursi squeaked, then pointed a claw-likefinger at a glowing disc in his belt. "Interference disturbed thescanner scope. I didn't see him until he fired!"
Baldy chuckled. "He was after food, not your ugly hide. But in yourunseemly haste to escape, you dropped a valuable tool. A very carelessblunder. And now instead of mold specimens, you've collected a human. Iknew this expedition would prove interesting."
"We have to dispose of him!" Ursi shrieked and waved a black tube atClark menacingly.
"You'd kill him to recover your tool?" Baldy's nose