It looked like Sanskrit; most of the signs were different, and even the old ones didn’t seem to mean the same things. Look — I thought that a times b always equaled b times a.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“Not when these boys get through kicking it around. But we are getting way off the subject. Bring me up to date.”
“Yes, sir.” Jeff Thomas talked steadily for a long time, trying very hard to paint a detailed picture of everything he had seen and heard and felt. Ardmore did not interrupt him except with questions intended to clarify points. There was a short silence when he had concluded. Finally Ardmore said:
“I think I must have had a subconscious belief that you would come back with some piece of information that would fall right into place and tell me what to do. But I don’t see much hope in what you have told me. How to win back a country that is as completely paralyzed and as carefully guarded as you describe the United States to be is beyond me.”
“Of course, I didn’t see the whole country. About two hundred miles from here is as far as I got.”
“Yes, but you got reports from the other hobos that covered the whole country, didn’t you?”
“Yes. ”
“And it was all about the same. I think we can safely assume that what you heard, confirmed by what you saw, gives a fairly true picture. How recent do you suppose was the dope you got by the grapevine telegraph?”
“Well — maybe three or four days old news from the East coast — no more than that.”
“That seems reasonable. News always travels by the fastest available route. It’s certainly not very encouraging. And yet — ” He paused and scowled in evident puzzlement. “And yet I have a feeling that you said something that was the key to the whole matter. I can’t put my finger on it. I began to get an idea while you were talking, then some other point came up and diverted my mind, and I lost it.”
“Maybe it would help if I started in again at the beginning,” suggested Thomas.
“No need to. I’ll play the recording back piece by piece sometime tomorrow, if I don’t think of it in the meantime. ”
They were interrupted by peremptory knocking at the door. Ardmore called out, “Come in!” Colonel Calhoun entered.
“Major Ardmore, what’s this about a PanAsiatic prisoner?”
“Not quite that, Colonel, but we do have an Asiatic here now. He’s American-born.”
Calhoun brushed aside the distinction. “Why wasn’t I informed? I have notified you that I urgently require a man of Mongolian blood for test experimentation.”
“Doctor, with the skeleton staff we have, it is difficult to comply with all the formalities of military etiquette. You were bound to learn of it in the ordinary course of events — in fact, it seems that you were informed in some fashion.”
Calhoun snorted. “Through the casual gossip of subordinates!”
“I’m sorry, Colonel, but it couldn’t be helped. Just at the moment I am trying to receive Thomas’ reconnaissance report.”
“Very well, sir.” Calhoun was icily formal. “Will you be good enough to have the Asiatic report to me at once?”
“I can’t do that. He is asleep, drugged, and there is no way to produce him for you before tomorrow. Besides, while I am quite sure that he will be entirely cooperative in any useful experimentation, he is an American citizen and a civilian under our protection — not a prisoner. We’ll have to take it up with him.”
Calhoun left as abruptly as he had come. “Jeff,” mused Ardmore, glancing after him, “speaking strictly off the record — oh, strictly! — if there ever comes a time when we are no longer bound down by military necessity, I’m going to paste that old beezer right in the puss!”
“Why don’t you clamp down on him?”
“I can’t, and he knows it. He’s invaluable, indispensable. We’ve absolutely got to have his brains for research, and you can’t conscript brains just by handing out orders. Y’know, though, in spite of his brilliance, I sometimes think he’s just a little bit cracked.”