Magical Worlds - 06 - Mythical Beasties by Asimov Isaac

Author:Asimov, Isaac [Asimov, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

178

Jack Vance

but nonetheless a creature of respectable size. Standing on the float, a stalwart old Swindler Hung a noose around the creature’s turret, and on the pad a line of fifty men marched away with a heavy rope. The astonished kragen was towed to the outward leaning derrick, swung up and in. The dangling vanes were lashed; it was lowered to the float. As soon as the bulk collapsed the watching folk, crying out in glee, shoved forward, almost dancing into the gnashing mandibles. “Back, fools!” roared Sklar Hast. “Do you want to be cut in half? Back!” He was largely ignored. A dozen chisels hacked at the horoy hide; clubs battered at the eyes- “Back!” raged Sklar Hast. “Back! What do you achieve by antics such as this? Back!” Daunted, the vengeful folk moved aside. Sklar Hast took chisel and mallet and as he had done on Tranque Float, cut at the membrane joining dome to turret. He was joined by four others; the channel was swiftly cut and a dozen hands ripped away the dome. Again, with pitiless outcry, the crowd surged forward-Sklar Hast’s efforts to halt them were fruitless. The nerves and cords of the creature’s ganglionic center were torn from the turret, while the kragen jerked and fluttered and made a buzzing sound with its mandibles. The turret was plucked clean of the wet-string fibers as well as other organs, and the kragen lay limp. Sklar Hast moved away in disgust. Another member of the Seven, Nicklas Rile, stepped forward; “Halt now—no more senseless hacking! If the kragen has bones harder than our own, we will want to preserve them for use. Who knows what use can be made of a kragen’s cadaver? The hide is tough; the mandibles are harder than the deepest stalk. Let us proceed intelligently!”

Sklar Hast watched from a little distance as the crowd examined the dead beast. He had no further interest in the kragen. A planned experiment had been foiled almost as soon as the hate-driven mob had rushed forward. But there would be more kragen for his derricks; hopefully they could be noosed by the sea-derrick before they broke into the lagoon. In years to come, strongboats or barges equipped with derricks might even go forth to hunt the kragen. … He approached the kragen once again, peered into me empty turret, where now welled a viscous milky blue fluid. James Brunei,

THE KRAGEN 179

in his Dicta, had asserted that the metal iron was a constituent of human blood; conceivably other metals or metallic compounds might be discovered in me blood of a kragen. He found Meth Cagno, who had been watching from a dignified distance, and communicated his hypothesis. Cagno made no dissent. “It may well be the case. Our basic problem, however, remains as before; separating the metal from the dross.”

“You have no idea how to proceed?”

Meth Cagno smiled slightly. “I have one or two ideas. In fact, tomorrow, at noon precisely, we will test one of these ideas.

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