creature. Its head was flat and broad and satupon its sloping shoulders without a connecting neck. Its legs wereshort, but its arms were long, and when standing erect it carried themwell in front of an enormous torso. Its short hands and feet were webbedlike those of a duck. It had no visible ears, and its nostrils were mereholes above a wide, grinning, thin-lipped mouth, which was always spreadin a grin. Its large, round, red eyes had no gleam of intelligence, andits hairless skin, covered with minute, sucker-like scales, lay inloose, ugly folds across its great chest. Most of its movements wereslow and uncertain, and it hopped about over the floor like a gianttoad, uttering guttural sounds deep within its chest. Omega had set outto create an ape-man, but this thing was neither man nor beast, bird orreptile, but a travesty on all--an unspeakable horror from the dead wombof the past.
Yet hideous as this creature was Omega looked upon it with a certaindegree of gratitude. It was a companion at least, and it seemed toreciprocate the respect of its creator by fawning upon him and lickinghis hand. Its red tongue always hung from its slavering mouth like thatof a panting dog. Omega named it The Grinner, because of its habitualand ghastly smile. He took it to the cottage that it might wait on himthrough the long hours of solitude. That night it slept by his side,content and motionless. But the next morning after this first night ofincongruous companionship Omega was awakened by its stertorousbreathing and the touch of a cold, clammy sweat which was oozing fromits pores and dropping upon the floor.
* * * * *
Throughout the day Omega marveled at this phenomenon. He noticed thatthe weird thing went often to the drinking fountain and wrapped itstongue about the water jet. That night he awakened at midnight to findThe Grinner gone. He did not bother to look for him and mid-forenoon hereturned. His rotund form seemed to have grown even larger, and as heambled about on all fours the sweat trickled from his repulsive skin andtrailed across the floor. It was a strange thing and Omega was at a lossto account for it, but his wonder was eclipsed by his appreciation ofThe Grinner's companionship. The Grinner was often absent for hours at atime, but he always returned of his own free will. Omega often saw himambling among the rocks or stretched out in the sun on the beach. Heformed the habit of letting him have his way, which was that of extremelaziness. But during all this time he was growing prodigiously. In threemonths he had become a monster weighing well over half a ton, but hestill retained his amiable nature and affection for his master.
* * * * *
Omega seldom left the cottage. Determined to live as long aspossible--for the age-old urge of life still persisted--to do nothing tohasten his end, he, nevertheless, was doing nothing to defer it. Hissoul in the past, he desired only to be near his dear ones. For hours hewould sit gazing on their peaceful features, pouring into their heedlessears the love songs of his heart. Living for them, patiently awaitingthe day when he, too, could enter into rest, he paid less and lessattention to The Grinner, only noticing that he grew more horrible andrepulsive as his size increased.
Lonely and despondent Omega at last left the cottage only to go to theairship for supplies. He seldom even looked toward the lake. It was along time since he had walked about its shores, but one afternoon theimpulse came to wander that way again. He was amazed that the water wasdisappearing so rapidly. The body of the monster now lay more thanfifteen rods from the water's edge, though it had been killed on theedge of the lake.
With an indifferent and melancholy gaze Omega looked across the lake.Suddenly his stare became fixed and wild, like that of one strickendumb. About twenty rods out the water was suddenly agitated as though bythe movement of some great bulk along its bottom, and then for afleeting instant he glimpsed a dark, shining form heave above thesurface, then sink out of sight before he could grasp its details.
"My God," he exclaimed hoarsely, "there is another sea-monster! Likelyit is the mate of the one Thalma killed. I might have known there wouldbe a mate. We were dealing with two of the beasts all that time. And nowthis thing disputes my right to the water!"
Omega's face grew grim and stern as he glared out over the water and hisheart-beats quickened. The latent combativeness of humanity was oncemore aroused in him. He had considered himself the last representativeof life on earth. He should remain the last. No beast should claim thathonor. He would kill it.
Then for two weeks he waited and watched for it to reappear, waited withall the terrible atomic weapons at hand, but he saw it no more. TheGrinner sleeping in the sand was the only form of life to be seen, andat last he became weary of the hunt. He figured that some day he wouldcharge the lake, but there was no hurry.
At last Omega lost all interest in the things about him. The Grinnercame and went unhindered and almost unnoticed. He continued to grow, butOmega gave him little thought. Even the treasures in the airship hadlost their lure for him. Disconsolate and hopeless, yet clinging grimlyto life, he passed his time in the company of his dead.
He had not left the cottage for several weeks, when one cold morningafter a sleepless night, something impelled him to go in search of TheGrinner who had been absent all night. As this had become a frequentoccurrence during the past two months Omega's curiosity was aroused. Ashe glided toward the lake he wondered why his interest in hissurroundings had been aroused by thoughts of The Grinner, and once morehe thought of killing that other sea-monster in the lake. The lake! Hestopped and stared and stared. The lake was gone! Only a pool of an acreor two remained, and in its center, disporting himself in glee was--notthe monster he was looking for--but The Grinner! The bloated creaturewas rolling about in the water with all the abandonment of amud-wallowing hog.
* * * * *
Omega gazed in astonishment, then a shrill laugh escaped him. He hadmistaken The Grinner for another monster of the deep. It was the lastjoke of life, and it was on him.
Then he realized that this grotesque child of his hands, having in itssystem the combined thirst of the dry ages--man, animal, plant, birdand reptile--was sucking up the lake, absorbing it through his pores,then sweating it out only to repeat the process. Water was his elementand food. From the dim, dry past had come nature's cry for water to findexpression in this monster of Omega's making. That which he had createdfor a companion had grown into a terrible menace, which was rapidlyexhausting his remaining stronghold of life. But, somehow, Omega did notcare, and as he watched the monstrous thing finally flounder its way tothe shore and lie down panting in the sun, he was glad that it was notanother monster of the deep.
For a moment Omega's eyes rested on the drying form of the dead beast onthe slope above him, then with a shudder he turned to The Grinner.
He went up close and stared into its terrible eyes which blinked back athim as its mouth spread in a leer. Already the sweat was coursing alongthe slimy folds of its skin and dripping off to be swallowed by thethirsty ground. It was a huge water sucker. It took water in enormousquantities, fed upon its organisms, then discharged it through its skin.Assisted by the rays of the sun it was rapidly drying up the lake.
Now, as Omega stood regarding it in awe and wonder, it showed signs ofdistress. It began to writhe and utter hoarse cries of pain. Its eyesrolled horribly, its great, barrel-like body heaved and trembled, and itwaved its long arms and threshed its feet upon the ground. Omegarealized that it was the victim of its own abnormal appetite. With therelish of a gormandizer it had taken more of its peculiar food than evenits prodigious maw could assimilate. Soon its struggles became fiercer.It rolled over and over in contortions of agony, the sweat streamingfrom its body, while a pitiful moaning came from its horrid mouth. Butat last it became quiet, its moanings trailed off into silence, itjerked spasmodically and lay still.
Omega approached and placed his hand over its heart. There was nopulsation. The Grinner was dead.
With a sigh Omega turned back to the cottage. Although he was now aloneonce more, he did not care. All he had to do was to prepare himself forthe G
reat Adventure, which despite all man's god-like achievements,still remained a mystery.
Now that the lake was almost gone it again drew his attention. Thesickly grass had long since given up trying to follow the retreatingwater and now was only a dead and melancholy strip of yellow far backfrom the shore. Every day Omega went to the little pool and calmlywatched it fade away, watched without qualms of fear or heartache. Hewas ready. But even now, hot and weary, he refused adequately to slakehis thirst. He must fight on to the last, for such was the prerogativeand duty of the human race. He must conserve that precious fluid.
* * * * *
At last there came a morning when Omega, gazing from his doorway, lookedin vain for the shining pool. Nothing but a brown expanse of rock andsand met his view where the lake had been. Already the salt crystalswere glinting in the sun. A long, lingering sigh escaped him. It hadcome at last! The last water of those mighty seas which once had