CLUTCH OF MORPHEUS
By LARRY STERNIG
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Thrilling Wonder Stories Winter 1946.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
At the doorway of the building that combined the home and laboratory ofDr. Felder, Wayne Randall almost changed his mind. Then he said, "Whatthe devil. Why not?" and rang the bell. It would, he hoped, embark himon a great adventure—an adventure into a strange world he had neverknown.
A red-headed girl in a white uniform answered the ring. Wayne caughthis breath at the fresh clean beauty of the face framed by the sleek,wavy, auburn hair. At the contrast of that hair with the blue eyes. Andat the slim but rounded figure.
Then he was aware that she had spoken, and flushed slightly at therealization of how hard he must have been staring.
"Is Doctor Felder in?" he asked, with embarrassment.
She nodded.
"Do you have an appointment? Dad is retired from active practice, youknow. Doing research in anesthesia."
"I'm not a patient—exactly," Wayne assured her. "It's in connectionwith his research that I'd like to see him. My name is Wayne Randall."
She opened the door wider.
"Come in, Mr. Randall. I'll see if he's busy."
"Will you wait?" the doctor's daughter asked Randall.
He waited near a window and watched the comet that hung low in thewestern sky. And in common with the other millions of people who werewatching Rackam's comet of 1954, Wayne wondered whether the scientistswere correct in stating that it would not affect conditions on earth.
But probably the astronomers knew what they were talking about.
The comet had changed amazingly since its first appearance. From a longgraceful curve, its tail had now shortened to a broad-based triangle.In another day or so, comet and tail alike would be invisible fromearth. For it was passing between earth and sun, on an orbital planealmost coinciding with the earth. The comet would be lost in the glareof the sun. Even now it was visible for only an hour or two of earlyevening. Earth would pass through its gaseous tail, was even nowentering the outer fringe of those gasses.
Wayne Randall shrugged, and turned from the window. After all, theastrophysicists knew more than he. True, they disagreed as to the exactchemical composition of the comet's tail, but they were unanimous insaying that it was too tenuous, too insubstantial, to affect earth orits organic life. It would take hundreds of thousands of cubic feet ofthe comet's gasses to equal in density a cubic inch of air, they said.
Well, thought Wayne, if they were that thin, probably the physicistswere right. He put the unimportant matter of the comet far back in hismind as the girl reappeared and escorted him to the laboratory.
Dr. Felder, a volatile little man with a pointed sandy beard and heavyshell-rimmed glasses, leaped up from a chair in which he had beensitting before a bench lined with cages.
He pumped Wayne's hand vigorously.
"Glad to meet you, Doctor Randall," he said in a voice that matched hishandshake. "I can't recall your name, but so many are doing excellentresearch in narcosis today. Everybody but me." He turned back towardthe work bench, ran an excited hand through his thinning hair, and thengrimaced humorously. "My subjects seem too sleepy. None of these darnedguinea pigs will stay