The Huddlers
()
About this ebook
William Campbell Gault
William Campbell Gault (1910–1995) was a sports fiction author and Edgar Award–winning crime fiction author. Some of his notable works include Don't Cry for Me and the Shamus Award–winning title, The Cana Diversion from the Brock Callahan series.
Read more from William Campbell Gault
Don't Cry For Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder in the Raw Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canvas Coffin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bloody Bokhara Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSquare in the Middle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hundred Dollar Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wayward Widow Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sweet Wild Wench Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Night Lady Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Convertible Hearse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnd of a Call Girl Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5County Kill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakedown: A Joe Puma Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood on the Boards Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Day of the Ram Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vein of Violence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dead Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Million Dollar Tramp Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Run, Killer, Run Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath Out of Focus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFair Prey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mighty Dead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Huddlers
Related ebooks
The Huddlers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Folly Of Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Rift: The Last Artifact Trilogy, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Scarlet Macaw Scandal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strangers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Artifact Boxset: The Last Artifact Trilogy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Thing From -- "Outside" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of the Infinite Vagabond: Silas Passenger (Book Four) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEntropy's Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prophet: Book Three: Judgement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSun & Stone: Tales of the Dead Man (book 2) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hidden Door Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLights in the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSolatium Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Resurrection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pirates of Orion's Belt: Beyond That Horizon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrangeling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Conference of Snakes: The Swarming Death, #7 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinding the Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Peacekeepers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Swarming Death (Books 7-9): The Swarming Death Boxed Sets, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCorporate Immortality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lazurai Emergence: Speculative Fiction Modern Parables Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNoah Zarc: Cataclysm: Noah Zarc, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devil May Care: A Customizable Multi-Narrative Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlien Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragon Bones: Two Angels Leave at Sunrise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoldiers Three: Warriors of Strength Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Songster of Javensbee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemories of Sandra Anderson - A Cosmic Explorer - Book Two - Eight Fantasy Stories: Memories of Sandra Anderson, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Fiction For You
The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If We Were Villains: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How It Always Is: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Huddlers
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Huddlers - William Campbell Gault
The Huddlers
By William Campbell Gault
Start Publishing LLC
Copyright © 2012 by Start Publishing LLC
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
First Start Publishing eBook edition October 2012
Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-63355-486-3
[Sidenote: He was a reporter from Venus with an assignment on Earth. He got his story but, against orders, he fell in love--and therein lies this story.]
That's what we always called them, where I come from, huddlers. Damnedest thing to see from any distance, the way they huddle. They had one place, encrusting the shore line for miles on one of the land bodies they called the Eastern Seaboard. A coagulation in this crust contained eight million of the creatures, eight million.
They called it New York, and it was bigger than most of the others, but typical. It wasn't bad enough living side by side; the things built mounds and lived one above the other. Apartments they called them. What monstrosities they were.
We couldn't figure this huddling, at first.
All our attention since Akers' first penetration into space had been directed another way in the galaxy, and though I'll grant you unified and universal concentration may be considered unwise in some areas, it's been our greatest strength. It's brought us rather rapidly to the front, I'm sure you'll agree, and we're not the oldest planet, by a damned sight.
Well, by the time we got to the huddlers, Akers was dead and Murten was just an old man with vacant eyes. Jars was handling the Department, though you might say Deering ran it, being closer to most of the gang. Jars was always so cold; nobody ever got to know him really well.
They divided on the huddling. Fear, Jars said, and love, Deering said, but who could say for sure?
As Deering said to me, What could they fear? They've got everything they need, everything but knowledge and their better specimens are getting closer to that, every day.
In the laboratory, Deering said this, and how did we know old Jars was in a corner, breaking down a spirigel?
They fear each other,
Jars said, as though it was an official announcement, as though any fact is permanent. And they fear nature. It's the most fear ridden colony of bipeds a sane mind could imagine.
Deering looked at me, and winked.
Jars went back to the spirigel.
Deering said, Love, love, love. All they sing about, all they write about, all they talk about, love, love, love.
Jars was just tracing a z line on the spirigel and he put down his legort at that. Rather superficial thinking, from a scientist,
he said quietly. "Surface manifestations to be considered as indicative. Oral and verbal camouflage