Howe’s mind was silent for several long minutes—no message reached them. The three stirred uneasily under his thoughtful, sober gaze. Finally,—”If it were as simple as that, would we not have done it before?”
It was the turn of the three to be silent. Howe continued kindly,—”Speak up, my children.
Do not be afraid. Tell us your thoughts freely. You will not offend us.
The thought that Coburn sent in answer was hesitant—”If is difficult . . . Many of you are very old, and we know that all of you are wise. Nevertheless, it seems to us, in our youth, that you have waited overly long in acting. We feel—we feel that you have allowed the pursuit of understanding to son your will to action. From our standpoint, you have waited from year to year, perfecting an organization that will never be perfected, while the storm that overturns the world is gathering its force.”
The elders pondered before Ephraim Howe answered.—”It may be that you are right, dearly beloved children, yet it does not seem so to us. We have not attempted to place the ancient knowledge in the hands of all men because few are ready for it. It is no more safe in childish minds than matches in childish hands.
—”And yet . . . you may be right. Mark Twain thought so, and was given permission to tell all that he had learned. He did so, writing so that anyone ready for the knowledge could understand. No one did. In desperation he set forth specifically how to become telepathic. Still no one took him seriously. The more seriously he spoke, the more his readers laughed. He died embittered.
—”We would not have you believe that we have done nothing. This republic, with its uncommon emphasis on personal freedom and human dignity, would not have endured as long as it has had we not helped. We chose Lincoln. Oliver Wendell Holmes was one of us. Walt Whitman was our beloved brother. In a thousand ways we have supplied help, when needed, to avert a setback toward slavery and darkness.”
The thought paused, then continued.—”Yet each must act as he sees it. It is still your decision to do this?”.Ben spoke aloud, in a steady voice, “It is!”
—”So let it be! Do you remember the history of Salem?”
—”Salem? Where the witchcraft trials were held? … Do you mean to warn us that we may be persecuted as witches?”
—”No. There are no laws against witchcraft today, of course. It would be better if there were. We hold no monopoly on the power of knowledge; do not expect an easy victory. Beware of those who hold, some portion of the ancient knowledge and use it to a base purpose—witches —black magicians!”
The conference concluded and rapport loosed, Ephraim Howe shook hands solemnly all around and bade them goodby.
“I envy you kids,” he said, “going off like Jack the Giant Killer to tackle the whole educatio nal system. You’ve got your work cut out for you. Do you remember what Mark Twain said? ‘God made an idiot for practice, then he made a school board.’ Still, I’d like to come along.”
“Why don’t you, sir?”
“Eh? No, ‘twouldn’t do. I don’t really believe in your plan. F’r instance—it was frequently a temptation during the years I spent peddlin’ hardware in the State of Maine to show people better ways of doing things. But I didn’t do it; people are used to paring knives and ice cream freezers, and they won’t thank you to show them how to get along without them, just by the power of the mind. Not all at once, anyhow. They’d read you out of meetin’—and lynch you, too, most probably.
“Still, I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
Joan reached up and kissed him good-bye. They left.
Chapter Ten Lions Mouth
PHIL PICKED HIS LARGEST CLASS to make the demonstration which was to get the newspapers interested in them.
They had played safe to the extent of getting back to Los Angeles and started with the fall semester before giving anyone cause to suspect that they possessed powers out of ordinary. Joan had been bound over not to levitate, not to indulge in practical jokes involving control over inanimate objects, not to startle strangers with weird abilities of any sort. She had accepted the injunctions meekly, so meekly that Coburn claimed to be worried.