“Betsy?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Be ready to tell us again.”
“Now!” She added, “That’s a bullfrog G, three octaves down.”
“This note?”
“That’s right.”
“Get that on the grid and tell the General to get his ships up! That cuts
it to a square ten miles on a side! Now, Betsy — we know almost where you
are. We are going to focus still closer. Want to go inside and cool off?”
“I’m not too hot. Just sweaty.”
Forty minutes later the General’s voice rang out: “They’ve spotted the
ship! They see her waving!”
LIFE-LINE
THE CHAIRMAN rapped loudly for order. Gradually the cat-calls and boos died
away as several self-appointed sergeant-at-arms persuaded a few hot-headed
individuals to sit down. The speaker on the rostrum by the chairman seemed
unaware of the disturbance. His bland, faintly insolent face was impassive.
The chairman turned to the speaker and addressed him in a voice in which
anger and annoyance were barely restrained.
“Dr. Pinero” — the “Doctor” was faintly stressed — “I must apologize to you
for the unseemly outburst during your remarks. I am surprised that my
colleagues should so far forget the dignity proper to men of science as to
interrupt a speaker, no matter” — he paused and set his mouth — “no matter
how great the provocation.” Pinero smiled in his face, a smile that was in
some way an open insult. The chairman visibly controlled his temper and
continued: “I am anxious that the program be concluded decently and in
order. I want you to finish your remarks. Nevertheless, I must ask you to
refrain from affronting our intelligence with ideas that any educated man
knows to be fallacious. Please confine yourself to your discovery — if you
have made one.”
Pinero spread his fat, white hands, palms down. “How can I possibly put a
new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?”
The audience stirred and muttered. Someone shouted from the rear of the
hall: “Throw the charlatan out! We’ve had enough.”
The chairman pounded his gavel.
“Gentlemen! Please!”
Then to Pinero, “Must I remind you that you are not a member of this body,
and that we did not invite you?”
Pinero’s eyebrows lifted. “So? I seem to remember an invitation on the
letterhead of the Academy.”
The chairman chewed his lower lip before replying. “True. I wrote that
invitation myself. But it was at the request of one of the trustees — a
fine, public-spirited gentleman, but not a scientist, not a member of the
Academy.”
Pinero smiled his irritating smile. “So? I should have guessed. Old
Bidwell, not so, of Amalgamated Life Insurance? And he wanted his trained
seals to expose me as a fraud, yes? For if I can tell a man the day of his
own death, no one will buy his pretty policies. But how can you expose me,
if you will not listen to me first? Even supposing you had the wit to
understand me? Bah! He has sent jackals to tear down a lion.” He
deliberately turned his back on them.
The muttering of the crowd swelled and took on a vicious tone. The chairman
cried vainly for order. There arose a figure in the front row.
“Mr. Chairman!”
The chairman grasped the opening and shouted: “Gentlemen! Dr. van Rhein
Smitt has the floor.” The commotion died away.
The doctor cleared his throat, smoothed the forelock of his beautiful white
hair, and thrust one hand into a side pocket, of his smartly tailored
trousers. He assumed his women’s-club manner.
“Mr. Chairman, fellow members of the Academy of Science, let us have
tolerance. Even a murderer has the right to say his say before the State
exacts its tribute. Shall we do less? Even though one may be intellectually
certain of the verdict? I grant Dr. Pinero every consideration that should
be given by this august body to any unaffiliated colleague, even though” —
he bowed slightly in Pinero’s direction — “we may not be familiar with the
university which bestowed his degree. If what he has to say is false, it
cannot harm us. If what he has to say is true, we should know it.” His