Dynasty of the Small: Classic Science Fiction Stories

By John Russell Fearn

Mankind was being assailed by a disease that made the Bubonic Plague seem insignificant. People were dying by the thousands, especially in America and in England. They would choke, strangle to death, and then, horribly, burst apart as if blown up by gas! And the horror had been unwittingly caused by one man, Doctor Blair, who had, ironically, tried to invent something that would benefit mankind by eliminating all disease! Instead, the results of his experiment led to the world facing total disaster from...the "Dynasty of the Small"! In addition to the title novella, this collection includes the stories "Ice Maiden," "The Vicious Circle," "Chaos," and "Sweet Mystery of Life." Great reading from the classic era of the science-fiction magazines.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Sep 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781434448828

Book preview

BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY JOHN RUSSELL FEARN

1,000-Year Voyage: A Science Fiction Novel

The Crimson Rambler: A Crime Novel

Don’t Touch Me: A Crime Novel

Dynasty of the Small: Classic Science Fiction Stories

The Empty Coffins: A Mystery of Horror

The Fourth Door: A Mystery Novel

From Afar: A Science Fiction Mystery

The G-Bomb: A Science Fiction Novel

Here and Now: A Science Fiction Novel

Into the Unknown: A Science Fiction Tale

The Man Who Was Not: A Crime Novel

One Way Out: A Crime Novel (with Philip Harbottle)

Pattern of Murder: A Classic Crime Novel

Reflected Glory: A Dr. Castle Classic Crime Novel

Robbery Without Violence: Two Science Fiction Crime Stories

Shattering Glass: A Crime Novel

The Silvered Cage: A Scientific Murder Mystery

Slaves of Ijax: A Science Fiction Novel

The Space Warp: A Science Fiction Novel

Vision Sinister: A Scientific Detective Thriller

What Happened to Hammond? A Scientific Mystery

Within That Room!: A Classic Crime Novel

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 1936, 1946, 1947, 1955 by John Russell Fearn; Copyright © 2012 by Philip Harbottle

Published by Wildside Press LLC

www.wildsidebooks.com

DEDICATION

For David Ward

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

These stories were previously published as follows, and are reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and his agent, Cosmos Literary Agency.

Dynasty of the Small was first published in Astounding Stories, November 1936. Copyright © 1936 by John Russell Fearn; Copyright © 2012 by Philip Harbottle.

Ice Maiden was first published in British Science Fiction Magazine # 12, 1955 as A Matter of Vibration. Copyright © 1955 by John Russell Fearn; Copyright © 2011 by Philip Harbottle.

The Vicious Circle was first published in Startling Stories, Summer 1946. Copyright © 1946 by John Russell Fearn; Copyright © 2003 by Philip Harbottle.

Chaos was first published in Startling Stories. November 1947. Copyright © 1947 by John Russell Fearn; Copyright © 2004 by Philip Harbottle.

Sweet Mystery of Life was first published in New Worlds #1, July 1946. Copyright © 1946 by John Russell Fearn; Copyright © 2012 by Philip Harbottle.

DYNASTY OF THE SMALL

CHAPTER 1

As an independent chronicler of the astounding results following Dr. Haddon Blair’s efforts to eliminate disease germs from the world, my name may not be mentioned. Suffice it that I have been a witness throughout the entire sequence of events, and it is because so many misinformed people today regard the otherwise benevolent and singularly irresponsible Blair as a world-wrecker, that I am trying, purely out of Christian spirit, to absolve him from all taint of criminal inclination.

The business started, as such things do, in the simplest manner. Blair, bacteriological instructor at the Research College of Science, was wont to spend his leisure hours investigating the realms of disease, studying antitoxins and serums, poring over microscopes, examining the formation of cells, protoplasm, blood, and whatnot. No form of bacilli escaped his tireless searching. I have myself seen him work far into the night at the laboratory—a short, bald-headed man, thin-shouldered and nervously earnest, his dark eyes forever alternating between his beloved microscope and voluminous scrapbook of notes.

Most students believed he was eccentric; indeed, they were rarely so polite. What on earth did he hope to gain from such an exhaustive examination of bacilli, parasites, and Protozoa? Nobody knew—until a celebrated day in November, 2017, when he published his remarkable monograph on the cause of all protozoic diseases.

He claimed that he could kill all diseases that had this multi-cellular organism as their base, and was quite confident that the unicellular bacteria would also soon come under his control. Disease, he assured the medical circles, was doomed. I read his monograph myself, but not being a bacteriologist I had some difficulty in understanding it; still, he certainly had the right and logical idea.

His method was to destroy—by a method that he rightly withheld from his monograph—the protoplasmic nucleus of Protozoa. This, it appeared, killed the cell itself. He went on to explain how the Protozoa created, in parasitic form, such virulent diseases as sleeping sickness, malaria, and so forth.

So much I gathered from his monograph; later, in due order, I learned his method of annihilation—but to that in its proper sequence. What mattered at that time was that, much though I regret to state it, the medical profession—either from a sense of jealousy or because they knew Blair spoke truth and would thereby ultimately put them out of business—utterly ridiculed the conception and forced the brilliant, sensitive Blair to retire into his shell and continue his work in secret.

This state of affairs lasted for some weeks, until there arrived on the scene the bluff, nut-brown giant known throughout the world as Captain Barry Northern, big-game hunter, tropical explorer, and president of American Tropical Explorations, Inc.

Dr. Blair watched him with a quiet expectancy, as he was shown into his study in the college annex.

I’m a man of few words, doctor, the captain began, seating himself at Blair’s request. Both my fellow directors and myself have read your recently published monograph on the absolute cure of all protozoic, tropical diseases. We believe that you really have the secret, and are willing to purchase it.

Purchase it? Blair shrugged and smiled whimsically. My dear captain, my antitoxin, as we will call it, is not a patent medicine. It is the absolute solution of all diseases, which have the protozoan as the basis. Most certainly it is not for sale.

Forgive me if I sound rather commercial, the captain apologized, but we really are prepared to purchase the formula for this—er—antitoxin from you. Just consider its enormous value to us! We lose many good men through tropical disease. We honestly believe in you, doctor, and be damned to what these petty doctors say! Why, you’ve found for tropical disease what Nietzsche found for ethics and Einstein for space!

Thank you, said Blair quietly, clasping his thin, nervous hands on the desk before him. I’m glad to learn that somebody is at least interested. My antitoxin is unique in that it is progressive in its action. Suppose I explain, then if you are still impressed we may negotiate further? I would much rather you knew the details, you know.

But I do! Your monograph—

"Ah, yes, the monograph! Well, it was a very technically arranged piece of work, hardly phrased to suit the requirements of so practical a body as Explorations, Inc. To put it more clearly, captain, we will take sleeping sickness as our example. In this case the victim is first bitten, probably by a tsetse fly, which hands on the parasitic Protozoa into the blood of the victim, and there develops the endoparasitic disease of sleeping sickness.

Now, Protozoa are, of course, more; highly developed organisms than bacteria; they are multi-cellular and divide by fission. Two become four, four become eight—and so on. Bacteria, on the other hand, are unicellular and far more difficult to destroy from the scientific point of view. Protozoa, though, possessing such amazing powers of multiplication, soon get their victim down. The center of their cells is composed of protoplasm, a granular viscid substance consisting of water to the extent of three quarters of its weight.

Well? Northern asked, listening intently.

"It is that protoplasmic nucleus that has so interested me, captain. Protoplasm in the germ world—indeed in any world—is life. Life to another. Life is all one grand parasitism. Everything lives on something else; lives on the protoplasm of the other. You understand?"

Why surely! Bigger fleas have smaller fleas upon their backs to bite ’em! Of course I understand! But go on, please.

Well, I have been rather handicapped in my efforts by there being some six million cells in a drop of blood equal to two pins’ heads—but thanks to the ultra-powerful microscopes I have devised from the resources of this college I have managed to be successful. So far I have related only the externals of my discovery. If you would care to step into the adjoining laboratory I will give you a practical demonstration.

Delighted! The captain rose with alacrity to his feet, and followed the small savant from the study.

* * * *

Ten minutes of adjustment with his specially designed microscopes, and the placing on the slide of a drop of blood from a nearby phial completed Blair’s preliminaries. Then he motioned to the explorer to look.

Obeying, the captain focused the lenses and studied in silence a vision of blood crystals, with a dark agglomeration of foreign substance to the extreme right of the illumined circle of vision.

Living flagellate Protozoa known as trypanosomes of sleeping sickness, transmitted to blood by the bite of the tsetse fly, Blair explained sonorously. Normally they would finally invade the cerebrospinal fluid. Now, just keep on watching, captain. There! Now what do you see?

At the words another spot of foreign matter dropped into view, moved indolently for a space amidst the blood crystals, then gravitated as though by chemical affinity directly upon the trypanosomes. Within five seconds the trypanosomes had completely vanished!

Say, that was terrific! the explorer exclaimed enthusiastically, raising his eyes. I never saw anything so swift in all my life. How did you do it?

Blair smiled. Explained in detail it would give away my secret, he replied quietly. "Still, I can outline what happened. In the bacteriological realms, captain, there exist, as any scientist will tell you, hundreds of unknown forms of life. For instance, the Protozoa, more highly developed than the bacteria, are the deadly enemy of bacteria. I reasoned that there must therefore be something that would likewise be the relentless enemy of Protozoa, and yet harmless to everything else.

"At last I found it—a minute animalcule with a crawling movement which I myself created by the cross-fertilization of lowly cells and amoeba. Through long years I worked, until at last I created a creature that could exist only on the protoplasm contained with the cell nucleus of Protozoa.

All cells are different, all protoplasm is different; there is a specialized type to everything in nature. So my amoebical baby, weaned on Protozoa protoplasm, always seeks the Protozea when injected into the blood stream. Naturally my animalcule are capable of fission and multiply at an amazing speed. But you perceive, since it is only fatal to Protozoa, that the body as a whole is unharmed completely, my animalcule making no toxic effects whatever on the blood stream, and when there are no more Protozoa left to feed upon, my animalcule dies from starvation. The blood stream then resumes its normal condition. Instantaneous cure is the result.

That’s marvelous! the captain muttered. But, tell me—how did you manage to manufacture this microscopic life? I thought creation of life was impossible?

I didn’t manufacture life, my friend. I took living cells, compounds of protoplasm, chromatin, plant chlorphyll, and so forth, and brought about a complex crossbreeding. That’s all.

The little scientist paused and smiled reflectively. Bacteria will be much more difficult, though. With their minute fungoid bases and insensibility to heat and cold extremes—

Quite so—but about this stuff of yours. Are you willing to sell it?

No, the formula is too valuable for inexperienced hands. I have a better proposition, a compromise. I will make up a bottle of the substance, complete with instructions as to method of injection, etc. If any of you are taken ill on your forthcoming tropic exploration and prove my antitoxin to be all I claim for it, your company must vindicate me in the eyes of the world and medical profession.

It’s a deal! Northern declared promptly, extending a