DARK DAWN

By Henry Kuttner

Writing under the pseudonym Keith Hammond.

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1947. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Blinded by an atomic blast, Dan Gresham joins forces with the radiant Swimmers to preserve an undersea civilization!

The Albacore was eight hundred miles out of Suva, feeling her way through the Pacific toward a destination unmarked except on the charts. She was a Navy cruiser jury-rigged into a floating laboratory, Navy manned, but carrying a dozen specialized technicians as passengers.

For days she had waited outside the danger area, till circling planes radioed word that the test atomic blast had apparently subsided. Then the Albacore went into a flurry of preparations. It was a miracle that the watch had sighted Gresham in his rubber boat, and a triple miracle that he was alive.

His eyes bandaged, he sat out on deck, while Black, the neurologist, leaned on the rail beside him and stared aft. Presently Black took out a pack of cigarettes, automatically held it out to Gresham, and then remembered that the man was blind.

“Cigarette?” he said.

“Yes, thanks. Is that you, Dr. Black?” Gresham’s voice was very low.

“Uh-huh. Here. I was watching that shark. He’s followed us from Suva.”

“Big one?”

“One of the biggest I ever saw,” Black said. “That’s the baby who tried to take a chunk out of you when we picked you up. He kept biting at our oars!”

“A pity he didn’t get me,” Gresham said. He tossed the cigarette away. “No use. If I can’t see the smoke, I can’t enjoy it.”

The neurologist studied his patient.

“We don’t know that you’re permanently blinded, after all. This is so new.”

“I was looking straight at it,” Gresham said bitterly. “It must have been miles and miles away, but I could feel it 

  P 1/15 next