ron Goulart - Challengers of the Unknown by Ron Goulart Read Free Book Online

admitted the old professor, clipping a few of his fingernails with his desk scissors. "You read Spanish?"
    "Fairly well."
    "Bueno. I'll give you a copy, suitably inscribed should you so wish, of my book on the subject. Published in 1926 and, such is the stupidity of the publishing world, long out of print and shamefully neglected. I still have three hundred and eight spare copies stored around this office somewhere." He rose, walked toward a wall of books, came back, sat down, patted his knees.
    "That would be wonderful," said June. "Can you tell me, before I dip into your book, something of the history of the creature?"
    "Of course, of course." Prolijos wiped his nose, tugged at his ear, scratched his elbow. "You must realize I don't at all agree with Dr. Mandell as to the origins of the monstruo. I grant, mind you, Zarpa was once probably worshiped by the Incas, as the findings of Reisberson strongly indicate. The key issue, Miss Robbins, and the point which has caused me to fall out with more than one of my esteemed colleagues, is this." He stood, dug one shoe tip across the pattern of the ancient rug, nodding several times. "The point is, where did old Zarpa come from. Eh?"
    "Your theory is ... ?'
    Professor Prolijos pointed upward. "There."
    June's head ticked back; she stared at the spider-webbed hanging lamp in the ceiling. "Where?"
    The old man sat, his voice went low. "He is not some leftover from an earlier epoch, this monstruo of ours. He is not, furthermore, a throwback. No, indeed, not at all."
    "Then where did Zarpa come from?"
    "They brought him with them," explained the old man. "Across that vast gulf. He was, at least I'm leaning rather strongly toward the notion, their god. A god, however, incarnate, and one with an incredible life span." Prolijos stood up, paced, zigzagged around stacks of books with bookmarks sticking out like yellow tongues. "You follow my drift, young woman?"
    "You seem to be implying Zaipa is unearthly," said the girl, "that he came to earth from another planet."
    "Exactly, exactly." He circled his chair twice, sat down. "They brought him with them."
    "I'm not clear who they are."
    "There has never been any agreement as to the origin of the Incas," said Professor Prolijos. "A magnificent civilization, highly advanced. It springs up, suddenly and inexplicably, at least to my way of thinking. The branch of the Inca civilization which flourished in Ereguay claimed to have come originally from the area around Lake Sombra. There is some archaeological evidence to substantiate this." He got up, tapped his left foot on the rug, scratched his left side. "The Ereguayan Inca legends, those which have survived for us, say they were sent here by the Sun God. Sent, yes. Sent from another planet, landed near the lake of shadows."
    June said, "But the Inca civilization was already going strong when the Spanish conquistadores reached South America in the sixteenth century. You believe Zarpa was already in residence in Lake Sombra by then?"
    "Not merely believe, young woman, know," said Prolijos. "By the time Pizarro and the rest reached our land, Zarpa had been here for untold centuries."
    "In the water all that time?" June shook her blonde head. "I can't see why no one has ever been able to locate him, then."
    "Lake Sombra is very large and very deep," said Prolijos. "It lies in what is now a remote and difficult area to reach." He seated himself, picked up a fat book, blew the dust from its pebbled cover, opened it, shut it, dropped it to the floor. "And you are wrong when you say no one ever found Zarpa in the lake of shadows."
    "I've never heard of—"
    "In 1923 the Englishman Emlyn Warburton, of the Barchester Geographic Institute, led a group into the jungle. He was able, using diving gear of his own design, to locate the creature." The professor tapped both feet on the floor. "You see, it was Warburton's theory, one which he and I agreed on, that Zarpa spends much of his time dormant. In a state