not like what you have done, so we cannot worship you any more. And
anyway, some of the people are growing tired. It has been ten years. A
long time."

One thought pierced through the swirling fear in Weaver's mind. The
guns, built with so much labor, the enormous guns that could throw a
shell two hundred miles. The crews, manning them night and day to
destroy the first ship that came in from space. And they had never meant
to use them!

Anger fought with caution. He felt peculiarly helpless now, locked up in
his own body like a prison. "What are you going to do?" he scrawled.

"Nothing that will hurt, Master," said Luke. "You remember, I told you
long ago, we had no machines for killing before you came. We used other
things, like this drug which paralyzes. You will feel no pain."

Algernon Weaver's hand, gripping the pen as a drowning man holds to a
stave, was moving without his volition. It was scrawling in huge
letters, over and over, "NO NO NO"....

"It is too bad we cannot wait," said Luke, "but it has to be done before
the new ones get here. They would not like it, probably."

He let the pointer go, and it hung where he had left it. With two
jointed claws he seized Weaver's hand and straightened it out to match
the other, removing the pen. With a third claw he thrust a slender
needle under the skin. Instantly the hand was as rigid as the rest of
Weaver's body. Weaver felt as if the last door had been slammed, the
telephone wires cut, the sod thrown on the coffin.

"This is the way we have decided," said Luke. "It is a shame, because
perhaps these new ones will not be as funny as you, after all. But it is
the way we have decided."

He took up the pantograph pointer again.

* * * * *

In the plaza, the aircar ground at the huge stone head, outlining the
stern mouth, the resolute, bearded jaw. Helplessly, Weaver returned the
stare of that remorseless, brooding face: the face of a conqueror.

Transcriber's Note

This etext was produced from _Space Science Fiction_ March 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors
have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Worshippers, by Damon Francis Knight

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORSHIPPERS ***

***** This file should be named 22560.txt or 22560.zip *****
This