Jack

James Redpath

Doctor Leopold

Doctor Furniss

Penruddock

The Germ Growers

In a dim Gippsland hotel, Bob heard a bushman describe Kimberley, and the talk struck him like cold water.

Jack was already watching Bob across the smoke, his brows drawn tight, as if the same buried place had opened in both minds.

They left the room, crossed the dark scrub, and walked the moonlit beach without a word.

Near the surf, Bob said the gold seekers were close to a place they had never named aloud.

Jack answered that silence had been safer, and the sea kept thundering as it carried Bob back to another coast.

Name in the Smoke

That same sea had pounded below Penruddock, where Bob first learned that a handsome face could feel wrong.

James Redpath charmed strangers at first, but dogs shrank from him, doors closed behind him, and Bob once saw pleasure flash across his face at another's pain.

One cloudless noon, after James Redpath walked inland, two shaped shadows slid over the grass like boats on invisible wheels.

Bob sprang up, but the sky was empty, and the fishermen below kept pulling their nets as if nothing had passed.

James Redpath was never seen in Penruddock again.

Before the whispers could settle, a new terror entered Penruddock, and even his vanishing seemed to fade inside it.

Shadows at Penruddock

That terror came as the red sickness, moving from cottage to cottage until Penruddock shut its doors.

Doctor Leopold and Doctor Furniss burned bedding, sealed the valley, and fought the fever almost alone while the village kept away.

When the deaths finally slowed, Doctor Leopold told Doctor Furniss that hidden enemies might cultivate disease the way men breed dogs.

Doctor Furniss looked hard at the brook, and even the picnic sunlight seemed to lose its color.

That night Bob dreamed of invisible cars crossing a bright sky and dropping sickness over sleeping roofs.

Back on the beach, Jack told Bob to write it at last, and the waves sounded less like fear than warning.

The Red Sickness

The Germ Growers
By Robert Potter
1892
Name in the Smoke
What if a map remembered terror?
In a dim Gippsland hotel, Bob heard a bushman describe Kimberley, and the talk struck him like cold water.
Jack was already watching Bob across the smoke, his brows drawn tight, as if the same buried place had opened in both minds.
They left the room, crossed the dark scrub, and walked the moonlit beach without a word.
Near the surf, Bob said the gold seekers were close to a place they had never named aloud.
Jack answered that silence had been safer, and the sea kept thundering as it carried Bob back to another coast.
Shadows at Penruddock
That same sea had pounded below Penruddock, where Bob first learned that a handsome face could feel wrong.
James Redpath charmed strangers at first, but dogs shrank from him, doors closed behind him, and Bob once saw pleasure flash across his face at another's pain.
One cloudless noon, after James Redpath walked inland, two shaped shadows slid over the grass like boats on invisible wheels.
Bob sprang up, but the sky was empty, and the fishermen below kept pulling their nets as if nothing had passed.
James Redpath was never seen in Penruddock again.
Before the whispers could settle, a new terror entered Penruddock, and even his vanishing seemed to fade inside it.
The Red Sickness
That terror came as the red sickness, moving from cottage to cottage until Penruddock shut its doors.
Doctor Leopold and Doctor Furniss burned bedding, sealed the valley, and fought the fever almost alone while the village kept away.
When the deaths finally slowed, Doctor Leopold told Doctor Furniss that hidden enemies might cultivate disease the way men breed dogs.
Doctor Furniss looked hard at the brook, and even the picnic sunlight seemed to lose its color.
That night Bob dreamed of invisible cars crossing a bright sky and dropping sickness over sleeping roofs.
Back on the beach, Jack told Bob to write it at last, and the waves sounded less like fear than warning.

Germ Growers - Story Book

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