The Scientific Pioneer Returns

"Aw, durn, Jim—don't you see? Because Biggs knew that much o' my 'history.' That is, my future, to me, is my past to him. He knew who I'd married, and that me an' my wife had a youngster, an' consequently if them things hadn't happened yet, we was bound to live an' make 'em happen!"

I said, "Golly! You're right—as usual! But wasn't it a lucky break that Lancelot Biggs happened to know something about your history, Hank? Your name must be pretty well known to the men of the future—"

"Well, now, I wouldn't 'zackly say that, Jim. Lanse knew about me, yes. But then, he'd be likely to. Him an' me bein' related, so to speak—"

"Yeah. Spoke to him 'bout it later. Y'see, Lanse is a sort of grandson o' mine, with a lot o' great-greats on the front of it—" He gulped and looked at Helen miserably. "I—I'm afeared they ain't nothin' we can do 'bout it, Helen. Lanse says you was his great-great-grandmammy!"

And then Helen MacDowell—smiled! And it was the kind of smile I hope to see some time on the lips of a woman looking at me. And she said, very softly,

"There's no sense in fighting fate, is there, Hank? What must be, must be. And there is something we can do—to make the future happier...."

Aw, hell! I promised Helen she could have him alone in a dark room, didn't I? So I said good-by.

[1] Horse-sense Hank Cleaver, one of the best-known characters in modern science fiction. Hank, a dirt farmer never subjected to education, has an amazing ability to fix things of a mechanical nature when they go wrong, make infinitely accurate mathematical calculations and, above all, foretell the future in his own homely and intimate fashion.—Ed.

[2] In "The Scientific Pioneer," AMAZING STORIES for March, 1940 Horse-sense Hank refused to marry Helen MacDowell because, with his uncanny power to foretell the future, Hank knew their baby would be a chorus girl when it grew up. Hank is allergic to chorines.—ED.

[3] Author Nelson S. Bond first introduced Lancelot Biggs, space navigator and jack-of-all-trades, in the November, 1939 issue of FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, our companion magazine, under the title "F.O.B. Venus." The second mate aboard the Saturn, space freighter plying between Earth and other colonized planets under the somewhat bilious leadership of Cap Hanson, Lancelot Biggs got himself promoted to first mate after getting the space freighter out of a bad fix. Author Bond, now one of the top-notchers in popular fiction, has in this story combined two of his best-liked scientifictional characters—Lancelot Biggs and Horse-sense Hank.—Ed.