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Short Science Fiction Collection 018 - Various · Classic Science Fiction Book Collection

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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Glen k Amo. Belly
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  Speaker 1: Laugh by Gordon Randall Garrett, writing as Ivar Jorgensen, you
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  Speaker 1: hear a lot of talk these days about secret weapons.
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  Speaker 1: If it's not a new wrinkle in nuclear fission, it's
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  Speaker 1: a gun to shoot around corners and down winding staircases,
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  Speaker 1: or may be a nice new strain of bacteria guaranteed
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  Speaker 1: to give you radioactive dandruff. Our own suggestion is to
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  Speaker 1: pipe a few of our television commercials into Russia and
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  Speaker 1: bore the enemy to death. Well, it seems that Ivar
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  Speaker 1: Jorgensen has hit on the ultimate engine of destruction, a
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  Speaker 1: weapon designed to exploit man's greatest weakness. The blueprint can
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  Speaker 1: be found in the next few pages. And as the
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  Speaker 1: soldier in the story says, our only hope is to
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  Speaker 1: keep a sense of humor.
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  Speaker 2: Me.
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  Speaker 1: I'm looking for my outfit got cut off in that
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  Speaker 1: hauland tunnel attack. Mind if I sit down with you, guys,
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  Speaker 1: awhile thanks coffee, Damn, this is heaven. Ain't seeing a
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  Speaker 1: cup of coffee in a year. What you said it?
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  Speaker 1: This sure is a hell of a war. Tough on
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  Speaker 1: a guy's feet. Yeah, that's right. Holland Tunnel skirmish where
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  Speaker 1: the Ruskies use that new gun. Oh god, it was awful.
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  Speaker 1: Guy's popping off all around a guy an him not
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  Speaker 1: knowing why, no sense to it, no noise, no wound,
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  Speaker 1: just popping off. That's the trouble with this war. It
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  Speaker 1: won't settle down to a routine. Always something new. What
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  Speaker 1: the hell chance has a guy got to figure things out?
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  Speaker 1: And I tell you them, Ruskies are coming up with
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  Speaker 1: new weapons just as fast as we are, enough to
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  Speaker 1: make your hair stand on end. Sugar, christ, Yes, ain't
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  Speaker 1: seen sugar for a year. You see, it's like this.
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  Speaker 1: We were bottled up in the pits around the Donnell
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  Speaker 1: for seven damn days. It was like nothing you ever
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  Speaker 1: saw before. Whoops, Sorry, didn't mean to splash you. Oi
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  Speaker 1: was laughing about something that happened there to a guy.
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  Speaker 3: Er.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe you guys had get a kick out of it.
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  Speaker 1: After all, we gotta keep our sense of humor. You see.
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  Speaker 1: There was me and a Kentucky kid named Stillwell in
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  Speaker 1: this pit, a pretty big pit with lots of room,
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  Speaker 1: and we were all alone. This Stillwell was a nice kid,
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  Speaker 1: green and lonesome, and and it's pretty sad really, but
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  Speaker 1: there's a yak in it. And as they say, we
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  Speaker 1: gotta keep a sense of humor. Well, this Stillwell, a
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  Speaker 1: really green kid, is unhappy and just playing droolin for
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  Speaker 1: his gal back home. He talks about his mother, of course,
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  Speaker 1: and his old man, but it's the girl that's really
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  Speaker 1: on his mind. As you guys can plainly understand, he's
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  Speaker 1: seeing her every place, like spots in front of his eyes.
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  Speaker 1: Nice spots doin things to him. When this rusky babe
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  Speaker 1: shows up, My gun came up without any orders from me,
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  Speaker 1: just as she poked her puss over the edge of
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  Speaker 1: the pit, and huh oh, thank you kindly. It sure
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  Speaker 1: tastes good, but I don't want to short you, guys,
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  Speaker 1: thank you kindly. Well, as I was saying, this rusky
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  Speaker 1: babe pokes a nose over the edge of the pit,
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  Speaker 1: and Stillwell dives and knocks down my gun. He says,
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  Speaker 1: you son of a bitch, just like that, wild and desperate,
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  Speaker 1: like you'd say to a guy if the guy was
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  Speaker 1: just kicking over the last jug of water. On a
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  Speaker 1: desert island. It would have been long enough for her
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  Speaker 1: to kill us if I hadn't had good reflexes. Even then,
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  Speaker 1: all I had time to do was not to pistol
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  Speaker 1: out of her hand and drag her into the pit
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  Speaker 1: with her play bollocked. She was confused and bewildered. She
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  Speaker 1: ain't a fighter, and she sits back against the wall,
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  Speaker 1: staring at a deadpan with big expressionless eyes. She's a
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  Speaker 1: plenty pretty, babe. And I could see exactly what had
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  Speaker 1: happened as far as Stillwell was concerned. His spots had
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  Speaker 1: come to life in very adequate form, so to speak.
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  Speaker 1: Stillwell goes over and sits down beside her. And I'm
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  Speaker 1: very much on the alert because I know where his
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  Speaker 1: courage comes from. But I decide it's all right because
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  Speaker 1: I see the baby is not belligerent, just confused, kind
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  Speaker 1: of and friendly and willing, kind of a whip little dog,
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  Speaker 1: willing and men o man. She was sure what's Stillwell needed.
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  Speaker 1: They kind of went together like a hand in a glove,
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  Speaker 1: natural like, And it followed pretty natural that when Stillwell
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  Speaker 1: got up and led her around the wing of the pit,
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  Speaker 1: out of sight, she went willing like that same little dwog.
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  Speaker 1: Uh huh, No, you guys, tooo's enough. I wouldn't rob
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  Speaker 1: you well okay, and thanks kindly. Well there I was
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  Speaker 1: all alone, but happy for Stillwell because I know it's
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  Speaker 1: what the kid needs. And in spots like that, what
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  Speaker 1: difference does it make yank Rusky Mongolian As long as
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  Speaker 1: she's willing, then you guys, Stillwell comes back out, wal eyed,
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  Speaker 1: real walll eyed, like being hit but not knocked out,
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  Speaker 1: and still walking. I know what it is, some kind
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  Speaker 1: of shock. I get up and walk over and take
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  Speaker 1: a look at the bed where he'd left her, and
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  Speaker 1: I bust out laughing. I told you guys, there was
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  Speaker 1: a yak in this. I laughed like a fool. It
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  Speaker 1: was that funny. As much as I had time to
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  Speaker 1: before Stillwell cracked, it was enough to crack him. The
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  Speaker 1: little thing that pushes a guy over the edge. He
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  Speaker 1: lets her to yellin screams, for Christ's sake, For Christ's sake,
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  Speaker 1: nothing but a bucket of bolts, nothing but a couple
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  Speaker 1: of plastic lumps. That was when I hit him. I
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  Speaker 1: had to. He was for the boyds. Still Well was
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  Speaker 1: an hour later, we got relieved and a couple of
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  Speaker 1: medicos carried him away, strapped to a stretcher, gone like
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  Speaker 1: a kite. They took the robot too, and it's close,
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  Speaker 1: but they forgot the brazier, so I took it and
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  Speaker 1: I've been carrying it ever since. But I'll leave it
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  Speaker 1: with you guys if you want for the coffee might
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  Speaker 1: make you think about home after all, Like the man says,
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  Speaker 1: we gotta keep our sense of humor. Well, so long
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  Speaker 1: you guys, and thanks. End of Belly Laugh by Gordon
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  Speaker 1: Randall Garrett writing as Ivar Jorgensen. Recording by Glen Kamo, Stittsville, Ontario, Canada.
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  Speaker 1: Www dot Glenkamo dot blogspot dot com.
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  Speaker 4: Breakaway by Stanley Gimble. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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  Speaker 4: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Reading by
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: Bologna Times. Breakaway by Stanley Gimble. She surely got her wish,
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: but there was some question about getting what she wanted.
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  Speaker 4: Phil Conover pulled the zipper of his flight suit up
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  Speaker 4: the front of his long, thin body and came into
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  Speaker 4: the living room, his face usually serious and quietly handsome
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  Speaker 4: had an alive, excited look, and the faint lines around
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  Speaker 4: his dark, deep set eyes were accentuated when he smiled
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  Speaker 4: at his wife. All set, honey, how do I look
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  Speaker 4: at my monkey suit? His wife was sitting stiffly on
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  Speaker 4: the flowered couch that was still not theirs. Completely in
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  Speaker 4: her fingers. She held a cigarette burned down too far.
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  Speaker 4: She said, you look fine, Phil, you look just right.
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  Speaker 4: She managed to smile. Then she leaned forward and crushed
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  Speaker 4: the cigarette in the ash tray on the maple coffee
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  Speaker 4: table and took another from the pack. He came to
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  Speaker 4: her and touched his hands to her soft blonde hair,
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  Speaker 4: raising her face until she was looking into his eyes.
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  Speaker 4: You're the most beautiful girl I know. Did I ever
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  Speaker 4: tell you that? Yes? I think so. Yes, I'm sure
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  Speaker 4: you did, she said, finishing the ritual, but her voice
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  Speaker 4: broke and she turned her head away. Phil sat beside
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  Speaker 4: her and put his arm around her small shoulders. He
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  Speaker 4: had stopped smiling. Honey, look at me, he said. It
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  Speaker 4: isn't going to be bad. Honestly, it isn't. We know
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  Speaker 4: exactly how it will be. If anything could go wrong,
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  Speaker 4: they wouldn't be sending me You know that I told
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  Speaker 4: you that We've sent five unmanned ships up and everyone
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  Speaker 4: came back without a hitch. She turned facing him. There
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  Speaker 4: were tears starting in the corners of her wide brown eyes,
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  Speaker 4: and she brushed them away with her hand. Phil, don't go, Please, don't.
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  Speaker 4: They can send Sammy. Sammy doesn't have a wife. Can't
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  Speaker 4: he go? They'd understand, Phil. Please. She was holding his
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  Speaker 4: arms tightly with her hands, and the color had drained
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  Speaker 4: from her cheeks. Mary, you know I can't back out now.
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  Speaker 4: How could I? It's been three years. You know how
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  Speaker 4: much I've wanted to be the first man to go.
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  Speaker 4: Nothing would ever be right with me again if I
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  Speaker 4: didn't go. Please, don't make it hard. He stopped talking
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  Speaker 4: and held her to him and stroked the back of
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  Speaker 4: her head. He could feel her shoulders shaking with quiet sobs.
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  Speaker 4: He released her and stood up. I've got to get started.
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  Speaker 5: Mary.
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  Speaker 4: Will you come to the field with me? Yes, I'll
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  Speaker 4: come to say goodbye. She paused and dropped her eyes. Phil.
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  Speaker 4: If you go, I won't be here when you get back.
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  Speaker 4: If you get back, I won't be here because I
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  Speaker 4: won't be the wife of a space pilot. For the
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  Speaker 4: rest of my life. It isn't the kind of life
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  Speaker 4: I bargained for. No matter how much I love you,
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  Speaker 4: I just couldn't take that. Phil. I'm sorry. I guess
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  Speaker 4: I'm not the noble sort of wife. She finished and
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  Speaker 4: took another cigarette from the pack on the coffee table
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  Speaker 4: and put it to her lips. Her hand was trembling
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  Speaker 4: as she touched the letter to the end of the
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  Speaker 4: cigarette and drew deeply. Phil stood watching her, the excitement
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  Speaker 4: completely gone from his eyes. I wish you had told
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  Speaker 4: me this a long time ago, Mary, Phil said, his
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  Speaker 4: voice was dry and low. I didn't know you felt
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  Speaker 4: this way about it. Yes you did. I told you
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  Speaker 4: how I felt. I told you I could never be
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  Speaker 4: the wife of a space pilot, but I don't think
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  Speaker 4: I ever really believed it was possible, not until this
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  Speaker 4: morning when you said tonight was the take off. It's
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  Speaker 4: so stupid to jeopardize everything we've got for a ridiculous dream.
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  Speaker 4: He sat down on the edge of the couch and
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  Speaker 4: took her hands between his Mary listen to me, he said.
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  Speaker 4: It isn't a dream. It's real. There's nothing means anything
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  Speaker 4: more to me than you do. You know that, But
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  Speaker 4: no man ever had the chance to do what I'm
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  Speaker 4: going to do tonight, No man ever. If I backed
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  Speaker 4: out now for any reason, I'd never be able to
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  Speaker 4: look at the sky again. I'd be through. She looked
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: at him without seeing him, and there was nothing at
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  Speaker 4: all in her eyes. Let's go, if you're still going,
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  Speaker 4: she finally said. They drove through the streets of the
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  Speaker 4: small town with its small bungalows each alike. There were
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  Speaker 4: no trees in very little grass. It was a new town,
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  Speaker 4: a government built town, and it had no personality. Yet
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  Speaker 4: it existed only because of the huge ship standing poised
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  Speaker 4: in the take off zone five miles away in the desert.
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  Speaker 4: Its future as a town rested with the ship, and
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  Speaker 4: the town seemed to feel the uncertainty of its future,
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  Speaker 4: seemed ready to stop existing as a town and to
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  Speaker 4: give itself back to the desert, if such was its destiny.
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  Speaker 4: Phil turned the car off the highway on to the
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  Speaker 4: rutted dirt road that led across the sand to the
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  Speaker 4: field where the ship waited in the distance. They could
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  Speaker 4: see the beams of the searchlights as they played across
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  Speaker 4: the take off zone and swept along the top of
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  Speaker 4: the highway wire fence, stretching out of sight to right
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  Speaker 4: and left. At the gate, they were stopped by the guard.
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  Speaker 4: He read Phil's pass, shined his flashlight in their faces,
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  Speaker 4: and then saluted. Good luck, colonel, he said, and shook
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  Speaker 4: Phil's hand. Thanks, sergeant, I'll be seeing you next week,
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  Speaker 4: Phil said, and smiled. They drove between the rows of
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  Speaker 4: wooden buildings that lined the field, and he parked near
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  Speaker 4: the low barbed fence. Wringing the take off zune. He
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  Speaker 4: turned off the ignition and sat quietly for a moment
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  Speaker 4: before lighting a cigarette. Then he looked at his wife.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: She was staring through the windshield at the rocket two
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  Speaker 4: hundred yards away. Its smooth, polished surface gleamed in the
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  Speaker 4: spotlight glare, and it sloped up and up until the
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  Speaker 4: eye lost the tip against the stars. She's beautiful, Mary.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: You've never seen her before, have you? No, I've never
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: seen her before, she said, hadn't you better go? Her
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  Speaker 4: voice was strained, and she held her hands close tightly
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  Speaker 4: in her lap. Please go now, Phil, she said. He
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  Speaker 4: leaned toward her and touched her cheek. Then she was
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  Speaker 4: in his arms, her head buried against his shoulder. Goodbye, darling,
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  Speaker 4: she said, wish me luck, Mary, He asked, Yes, good luck, Phil,
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  Speaker 4: she said. He opened the car door and got out.
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  Speaker 4: The noise of men and machines scurrying around the ship
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  Speaker 4: broke the spell of the rocket waiting silently for flight.
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  Speaker 4: Mary I. He began, and then turned and strode toward
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  Speaker 4: the administration building without looking back. Inside the building, it
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  Speaker 4: was like a locker room before the big game. The
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  Speaker 4: tensions stood alone, and each man had the same happy,
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  Speaker 4: excited look that Phil had worn earlier. When he came
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  Speaker 4: into the room, the noise and bustles stopped. They earned
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  Speaker 4: as one man toward him, and General Small came up
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  Speaker 4: to him and took his hand. Hello, Phil, we were
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  Speaker 4: beginning to think you weren't coming. Y'all set, son, Yes, sir,
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  Speaker 4: I'm all set, I guess Phil said, I'd like you
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  Speaker 4: to meet this Secretary of Defense. Phil. He's over here
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  Speaker 4: by the radar. As they crossed the room, familiar faces smiled,
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  Speaker 4: and each man shook his hand or touched his arm.
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  Speaker 4: He saw Sammy alone by the coffee urn. Sammy waved
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  Speaker 4: to him, but he didn't smile. Phil wanted to talk
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  Speaker 4: to him, to say something, but there was nothing to
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  Speaker 4: be said. Now Sammy's turn would come later, mister Secretary,
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: the General said, this is Colonel Conover. He'll be the
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: first man in history to see the other side of
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  Speaker 4: the moon. Colonel, the Secretary of Defense, how do you do, sir.
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  Speaker 4: I'm very proud to meet you, Phil said, on the contrary,
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  Speaker 4: carn I'm very proud to meet you. I've been looking
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  Speaker 4: at that ship out there and wonderin' I almost wish
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  Speaker 4: I were a young man again. I'd like to be going.
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  Speaker 4: It's a thrilling thought man's first adventure into the universe.
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  Speaker 4: You're ltting a new dawn of history, Colonel. It's a
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  Speaker 4: privilege few men have ever had, and those who have
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  Speaker 4: had it didn't realize it at the time. Good luck
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  Speaker 4: and God be with you. Thank you, sir, I'm aware
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  Speaker 4: of all you say. It frightens me a little. The
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  Speaker 4: General took Phil's arm and they walked into the briefing room.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: There were chairs set up for the scientists and Air
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: Force officers directly connected with the take off. They were
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: seated now in a semicircle in front of a huge
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: chart of the solar system. Phil took his seat and
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: the last minute briefing began. It was a routine he
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: knew by heart. He gone over and over it a
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: thousand times, and he only half listened. Now he kept
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: thinking of marry outside alone by the fence. The voice
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: of the briefing officer was a dull hum in his ears,
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: and orbit at eighteen thousand miles per hour. You will
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: then accelerate for the breakaway to twenty four thousand, nine
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  Speaker 4: hundred miles per hour four five minutes, and then free
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: coast for one hundred sixteen hours until Phil asked a
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: few questions about weather and solar conditions, and then the
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: session was done. They rose and looked at each other,
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: the same unanswered questions on each man's face. There were
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: four smiles and hand shakes. They were ready now, Phil,
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: the general said, and took him aside. Sir Phil, You're
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: you feel all right, don't you? Son? Yes, Sir, I
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: feel fine. Why Phil? I've spent nearly every day with
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: you for three years. I know you better than I
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: know myself in many ways, and I've studied the psychologist's
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: reports on you carefully. Maybe it's just nervousness, Phil, but
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: I think there's something wrong, is there? No, Sir, there's
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: nothing wrong, Phil said, but his voice didn't carry conviction.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: He reached for a cigarette. Phil, If there is anything,
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  Speaker 4: anything at all, you know what it might mean. You've
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: got to be in the best mental and physical condition
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: of your life tonight. You know better than any man
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: here what that means to our success. I think there
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: is something more than just natural apprehension wrong with you
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: want to tell me. Outside the takeoff zone crawled with
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: men and machines at the base of the rocket. For
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: ten hours, the final checkouts had been in progress, and
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: now the men were checking again on their own time.
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: The thing they had worked toward for six years was
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  Speaker 4: ready to happen, and each one felt that he was
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: sending just a little bit of himself into the sky.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: Beyond the ring of lights and moving men. On the
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: edge of the field. Mary stood her hands moved slowly
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: over the top of the fence, twisting the barbs of wire,
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: but her eyes were on the ship. And then they
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  Speaker 4: were ready. A small group of excited men came out
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  Speaker 4: from the administration building and moved forward. The checkout crews
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: climbed into their machine and drove back outside the take
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: off zone, and alone, one man climbed the still ladder
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  Speaker 4: up the side of the rocket ninety feet into the air.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: At the top, he waved to the men on the ground,
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: and then disappeared through a small port. Mary waved to him.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Good bye, she said to herself, but the words stuck
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  Speaker 4: tight in her throat. The small group at the base
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  Speaker 4: of the ship turned and walked back to the fence,
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  Speaker 4: and for an eternity the great ship stood alone, waiting.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: Then from deep inside a rumble came, increasing in volume
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: to a gigantic roar that shook the earth and tore
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: at the ears. Slowly, the first manned rocket to the
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: Moon lifted up and up to the sky. For a
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: long time, after the rocket had become a tiny speck
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: of light in the heavens. She stood, holding her face
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: in her hands and crying softly to herself. And then
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: she felt the touch of a hand on her arm.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: She turned Phil, Oh, Phil. She held tightly to him
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: and repeated his name over and over. They wouldn't let
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: me go, Mary, he said, Finally, the General would not
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: let me go. She looked at him. His face was
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: drawn tight and there were tears on his cheeks. Thank God,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: she said, it doesn't matter, Darling. The only thing that
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: matters is you didn't go. You're right, Mary, he said.
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: His voice was low, so low she could hardly hear him.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: It doesn't matter, nothing matters now. He stood with his
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: hands at his sides, watching her, and then turned away
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: and walked toward the car end of Breakaway Collie by
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: Jack Egan. By all the laws of nature, he should
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: have been dead. But if he were alive, then there
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: was something he had to find. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Reading
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: by balloona Times Cullie by Jack Egan. Above him, eighty
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: feet of torpid black water hung like a shroud of death.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: And still he heard his ragged breathing and something else.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: Coullie concentrated on that sound, in the rhythmic pulse of
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: his heart. Somehow he had to retain a hold on
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: his sanity or his soul. After an hour of careful
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: breathing and exploring of body sensations, Collie realized he could move.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: He fluxed an arm. A mote of gold sand sifted
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: upward in the dark water. It had a pleasant color
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: in contrast with the ominous shades of the sea. In
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: a few moments, he had struggled to a sitting position,
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: delighting in the curtain of glittering metal grains whirling around
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: him as he moved. And the other sound a humming
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: in his mind, a distant burble of tiny voices of
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: other minds, words swirling in giddy patterns he couldn't understand.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Shortly thereafter, Kully discovered why he still lived. Breathed a suit,
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: a yellow plastic water tight suit with an orange on
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: black shield on the left breast pocket and a clear
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: bubble helmet. He felt weight on his back and examined it.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: Two air tanks and the regulator, a radio and the
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: box suit tanks, regulator, radio, black water box, sand sea stillness.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: Culley considered his world. It was small, It was conceivable,
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: It was incomplete. Where is it? Where is what? He knew?
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: He had a voice, a means of communication between others
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: of his kind using low frequency heat waves caused by
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: agitation of air molecules. Why couldn't he make it work? Words?
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: Thousands of them at his beck and call? What were they?
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: What did they mean? He shifted uncomfortably in the tight
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: yellow suit, searching the near horizon for where is it?
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: A vague calling came from beyond the black sea curtain. Objectively,
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: because he could do nothing to stop them, he watched
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: his feet pick up, move forward, put down, pick up,
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: move forward, put down. Funny. He had the feeling the
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: concept that this action held, meaning it was supposed to
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: cause some reaction, accomplish an act. He wondered at the
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: regular movement of his legs, one of them hurt. A
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: hurt is a sensation of pain caused by overloading sensory
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: units in the body. A hurt is bad because it
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: indicates something is wrong. Something certainly was wrong, something stirred
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: in Cully's mind. He stopped and sat down at the
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: sandy sea bottom, gracefully like a ballet dancer. He examined
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: his foot. There was a tiny hole in the yellow
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: plastic fabric, and then string of red black was oozing
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: out blood. He knew he was bleeding. He could do
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: nothing about it. He got up and resumed walking. Where
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: is it? Cully lifted his head in annoyance at the
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: sharp thought. Go away, he said, in a low, pleading voice.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: The sound made him feel better. He began muttering to himself. Water,
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: black sand, hurt, pain, radio tanks. It didn't sound right.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: After a few minutes he was quiet. The many thoughts
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: were calling him. He must go to the many thoughts.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: If his foot was bleeding, then something had happened. If
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: something had happened, then his foot was bleeding.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: No.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: If something had happened, then maybe other things had happened
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: before that. But how could something happen in a world
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: of flat gold sand and flaccid sea. Surely there was
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: something wrong, wrong, the state of being not right. Something
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: had happened that was not right. Cully stared at the
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: edges of the unmoving curtain before him. Where is it?
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: It was a driving, promise filled concept, no words, just
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: the sense that something wonderful lay just beyond reach. But
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: this voice was different from the many thoughts. It was
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: directing his body. His mind was along for the ride.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: The sameness of the sea and sand became unbearable. It
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: was too right. Somehow, Cully felt anger and kicked up
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: eddies of dust. It changed the sameness a little. He
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: kicked more up until it swirled around him in a
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: thick gold haze. Blood out, the terrible emptiness of the sea.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: He felt another weight at his side. He found a
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: holster and gun. He recognized neither again. He watched objectively
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: as his hand pulled the black object out and handled it.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: His body was evidently familiar with it, though it was
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: strange to his eyes. His fingers slipped automatically into the
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: trigger sheaf. His legs were still working under two drives.
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: The many thoughts urging, and something else buried in him,
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: a longing up and down, back and forth. Where is it? Anger?
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: Frustration flared in him. His hand shot out gun at ready.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: He turned round slowly through the settling trail of suspended sand.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: Nothing was visible again. He was moving. Something made his
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: legs move. He walked on through the shrouds of death
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: until he felt a taut singing in his nerves, and
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: irrational fear sprang out in him, cascading down his spine,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: and Cully shuddered ahead. There was something. Two motives, Get
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: there because it, they calls, get here, Get there because
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: you must. Where is it? The mind voice was excited,
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: demanding something was out there besides the sameness. Collie walked on,
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: trailing gold. The death curtain parted an undulating garden of
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: blue and gold streamers suddenly drifted toward him on an
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: unfelt current. Cully was held entranced. They flowed before him,
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: their colors dazzling, hypnotic, come closer, earthling. The many thoughts
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: spoke inside his head soothingly, Here it is, Cully's mind shouted.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: Cully's mind was held hypnotized, but his body moved of
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: its own volition. He moved again his mind and the
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: many thoughts spoke fulfillment. Almost there was one action left
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: that must be completed. Cully's arms moved. They detached the
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: small black box from his pack. He moved on into
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: the midst of the weaving, gold laced plants. Little spicules
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: licked out from their flexing stalks and jabbed uncensed into
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: Cully's body. To draw nourishment. From the many thoughts came
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: the sense of complete fulfillment from Cully's mind. Came further orders.
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: Lie down, It was a collective concept. Lie still, we
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: are friends. He could not understand. They were speaking words,
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: words were beyond him. His head shook in despair. The
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: voices were implanting an emotion of horror at what his
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: hands were doing. But he had no control over his body.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: It was as if it were not his. The black
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: box was now lying in the sand among the streaming plants.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: Colly's fingers reached out and caressed a small panel. A
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: soundless click ran through the murkiness. The strangely beautiful, gold
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: laced blue plants began a writhing dance. Their spicules withdrew
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: and jabbed, withdrew and jabbed. A rending, silent scream tore
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: the quiet waters. No, they cried. It was a negative
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: command mixed in with the terrible screaming. Turn it off,
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: stop it, stop it. Culli tried to say, but there
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: were no words. He tried to cover his ears within
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: the helmet, but the cries went on. Emotions roiled the water, pain, hurt, reproach.
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: Cully sobbed. Something was wrong here, Something was killing the plants,
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: the beautiful blue things. The plants were withering, dying. He
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: looked up at them, stupefied, not understanding, tears streaming down
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: his face. What did they want from him? What had
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: he done? Where is it? A different direction materialized a
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: new concept of desire. Cully's body turned and crawled away
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: from the wonderful dying garden, Oblivious to the pleadings floating
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: now weakly in the torpid water. He scuffed up little
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: motes of golden sand, leaving a low lying scud along
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: the bottom, backed the little black box in the garden.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: The plants, the box all were forgotten by now. Cully
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: crawled on, not knowing why. A rise appeared. Surprise caught
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: Cully unaware, a change in the sameness. Where is it again?
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: The voice was insistent. His desire was close ahead. He
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: did not look back at the black churning on the
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: sea bottom. His legs worked, his chest heaved, Words swirled
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: in his mind. He topped the rise below him. In
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: the center of a shallow golden bowl, floated a long,
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: shiny cylinder. Even from here he knew it was huge.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: He knew other things about it, how heavy it was,
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: how it was that had carried others of his kind.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: He had been in it before, and they were waiting
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: for him. He lurched on, Captain, here comes Cully, the
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: midshipman shouted from the airlock. Look what they've done to him.
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: The old man's gray eyes took in the spectacle without
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: visible emotion. He watched the pathetic bleeding yellow plastic sack.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: Crawl up to the ship and look up. His hands
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: reached down and lifted Cully up into the lock. They
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: took his suit off and stared with loathing at what
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: had once been a man. A white scar zigzagged across
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: his forehead. The captain bent close in range of the
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: dim blue eyes. It was a very brave thing you did, Cully.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: The whole system will be grateful. Venus could never be
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: colonized as long as those cannibals were there to eat
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: men and drive men mad. Cully fingered the scar on
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: his forehead and looked unseeing in to the old man's
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: compassionate eyes. I'm sorry, Cully, we all are. But there
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: was no other way, prefrontal lobotomy, destruction of your speech center.
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: It was the only way you could get past the
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: telepass and destroy them. I'm sorry, Hully. The race of
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: men shall long honor your name. Culli smiled at the
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: old man, the words churning in his brain, but he
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: did not understand where is it? The emptiness was still there.
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: End of Cullie by Jack Egan.
• 33:46
  Speaker 6: Irk Men Bearing Gifts. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 34:01
  Speaker 6: Bookman Earthmen Bearing Gifts by Frederick Brown. Dar Rye sat
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: alone in his room, meditating. From outside the door, he
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: caught a tod wave equivalent to a knock, and glancing
• 34:19
  Speaker 6: at the door, he willed it to slide open. It opened,
• 34:24
  Speaker 6: and there my friend. He said. He could have projected
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: the idea telepathically, but with only two persons present, speech
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: was more polite. A John Key entered, you are up
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: late to night, my leader, He said, yes, Key, within
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: an hour. The Earth rocket is due to land, and
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: I wish to see it. Yes, I know it will
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: land a thousand miles away if their calculations are correct,
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: beyond horizon. But if it lands even twice that far,
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: the flash of the atomic exc losions should be visible.
• 35:02
  Speaker 6: And I have waited long for first contact. For even
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: though no earth Man will be on that rocket, it
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: will still be first contact for them. Of course, our
• 35:13
  Speaker 6: telepath teams have been reading their thoughts for many centuries,
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: but this will be the first physical contact between Mars
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: and Earth. He made himself comfortable on one of the
• 35:27
  Speaker 6: load chairs, true, he said, I have not followed recent
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: reports too closely, though, why are they using an atomic warhead?
• 35:37
  Speaker 6: I know they suppose our planet is uninhabited, but still
• 35:42
  Speaker 6: they will watch the flash through their lunar telescopes and
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: get a what do they call it, a spectroscopic analysis
• 35:52
  Speaker 6: that will tell them more than they know now or
• 35:56
  Speaker 6: think they know. Much of it is erroneous about the
• 36:00
  Speaker 6: atmosphere of our planet and the composition of its surface.
• 36:04
  Speaker 6: It is call it a siding shot key. They'll be
• 36:08
  Speaker 6: here in person within a few oppositions.
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: And then.
• 36:14
  Speaker 6: Mars was holding out, waiting for Earth to come. What
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: was left of Mars, that is this one small city
• 36:21
  Speaker 6: of about nine hundred beings. The civilization of Mars was
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: older than that of Earth, but it was a dying one.
• 36:30
  Speaker 6: This was what remained of it, one city, nine hundred people.
• 36:36
  Speaker 6: They were waiting for Earth to make contact for a
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: selfish reason, and for an unselfish one. Martian civilization had
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: developed in a quite different direction from that of Earth.
• 36:48
  Speaker 6: It had developed no important knowledge of the physical sciences,
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: no technology, but it had developed social sciences to the
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: point where there had not been a single crime time,
• 37:00
  Speaker 6: let alone a war on Mars for fifty thousand years,
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: and it had developed fully the parapsychological sciences of the
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: mind which Earth was just beginning to discover. Mars could
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: teach Earth much how to avoid crime and war to
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: begin with. Beyond those simple things lay telepathy, telegonesis, and paty,
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: and Earth would, Mars hoped, teach them something even more
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: valuable to Mars, how by science and technology, which it
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: was too late for Mars to develop now, even if
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: they had the type of minds which would enable them
• 37:42
  Speaker 6: to develop these things, to restore and rehabilitate a dying
• 37:47
  Speaker 6: planet so that in otherwise dying race might live and
• 37:51
  Speaker 6: multiply again. Each planet would gain greatly and neither would lose.
• 37:57
  Speaker 6: And to night was the night when Earth would make
• 37:59
  Speaker 6: its first sighting shot. Its next shot a rocket containing
• 38:05
  Speaker 6: Earthmen or at least an earth Man would be at
• 38:08
  Speaker 6: the next opposition two Earth years or of the four
• 38:12
  Speaker 6: Martian years. Hence, the Martians knwice because their teams of
• 38:17
  Speaker 6: telepaths were able to catch at least some of the
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: thoughts of earth Men enough to know their plans. Unfortunately,
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: at that distance the connection was one way Mars could
• 38:28
  Speaker 6: not ask Earth to hurry its program or tell Earth
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: scientists the facts about Mars' composition an atmosphere which would
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: have made this preliminary shot unnecessary. Tonight, Rye the leader,
• 38:45
  Speaker 6: as nearly as the Martian work can be translated, and Key,
• 38:49
  Speaker 6: his administrative assistant and closest friend, sat and meditated together
• 38:54
  Speaker 6: until the time was near. Then they drank a toast
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: to the future in a ridge based on mental which
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: had the same effect on Martians as alcohol on earth men,
• 39:06
  Speaker 6: and climbed to the roof of the building in which
• 39:08
  Speaker 6: they had been sitting. They watched toward the north, where
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: the rockets should land. The stars shone brilliantly and unwinkingly
• 39:17
  Speaker 6: through the atmosphere in Observatory number one on Earth's moon.
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: Rog Everett, his eye at the eyepiece of the spodoscope,
• 39:28
  Speaker 6: said triumphantly, Dar, she blue, Willie, and now, as soon
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: as the films are developed, will know the score on
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: that old planet Mars. He straightened up. There'd be no
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: more to see now, and he and Willie Sanger shook
• 39:44
  Speaker 6: hands solemnly. It was an historical occasion. Hope it didn't
• 39:49
  Speaker 6: kill anybody, the Martians said, is Rog did it hit
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: death Center in search his major nearest matters, I'd say
• 39:58
  Speaker 6: it was maybe a thousand miles off to the south,
• 40:01
  Speaker 6: and that damn clothes on a fifteen million miles shot, Willie,
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: do you really think there are any Martians? Pilat a second,
• 40:10
  Speaker 6: and then said no, he was right. End of title
• 40:16
  Speaker 6: by Frederick Brown. Recording by Bookman.
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: Max. This is a Librivas recording. All Libervas recording thou
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: in the public domain. For more information or to donteea,
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: please visit LIBRIVAXA talk recording by Danielle Max by William Logan.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: What they called me that was what sarted do. I'm
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: as good an American as the next fellow, and maybe
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: I'm a little bit better than man like it, don't
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: big man drinking in a bar, who can't find anything
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: better to do than to spit on a man and
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: call him Max, as if a Mexican is something to hide,
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: ought to be ashamed of. We have our own hearers
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: and our own strength, and we don't have to bend
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: down to men like that or any other man. But
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: when they called me that, I saw red and called
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: them names back. Max Kid. One of the mets said,
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: a big red haired bully with his leaves rolled back
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: and muscles like ropes on the big hairy arms, snot nose,
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: little max brat. I called him a name. He only
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: laughed back at me and turned his back, waving a
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: hand for the bartender. Maybe in a big city in
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: the north it would be different, and probably it would
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: be not. This toleration we hear about is no more
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: good than an open fight, and there must be understanding instead.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: But here near the order, just on the American side
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: of the border, Mexican is called fair game, and the
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: seventeen years old like me is less than nothing to them,
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: to the white ones who go to the big bars.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: I thought carefully about what to do, and finally, when
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: I had made my mind up, I went for him
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: and tried to hit him, but other men held me back,
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: and I was kicking and shouting with my legs off
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: the ground. When I stopped, they put me down. So
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: I started for the big red headman again, and they
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: had to stop me again, the red headman, who was
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: laughing all this time. I wanted to run back to
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: my own family in their little house, and yet running
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: would have been wrong. I was too angry to run,
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: so I stayed my sister. I said, my sister is
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: a witch, and I will get her to put a
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: curse on me. I was very angry. You must understand this.
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: And of course they had no idea that my sister
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: is a real witch and her curses are real, and
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: only last year Ennual Baldets had died from the facts
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: of a curse of all people. Sometimes I wish I well,
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: my sister most of all, to curse people and see
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: them shrivel and sicken and chirkeen by goere a hand
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: half pent. One of the other men yelled, get your
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: sister to put a curse on me. I bet she
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: knows who I am. I been with every mass girl
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: this side of the border. This made me see red.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: My sister is pure and must be pure, since she
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: is a witch, and she is not like some of
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: the other Even aside from that, I have heard her
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: talk about them, and I know.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: I called him a name and run up to him
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: and hit him my fist and against his solicide. Felt good,
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: but some other man pulled me off again. Yet it
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: was impossible to leave. This was wrong for me, and
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: I had to make you right. I shall get my
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: father to fight you, since he is a gant ten
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: feet tall. The man laughed at me, not knowing, of course,
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: that my father is a gant ten feet tall in truth,
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: and my mother, as with Saren, like those in the books,
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: the old books, which pells in her eyes and a
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: strange power that they did not know. I was not
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: a day dreaming child, but a man who told truth,
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: and they laughed. I grew angry again and told them
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: many things, calling them names in Spanish which they did
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: not understand. That only made them laugh the more. Finally
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: I left. It was necessary for me to leave, since
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: I was not wanted, but it was necessary too for
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: me to make things right nice. Later they were dead
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: for what they had said and done for I tell
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: the truth always, and I had told them about my
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: sister and my father and my mother. But one thing
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: I had not told them. I am sorry they could
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: never know. I was the winged thing that frightened and
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: killed them one by one and of Max by William
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: Logan recording by Danielle.
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: The Putnam Tradition by Sonia Dorman. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: information or the volunteer. Please visit LibriVox dot org. The
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: Putnam tradition by Sonia dormant through generations, the power had descended,
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: now weaker, now stronger, And which way did the power run?
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: And the four year old in the garden playing with
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: a pie plate. It was an old house not far
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: from the coast, and had descended generation by generation to
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: the women of the Putnam family, progress literally went by it.
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: A new four lane highway had been built two hundred
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: yards from the ancient lilacs at the doorstep. Long before that,
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: in the time of Cecily Putnam's husband, power lines had
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: been run in and now on cold nights, the telephone
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: wires sounded like a concert of cellos, while inside, with
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: a sound like the breaking of beetles. The grandmother Cecily
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: moved through the walls in the grooves of tradition Simon Putnam,
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: her granddaughter, Nina Putnam, her great granddaughter. The unbroken succession
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: of matriarchs continued, but time times, the old woman thought,
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: in Simon, it was weakened. And she looked at the
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: four year old Nina askance, waiting, waiting for some good sign.
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: Sometimes one of the Putnam women had given birth to
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: a son who grew sickly and died, or less often
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: grew healthy and fled. The husbands were usually strangers to
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: the land, the house, and the women, and spent a
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: lifetime with the long lived Putnam wives, and died leaving
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: their strange signs telephone wires, electric lights, water pumps, brass plumbing.
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: Sam Harris came and married Simon, bringing with him an
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: invasion of washer, dryer, toaster, mixer, coffee master. Until the
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: current poured through the walls of the house with more
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: vigor than the blood in the old woman's veins. You
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: don't approve of him, Simon said, said to her grandmother,
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: it's his trade. Cecily Putnam answered, our men had been carpenters,
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: or farmers, or even schoolmasters, but an engineer faute. Simon
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: was washing the dishes, gazing out across the window sill,
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: where two pink and white Mure's shells stood, to the
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: tidy garden beyond, where Nina was engaged in her private games.
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: She dried the dishes by passing her hand once above
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: each plate or glass, bringing it to a dry sparkle.
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: It saved where on the dish towels, and it amused her.
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: Sam's got home very much, she said in a placating voice.
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: She herself had grown terrified since her marriage that she
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: wouldn't be able to bear the weight of her past.
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: She felt its power on her and couldn't carry it.
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: Cecily had brought her up after her father had disappeared
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: and her mother had died in an unexplained accident. Daily
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: she saw the reflection of her failure in the face
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: of her grandmother, who seemed built of the same seasoned
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: and secure wood as the old Putnam house. Simon looked
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: at her grandmother, whom she loved, and became a mere vapor.
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: He's not home so much, Simon said. Her face was small,
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: with a pointed chin, and she had golden red hair,
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: which she wore loose on her shoulders. Nina too had
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: a small face, but it was neither so pale nor
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: so delicate as her mother's. As if Sam's tougher substance
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: had filled her out and strengthened her bone structure. If
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: it was true that she Simon was a weak link,
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: but then Sam's strength might have poured into the child
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: and there would be no more Putnam family and tradition.
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: People don't change that easily, the old woman said, But things,
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: Simon began. The china, which had a history of five generations,
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: slipped out of her hands and smashed. Sam's toaster. Wouldn't
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: toast or pop up. Simon couldn't even use the telephone
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: for fear of getting a wrong number, or no number
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: at all. Things things, her grandmother cried. It's blood that counts.
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: If the blood is strong enough, things dissolve. They're just garbage,
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: all those things floating on the surface of our history.
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: It's our history that's deep. That's what counts. You're afraid
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: of Sam, the young woman accused. Not afraid of any man,
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: Cecily said, straightening her back. But I'm afraid for the child.
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: Sam has no family, tradition, no depth, no talent, handed
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: down and perfected a man with his head full of
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: wheels and wires. Simon loved him. She leaned on him
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: and grew about him, and he supported her tenderly. She
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: wasn't going to give him up for the sake of
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: some abstract tradition. It's not abstract, her grandmother said, with spirit.
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: It's in your blood, or why don't you sweep the
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: floors the way other women do, the way Sam's mother must.
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: Simon had begun to clean the house while she was thinking,
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: moving her hand horizontally across the floor at the height
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: of her hip, and the dust followed the motion of
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: her hand and moving in a small, sun brightened river
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: toward the trash basket in the kitchen corner. Now, Simon
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: raised her hand to her face to look at it,
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: and the river of dust rose like a serpent and
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: hung a foot below her hand. Yes, she agreed, At
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: least I can clean the house if I don't touch
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: the good china. And look where I'm going. Phew, the
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: old woman said again, angrily. Don't feel so sorry for yourself,
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: not for myself. Simon mumbled and looked again toward the garden,
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: where her daughter was doing something with three stones and
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: a pie plate full of spring water. I do despair
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: of Nina, Cecily said, as she had said before. She's
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: four and has no appearance, not even balance. She fell
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: out of the apple rose tree and couldn't even help herself. Suddenly,
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: the old woman thrust her face close to her granddaughter.
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: It was smooth, round and sweet as a young kernel
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: of corn. The eyes sunk down under their bushy gray
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: brows were cold and clear, Greg Simon, the old woman said,
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: you didn't lie to me. You did know she was
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: falling and couldn't get back in time to catch her.
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: A shudder passed through Simon's body. There was no blood
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: in her veins, only water, no marrow in her bones.
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: They were empty and porous as a bird's. Even the
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: roots of her hair were weak, and now the sweat
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: was starting out on her scalp as she faced her
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: grandmother and saw the bristling shapes of seven generations of
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: Putnam women behind her. You lied, the old woman said,
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: You didn't know she was falling. Simon was a vavor,
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: a mere froth, blowing away on the first breeze. My
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: poor dear, the old woman said, in a gentle voice,
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: But how could you marry some one like Sam. Don't
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: you know what will happen. He'll dissolve us our history,
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: our talents, our pride. Nina is nothing but an ordinary
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: little child. She's a good child, Simon said, trying not
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: to be angry. She wanted her child to be loved,
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: to be strong. Nina isn't a common child, she said,
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: with her head bent. She's very bright. A man with
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: his head full of wheels who's at home with electricity
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: and wires. The old woman went on, We've had them before,
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: but never allowed them to dominate us. My own husband
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: was such a man, but he was only allowed to
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: make token gestures, such as having the power lines put in.
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: He never understood how they worked. She lowered her voice
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: to a whisper. You're Sam understands. I've heard him talk
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: to the water pump. That's why you're afraid of him,
• 54:40
  Speaker 4: Simond said, not because I'm weak and he might take
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: something away from me, but because he's strong and he
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: might give us something. Then everything would change, and you're
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: afraid of that. Nina might be our change. She pointed
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: toward the garden, following the white line of her granddaughter's
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: Cecily looked out into the garden and saw Nina turn
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: toward them, as though she knew they were angry. The
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: child pointed with one finger directly at them. In the house.
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: There was a sharp crackle, and something of a brilliant
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: and vibrating blue leaped between the outstretched fingers of mother
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: and daughter and flew up like a bird to the
• 55:21
  Speaker 4: power lines above. Mammy Nina called Simon's heart nearly broke
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: with wonder and fright. Her grandmother contemptuously passed through the
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: kitchen door and emerged on the step outside, but Simon
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: opened the door and left it open behind her. What
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: was that, she asked Nina. Was it a blue bird?
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: Don't be silly, Nina said. She picked up the pie
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: plate and brought it toward them. Cecily's face was white
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: and translucent. One hand went to her throat as the
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: child approached. Brim full of crackling blue fire with a
• 56:03
  Speaker 4: fluctuating heart of yellow. The pie plate came toward them,
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: held between Nina's small, dusty hands, Nina grinned at them.
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: I stole it out of the wires, she said. Simone
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: thought she would faint with a mixture of joy and fear.
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: Put it back, she whispered, Please put it back, Oh, mommy,
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: Nina said, beginning to whine. Not now, not right away.
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: I just got it. I've done it lots of times.
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: The pie plate crackled and hissed in the steady, small hands.
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: Simone could feel the old woman's shocked silence behind her.
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: You mustn't carry it in a pie plate. It's dangerous,
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: Simone said to her child, but she could see Nina
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: was in no danger. How often have you done this?
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: She could feel her skir and her hair bellow with
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: electricity lots of times. You don't like it, do you?
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: She became teasing and roguish when she looked most like Sam. Suddenly,
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: she threw back her head and opened her mouth, and,
• 57:16
  Speaker 4: tilting up the pie plate, she drank it empty. Her
• 57:20
  Speaker 4: reddish gold hair sprang out in crackling rays around her face,
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: Her eyes flashed, and sparks flew out between her teeth.
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: Before she closed her mouth, Nita, the old woman cried
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: and began to crumple, falling slowly against Simon in a
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: complete faint. Simone caught her in trembling hands and lowered
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: her gently. She said to her daughter, you mustn't do
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: that in front of Grandy. You're a bad girl. You
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: knew it would scare her, And to herself, she said,
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: I must stop babbling. The child knows I'm being silly.
• 57:58
  Speaker 4: Oh isn't it wonderful? Isn't it awful? Oh? Sam, how
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: I love you? Daddy said it would scare you. Nina
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: admitted that's why I never showed you before. Her hair
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: was softly falling into place again, and she was gazing
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: curiously at her great grandmother lying on the doorstep. It
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: did scare me, Simon said, I'm not used to it, darling,
• 58:23
  Speaker 4: but don't keep it a secret any more. Is Grandie asleep?
• 58:29
  Speaker 4: Simon said hastily. Oh, yes, she's taking a nap. She
• 58:32
  Speaker 4: is old, you know, and likes to take naps. That's
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: not a nap, Nina said, leaning over and patting the
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: old woman's cheek. I think she's having a bad dream.
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: Simone carried her grandmother into the house. If that old,
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: tired heart had jumped and floundered like her own, there
• 58:53
  Speaker 4: must be some damage done to it. If anything happened
• 58:56
  Speaker 4: to her grandmother, the world would end, Simon thought, and
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: was furious with Nina and at the same time full
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: of joy for her. Cecily Putnam opened her eyes widely,
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: and Simon said, it does change, you see, but it's
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: in the family after all. The old woman sat upright quickly.
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: That wicked child, she exclaimed, to come and frighten us
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: like that. She ought to be spanked. She got up
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: with great strength and rushed out to the garden, Nina,
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: she called imperiously. The child picked up one of the
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: small stones from the pie plate, now full of spring water,
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: and came to her great grandmother. I'll make something for you, grandy,
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: she said seriously. She put the stone in the palm
• 59:48
  Speaker 4: of her hand and breathed on it, and then held
• 59:51
  Speaker 4: out her hand and offered the diamond. It's lovely, thank you,
• 59:58
  Speaker 4: the old woman said with dignity, and put her hand
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 4: on the child's head. Let's go for a walk and
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 4: I'll show you how to grow rose apples. That's more
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: becoming to a young lady. You slept on the step. Ah,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: I'm old, and I'd like to take little naps, Cecily answered.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: Simon saw them disappear among the apple rose trees, side
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: by side. She was still trembling, but gradually as she
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 4: passed her hand back and forth, and the dust followed,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 4: moving in a sparkling river toward the trash basket. Simon
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: stopped trembling and began to smile with the natural pride
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: of a Putnam woman. End of the Putnam Tradition by
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: Sonia Doormann.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 5: Some Words with a Mummy by Edgar Allan Poe. This
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 5: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 5: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 5: LibriVox dot org. Reading by Greg Marguerite. Some Words with
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 5: a Mummy by Edgar Allan Poe. The symposium of the
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 5: preceding evening had been a little too much for my nerves.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 5: I had a wretched headache and was desperately drowsy. Instead
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 5: of going out there for to spend the evening as
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 5: I had proposed, it occurred to me that I could
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 5: not do a wiser thing than just eat a mouthful
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 5: of supper and go immediately to bed. A light supper.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 5: Of course, I am exceedingly fond of Welsh rabbit, more
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 5: than a pound at once. However, may not at all
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 5: times be advisable. Still, there can be no material objection
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 5: to two, and really between two and three there is
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 5: merely a single unit of difference. I ventured perhaps upon
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 5: four my wife will have it five. But clearly she
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 5: has confounded two very distinct affairs. The abstract number five
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 5: I am willing to admit, but concretely it has reference
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 5: to bottles of brown stout, without which, in the way
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 5: of condiment Welsh rabbit is to be eschewed. Having thus
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 5: concluded a frugal meal and donned my night cap with
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 5: the serene hope of enjoying it till noon the next day,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 5: I placed my head upon the pillow, and, through the
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 5: aid of a capital conscience, fell into a profound slumber forthwith.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 5: But when were the hopes of humanity fulfilled? I could
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 5: not have completed my third snore when there came a
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 5: furious ringing at the street door bell, and then an
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 5: impatient thumping at the knocker, which awakened me at once.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 5: In a minute afterward, and while I was still rubbing
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: my eyes, my wife thrust in my face a note
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 5: from my old friend, doctor Ponniner. It ran, thus come
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 5: to me by all means, my dear good friend, as
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 5: soon as you receive this, come and help us rejoice
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 5: at last. By long preserving diplomacy, I have gained the
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 5: ascent of the directors of the City Museum to my
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 5: examination of the mummy, you know the one. I mean.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 5: I have permission to unswathe it and open it if desirable.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 5: A few friends only will be present you. Of course,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 5: The mummy is now at my house, and we shall
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 5: begin to unroll it at eleven tonight, yours, ever Pawnner.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 5: By the time I had reached the pawninner, it struck
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 5: me that I was as wide awake as a man
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 5: need be. I leaped out of bed in an ecstasy,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 5: overthrowing all in my way, dressed myself with a rapidity
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: truly marvelous, and set off at the top of my
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 5: speed for the doctors. There I found a very eager
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 5: company assembled. They had been awaiting me with much impatience.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 5: The mummy was extended upon the dining table, and the
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 5: moment I entered, its examination was commenced. It was one
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 5: of a pair brought several years previously by Captain Arthur Sabertash,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 5: a cousin of Pawnners, from a tomb near Alethius in
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 5: the Libyan Mountains, a considerable distance above Thebes on the Nile.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 5: The grottos at this point, although less magnificent than the
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 5: theban sepulchers, are of higher interest on account of affording
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 5: more numerous illustrations of the private life of the Egyptians.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 5: The chamber from which our specimen was taken was said
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 5: to be very rich in such illustrations. The walls being
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 5: completely covered with fresco paintings and bas reliefs, while statues,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 5: vases and mosaic work of rich patterns indicated the vast
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 5: wealth of the deceased. The treasure had been deposited in
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 5: the museum precisely in the same condition in which Captain
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 5: Sabotage had found it. That is to say, the coffin
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 5: had not been disturbed for eight years. It had thus
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 5: stood subject only externally to public inspection. We had now
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 5: therefore the complete mummy at our disposal, And to those
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 5: who are aware how very rarely the unransacked antique reaches
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 5: our shores, it will be evident at once that we
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 5: had great reason to congratulate ourselves upon our good fortune.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 5: Approaching the table, I saw on at a large or
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 5: case nearly seven feet long and perhaps three feet wide
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 5: by two feet and a half deep. It was oblong,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 5: not coffin shaped. The material was at first supposed to
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 5: be the wood of the sycamore platinus, but upon cutting
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 5: into it, we found it to be pasteboard, or more
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 5: properly paper machet. Composed of papyrus. It was thickly ornamented
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 5: with paintings representing funeral scenes and other mournful subjects, interspersed
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 5: among which, in every variety of position, were certain series
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 5: of hieroglyphical characters, intended no doubt for the name of
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 5: the departed by good luck. Mister Gliddon formed one of
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 5: our party, and he had no difficulty in translating the letters,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 5: which were simply phonetic and represented the word alamustachio. We
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 5: had some difficulty in getting this case open without injury,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 5: but having at length accomplished the task, we came to
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 5: a second case, coffin shaped and very considerably less in
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 5: size than the exterior one, but resembling it precisely in
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 5: every other respect. The interval between the two was filled
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 5: with resin, which had in some degree defaced the colors
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 5: of the interior box. Upon opening this ladder, which we
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 5: did quite easily, we arrived at a third case, also
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 5: coffin shaped, and varying from the second one in no
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 5: particular except in that of its material, which was cedar
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 5: and still emitted a peculiar and highly aromatic odor of
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 5: that wood. Between the second and third case there was
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 5: no interval, the one fitting accurately within the other. Removing
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 5: the third case, we discovered and took out the body itself.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 5: We had expected to find it, as usual, enveloped in
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 5: frequent rolls or bandages of linen, But in place of
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 5: these we found a sort of sheath made of papyrus
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 5: and coated with a layer of plaster, thickly gilt and painted.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 5: The paintings represented subjects connected with the various supposed duties
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 5: of the soul and its presentation to different divinities, with
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 5: numerous identical human figures intended very probably as portraits of
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 5: the persons. Embalmed, extending from head to foot was a
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 5: columnar or perpendicular inscription in phonetic hieroglyphics, giving again his
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 5: name and titles, and the names and titles of his relations.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 5: Around the neck, thus in sheathed was a collar of
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 5: cylindrical glass beads, diverse in color and so arranged as
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 5: to form images of deities of the Scarabaeus, et cetera,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 5: with the winged globe. Around the small of the waist
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 5: was a similar collar or belt. Stripping off the papyrus,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 5: we found the flesh in excellent preservation, with no perceptible odor.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 5: The color was reddish, the skin was hard, smooth and glossy.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 5: The teeth and hair were in good condition. The eyes,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 5: it seemed, had been removed and glass ones substituted, which
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 5: were very beautiful and wonderfully lifelike, with the exception of
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 5: somewhat too determined a stare. The fingers and the nails
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 5: were brilliantly gilded. Mister Gliddon was of opinion, from the
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 5: redness of the epidermis that the embalmment had been affected
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 5: altogether by asphaltum, but on scraping the surface with a
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 5: steel instrument and throwing into the fire some of the
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 5: powder thus obtained the flavor of camphor and other sweet
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 5: scented gums became apparent. We searched the corpse very carefully
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 5: for the usual openings through which the entrails are extracted,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 5: but to our surprise we could discover none. No member
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 5: of the party was at that period aware that entire
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 5: or unopened mummies are not infrequently. Met the brain, it
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 5: was customary to withdraw through the nose the intestines through
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 5: an incision in the side. The body was then shaved,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 5: washed and salted, then laid aside for several weeks. When
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 5: the operation of embalming properly so called began, as no
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 5: trace of an opening could be found. Doctor Ponner was
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 5: preparing his instruments for dissection when I observed that it
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 5: was then passed two o'clock. Hereupon, it was agreed to
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 5: postpone the internal examination until the next evening, and we
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 5: were about to separate for the present when someone suggested
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 5: an experiment or two with the voltatic pile. The application
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 5: of electricity to a mummy three, three or four thousand
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 5: years old, at least was an idea, if not very sage,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 5: still sufficiently original, and we all caught it at once,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 5: about one tenth in earnest and nine tenths in jest.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 5: We arranged a battery in the doctor's study and conveyed
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 5: thither the Egyptian. It was only after much trouble that
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 5: we succeeded in laying bare some portions of the temporal muscle,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 5: which appeared of less stony rigidity than other parts of
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 5: the frame, but which, as we had anticipated, of course,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 5: gave no indication of galvanic susceptibility when brought in contact
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 5: with the wire. This, the first trial, indeed, seemed decisive,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 5: and with a hearty laugh at our own absurdity. We
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 5: were bidding each other good night when my eyes, happening
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 5: to fall upon those of the mummy, were there immediately
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 5: riveted in amazement. My brief glance, in fact, had sufficed
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 5: to assure me that the orbs, which we had all
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 5: supposed to be glass, and which were originally noticeable for
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 5: a certain wild stare, were now so far covered by
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 5: the lids that only a small portion of the tunica
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 5: albuginia remained visible. With a shout, I called attention to
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 5: the fact, and it became immediately obvious to all. I
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 5: cannot say that I was alarmed at the phenomenon, because
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 5: alarmed is in my case not exactly the word. It
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 5: is possible, however, that but for the brown stout, I
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 5: might have been a little nervous. As for the rest
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 5: of the company, they really made no attempt at concealing
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 5: the downright fright which possessed them. Doctor Poniner was a
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 5: man to be pitied. Mister Gliddon, by some peculiar process,
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 5: rendered himself invisible. Mister silk Buckingham, I fancy will scarcely
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 5: be so bold as to deny that he made his
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 5: way upon all fours under the table. After the first
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 5: shock of astonishment, however, we resolved, as a matter of course,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 5: upon further experiment. Forthwith, our operations were now directed against
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 5: the great toe of the right foot. We made an
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 5: incision over the outside of the exterior a sessimodium police's pettus,
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 5: and thus got at the root of the abductor muscle.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 5: Readjusting the battery, we now applied the fluid to the
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 5: bisected nerves, when, with a movement of exceeding life likeness,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 5: the mummy first drew its right knee so as to
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 5: bring it nearly in contact with the abdomen, and then
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 5: straightening the limb with inconceivable force, bestowed a kick upon
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 5: doctor Ponniner, which had the effect of discharging that gentleman
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 5: like an arrow from a catapult through a window into
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 5: the street below. We rushed out en masse to bring
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 5: in the mangled remains of the victim, but had the
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 5: happiness to meet him upon the staircase, coming up in
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 5: an unaccountable hurry, brimfull of the most ardent philosophy, and
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 5: more than ever impressed with the necessity of prosecuting our
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 5: experiment with vigor and with zeal. It was by his
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 5: advice accordingly that we made upon the spot a profound
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 5: incision into the tip of the subject's nose, while the
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 5: doctor himself, laying violent hands upon it, pulled it into
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 5: vehement contact with the wire. Morally and physically, figuratively and
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 5: literally was the effect electric. In the first place, the
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 5: corpse opened its eyes and winked very rapidly for several minutes,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 5: as does mister Barnes in the pantomime. In the second place,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 5: it sneezed. In the third, it sat upon to end.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 5: In the fourth, it shook its fist in doctor Poniner's face.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 5: In the fifth, turning to Messrs Glidden and Buckingham, it
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 5: addressed them in very capital Egyptian. Thus, I must say, gentlemen,
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 5: that I am as much surprised as I am mortified
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 5: at your behavior of doctor Poninner. Nothing better was to
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 5: be expected. He is a poor, little fat fool who
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 5: knows no better. I pity and forgive him. But you,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 5: mister Glidden and you Silk, who have traveled and resided
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 5: in Egypt until one might imagine you to the manner
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 5: born you, I say, who have been so much among
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 5: us that you speak Egyptian fully as well, I think,
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 5: as you write your mother tongue, you whom I have
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 5: always been led to regard as the firm friend of
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 5: the mummies, I really did anticipate more gentlemanly conduct from you.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 5: What am I to think of your standing quietly by
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 5: and seeing me thus unhandsomely you used? What am I
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 5: to suppose by your permitting Tom Dick and Harry to
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 5: strip me of my coffins and my clothes in this
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 5: wretchedly cold climate? In what light? To come to the
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 5: point am I to regard your aiding and abetting that
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 5: miserable little villain, doctor Ponner, in pulling me by the nose.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 5: It will be taken for granted no doubt, that upon
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 5: hearing this speech, under the circumstances, we all either made
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 5: for the door, or fell into violent hysterics, or went
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 5: off in a general swoon. One of these three things was,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 5: I say, to be expected. Indeed, each and all of
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 5: these lines of conduct might have been very plausibly pursued.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 5: And upon my word, I am at a loss to
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 5: know how or why it was that we pursued neither
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 5: the one nor the other. But perhaps the true reason
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 5: is to be sought in the spirit of the age,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 5: which proceeds by the rule of contraries altogether, and is
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 5: now usually admitted as the solution of everything in the
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 5: way of paradox and impossibility. Or perhaps, after all, it
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 5: was only the mummies exceedingly not and matter of course,
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 5: air that divested his words of the terrible. However this
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 5: may be, the facts are clear that no member of
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 5: our party betrayed any particular trepidation or seemed to consider
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 5: that anything had gone very especially wrong. For my part,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 5: I was convinced it was all right, and merely stepped
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 5: aside out of the range of the Egyptian's fist. Doctor
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 5: Poniner thrust his hands into his breeches pockets, looked hard
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 5: at the mummy and grew excessively red in the face.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 5: Mister Gliddon stroked his whiskers and drew up the collar
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 5: of his shirt. Mister Buckingham hung down his head and
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 5: put his right thumb into the left corner of his mouth.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 5: The Egyptian regarded him with a severe countenance for some minutes,
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 5: and at length, with a sneer, said, why do you
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 5: not speak, mister Buckingham? Did you hear what I asked?
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 5: You or not do take your thumb out of your mouth.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 5: Mister Buckingham hereupon gave a slight start, took his right
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 5: thumb out of the left corner of his mouth, and
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 5: by way of indemnification, inserted his left thumb in the
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 5: right corner the aperture above mentioned. Not being able to
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 5: get an answer from mister b the figure turned peevishly
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 5: to mister Glidden, and in a peremptory tone, demanded, in
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 5: general terms what we all meant. Mister Glidden replied at
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 5: great length in phonetics. But for the deficiency of American
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 5: printing offices in hieroglyphical type, it would afford me much
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 5: pleasure to record here in the original the whole of
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 5: his very excellent speech. I may as well take this
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 5: occasion to remark that all the subsequent conversation in which
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 5: the Mummy took part was carried on in primitive Egyptian
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 5: through the medium, so far as concerned myself and other
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 5: untraveled members of the company. Through the medium, I say
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 5: of Messrs Glidden and Buckingham as interpreters, these gentlemen spoke
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 5: the mother tongue of the mummy with inimitable fluency and grace.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 5: But I could not help observing that, owing no doubt
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 5: to the introduction of images entirely modern, and of course
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 5: entirely novel to the stranger, the two travelers were reduced
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 5: occasionally to the employment of sensible forms for the purpose
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 5: of coning a particular meaning. Mister Gliddon, at one period,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 5: for example, could not make the Egyptian comprehend the term
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 5: politics until he sketched upon the wall with a bit
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 5: of charcoal, a little carbuncle nosed gentleman out at elbows,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 5: standing upon a stump, with his left leg drawn back,
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 5: his right arm thrown forward, with his fist shut, the
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 5: eyes rolled up toward heaven, and the mouth open at
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 5: an angle of ninety degrees. Just in the same way,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 5: mister Buckingham failed to convey the absolutely modern idea of
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 5: whig until, at doctor Ponniner's suggestion, he grew very pale
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 5: in the face and consented to take off his own.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 5: It will be readily understood that mister Gliddon's discourse turned
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 5: chiefly upon the vast benefits of cruing to science from
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 5: the unrolling and disemboweling of mummies. Apologizing upon this score
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 5: for any disturbance that might have been occasioned him, in
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 5: particular the individual mummy called Alamistachio, and concluding with a
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 5: mere hint, for it could scarcely be considered more, that
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 5: as these little matters were now explained, it might be
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 5: as well to proceed with the investigation intended. Here. Doctor
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 5: Poniner made ready his instruments. In regard to the latter
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 5: suggestions of the orator, it appeared that Alamistakio had certain
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 5: scruples of conscience, the nature of which I did not
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 5: distinctly learn. But he expressed himself satisfied with the apologies tendered, and,
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 5: getting down from the table, shook hands with the company
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 5: all around. When this ceremony was at an end, we
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 5: immediately busied ourselves in repairing the damages which our subject
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 5: had sustained from the scalpel. We sewed up the wound
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 5: in his temple, bandaged his foot, and applied a square
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 5: inch of black plaster to the tip of his nose.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 5: It was now observed that the count this was the title,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 5: it seems, of Alamistakia, had a slight fit of shivering,
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 5: no doubt from the cold. The doctor immediately repaired to
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 5: his wardrobe and soon returned with a black dress coat
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 5: made in Jennings's best manner, a pair of sky blue
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 5: plaid pantaloons with straps, a pink Gingham chemise, a flapped
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 5: vest of brocade, a white sack overcoat, a walking cane
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 5: with a hook, a hat with no brim, patent leather boots,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 5: straw colored kid gloves, an eye glass, a pair of whiskers,
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 5: and a waterfall cravat. Owing to the disparity of size
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 5: between the Count and the doctor, the proportion being as
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 5: two to one, there was some little difficulty in adjusting
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 5: these hapliments upon the person of the Egyptian, But when
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 5: all was arranged, he might have been said to be dressed.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 5: Mister Glidden therefore gave him his arm and led him
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 5: to a comfortable chair by the fire, while the doctor
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 5: rang the bell upon the spot and ordered a supply
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 5: of cigars and wine. The conversation soon grew animated. Much
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 5: curiosity was, of course expressed in regard to the somewhat
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 5: remarkable fact of Alamistachio's still remaining alive. I should have thought, observed,
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 5: mister Buckingham, that it is by time you were dead? Why,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 5: replied the Count very much astonished. I am little more
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 5: than seven hundred years old. My father lived a thousand,
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 5: and was by no means in his dotage when he died.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 5: Here ensued a brisk series of questions and computation, by
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 5: means of which it became evident that the antiquity of
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 5: the mummy had been grossly misjudged. It had been five
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 5: thousand and fifty years and some months since he had
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 5: been consigned to the catacombs at Alethius. But my remark, resumed,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 5: mister Buckingham, had no reference to your age at the
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 5: period of interment. I am willing to grant in fact
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 5: that you are still a young man. And my allusion
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 5: was to the immensity of time during which, by your
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 5: own showing, you must have been done up in as
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 5: Faltam in what said the Count? In ask Faltam persisted
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 5: mister b Ah, Yes, I have some faint notion of
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 5: what you mean. It might be made to answer no doubt.
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 5: But in my time we employed scarcely anything else than
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 5: the bichloride of mercury. But what we are especially had
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 5: a loss to understand, said doctor Ponner, is how it
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 5: happens that, having been dead and buried in Egypt five
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 5: thousand years ago. You are here today, all alive and
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 5: looking so delightfully well. Had I been as you say, dead,
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 5: replied the count, it is more than probable that dead
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 5: I should still be. For I perceive you are yet
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 5: in the infancy of calvinism and cannot accomplish it with
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 5: what was a common thing among us in the old days.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 5: But the fact is I fell into catalepsy, and it
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 5: was considered by my best friends that I was either
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 5: dead or should be. They accordingly embalmed me at once.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 5: I presume you are aware of the chief principle of
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 5: the embalming process. Why not altogether, why I perceive a
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 5: deplorable condition of ignorance. Well, I cannot enter into details
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 5: just now, but it is necessary to explain that to
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 5: embalm properly speaking in Egypt was to arrest indefinitely all
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 5: the animal functions subjected to the process. I use the
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 5: word animal in its widest sense, as including the physical,
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 5: not more than the moral and vital being. I repeat
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 5: that the leading principle of embalmment consisted with us in
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 5: the immediately arresting and holding in perpetual abeyance all the
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 5: animal functions subjected to the process to be brief in
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 5: whatever condition the individual was at the period of embalment.
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 5: In that condition he remained. Now, as it is my
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 5: good fortune to be of the blood of the Scarabaeus.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 5: I was embalmed alive, as you see me at present,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 5: the blood of the Scarabaeus, exclaimed doctor Pontiner. Yes, the
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 5: Scarabaeus was the insignium or the arms of a very
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 5: distinguished and very rare patrician family. To be of the
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 5: blood of the Scarabaeus is merely to be one of
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 5: that family of which the Scarabaeus is the insignium. I
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 5: speak figuratively. But what has this to do with you
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 5: being alive? Why it is the general custom in Egypt
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 5: to deprive a corpse before embalmment of its bowels and brains.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 5: The race of the Scarabai alone did not coincide with
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 5: the custom. Had I not been a Scarabaeus, therefore I
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 5: should have been without bowls and brains, and without either
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 5: it is inconveyve to live. I perceive that, said mister Buckingham,
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 5: And I presume that all the entire mummies that come
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 5: to hand are of the race of Scarabai beyond doubt.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 5: I thought, said mister Gliddon, very meekly, that the Scarabaeis
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 5: was one of the Egyptian gods, one of the Egyptian
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 5: what exclaimed the mummy, staring to its feet gods, repeated
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 5: the traveler, mister Glidden, I am astonished to hear you
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 5: talk in this style, said the Count, resuming his chair.
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 5: No nation upon the face of the earth has ever
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 5: acknowledged more than one god. The Scarabaeis, the Ibys, et
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 5: cetera were with us, as similar creatures have been to others.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 5: The symbols or media through which we offered worship to
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 5: the Creator too august to be more directly approached. There
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 5: was here a pause at length, the collilloquy was renewed
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 5: by doctor Ponner. It is not improbable, then, from what
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 5: you have explained, said he, that among the catacombs near
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 5: the Nile there may exist other mummies of the Scarabaeus
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 5: tribe in a condition of vitality. There can be no
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 5: question of it, replied the Count. All the Scarabi embalmed
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 5: accidentally while alive, are alive now. Even some of those
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 5: purposely so embalmed may have been overlooked by their executors,
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 5: and still remain in the tomb. Will you be kind
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 5: enough to explain? I said, what you mean by purposely
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 5: so embalmed? With great pleasure, answered the mummy, after surveying
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 5: me leisurely through his eye glass, For it was the
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 5: first time I had ventured to address him a direct question.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 5: With great pleasure, he said. The usual duration of a
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 5: man's life in my time was about eight hundred years.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 5: Few men died unless by a most extraordinary accident before
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 5: the age of six hundred. Few lived longer than a
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 5: decade of centuries, but eight were considered the natural term.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 5: After the discovery of the embalming principle, as I have
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 5: already described it to you, it occurred to our philosophers
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 5: that a laudable curiosity might be gratified, and at the
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 5: same time the interests of science much advanced by living
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 5: this natural term in installments. In the case of history, indeed,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 5: experience demonstrated that something of this kind was indispensable. An historian,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 5: for example, having attained the age of five hundred, would
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 5: write a book with great labor, and then get himself
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 5: carefully embalmed, leaving instructions to his executors pro tem that
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 5: they should cause him to be revivified after the lapse
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 5: of a certain period, say five or six hundred years,
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 5: resuming existence. At the expiration of this time, he would
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 5: invariably find his great work converted into a species of
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 5: haphazard notebook, that is to say, into a kind of
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 5: literary arena for the conflicting guesses, riddles, and personal squabbles
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 5: of whole herds of exasperated commentators. These guesses, etc. Which
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 5: passed under the name of annotations or emandations, were found
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 5: so completely to have enveloped, distorted, and overwhelmed the text
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 5: that the author had to go about with a lantern
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 5: to discover his own book book. When discovered, it was
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 5: never worth the trouble of the search. After rewriting it throughout,
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 5: it was regarded as the bound and duty of the
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 5: historian to set himself to work immediately in correcting from
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 5: his own private knowledge and experience the traditions of the
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 5: day concerning the epoch at which he had originally lived. Now,
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 5: this process of rescription and personal rectification, pursued by various
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 5: individual sages from time to time, had the effect of
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 5: preventing our history from degenerating into absolute fable. I beg
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 5: your pardon, said Doctor Ponner, at this point, laying his
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 5: hand gently upon the arm of the Egyptian. I beg
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 5: your pardon, sir, But may I presume to interrupt you
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 5: for one moment by all means, sir, replied the count,
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 5: drawing up. I merely wish to ask you a question,
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 5: said the doctor. You mentioned the historian's personal correction of
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 5: traditions respecting his own epoch. Pray, sir, upon an average,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 5: what proportion of these cabbalah were usually found to be right?
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 5: The Kabbalah, as you properly term them, sir, were generally
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 5: discovered to be precisely on a par with the facts
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 5: recorded in the unrewritten histories themselves. That is to say,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 5: not one individual iota of either was ever known, under
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 5: any circumstances to be not totally and radically wrong. But
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 5: since it is quite clear, resumed the doctor, that at
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 5: least five thousand years have elapsed since your entubment, I
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 5: take it for granted that your histories at that period,
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 5: if not your traditions, were sufficiently explicit on that one
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 5: topic of universal interest, the creation, which took place, as
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 5: I presume you are aware, only about ten centuries before, sir,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 5: said the Count Alamastachio. The doctor repeated his remarks, but
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 5: it was only after much additional explanation that the foreigner
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 5: could be made to comprehend them. The latter, at length said, hesitatingly,
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 5: the ideas you have suggested are to me, I confess
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 5: utterly novel. During my time, I never knew anyone to
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 5: entertain so singular a fancy as that the universe, or
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 5: this world, if you will have it, so ever, had
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 5: a beginning at all. I remember once, and only once,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 5: hearing something remotely hinted by a man of many speculations
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 5: concerning the origin of the human race, and by this
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 5: individual the very word atom or red earth, which you
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 5: make use of was employed. He employed it, however, in
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 5: a generical sense, with reference to the spontaneous germination from
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 5: rank soil, just as a thousand of the lower genera
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 5: of creatures are germinated. The spontaneous germination, I say, of
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 5: five vast hordes of men simultaneously upspringing in five distinct
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 5: and nearly equal divisions of the globe. Here in general,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 5: the company shrugged their shoulders, and one or two of
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 5: us touched our foreheads with a very significant air. Mister
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 5: Silk Buckingham, first glancing slightly at the occiput and then
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 5: the sensiput of Alamustachio, spoke as follows, the long duration
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 5: of human life in your time, together with the occasional
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 5: practice of passing it, as you have explained in installments,
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 5: must have had indeed a strong tendency to the general
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 5: development and conglomeration of knowledge. I presume, therefore, that we
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 5: are to attribute the marked inferiority of the old Egyptians
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 5: in all particulars of science, when compared with the moderns,
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 5: and more especially with the Yankees altogether, to the superior
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 5: solidity of the Egyptian skull. I confess again, replied the Count,
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 5: with much suavity, that I am somewhat at a loss
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 5: to comprehend you. Pray to what particulars of science do
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 5: you allude here? Our whole party joining voices detailed at
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 5: great length the assumptions of phrenology and the marvels of
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 5: animal magnetism. Having heard us to an end, the Count
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 5: proceeded to relate a few anecdotes which rendered it evident
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 5: that prototypes of Gaul and Spurzheim had flourished and faded
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 5: in Egypt so long ago as to have been merely forgotten,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 5: and that the maneuvers of Mesmer were really very contemptible
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 5: tricks when put in coalation with the positive miracles of
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 5: the Theban savants, who created lice and a great many
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 5: other similar things. I here asked the Count if his
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 5: people were able to calculate eclipses. He smiled rather contemptuously
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 5: and said they were. This put me a little out,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 5: but I began to make other inquiries in regard to
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 5: his astronomical knowledge, when a member of the company, who
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 5: had never as yet opened his mouth, whispered in my
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 5: ear that for information on this head I had better
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 5: consult Ptolemy, whoever Ptolemy is, as well as one plutarch
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 5: de Facia Luney. I then questioned the mummy about burning
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 5: glasses and lenses, and in general about the manufacture of glass.
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 5: But I had not made an end of my queries
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 5: before the silent member again touched me quietly on the
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 5: elbow and begged me, for God's sake to take a
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 5: peep at Diodorus Siculus. As for the Count, he merely
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 5: asked me in way of reply, if we moderns possessed
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 5: any such microscopes as would enable us to cut cameos
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 5: in the style of the Egyptians. While I was thinking
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 5: how I should answer this question, little doctor Ponner committed
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 5: himself in a very extraordinary way. Look at our architecture,
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 5: he exclaimed, greatly, to the indignation of both travelers, who
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 5: pinched him black and blue to no purpose. Look, he
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 5: cried with enthusiasm, at the Bowling Green Fountain in New York.
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 5: Or if this be too vast a contemplation, regard for
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 5: a moment the capital at Washington, d c. And the
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 5: good little medical man went on to detail very minutely
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 5: the proportions of the fabric to which he referred. He
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 5: explained that the portico alone was adorned with no less
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 5: than four and twenty columns, five feet in diameter and
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 5: ten feet apart. The count said that he regretted not
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 5: being able to remember, just at that moment the precise
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 5: dimensions of any one of the principal buildings of the
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 5: city of Aznak, whose foundations were laid in the night
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 5: of time, but the ruins of which were still standing
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 5: at the Epock of his entombment in a vast plain
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 5: of sand to the westward of Thebes. He recollected, however,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 5: talking of the porticoes, that one affixed to an inferior
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 5: palace in a kind of suburb called Karnak, consisted of
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 5: one hundred and forty four columns thirty seven feet in
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 5: circumference and twenty five feet apart. The approach to this
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 5: portico from the Nile was through an avenue two miles long,
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 5: composed of Sphinx's statues and oblesks twenty sixty and one
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 5: hundred feet in height. The palace itself, as well as
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 5: he could remember, was in one direction two miles long,
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 5: and might have been altogether about seven in circuit. Its
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 5: walls were richly painted all over within and without with hieroglyphics.
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 5: He would not pretend to assert that even fifty or
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 5: sixty of the doctor's capitals might have been built within
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 5: these walls, but he was by no means sure that
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 5: two or three hundred of them might not have been
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 5: squeezed in with some trouble. That palace at Karnak was
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 5: an insignificant little building, after all. He the count, however,
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 5: could not conscientiously refuse to admit the ingenuity, magnificence, and
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 5: superiority of the fountain at the Bowling Green as described
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 5: by the Doctor. Nothing like it, he was forced to allow,
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 5: had ever been seen in Egypt or elsewhere. I here
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 5: asked the Count what he had to say to our railroads, nothing,
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 5: he replied, In particular, they were rather slight, rather ill conceived,
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 5: and clumsily put together. They could not be compared, of course,
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 5: with the vast level, direct, iron grooved causeways upon which
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 5: the Egyptians conveyed entire temples and solid obelisks of one
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 5: hundred and fifty feet in altitude. I spoke of our
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 5: gigantic mechanical forces. He agreed that we knew something in
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 5: that way, but inquired how I should have gone to
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 5: work in getting up the imposts on the lintels of
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 5: even the little palace at Karnak. This question I concluded
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 5: not to hear, and demanded if he had any idea
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 5: of Artesian wells. But he simply raised his eyebrows, while
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 5: mister Glidden winked at me very hard and said in
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 5: a low voice that one had been recently discovered by
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 5: the engineers employed to bore for wooder in the great oasis.
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 5: I then mentioned our steel, but the foreigner elevated his
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 5: nose and asked me if our steel could have executed
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 5: these sharp carved work seen on the obelisks, and which
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 5: was wrought altogether by edge tools of copper. This disconcerted
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 5: us so greatly that we thought it advisable to vary
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 5: the attack to metaphysics. We sent for a copy of
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 5: a book called the Dial, and read out of it
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 5: a chapter or two about something that is not very clear,
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 5: but which the Bostonians call the great movement of progress.
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 5: The Count merely said that great movements were awfully common
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 5: things in his day, and as for progress, it was
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 5: at one time quite a nuisance, but it had never progressed.
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 5: We then spoke of the great beauty and importance of democracy,
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 5: and were at much trouble in impressing the Count with
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 5: a due sense of the advantages we enjoyed in living
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 5: where there was suffrage, ad libertum and no king. He
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 5: listened with marked interest, and in fact seemed not a
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 5: little amused. When we had done, he said that a
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 5: great while ago there had occurred something of a very
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 5: similar sort. Thirteen Egyptian provinces determined all at once to
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 5: be free and to set a magnificent example to the
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 5: rest of mankind. They assembled their wise men and concocted
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 5: the most ingenious constitution it is possible to conceive. For
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 5: a while they managed remarkably well, only their habit of
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 5: bragging was prodigious. The thing ended, however, in the consolidation
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 5: of the thirteen states with some fifteen or twenty others,
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 5: in the most odious and insupportable despotism that was ever
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 5: heard of upon the face of the earth. I asked
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 5: what was the name of the usurping tyrant? As well
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 5: as the count could recollect it was mob. Not knowing
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 5: what to say to this, I raised my voice and
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 5: deplored the Egyptian ignorance of steam. The count looked at
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 5: me with much astonishment, but made no answer. The silent gentleman, however,
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 5: gave me a violent nudge in the ribs with his elbows,
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 5: told me I had sufficiently exposed myself for once, and
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 5: demanded if I was really such a fool as not
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 5: to know that the modern steam engine is derived from
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 5: the invention of hero through Solomon toy Costs. We were
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 5: now in imminent danger of being discomfitted. But as good
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 5: luck would have it, Doctor Ponner, having rallied, returned to
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 5: our rescue and inquired if the people of Egypt would
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 5: seriously pretend to rival the moderns in the all important
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 5: particular of dress. The Count at this glanced downward to
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 5: the straps of his pantaloons, and then, taking hold of
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 5: the end of one of his coat tails, held it
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 5: up close to his eyes for some minutes, letting it fall.
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 5: At last, his mouth extended itself very gradually from ear
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 5: to ear, But I do not remember that he said
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 5: anything in the way of reply. Hereupon we recovered our spirits,
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 5: and the doctor, approaching the mummy, with great dignity, desired
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 5: it to say candidly upon its honor as a gentleman,
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 5: if the Egyptians had comprehended, at any periods manufacture of
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 5: either Ponner's lozenges or Brandwith's pills. We looked with profound
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 5: anxiety for an answer, but in vain it was not forthcoming.
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 5: The Egyptian blushed and hung down his head. Never was
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 5: triumph more consummate, never was defeat born with so ill
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 5: a grace Indeed, I could not endure the spectacle of
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 5: the poor mummy's mortification. I reached my hat, bowed to
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 5: him swiftly, and took leave. Upon getting home, I found
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 5: it past four o'clock and went immediately to bed. It
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 5: is now ten a m I have been up since
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 5: seven penning these memoranda for the benefit of my family
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 5: and of mankind. The former I shall behold no more.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 5: My wife is a shrew. The truth is I am
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 5: heartily sick of this life of the nineteenth century. In general,
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 5: I am convinced that everything is going wrong. Besides, I
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 5: am anxious to know who will be president in twenty
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 5: forty five. As soon therefore, as I shave and swallow
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 5: a cup of coffee, I shall just step over to
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 5: Ponner and get embalmed for a couple of hundred years
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 5: and of some words with a Mummy by Edgar Allan.
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 7: Poe Summit by Dallas McCord mac reynolds. This is a
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 7: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 7: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 7: Recording by m White Summit by mack Reynolds almost anything,
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 7: if it goes on long enough, can be reduced to
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 7: first a routine and then to a tradition, and at
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 7: that point it is obviously necessary. Two king sized bands
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 7: blared martial music, the International Now and the Star Spangled Banner,
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 7: each seemingly trying to drown the other in a got
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 7: damaranng of acoustics. Two lines of troops, surfacely differing in
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 7: uniforms and in weapons, but basically so very the same,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 7: so evenly matched, came to attention. A thousand hands slapped
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 7: a thousand submachine gun stocks. Marshal Vladimir Ignutov strode stiff
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 7: necked down the long march, the stride of a man
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 7: for years used to cavalry boots. He was flanked by
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 7: frozen visage subordinates, but none so cold a face as
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 7: he himself. At the entrance to the conference hall, he stopped,
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 7: turned and waited. At the end of the corridor of troops,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 7: a car stopped, and several figures emerged, most of them
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 7: in civilian dress, several bearing briefcases. They in their turn
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 7: ran the gauntlet. At therefore walked James Warren Donovy, sprightly,
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 7: his eyes darting here there politician, like a half smile
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 7: on his face, as though afraid he might forget to
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 7: greet a voter he knew or was supposed to know.
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 7: His hand was out before that of Vladimir Ignatov's, your excellency,
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 7: he said. Ignatov shook hands stiffly, dropped that of the others.
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 7: As soon as protocol would permit, the Field Marshal indicated
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 7: the door of the conference hall. There is little reason
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 7: to waste time, mister President exactly. Dunlavy snapped. The door
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 7: closed behind them, and the two men, one uniformed and bemetled,
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 7: the other Natalie, attired in his business suit, turned to
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 7: each other. Nice to see you again, Vovo. How are
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 7: Olga and the baby? The soldier grinned back in response,
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 7: two babies. Now, you don't keep up on the real news, Jim,
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 7: how's Martha? Ny shook hands. Not so good, Jim said, scowling.
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 7: I'm worried. It's that new cancer. As soon as we
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 7: conquer one type two more, we're up. How are you
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 7: people doing on cancer research? Vovo was stripping off his tunic.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 7: He hung it over the back of one of the chairs,
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 7: began to unbutton his high tight military color. I'm not
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 7: really up on it, Jim, but I think that's one
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 7: field where you can trust anything we know to be
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 7: in the regular scientific journals. Our people exchange with yours.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 7: I'll make some inquiries when I get back home, though
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 7: you never know this news strain, I guess you'd call
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 7: it might be one that we're up on and you aren't. Yeah,
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 7: Jim said, thanks a lot. He crossed to the small
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 7: portable bar. How about a drink, whiskey, vodka, rum, there's ice.
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 7: Bobo slumped into one of the heavy chairs that were
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 7: arranged around the table. He grimaced, No vodka, I don't
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 7: feel patriotic today. How about one of those long cold
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 7: drinks with the coala stuff Cuba libra, Jim said, coming up, Look,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 7: would you rather speak Russian? No Vo said, My English
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 7: is getting rusty. I need the practice. Jim brought the
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 7: glasses over and put them on the table. He began
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 7: stripping off his own coat, loosening his tie. God, I'm tired,
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 7: he said. This sort of thing wears me down. O
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 7: sipped his drink. Now there's a good a thing to
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 7: discuss as any in the way of killing time. The
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 7: truth Now, Jim Do you really believe in a god?
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 7: After all that's happened to this human race of ours?
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 7: Do you really believe in divine guidance? He twisted his
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 7: mouth sarcastically. The other relaxed. I don't know, he said.
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 7: I suppose so I was raised in a family that
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 7: believed in God, just as I supposed you were raised
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 7: in one that didn't. He lifted his shoulders slightly in
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 7: a shrug. Neither of us seems to be particularly brilliant
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 7: in establishing a position of our own, Vovo snorted. Never
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 7: thought of it that way, he admitted. We're usually contemptuous
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 7: of anyone still holding to the old beliefs. There aren't
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 7: many left, more than new people admit, I understand. Bovo
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 7: shook his heavy head. No, not really, mostly crackpots. Have
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 7: you ever noticed how it is that the nonconformists in
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 7: any society are usually crackpots. The people on your side
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 7: that admit belonging to our organizations are usually on the
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 7: wild eyed and uncombed hair side. I admit it. On
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 7: the other hand, the people and our citizenry who subscribed
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 7: to your system, your religion, that sort of thing or crackpots,
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 7: too applies to religion as well as politics. An atheist
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 7: in your country is a nonconformist in mine. A Christian
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 7: is both crackpots. Jim laughed and took a sip of
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 7: his drink, Ovo yad and said, how long are we
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 7: going to be in here? I don't know up to us?
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 7: I suppose, yes, how about another drink? I'll make it.
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 7: How much of that kola stuff do you put in?
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 7: Jim told him, and while the other was on his
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 7: feet mixing the drinks, said you figure on sticking on
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 7: the same line this year?
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: Have to?
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 7: Vo said over his shoulder, what's the alternative? I don't know.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 7: We're building up a well of a depression as it is,
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 7: even with half the economy running full blast producing defense materials,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 7: Vovo chuckled, defense materials. I wonder if ever, in the
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 7: history of the human race anyone ever admitted to producing
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 7: offense materials. Well, you call it the same thing. All
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 7: your military equipment is for defense, and of course, according
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 7: to your press, all ours is for offense. Of course,
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 7: Boo said. He brought the glasses back and handed one
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 7: to the other. He slumped back into his chair again,
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 7: loosened two buttons of his trousers. Jim Boa said, why
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 7: don't you divert more of your economy to public works,
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 7: better roads, reforestation, dams and that sort of thing. Jim
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 7: said wearily, you're a better economist than that. Didn't your
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 7: boy Marx or was it Ingles write a small book
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 7: on the subject. We're already overproducing, turning out more products
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 7: than we can sell. I wasn't talking about your government
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 7: building new steel meals, but dams, broads and that sort
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 7: of thing. You could plow billions into such items and
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 7: get some real use out of them. We both know
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 7: that our weapons will never be used. They can't be.
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 7: Jim ticked them off on his fingers. We already are
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 7: producing more farm products than we know what to do with.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 7: If we build more dams, it'll open up new farm
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 7: lands and increase the glut. If we build more and
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 7: better roads, it will improve transportation, which will mean fewer
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 7: men will be able to move greater tonnage and throw
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 7: transportation employees into the unemployed. If we go all out
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 7: for reforestation, it will eventually bring down the price of lumber,
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 7: and the lumber people are howling already. No, he shook
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 7: his head. There's just one really fool proof way of
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 7: disposing of surplus and using up labor power. And that's
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 7: war hot or cold. Bovo shrugged. I suppose so it
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 7: amounts to building pyramids, of course, Jim twisted his mouth sourly.
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 7: And since we're asking questions about each other's way of life,
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 7: when is your state going to begin to wither away?
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 7: How is that? Vovo asked, According to your sainted founder,
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 7: once you people came to power, the state was going
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 7: to wither away. Class rule would be over and utopia
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 7: would be on hand. That was a long time ago,
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 7: and your state is stronger than ours, Vovo snorted. How
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 7: can we wither away the state as long as we
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 7: are threatened by capitalist aggression, Jim said, ha. Vovo went on,
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 7: you know better than that, Jim. The only way myronization
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 7: can keep in power is by continually beating the drums,
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 7: keeping our people stirred up to greater and greater sacrifices,
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 7: by using you as a threat. Didn't the old Romans
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 7: have some sort of maxim to the effect that when
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 7: you're threatened with unease at home stir up trouble abroad,
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 7: you are being even more frank than usual. Jim said,
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 7: but that's one of the pleasures of these get togethers.
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 7: Neither of us resorts to hypocrisy. But you can't keep
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 7: up with these tensions forever. You mean, we can't keep
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 7: up with these tensions forever, Jim. And when they end, well, personally,
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 7: I can't see my organization going out without a bloodbath.
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 7: He grimaced sourly. And since I'd probably be one of
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 7: the first to be bathed, I'd like to postpone the time.
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 7: It's like having a tiger by the tail, Jim. We
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 7: can't let go happily. I don't feel in the same spot,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 7: Jim said. He got up and went to the picture
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 7: window that took up the entire wall. It faced out
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 7: over a mountain vista. He looked soberly into the sky.
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 7: Bobo joined him, glass in hand. Possibly, your position isn't
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 7: exactly the same as ours, but there'll be some awfully
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 7: great changes. If that military based economy of yours suddenly
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 7: had peace thrust upon it, you'd have a depression such
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 7: as you'd never dreamed of. Let's face reality, Jim, neither
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 7: of us can afford peace. Well, we've both known that
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 7: for a long time. They both considered somberly, the planet
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 7: Earth blazing away, a small sun there in the sky.
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 7: Jim said, I sometimes think that the race would have
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 7: been better off when Man was colonizing Venus and Mars,
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 7: if it had been a joint enterprise, rather than you
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 7: people doing one and we the other. If it had
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 7: all been in the hands of that organization, the United Nations.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 7: Bobo supplied. Then the bomb Day hit, Perhaps these new
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 7: worlds could have gone on too well, better things. Perhaps,
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 7: Vovo shrugged. I've often wondered how bomb Day started. Who
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 7: struck the spark? Happily there were enough colonists on both
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 7: planets to start the race all over again. Jim said,
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 7: what difference does it make who struck the spark? M none.
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 7: I suppose Vovo began to button his collar, readjust his clothes. Well,
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 7: shall we emerge and let the quaking multitudes know that
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 7: once again we have made a shaky agreement, one that
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 7: will last until the next summit meeting. End of Summit
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 7: by Dallas McCord mac reynolds recording by M. White.
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 5: This is Klon calling by Walt Sheldon. This is a
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 5: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 5: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 5: Reading by Greg Marguerite. This is klawn Calling by Walt Sheldon.
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 5: One sure way to live dangerously is to become a
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 5: practical joker. Should you have any doubts about it, you
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 5: might ask Professor Dane. You didn't have to be a
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 5: potential Einstein to take Professor Dane's course. For one thing,
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 5: you got a few easy credits, and for another, you
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 5: were entertained without let up by Professor Lyman Dane's celebrated wit.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 5: Take the time he was illustrating terminal velocity he jumped
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 5: out of the open third story window, horrifying the class
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 5: until they learned he'd rigged a canvas life net on
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 5: the floor below. Or the time he led a mouse
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 5: loose among the female students to illustrate chain reaction. Or
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 5: the afternoon he played boogie woogie on the Heuler Memorial Kaillion.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 5: The absorption of knowledge, he used to say, increases in
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 5: direct proportion to the sense of humor, the belly laugh
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 5: measured in decipels. Being a constant, he could say a
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 5: thing like that and could sound funnier than anybody else
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 5: could It was partly the way he looked, tall and
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 5: mournful and sly, with wispy hair that had once been blonde,
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 5: drooping like a tired willow over his forehead. But for
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 5: all his vaudeville tactics, he was by no means a
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 5: second rate scientist, which was why he had gained his
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 5: position at Southwestern Tech in the first place. He refused
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 5: to work directly for the government. No sense of humor,
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 5: just initials, he said. But this way he could at
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 5: least be called upon for consultation at the nearby Air
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 5: Force Development Center just at the foot of the mountains
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 5: to the west. Now, the a f d C, as
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 5: it was called, didn't advertise what sort of thing it
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 5: was developing, but everybody knew that Lyman Dane was an
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 5: expert on reactive propulsion of rocket motors. He could tell you,
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 5: and frequently would without being asked, exactly what mass ratio,
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 5: nozzle diameter, and propulsive velocity would be needed for the
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 5: first trip to the Moon. He knew how many hours
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 5: a round trip would take, both for landing there or
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 5: merely circling the body of the saddle. He had the
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 5: courses to Mars and Venus, thoroughly charted, but considered a
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 5: trip to Jupiter somewhat impractical. So what with Dane's presence
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 5: and the mysterious white streaks that so often shot up
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 5: into the sky like fuzzy yarn from the aft C base,
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 5: it wasn't hard to guess what was going on. Nevertheless,
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 5: Professor Dane was surprised and somewhat offended when the young
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 5: man from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came to call
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 5: on him one afternoon. And the worst part of it
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 5: was that the young man didn't have much of a
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 5: sense of humor. As you know, sir, The young man said,
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 5: we've been sighting and tracking these unidentified objects in the sky.
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 5: You must have read about those they chased near Atlanta yesterday, Ah,
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 5: said Professor Dane, Martian through Georgia, no doubt. The young
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 5: man stared at him blankly. He seemed, to Professor Dane
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 5: one of the most nondescript young men his eyes had
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 5: ever beheld. He had a clean shaven, pleasant face without
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 5: exactly being handsome, and his eyes were sincere and mild.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 5: He wore a neat gray tropical worsted and an unobtrusive tie.
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 5: He was about thirty. Professor Dane supposed that all this
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 5: was an advantage in his profession. The young man went
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 5: on earnestly, without forming any theories about these things. We've
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 5: been asked to take certain precautions. I don't know whether
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 5: they suspect a hostile power or what. That's not my
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 5: job at any rate. I've been given the responsibility of
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 5: instituting certain security techniques. You do, after all, Sir, have
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 5: access to and knowledge of considerable classified information. The lad
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 5: reminded him somewhat of his old friend and colleague, doctor
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 5: Fincher out in California. Wally Fincher was a well known physicist. Now,
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 5: though how anyone ever managed to struggle through his dry,
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 5: ponderous books, Dane didn't know. Probably he had gained most
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 5: of his fame through his part in those experiments where
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 5: they bounced radar blips off the moon. Dane thought, whilely
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 5: always talked in long, unnecessary words, he never merely went
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 5: when he could proceed. He never simply used when it
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 5: was possible to utilize. He didn't get things done, he
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 5: implemented them. Professor Dane made a mental note to put
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 5: in a long distance call to Wally that evening and
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 5: tweak his nose a bit. Maybe Dane could pretend he
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 5: was the FBI, disguise his voice, and interrogate Wally as
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 5: though he were investigating him. He chuckled a little at
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 5: the idea. Then he realized that the young man had
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 5: been talking and he hadn't been listening. So, among other things, sir,
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 5: we thought it best to monitor your official mail and
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 5: hope you won't mind, what said Dane, raising his eyebrows.
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 5: And your phone, you'll hear a couple of clicks whenever
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 5: you use it. Were recording what's said over it, though
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 5: I assure you all records obtained will be kept in
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 5: strictest confidence. Dane acquiesced. The young man finally managed to
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 5: make it clear that all this surveillance would have to
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 5: be done with Dane's permission, and the professor annoyed. Though
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 5: he was didn't want to appear uncooperative, he couldn't resist, however,
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 5: giving the young man the wrong hat when he went out,
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 5: and being delighted when the young man came back for
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 5: the right one five minutes later. He was glad to
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 5: see that something could fluster him, but that wasn't really enough.
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 5: Professor Dane had been annoyed, and he needed to express
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 5: himself further by means of the joke, which was his art,
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 5: in order to regain some measure of his equilibrium and
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 5: self respect. Inspiration visited him as he was climbing the
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 5: stairs to his bedroom at ten thirty that evening. He
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 5: stopped short, thought a minute, then began to chuckle. He
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 5: turned and went downstairs again, stepped to the phone. Professor
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 5: Dane lived alone, and no one else would be able
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 5: to share his planned joke, but this didn't matter. He
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 5: had been privately enjoying his pranks ever since as a
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 5: frail boy with an unreasonable and dominating male parent. He
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 5: had discovered that they were one way in which he
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 5: could compete with heartier souls, at times even surpassed them.
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 5: Never mind the audience, he thought the jest was the thing.
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 5: It was an hour earlier in Los Angeles and doctor
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 5: Wallace Fincher was at home. Dane disguised his voice. He
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 5: did a lot of university theater work, and this kind
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 5: of thing came to him easily. He listened first to
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 5: doctor Fincher's arid, humorless Hello Doctor Fincher speaking, Then he
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 5: heard the preliminary clicking, just as the FBI man had predicted. Thandor,
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 5: said Professor Dane. This is Klawn calling. I beg your pardon,
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 5: said doctor Fincher. The jig's up, said Professor Dane. Captain
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 5: Lixel in Propyl Cruiser nine nine seventy three will never
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 5: be able to break through. The Earthlings have set up
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 5: a close watch. They're suspicious. Who is this? Doctor Fincher
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 5: sounded startled. Who the devil is calling? Dane could barely
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 5: keep his laughter from breaking into his voice. Thandor, we
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 5: can come to no conclusion but that the terrestrials are
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 5: definitely hostile. We should have expected that from their primitive
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 5: stage of development. They have orders to shoot any of
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 5: our Propyl cruisers they can catch. I suggest that we
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 5: withdraw all ships of the Franistan class immediately from their
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 5: free orbits and send them on a standard Caplerian course
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 5: to the home planet for further consultation. Is this some
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 5: kind of joke? Flincher sounded as if he were almost panicky. Furthermore,
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 5: said Dane, I recommend that we withdraw all agents from Earth.
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 5: We can't conceal our superior mental development and advance technology
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 5: much longer. Someone's bound to catch on pretty soon. I
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 5: was against this plan and the Galactic Council in the
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 5: first place. You'll remember well, farewell, fandor I'll be seeing
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 5: you soon in space. And Professor Dane hung up before
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 5: he exploded with laughter. He laughed until the tears came
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 5: to his eyes. He held his stomach with both hands.
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 5: He was weak. He supported himself on the stair railing,
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 5: and four minutes was unable to take the first tread.
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 5: With his lively scientist's imagination, he could picture the completely
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 5: bewildered look on the young FBI man's face when he
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 5: listened to this conversation on the tape recorder or whatever
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 5: it was they used. He was certainly going to have
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 5: to try and get that recording from them play it
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 5: back for Fincher some time. Lordie Fincher would have apoplexy
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 5: every time he heard it. He finally gained enough strength
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 5: to climb this ste He went into his bedroom, still
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 5: chuckling weakly, still wiping the tears from his eyes, stomach
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 5: muscles still aching. Doctor Wallace Fincher stood there by his bed.
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 5: It was Fincher, the same stocky, round faced man with
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 5: the steel rimmed glasses. He had always known. It was
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 5: either Fincher or the damnedest hallucination he had ever. I'm sorry, lyman,
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 5: said doctor Fincher, in a kindly but impersonal voice. You
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 5: were getting a trifle too close. I'm afraid you have
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 5: left me no choice. He pointed a little silvery tube
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 5: at Professor Dane, and there was a soft buzzing and
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 5: the smell of ozone, and Professor Dane was no longer
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 5: in the room or anywhere else. Doctor Fincher sighed, adjusted
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 5: his glasses and faded into the dimension that would take
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 5: him back to Los Angeles and his interrupted work. And
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 5: of this is klon Calling by Walt Sheldon. Two plus
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 5: two makes Crazy by Walt Sheldon. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 5: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 5: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Reading
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 5: by Greg Marguerite. Two plus two makes Crazy by Walt Sheldon.
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 5: The computer could do no wrong. Then it was asked
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 5: a simple little question by a simple little man. The
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 5: little man had a head like an old fashioned light bulb,
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 5: and a smile that seemed to say he had secrets.
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 5: From the rest of the world. He didn't talk much,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 5: just an occasional oh hm ah. Creighton figured he must
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 5: be all right, though, after all, he'd been sent to
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 5: Computer City by the Information Department itself, and his credentials
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 5: must have been checked in a hundred ways in place. Essentially,
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 5: each computer is the same, said Creton, but adjusted to
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 5: translate problems into the special terms of the division it serves.
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 5: Creighton had a pleasant, well balanced, impersonal voice. He was
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 5: in his thirties and mildly handsome. He considered himself a
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 5: master of the technique of building a career in Computer City.
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 5: He knew how to stay within the limits of directives
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 5: and regulations and still make decisions, or rather to relay
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 5: computer decisions that kept his responsibility to a minimum. Now
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 5: Creton spoke easily and freely to the little man. As
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 5: public liaison officer, he had explained the computer system hundreds
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 5: of times. He knew it like a tech manual. But
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 5: is there any real central control, say, in case of
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 5: a breakdown or something of that sort. The little Man's
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 5: voice was dry as lava ash, dry as the wastes
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 5: between and beyond the cities. Tanter was the name he'd
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 5: given mister Tanter. His contact lenses were so thick they
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 5: made his eyes seem to bulge grotesquely. He had a
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 5: faint stoop and wore a black tunic, which made his
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 5: look like one of the reconstructed models of prehistoric birds
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 5: called crows that Creton had seen in museums. Of course,
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 5: of course, said Crayton, answering the question, It's never necessary
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 5: to use the all circuit, but we could very easily
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 5: in case of a great emergency the all circuit. What
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 5: is that, mister Tanter asked. Creyton gestured and led the
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 5: little man down the long control bank. Their steps made
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 5: precise clicks on the leoplast floor. The stainless steel walls
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 5: threw back tinny echoes. The chromium molding glistened, always pointing
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 5: the way, the straight and mathematical way. They were in
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 5: the topmost section of the topmost building of Computer City,
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 5: the several hundred clean, solid wedding cake structures of the
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 5: town could be seen from the poleflex window. The all
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 5: circuit puts every machine in the city to work on
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 5: any selection problem that's fed into our master control. Here,
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 5: each machine will give its answer in its own special ms,
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 5: but actually they will all work on the same problem.
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 5: To use a grossly simple example, let us say we
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 5: wish to know the results of two and two, but
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 5: we wish to know it in terms of total security.
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 5: That is, we wish to know that two plus two
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 5: means twice as many nourishment units for the Department of
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 5: Foods twice as many weapons for the Department of War,
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 5: but is perhaps not necessarily true according to the current
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 5: situational adjustment in the Department of Public Information. At any rate,
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 5: we would set up our problem on the master pushing
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 5: the button two, then the button plus, and the button
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 5: two again, as on a primitive adding machine. Then we
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 5: would merely throw the all switch. A short time later,
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 5: the total answer to our problem would be relayed back
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 5: from every computer, and the cross comparison factors canceled out,
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 5: so that we would have the result in terms of
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 5: the familiar verdict statement. And as everyone knows, the electronically
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 5: filed verdict statements make the complete record of directives for
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 5: the behavior of our society very interesting, said mister Tanter,
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 5: the little crow like man. He blinked rapidly stared at
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 5: the switch marked all that Creyton was pointing out to him. Creton,
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 5: now folded his hands in front of his official gold
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 5: and black tunic, looked up into the air, and rocked
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 5: gently back and forth on his heels as he talked.
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 5: He was really talking to himself now, although he seemed
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 5: to address Tanter. You can see that the computer system
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 5: is quite under our control in spite of what these
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 5: rebellious underground groups say. Underground groups, asked mister Tanter mildly.
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 5: Just his left eye seemed to blink this time, and
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 5: the edge of his mouth gave the veriest twitch. Oh
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 5: you know, said Creighton. The organization that calls itself the
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 5: prims prim for Primitive. They leave little cards and pamphlets
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 5: around damning the computer system. I saw one the other day.
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 5: It had a big title splashed across it, our new
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 5: tyrant the Computer. The article complained that some of the
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 5: new labor and food regulations were the result of conscious
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 5: reasoning on the part of the computer devices to build
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 5: the computer bigger and bigger and bigger at the expense
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 5: of ordinary workers. You know that sort of thing. But
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 5: it is true that the living standard is going down
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 5: all the time, isn't it, asked mister Tanter. Keeping his
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 5: ephemeral smile. What about those three thousand starvation deaths up
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 5: in Hydroberg, Creighton waved an impatient hand. There will always
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 5: be problems like that here and there he turned and
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 5: stared almost reverently at the long control wreck. Be thankful,
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 5: we have the computer to solve them. But the deaths
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 5: were due to diverting that basic carbon shipment down here
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 5: to computer city for computer building, weren't they. Now there
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 5: you see how powerful the propaganda of the prims can be.
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 5: Creighton put his hands on his hips. That statement is
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 5: not true. It simply isn't true at all. It was
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 5: analyzed on the computer some days ago. Here let me
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 5: show you. He took several steps down the corridor again
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 5: and stopped at another panel. We first collected from the
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 5: various departments food, production, labor, and so forth, all the
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 5: possible causes of the starvation deaths in Hydroberg. Computer administration
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 5: had its machine translate them into symbols. We're getting a
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 5: huge new plant and machine addition over an administration. By
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 5: the way. At any rate, we simply registered all the
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 5: possible causes with the master computer through in this circuit
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 5: marked validity selector out of all those causes, the computer
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 5: picked the one that was most valid. The Hydroberg tragedy
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 5: was due to lack of foresight on the part of
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 5: Hydroberg's planners. If they'd had a proper stockpile of basic carbon,
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 5: the thing never would have happened. But no community ever stockpiles.
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 5: Said the little man that said Creyton doesn't alter the
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 5: fundamental fact the computer never lies. He drew himself up
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 5: stiffly as he said this. Then abruptly he consulted the
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 5: chronometer on the far wall. Excuse me just a moment,
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 5: mister Tanter, He said, it's time to feed the daily
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 5: tax computation from Finance. We have to start a little
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 5: earlier on that these days, the new taxes, you know.
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 5: As Creyton moved off, Tanter's thin smile widened just a little.
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 5: As soon as Crayton was out of sight, he stepped
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 5: with his odd crow like stride to the numerical panel,
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 5: punched two plus two, then adjusted the operations pointer to hold.
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 5: After that, he punched three plus one and hold once more.
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 5: He moved over to the validity selector, switched the numerical
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 5: panel in closed the circuit. In his dry voice, He
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 5: murmured to the whole control rack. Three plus one makes four,
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 5: two plus two makes four three plus one two plus two,
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 5: Tell me which is really true. All through the master computer,
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 5: relays clicked and tubes glowed as the problem was sent
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 5: to all the subcomputers in their own special terms food, production, labor,
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 5: public information, war, peace, education, science, and so forth. All
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 5: over computer City, the solenoids moved their contacts, and the
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 5: filaments turned cherry red. Oscillating circuits hummed silently to themselves
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 5: in perfect que. The life warmth of hysteresis pulsed and
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 5: throbbed along wires and channels. Three plus one, two plus two,
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 5: Tell me which is really true? The problem criss crossed
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 5: in and out around about checking, cross checking, re checking
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 5: as the computer thought about the problem which was really true.
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 5: Even before Creton returned, parts of the computer had begun
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 5: to get red hot. It hummed in some places, and
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 5: in other places, relays going back and forth in indecision
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 5: made an unhealthy rattling noise. Little mister Tanter beamed happily
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 5: to himself as he recalled the words of an old
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 5: directive the computer itself had issued in the matter of
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 5: public thought control. When a brain is faced with two
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 5: absolutely equal alternatives, complete breakdown invariably results. Mister Tanter kept
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 5: smiling and rocked back and forth on his feet, as
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 5: Creyton had done before nightfall. The computer would be a
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 5: useless and overheated mass of plastic and metal. He took
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 5: a printed folder from his pocket and casually dropped it
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 5: on the flo where someone would be sure to find it.
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 5: It was one of the pamphlets that prims were always
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 5: leaving around. End of two plus two Makes Crazy by
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 5: Walt Sheldon