Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters Read Online Free PDF Page A

partly the cause. There was a livid gash down one side of the man’s face, and that could only have been caused by a lump of rock falling from the roof. Even so, there was something odd about the wound.’ Dr Meredith stopped, as though he felt that what he had to say was too silly.
    ‘What sort of wound was it?’ said the Doctor.
    ‘Like a claw mark,’ said Meredith. ‘You know what it’s like if a cat scratches you. But this was a much bigger claw – a claw the size of a man’s hand.’
    Liz said, ‘A piece of rock could have jagged edges, like a claw perhaps?’
    The Doctor gave Liz a look to tell her to be quiet, and continued questioning Dr Meredith. ‘What did you put on the death certificate as “cause of death”?’
    ‘Under the circumstances,’ said Dr Meredith, ‘I refused to issue one. There will have to be an inquest to decide on that. But if you want my opinion, the gash on the face couldn’t possibly have caused death.’
    ‘Then what,’ asked the Doctor patiently, ‘did?’
    Again Dr Meredith looked embarrassed by the answer he was about to give. He said, ‘If you really want to know what I think, the man simply died of fright.’

3
The Traitor
    Miss Dawson was worried. She had been one of the first scientists selected by Dr Lawrence to work at the research centre, and she was thrilled to get the job. All her life she had had to live in London, which she had come to detest, because of her elderly mother. Her brothers, older than her and all scientists, had got married and gone to live in America and Australia. Miss Dawson had been the one left at home to look after their ailing mother. True, she had had some interesting research jobs in London, but whenever she saw an advertisement for an electronic scientist needed abroad, or even in another part of Britain, her mother’s health had mysteriously taken a turn for the worse. The years rolled by, and people stopped calling her a ‘young woman’ and said instead ‘such a faithful daughter’. Sometimes she met men who seemed to want to marry her; but her mother always knew somehow, and promptly became ill again so that Miss Dawson even had to stay away from work to look after the old lady. In her heart Miss Dawson feared the moment when people would stop asking, ‘Why don’t you get married?’ and replace it with the dread, ‘Why didn’t you get married?’
    Miss Dawson’s mother had died, of incredibly old age, a year ago. At last free, Miss Dawson immediately applied for, and got, this job at the research centre at Wenley Moor. Derbyshire wasn’t exactly Australia or America, but at least it was some distance from London, and it was the start of her new life.
    At first her mind was filled with the excitement of the project. To turn nuclear energy directly into electrical power, without using a turbine in between, could bring enormous benefits to Mankind. Really cheap electrical power would mean more factories, more hospitals, more everything in all the underdeveloped parts of the world. The research centre was the best equipped scientific establishment she had ever worked in. Her specific task was to release the atoms that raced round the cyclotron tube – a tube so large that the cyclotron room in which she worked was surrounded by the tube.
    Dr Quinn joined the team a couple of months after Miss Dawson’s arrival. She was immediately attracted to him. He was rather older than her, and had had a terrific amount of scientific experience. Also he was a very kind man, always friendly, and with that trace of a Scottish accent that fascinated her. Above all, he was single. He had been married, but his wife had died in a car accident some years ago. Instead of living in the staff’s quarters in the Centre itself, Dr Quinn had taken a small cottage on the outskirts of a nearby village. Miss Dawson quickly made it clear to Dr Quinn that she would be glad to help decorate his cottage and make curtains and even clean and cook if he so