The E. Hoffmann Price Fantasy & Science Fiction by E. Hoffmann Price

Author:E. Hoffmann Price
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, science fiction, pulp, short stories, adventure
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2017-01-05T05:00:00+00:00

THE SHADOW OF SATURN

Originally published in Weird Tales, March 1950.

What I have to say about the Siamese triplets will have nothing at all to do with any linking together of physical bodies. The bond which connected Dick Wayland, and Benson’s wife, Diane, was an invisible one.

Of the three, Wayland was the first I met. His upper eyelids, lurking beneath overhanging brows, betrayed their existence only by the lashes. His eyes had a purpose more important merely than looking and seeing. Except to a person of considerable self-assurance, they could have been intolerable whenever he chose to make them so. Now, however, they were amiable and winning as his voice.

“Why won’t you tell me how long I have to live, Mr. McQuoid?”

“If your health worries you, why not see your doctor instead of an astrologer?”

The man’s will drew back like a well-trained leopard, to remain poised behind the persuasiveness of smile and eyes. The nose, neither straight nor aquiline, added to his expression of power consciousness.

“There used to be a time,” he retorted, “when no doctor worth his salt was ignorant of astrology, and no astrologer ignorant of medicine. Just why won’t you tell me how many years I have ahead of me?”

“In the first place, to do so would be a violation of professional ethics.” I fingered the letter and the check which he had sent a few days previously. “In the second place, when you wrote me the minute and hour and date of birth, and the town also, you left out something quite important.”

“What was that?”

“You did not tell me that this is another man’s birth data, not your own. If only because you tried to trick me, I wouldn’t deal with you!”

“Do you mean,” he demanded, “that you believe you can judge at first sight whether I am older or younger than the date indicates?”

“The horoscope I set up describes a man taller and heavier than you are, Mr. Wayland. He has a squarish face. He is ruddy, he has thick hands and a thick neck, and is probably on the way to being bald. He loves spotlight. You prefer being the power behind the throne. Next time you try to pull a fast one, send data to fit.”

Wayland, however, was persistent. He wagged his head appreciatively and countered, “That was to see whether you knew your business. You said, he. That happens to be a woman’s birth data.”

“You never can get your fill, can you? Only a male could have been born when the degree corresponding to that time was rising. This cannot be a woman’s birth time. Here is your check. There is no charge. Whatever you are up to, I don’t want to deal with you.”

“Oh, all right, Mr. McQuoid! There are three of us in this. He and she and I. It is one of those situations.”

“And it’s important for you and her to outlive him?”

“Yes,” he answered. “First time in my life that anything ever has been really important.”

Whether I wanted it or not.

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