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Updated: May 17, 2025
"Ye are Strokor!" marveled the girl, staring at me as though I were a god. Then she threw back her head and stepped close. "I am Ave. This is Maka; he is my uncle, but best known as a star-gazer. My father was Durok, the engine-maker." She watched my face. "Durok?" I knew him well. My father had said that he was quite as brainy as himself. "He were a fine man, Ave." "Aye," said she proudly.
He started his engine, then leaned out into the rain and said softly: "Hold fast to what thy father has taught thee, Strokor. Have nothing to do with the women. 'Tis a man's job ahead of thee, and the future of the empire is in thy hands. "And," as he clattered off, "fill not thy head with wonderings about the lightning."
It may be that Strokor left the machine for some trivial reason, and forgot to finish his story. Provided with a sledge-hammer, a crowbar, and a hydraulic jack, and even with drills and explosives as a last resort, Jackson, Kinney, and Van Emmon returned the same day to the walled-in room in the top of that mystifying mansion.
"But I cannot take the pledge with ye. "I have seen a wondrous thing, and I love it. And, though I know not why I feel that Jon has willed it for Jeos to see a new race of men, a race even better than ours." I leaped to my feet. "Better than ours! Mean ye to say, stripling, that there can be a better man than Strokor?"
"No?" quoth the young man, speaking up for the chit. "Ye are wrong, Strokor. We defy thee to do thy worst; we are prepared to flee from ye at all costs!" I had twisted one of the bars out of my way without their seeing it. I strove at the next as I answered, still controlling my voice: "'Twill do ye no good to flee, Edam; ye know that. And as for Ave she shall wish she had never been born!"
"Edam?" I had not; the name was strange to me. "Who is he?" "A man as young as thyself, but a mere stripling," quoth Maka. "He was a pupil of mine when I taught in the House of Learning. Of late he has turned to prophecy; and it is fair remarkable how well the lad doth guess. At all events, 'twas he, Strokor, who told me of the plot. He saw it in a dream."
It pleased me that they should have pushed so far at first; I climbed at once into my chariot. "Now is the time for Strokor to strike!" I gave orders for the staff to remain where it was. "I will send ye word when the city is mine." But before I started my engine I glanced up at the sky, to see if the dawn were yet come; and as I gazed I thought I saw something come between me and a star.
"It is thy lord, Strokor, the emperor, who calls thee. Come!" "I stay here," said she in the same clear voice, entirely unshaken by my presence. "Edam hath claimed me, and I shall cleave to him. I want none of ye, ye giant!" For a moment I was minded to throw my weight against the barrier, such was my rage. Then I thought better on it, and closely examined the bars. Two were loose.
And when Ave returns as she must, though it be ages hence when she comes, she shall find me waiting. I, Strokor, the mighty and wise, shall be here when she returns. I shall wait for her forever; here I shall always stay. The stars may move from their places, but I shall not go! For it is my intention to make use of another secret Maka taught me.
Every man shall be fit to live, and the fittest of them all shall live the longer. And he, no matter how many cycles hence, shall look back to Strokor, and to Ave, his wife, and shall say: "I am what I am, the last man on the world, because Strokor was the fittest man of his time!" Aye; my fame shall live as long as there be life.
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