Tarrano the Conqueror | Page 8

the Central State
has suppressed news of it. At such a time--with this controversy going
on--such reports would only injure the Central State's inter-planetary
position. That's obvious, isn't it? Then tonight, when things were
desperate, the Central State gave out its call. Tarrano has conquered
Venus, I'm sure. And at the last, before destroying its helio, the Central
State tried to warn us."
"Of what?" I demanded. "And what about these murders?"
"Done by emissaries of Tarrano, no doubt. For revenge, because of the
Martian and Earth legislation--or for--"
"I think we should not speculate too much," said Georg. "At least, not
on that line. They warned you personally, father. We were so careful to
keep everything secret--"
Dr. Brende mopped his forehead. He was trying to appear calm--I knew
he did not want unduly to alarm Elza; but I could see that he was

laboring under great emotion nevertheless.
"Things get out, Georg," he said. "We have been careful--yes. But two
years ago, when I visited the Central State, I told them there what I
hoped to accomplish. There were no grave inter-planetary problems
then--I thought I had no need of great secrecy. And since then, though,
we have been very careful--"
Careful! With a Venus girl from the Cold Country living in their
household! Truly, humans are a strange mixture of sagacity and folly!
"The Central State has heard something concerning you," Georg said.
"That could easily happen--prisoners captured from Tarrano's forces,
for instance. With dispatches--or perhaps some intercepted aerial
message."
What was this secret they were discussing? I was the only one in the
room who did not know it. And why had Dr. Brende sent for me
tonight?
I asked him both questions. His face went even more solemn than it had
been before.
"I sent for you, Jac, because in a measure I anticipated what has now
befallen. Danger specifically to us Brendes, I mean. We count you as
our friend--"
How it warmed my heart to hear him say that; and to see the glance that
Elza cast me!
"--Our friend. I am an old man--you are young. Yet you are wise, too.
We need you tonight."
He raised his hand when I would have told him how glad I was to be
with them.
"You know something of my work," he said, as a statement, rather than
a question. "I should say, mine and Georg's and Elza's, for they have

both helped me materially."
I knew that Dr. Brende had for years been one of the Earth's most
eminent research physicians. It was he who discovered the light
vibrations which had banished forever the dread germs of several of the
major diseases. He did not practice; his work was research only.
He went on: "Jac, I have found what for years I have been striving to
find--a vibration of light, though it is invisible--which so far as I can
determine, kills every bacillus harmful to man. There is nothing new in
the idea--I have been working at it all my life. Sunlight! Altered and
modified in several particulars, yet sunlight nevertheless. How strange
that for countless centuries, man never realized the blessed boon of
sunlight--the greatest enemy of all disease!
"Each year, as you know, I have conquered some of what we call the
major diseases. A few of them--cancer[5], for instance--persisted in
eluding me. Its bacilli--you can easily recognize the tiny purplish,
horned rods which cause what we popularly call cancer--just would not
die. No form of light or other vibration I could devise, seemed to hurt
them--unless I used a vibration harmful, even fatal, to the
blood-contents itself: I killed the cancer--in the words of you
news-gatherers--but I also killed the patient."
[Footnote 5: A medical word, translated here as cancer, though
possibly not that.]
His eyes smiled at the jest, but his face remained intensely serious.
"Then, Jac, I solved that problem--just a few months ago. And upon the
heels of it I solved another, of infinitely more importance." He paused
slightly. "I have learned how to kill, or at least arrest, the bacillus of old
age. It is a bacillus, you know. We grow old because every day we live
beyond the age of thirty--the bacillus of old age is attacking us. I call
them the Brende-bacilli--these tiny, frayed discs that make us grow old.
I have seen them--and killed them!"
It dawned on me slowly, the import of what he was saying.

"You mean----"
"He means," said Georg, "that at present we cannot only banish
disease--all disease--but we can keep your body from aging. Not
permanently, doubtless--but with the span of life lengthened threefold
at least. Only by violence now need you die prematurely."
This then was the secret the existence of which Tarrano had learned. He
had....
But Dr. Brende