Part 12 (1/2)

That's certainly what I had done with Gulther. Here I was ready to accept his offer of a good job as his secretary, and I had to go and pull a drunken b.o.n.e.r!

I was still cursing myself for a fool two days later. Shadows that don't follow body movements, indeed! Who was that shadow I saw you with last night? That was no shadow, that was the Scotch I was drinking. Oh, fine!

So I stood in the drugstore and sprinkled my sundaes with curses as well as chopped nuts.

I nearly knocked the pecans off the counter that second night, when Fritz Gulther walked in again.

He hurried up to the counter and flashed me a tired smile.

”Got a minute to spare?”

”Sure-wait till I serve these people in the booth.”

I dumped the sundaes and raced back. Gulther perched himself on a stool and took off his hat. He was sweating profusely.

”Say-I want to apologize for the way I blew my stack the other night.”

”Why, that's all right, Mr. Gulther.”

”I got a little too excited, that's all. Liquor and success went to my head. No hard feelings, I want you to understand that. It's just that I was nervous. Your ribbing me about my shadow, that stuff sounded too much like the way I was always kidded for sticking to my studies in my room. Landlady used to accuse me of all sorts of things. Claimed I dissected her cat, that I was burning incense, messing the floor up with chalk. Some d.a.m.n fool college punks downstairs began to yap around that I was some kind of nut dabbling in witchcraft.”

I wasn't asking for his autobiography, remember. All this sounded a little hysterical. But then, Gulther looked the part. His sweating, the way his mouth wobbled and twitched as he got this out.

”But say, reason I stopped in was to see if you could fix me up a sedative. No, no bromo or aspirin. I've been taking plenty of that stuff ever since the other evening. My nerves are all shot. That job of mine down at Newsohm takes it all out of me.”

”Wait a minute, I'll get something.”

I made for the back room. As I compounded I sneaked a look at Gulther through the slot.

All right, I'll be honest. It wasn't Gulther I wanted to look at. It was his shadow.

When a customer sits at the counter stools, the storelights. .h.i.t him so that his shadow is just a little black pool beneath his feet.

Gulther's shadow was a complete silhouette of his body, in outline. A black, deep shadow.

I blinked, but that didn't help.

Stranger still, the shadow seemed to be cast parallel parallel with his body, instead of at an angle from it. It grew out from his chest instead of his legs. I don't know refraction, the laws of light, all that technical stuff. All I know is that Fritz Gulther had a big black shadow sitting beside him on the floor, and that the sight of it sent cold s.h.i.+vers along my spine. with his body, instead of at an angle from it. It grew out from his chest instead of his legs. I don't know refraction, the laws of light, all that technical stuff. All I know is that Fritz Gulther had a big black shadow sitting beside him on the floor, and that the sight of it sent cold s.h.i.+vers along my spine.

I wasn't drunk. Neither was he. Neither was the shadow. All three of us existed.

Now Gulther was putting his hat back on.

But not the shadow. It just sat there. Crouched.

It was all wrong.

The shadow was no denser at one spot than at another. It was evenly dark, and-I noted this particularly-the outlines did not blur or fade. They were solid.

I stared and stared. I saw a lot now I'd never noticed. The shadow wore no clothes. Of course! Why should it put on a hat? It was naked, that shadow. But it belonged to Gulther-it wore spectacles. It was his shadow, all right. Which suited me fine, because I I didn't want it. didn't want it.

Now Gulther was looking down over his shoulder. He He was looking at his shadow now. Even from a distance I fancied I saw new beads of sweat string a rosary of fear across his forehead. was looking at his shadow now. Even from a distance I fancied I saw new beads of sweat string a rosary of fear across his forehead.

He knew, all right!

I came out, finally.

”Here it is,” I said. I kept my eyes from his face.

”Good. Hope it works. Must get some sleep. And say-that job offer still goes. How about coming down tomorrow morning?”

I nodded, forcing a smile.

Gulther paid me, rose.

”See you then.”

”Certainly.” And why not? After all, what if you do work for a boss with an unnatural shadow? Most bosses have other faults, worse ones and more concrete. That shadow-whatever it was and whatever was wrong with it-wouldn't bite me. Though Gulther acted as though it might bite him. him.

As he turned away I looked at his departing back, and at the long, swooping black outline which followed it. The shadow rose and stalked after him. Stalked. Yes, it followed quite purposefully. To my now bewildered eyes it seemed larger than it had in the tavern. Larger, and a bolder black.

Then the night swallowed Gulther and his nonexistent companion.

I went back to the rear of the store and swallowed the other half of the sedative I'd made up for that purpose. After seeing that shadow, I needed it as much as he did.

The girl in the ornate outer office smiled prettily. ”Go right in,” she warbled. ”He's expecting you.”

So it was true, then. Gulther was a.s.sistant research director, and I was to be his secretary.

I floated in. In the morning suns.h.i.+ne I forgot all about shadows.

The inner office was elaborately furnished-a huge place with elegant walnut paneling a.s.sociated with business authority. There was a kidney desk set before closed venetian blinds, and a variety of comfortable leather armchairs. Fluorescent lighting gleamed pleasantly.

But there was no Gulther. Probably on the other side of the little door at the back, talking to his Chief.

I sat down, with the tight feeling of antic.i.p.ation hugged somewhere within my stomach. I glanced around, taking in the room again. My gaze swept the gla.s.s-topped desk. It was bare. Except in the corner, were a small box of cigars rested.

No, wait a minute. That wasn't a cigar-box. It was metal. I'd seen it somewhere before.

Of course! It was Gulther's iron-bound book.

”German inorganic chemistry.” Who was I to doubt his word? So naturally, I just had to sneak a look before he came in.

I opened the yellowed pages.

De Vermis Mysteriis.

”Mysteries of the Worm.”