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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32651-h.zip b/32651-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..56e1e4d --- /dev/null +++ b/32651-h.zip diff --git a/32651-h/32651-h.htm b/32651-h/32651-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4daa949 --- /dev/null +++ b/32651-h/32651-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1894 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Adolescents Only, by Irving Cox, Jr. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adolescents Only, by Irving E. Cox + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Adolescents Only + +Author: Irving E. Cox + +Release Date: June 2, 2010 [EBook #32651] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADOLESCENTS ONLY *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + +<h1>ADOLESCENTS ONLY</h1> + +<h2>By Irving Cox, Jr.</h2> + +<p>[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of +Science and Fantasy January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any +evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote">Elvin wasn't sure how it had started—maybe it was the +Schermerhorn twins—or the mysterious "meteorite"—or else the world had +gone crazy....</div> + + +<p>He tried to convince himself he had no right to gripe. It was a pleasant +place to live; he had privacy and a bath of his own. And the +Schermerhorns were reasonably broadminded people. They never objected to +his smoking or an occasional glass of beer. Last year at the +Neuhavens'—Gary Elvin cringed inwardly at the recollection.</p> + +<p>Just the same, this was going too far. It was enough to endure their +kids all day long, five days of the week, without the addition of these +juvenile parties. This one had started an hour after dinner and it was +still going strong when Elvin returned from the late show at the Fox.</p> + +<p>Naturally the Schermerhorn twins were popular tenth graders—husky, +blond Greek Gods who had everything, including a red Convertible and a +swimming pool Pop Schermerhorn had built for them at the ranch. Gary +Elvin had expected a certain number of parties when he decided to board +and room with the Schermerhorns, but hardly one every weekend.</p> + +<p>He fled through the cluttered hall where a buxom lass was organizing +something called a bubble gum contest and took refuge on the damp and +deserted patio. He flung himself on a wet, canvas lounge, and looked up +at the bright night sky.</p> + +<p>Bitterly he counted off the weeks. It was still early in November. He +had eight more months to endure before June came with its temporary +illusion of escape. As he always did, Elvin resolved to find a better +job next year. He had been teaching for five years now. He knew all the +tricks of classroom control and smooth community relations. Surely if he +started looking early enough, he ought to be able to get something at a +small college....</p> + +<p>Suddenly he was jerked back to reality by a curious spot of red that +appeared in the sky. It moved closer and he saw that it was a falling +object followed by a long plume of red flame. It flashed momentarily +overhead and Elvin heard a dull thud as it fell into a field beyond the +ranch house.</p> + +<p>He sprang up from the couch and moved off in the darkness. It had been a +meteorite, of course; if it had survived the friction of the atmosphere +it would make an interesting exhibit for the science classroom. Miss +Gerken would be glassy-eyed with pleasure.</p> + +<p>There was no moon. As soon as he crossed the driveway, Elvin stumbled +over the damp furrows of a newly ploughed field. He was sweating when he +reached the row of palms that lined the irrigation ditch. He paused to +wipe his face.</p> + +<p>And he heard a weird, shrill, rhythmic sound. It might have been called +music, but there was no definable melody or beat. It was faint at first, +but as he moved to the right, paralleling the ditch, the sound came +louder.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>As he cautiously approached the alien object, it seemed +as if a soft melody were being wafted on the night breeze. The sound +made him nervous and instilled fear....</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Then, beyond the trees, in a glow of blue light emanating from the thing +itself, he saw the rocket. It was not quite five feet long, a slim +projectile of glowing metal nosed deeply into the soft earth. The four +fins were rotating slowly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Gary Elvin might, quite properly, have been frightened, but he was +totally unacquainted with modern fiction dealing with the probable +potentials of science and the universes beyond the earth. Such material +he classified, along with comic books and television, as the pap of +mediocre minds.</p> + +<p>Now, when he first saw the rocket, he came to the somewhat prosaic +conclusion that it had strayed from the government experimental site at +Muroc. He walked closer. The glow of the metal brightened; the slow +rotation of the fins and the weird music became hypnotic. For a moment +Elvin felt a surge of fear. He tried to turn away, but he could not.</p> + +<p>Instead, moving against his will, he took two of the fins in his hands +and pulled on them. The rotation and the music stopped as the tailpiece +of the rocket fell open. Elvin's mind cleared as he looked into a tiny +chamber capped by a small rectangular sheet of metal which was dotted +with tiny globes of a translucent material. Gingerly he picked up the +seal.</p> + +<p>As he touched the metal, a strange sensation, like a flood of jumbled +words, tumbled through his mind. The feeling was neither unpleasant nor +frightening. He was tempted to relax and enjoy it; and he would have, if +he had not been distracted by a second object in the chamber. He thrust +the strip of metal into the pocket of his coat.</p> + +<p>Elvin's second find was a small, transparent cylinder, filled with tiny, +multi-colored spheres, exactly like a jar of hard candy. There was +nothing else in the rocket, except for the motor built into the +tailpiece. The blue glow of the rocket began to fade.</p> + +<p>Vaguely Elvin became aware that something was amiss. He began to suspect +that he had stumbled upon something more than a stray rocket from Muroc. +He wanted to tell somebody about it. Clutching the cylinder of colored +balls he ran back to the house.</p> + +<p>The party had reached one of its numerous climaxes. The hall was jammed +with chattering high school students. They swirled in a flood around +Mrs. Schermerhorn, who seemed to be enjoying herself as much as they +were.</p> + +<p>Gary Elvin grabbed her arm. "I've found a rocket!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Rocket?" she frowned for a moment, and then smiled brightly. "Oh, the +racket. Yes, but they do have so much energy, don't they?"</p> + +<p>He held up the cylinder. "This was in it!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you found it, Mr. Elvin. We looked high and low; now we—"</p> + +<p>"It was in the rocket."</p> + +<p>"... now we can have our contest."</p> + +<p>Desperately a new idea occurred to him. "Can you get these kids quiet? I +want to 'phone."</p> + +<p>"But it's so early, Mr. Elvin. We can't expect them to go home yet."</p> + +<p>"No, Mrs. Schermerhorn. 'Phone. I want to telephone!"</p> + +<p>"Oh. Yes; of course. We'll have our contest in the living room."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Gary Elvin wormed his way toward the closet under the stairway. It was a +very small telephone alcove, not designed for utility. Yet he found he +could shut out some of the din if he jackknifed himself against the +slanting wall and held the door partly shut.</p> + +<p>But it required the use of both his hands. He set the cylinder on a +bookcase in the hall and squeezed into the closet. With the telephone in +his hand, he hesitated. It had seemed a good idea a moment ago—to call +in the Authorities. But, to bring the generalization down to specifics, +just who would that be?</p> + +<p>In a big city he would have telephoned the police. But San Benedicto was +a California valley town, small, sleepy, and contented. The four-man +police force was more or less capable of handling minor traffic +violations, but certainly nothing else. The State Police? Elvin doubted +they would have jurisdiction. His last, feeble resort seemed to be the +<i>San Benedicto News</i>, a daily, four-page advertising circular that +passed, locally, for a newspaper. Elvin called the editor-reporter at +his home.</p> + +<p>After he had told his story, Elvin had to suffer a certain standardized +banter concerning the advisability of changing his brand of bourbon. It +was entirely meaningless, a form of humor enjoyed by the valley people. +Matt Henderson eventually agreed that the strange rocket might bear +investigation.</p> + +<p>"I'll be out first thing in the morning," he promised.</p> + +<p>"In the morning! Listen, Matt, this thing may be—it might—" He was +unable to crystalize his reasons for urgency. He finished lamely, "It's +important, I think."</p> + +<p>"It ain't going to run away, is it?"</p> + +<p>"No, but—"</p> + +<p>"Then we can both get a good night's sleep."</p> + +<p>Gary Elvin turned away from the telephone, vaguely dissatisfied. He felt +that something ought to be done immediately. What, he didn't know, or +why. He went to get his cylinder of colored spheres from the bookcase +where he had left it. The jar was gone.</p> + +<p>He heard a burst of talk in the living room and he was suddenly +frightened. From the archway he looked in on the guests, some thirty +youngsters, all of the tenth grade of San Benedicto High School. They +sprawled over chairs and couches, or they sat, Indian fashion, on the +floor. Mrs. Schermerhorn stood in the center of the room, like a judge, +smiling patiently. All thirty of the guests were chewing industriously. +On the floor stood Elvin's jar of colored spheres, open and more than +half-empty.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," Mrs. Schermerhorn protested, turning to Elvin. "Something +seems wrong with their gum. They've tried and tried, but I haven't seen +a single bubble. And it did seem such a clever game! I suppose if the +gum were stale—" Her voice trailed off when she saw the horror on +Elvin's face.</p> + +<p>Wordlessly he pointed at the open jar. The room fell silent. All thirty +of the youngsters looked at him. Their chomping jaws became motionless.</p> + +<p>"Is—is that mine?" he whispered hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"The jar you brought in?" Mrs. Schermerhorn asked. "I don't know, Mr. +Elvin, I'm sure. Mabel Travis was supposed to bring the gum for the +contest, and she forgot where—"</p> + +<p>"But mine wasn't gum." He licked his lips, uncomfortable in the focus of +so many staring eyes. "A—a rocket of some sort fell in the field, just +beyond the irrigation ditch. I found the cylinder inside. It might +be—it could be—anything."</p> + +<p>Elvin had the strange sensation, for almost ten seconds, of looking at a +motion picture film that had stopped at a single frame. Then, as if the +projector had started to run again, all thirty of the youngsters broke +into activity. For another second the analogy of the film persisted; +Elvin had the elusive impression that each of the youngsters was +carefully playing a part.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>They clamored to go out and see the rocket. Mrs. Schermerhorn protested +that they would ruin their clothes trailing over the fields after dark. +The guests allowed themselves to be talked into putting off their +curiosity until morning. As their excited talk faded, Mabel Travis +looked up at Elvin.</p> + +<p>"Was your jar the one on the bookcase, Mr. Elvin?" she asked, eyeing him +with her enormous, blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Is that where you got—"</p> + +<p>"No." The room was still again, and all the youngsters were looking at +her with a peculiar anxiety. "I thought that was one of the prizes. You +know, when we played forfeits earlier in the—"</p> + +<p>"Of course," Mrs. Schermerhorn put in. "Bill Blake did win a jar of +candy, didn't he?"</p> + +<p>"And that's what I thought the jar was when I saw it on the bookcase," +Mary Travis continued. "So I took it upstairs and put it with our coats +in the bedroom. I'll get it for you, Mr. Elvin." Slowly she picked up +the nearly empty jar on the floor and recapped it. "I'm going to take +this back to the drugstore tomorrow morning and demand my money back. I +certainly don't like being cheated!"</p> + +<p>When she returned to the living room, she handed Elvin his cylinder of +colored balls and slowly his fear dissipated. Until a competent +authority analyzed the contents, the jar represented unknown danger. It +might be harmless; but it could also be an explosive, a form of fuel for +the rocket, perhaps even germ colonies used in biological warfare. If +Bill Blake had taken it home with him as an innocent jar of candy—Elvin +shuddered.</p> + +<p>The party broke up and Elvin went to his room. He hung his suit +carefully at the back of his closet to preserve the creases and thereby +cut down on his cleaning bill. After five years of living on a teacher's +salary, such economies had become second nature with him. He brought out +his blue serge and hung it on the door; it was the suit he would wear +next week to school.</p> + +<p>Saturday dawned crisply sunny. Elvin shaved and dressed leisurely. +Through the dormer windows of his room he saw the rich, black fields +that surrounded the ranch house and the distant ridge of misty mountains +beyond the desert, one or two of them crested with snow.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The Schermerhorns, of course, were already awake and busy. Elvin heard +the clatter of dishes in the kitchen. He saw the twins, David and +Donald, tall and muscular in their tight jeans and brilliant plaid +shirts, working in their shop back of the garage. Pop Schermerhorn was +in conference with a score of day laborers clustered around the +half-dozen tractors in the drive. Through the open garage door Elvin +could see the Schermerhorn Cadillac, the station wagon, and the red +Convertible that belonged to the twins.</p> + +<p>The scene could be duplicated, with minor variations, on any day of the +week. Elvin always resented the Schermerhorn prosperity, even though Pop +Schermerhorn had been kind enough to offer him board and room when it +was obvious the family did not need the additional income.</p> + +<p>Elvin never allowed himself to forget that the Schermerhorns owned one +of the largest ranches in the valley as well as the feed store in San +Benedicto and a half-interest in the bank. Yet Pop Schermerhorn actually +boasted that he had never gone past the eighth grade in school, and his +kids were fortunate to be considered mentally normal. Elvin had the +twins in class; he knew the limits of their ability. Donald had an I.Q. +of 89, David of 85.</p> + +<p>Yet such a family literally rolled in money, while Elvin was like a +slum-dweller staring emptily into a crowded shop window.</p> + +<p>Matt Henderson turned in from the main highway as Elvin finished +breakfast. He joined the reporter and they walked out to the field +beyond the irrigation ditch. In daylight the terrain was very different. +Elvin backtracked over the same ground several times before it dawned on +him that he could not locate the rocket.</p> + +<p>Perspiration beaded his face. That was impossible! The rocket was large +enough to be seen from any point in the field. Even if some part of the +mechanism had caused it to rise again during the night, Elvin would have +found the gaping hole the point of the projectile had torn in the earth. +But there was nothing. Not a furrow in the ploughed field was disturbed.</p> + +<p>Visibly amused, Matt Henderson departed, repeating his formula about +brands of liquor. This time, Elvin thought, the reporter actually +believed it. Elvin walked back to the ranch. He was very angry; but, +more than that, he was coldly afraid—and he had no idea what he was +afraid of.</p> + +<p>The Schermerhorn twins stopped him as he crossed the driveway.</p> + +<p>"You sure made us bite on that one, Mr. Elvin," Donald said good +naturedly.</p> + +<p>"Yeah," David added. "All the kids came over early this morning to see +your rocket."</p> + +<p>"I guest we deserve it, though," Donald went on philosophically, "for +pulling that deal on you in class last week."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Gary Elvin went up to his room in a daze and sat staring at the bottle +of colored spheres. It seemed entirely clear what had happened last +night; yet, conceivably, the rocket could have been an hallucination. If +so, it was because of the grinding frustrations of his job. But Elvin +had a good mind; he did not have to let a bunch of discourteous +rattle-brained kids get him down. David and Donald had given him the +clue: the rocket was simply a practical joke he had played on his class +of tenth graders.</p> + +<p>The second step in driving out the "dream" was an appeal to authority. +He must understand the limits of scientific possibility in the use of +rockets. That meant a trip to the library. Although it was four miles to +San Benedicto, Elvin decided to walk; the exercise would help clear his +head.</p> + +<p>He entered the library at eleven-thirty, half an hour before the +building was closed for the weekend. It was a good library. The +assessment rate in prosperous San Benedicto was high, and books had been +purchased wisely. In the card catalogue Elvin found listed a number of +up-to-date references that he could use; but there was nothing on the +shelves. Five minutes before closing time, he asked the librarian for +help.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose there's anything in," she answered. "We've had a +perfect run on books all morning."</p> + +<p>"You mean everything in the library is out?"</p> + +<p>"Everything worthwhile." She beamed. "And most of the borrowers were +your tenth graders, too, Mr. Elvin. You've certainly done a wonderful +job of inspiring that class to do serious reading. Why, do you know +Mabel Travis has been in here three times today? She took out seven +books as soon as the library opened, and she had them back by +nine-thirty. Said she'd read them all, too."</p> + +<p>"Seven books in less than two hours?" Elvin laughed.</p> + +<p>"I suppose she thought she had. Poor little Mabel! She hasn't much to +work with, you know. But it was her new attitude I liked—so intense, so +serious. And she was doing such heavy reading, too."</p> + +<p>Elvin walked back to the Schermerhorn ranch, enjoying the noon-day +warmth. San Benedicto was crowded with Saturday shoppers. He met his +students everywhere, and always they commented on the practical joke he +had played on them. By the time he was back in his room, the fiction of +the joke was thoroughly established in his own mind. He almost believed +it himself.</p> + +<p>He glanced again at the transparent cylinder of spheres. A chemist might +be able to analyze the contents and say where the jar had originated. +Perhaps Miss Gerkin could do it. She had taught science for more than +twenty years at San Benedicto High. Yet Elvin knew he couldn't ask her +for help. If the colored balls turned out to be nothing more than hard +candy, then by inescapable logic he would have to accept the fact that +he was suffering from a major hallucination. It was more comfortable not +to know the truth.</p> + +<p>The idea of candy, however, brought up another association. Mrs. +Schermerhorn had said that earlier in the evening Bill Blake had won a +jar of candy as a prize. Bill Blake was the prize joker of the tenth +grade. Elvin had what seemed to be an intuitive flash of understanding. +The rocket had been a joke, all right, but it had been aimed at Elvin. +The kids had rigged it up before he came home from the show. During the +night they had come back and taken the stage setting away.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Elvin spent the rest of the weekend planning his revenge. He didn't +think of it as that, but rather disciplinary action. Yet he knew the +class would get the point and possibly even heed the implied warning. In +five years Elvin had reduced the complex process of teaching to one +workable rule: break the class, or the kids will break you.</p> + +<p>Now he chose the classical cat-whip of a surprise test to crack them +back into line. He spent Sunday planning it and duplicating the pages. +He was scrupulously careful to be fair—at least as he defined the term. +The examination covered nothing that had not been discussed in class. +But Elvin taught grammar, and no field of the abstract allows such +devious application of the flimsy nonsense passing for rules.</p> + +<p>On Monday morning, with a thin smile, Elvin was ready for them. He had +tenth grade English first period. As he passed out the mimeographed +pages, he waited for waves of groaning to sweep the room. Nothing +happened. He felt an annoying pang of anger. A hand shot up.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Charles?" he snapped.</p> + +<p>"If we finish before the end of the period, can we have free reading?"</p> + +<p>"I doubt you'll finish, Charles. This test is ten pages long."</p> + +<p>"But if we do—"</p> + +<p>"By all means, yes."</p> + +<p>Gary Elvin leaned back in his chair and surveyed, with satisfaction, the +thirty heads bent studiously over their desks. For perhaps five minutes +the idyll lasted, until Donald Schermerhorn brought his test up to the +desk and asked permission to go to the library. Elvin was both amazed +and disappointed; but at once he reassured himself. The test had been +simply too hard for Donald.</p> + +<p>Nonetheless, as soon as Donald was out of the room, Elvin checked his +examination against the key. As he turned through the pages, his fingers +began to tremble. Donald had answered everything—and answered it +correctly. Before Elvin had finished checking Donald's test, ten more +students had left theirs on the desk and headed for the school library.</p> + +<p>Within ten minutes Elvin was fighting a disorganizing bewilderment far +worse than the rocket-hallucination. Every examination was completed, +and none that he checked had as much as one mistake. Elvin wished he +could believe that whole-sale cheating had taken place, but he knew that +was impossible because of the precautions he always took.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>All of the tenth graders were back from the library by that time. They +had each brought two or more books. Elvin's body went rigid with anger +when he saw what was currently passing among them for the skill of +reading. They were methodically turning pages almost as quickly as they +could move their hands from one side of the books to the other, all with +the appearance of engrossed attention.</p> + +<p>Elvin banged a ruler on his desk. One or two faces looked up. "This has +gone far enough!" he cried. "You asked for the privilege of free +reading, but I do not intend you to make a farce of it." A hand went up. +"Yes, Marilyn?"</p> + +<p>"But we are reading, Mr. Elvin. Honestly."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see." His voice was thickly sarcastic. "And what's the title of +your book?"</p> + +<p>"Toynbee's <i>Study of History</i>."</p> + +<p>"You've given up Grace Livingston Hill? Could you summarize Toynbee for +us, Marilyn?"</p> + +<p>"In another ten minutes, Mr. Elvin. I still have sixty pages to read."</p> + +<p>Elvin turned savagely to another girl. "Mabel Travis! What are you +reading?"</p> + +<p>The buxom girl looked up languidly. For a split second her big eyes +seemed focused on a distant prospective. "Why—why this, Mr. Elvin." She +held up her book so he could see the title.</p> + +<p>"<i>Hypnotism in Theory and Practice</i>," he snorted. And Mabel's I/Q was +71! "You've outgrown the comics, Mabel?"</p> + +<p>"In a sense, yes, Mr. Elvin."</p> + +<p>Elvin was saved from further disorientation by the interruption of an +office messenger with a special bulletin announcing a second period +assembly. By the time he had read it, his anger was under control. He +let the reading go on and spent the rest of the period plodding through +the examinations. There was not an error in any of the papers. From the +prospective of the day's events, Elvin later realized that, however +personally unnerving, his own particular crisis had been a minor one.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The first full scale public disaster came during the assembly, when the +entire student body—nearly one hundred and fifty youngsters—was +gathered in the auditorium. The principal, as always, rose to lead them +in the Alma Mater. He was a huge, hatchet-faced, white-haired man, the +terror of evil-doer and faculty members alike. He had a tendency to give +a solemn importance to trivial things and to overlook the great ones; +and there was no mistaking the awed, almost religious fervor with which +he sang the school song—which was, perhaps, only natural, since he had +written it himself.</p> + +<p>On that disastrous morning he suddenly burst into a dance as the student +body barrelled into the first chorus. He snatched up the startled girls' +counselor and improvised a little rumba. Slowly the students' voices +fell silent as they watched. Under the sweating leadership of the music +teacher, the school orchestra held the pace for another bar or two, +until one of the players stood up and rendered a discordant hot lick on +his trumpet.</p> + +<p>A trio of caretakers carried the struggling principal off the platform +and shouting teachers herded the students on to their next classes. +Thirty minutes later the word-of-mouth information was carefully spread +through the school that the principal had been taken to the hospital for +observation and he was doing nicely. But by that time his fate seemed +unimportant, for the girls' tenth grade gym teacher was having hysterics +on the front lawn, convinced that all her students had turned into fish; +and the boys' glee club teacher had abruptly announced that the nation +was being invaded by Martians. He, too, had been carried off to the +hospital in haste.</p> + +<p>The rest of the faculty was badly shaken. When they met at lunch, they +unanimously wanted the school closed for the rest of the day. But the +principal had been too small a man to delegate any of his authority; as +long as he was hospitalized, the teachers could do nothing.</p> + +<p>After the ominous activity of the morning, however, most of the +afternoon passed in relative order. True, the counselor gave pick-up +tests to three tenth graders whose earlier I.Q. scores had been so low +the validity had been questioned; and this time the same three outdid an +Einstein. And the tenth grade math teacher was almost driven to +distraction by a classroom discussion of the algebraic symbology +equating matter and time—all of which was entirely over his head.</p> + +<p>Nothing really happened until five minutes before the end of the school +day, when Miss Gerkin knocked weakly on Gary Elvin's door. As soon as he +saw her face, he gave his class free reading and joined her in the hall. +Fearfully she showed him a yellow Bunsen burner, which glowed softly in +the afternoon sunlight.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what it is, Gary?"</p> + +<p>"It's one of those gas burners you have on the lab tables in—"</p> + +<p>"The metal, I mean."</p> + +<p>"Looks like gold. Aren't these rather expensive for a high school +classroom?"</p> + +<p>She sagged against the wall, running her trembling fingers over her thin +lips. "It's that tenth grade, Gary. I have them last period for general +science. Bill Blake and the Schermerhorn twins got to fooling around +with the electro-magnet. They rewired it somehow and added a few—well, +frankly, I don't understand at all! But now when anything—metal, glass, +granite—when anything is put in the magnetic field, it's changed to +gold."</p> + +<p>"Transmutation of atomic structure? You know it can't be done!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know it. But I saw it happen." She began to laugh, but checked +herself quickly.</p> + +<p>"It's a trick. I know that bunch better than you do. It's time one of us +had it out with them."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>He strode along the hall toward the science room, Miss Gerkin following +meekly behind him. "I'm sure you're right, Gary, because the rest of the +class hardly showed any interest in what the boys were doing. I actually +asked Marilyn if she didn't want her necklace turned to gold, and she +said she was too busy to bother. Imagine that, from a high school kid!"</p> + +<p>"Busy doing what?"</p> + +<p>"Working out the application of the Law of Degravitation, she said."</p> + +<p>"The Law of Degravitation? I never heard of it."</p> + +<p>Miss Gerkin sniffed righteously. "Neither have I, and I've taught +science all my life."</p> + +<p>Gary Elvin flung open the door of the science room. It was one minute +before the end of the period. For a moment he looked in on a peacefully +ideal classroom. Every student was at his bench working industriously. +Then, row by row, they began to float upward toward the ceiling, each of +them holding a tiny coil of thin wires twisted intricately around two +pieces of metal and an electronic tube. The breeze from the open window +gathered them languidly into a kind of huddle above the door.</p> + +<p>The bell rang as Miss Gerkin began to scream. Elvin fought to hold on to +his own sanity as he tried to help her, but a degree of her hysteria +transferred itself to him. His mind became a patchwork of yawning blank +spaces interspersed with uncoordinated episodes of reality.</p> + +<p>He remembered hearing the bell and the rush of the class out of the +room. He remembered the piercing screams of Miss Gerkin's terror echoing +through the suddenly crowded halls. Beyond one of his black gulfs of +no-memory, he was in the nurse's office helping to hold Miss Gerkin on +the lounge while the school doctor administered a sedative.</p> + +<p>Slowly the integrated pattern of his thinking returned when he was +driving back toward the Schermerhorn ranch. It was late in the +afternoon; the sun was setting redly beyond the ridge of mountains. As +Elvin's fear receded, he was able to think with a kind of hazy clarity. +He had seen a metal Bunsen burner that had been turned into gold; he had +seen the crusty principal of the school break into a rumba, and three of +his colleagues driven to hysteria; he had seen a tenth grade class +floating unsupported in the air. All of it manifestly absurd and +impossible.</p> + +<p>But it had happened. Elvin could visualize only two plausible +explanations: mass insanity or mass hypnosis. Hypnosis! A sluggish relay +clicked in his mind. He remembered a book. One of the tenth graders had +been reading it—<i>Hypnotism in Theory and Practice</i>.</p> + +<p>Everything seemed clear after that. The tenth grade was an obstreperous +bunch of unsocial adolescents. Somehow they had stumbled upon hypnotism +and learned how to use it.</p> + +<p>The time for an accounting had come. Because of where Elvin lived, he +was admirably situated to break the Schermerhorn twins first; and they +were, perhaps, the weakest members of the group. He would have them +alone, without the support of their peers. It would be easy. After all, +he was a mature adult; they were still children. Once he had a +confession from them, it would only be a minor operation to clear up the +whole mess.</p> + +<p>When he reached the Schermerhorn ranch, dinner was on the table. He had +no time to talk to the twins until afterward. Both David and Donald +bolted the meal and rushed back to their workshop behind the garage. +Their usual bad manners, Elvin realized, but what else could be +expected?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Elvin finished a leisurely pipe in the living room, and then sauntered +out to the boys' workshop. Surprisingly, the door was locked, the +windows thickly curtained; they had never taken such precautions before. +He knocked and, after a long wait, both David and Donald came outside to +talk to him. They were naked to the waist and their husky, tanned bodies +gleamed with sweat. A smudge of grease was smeared over David's unkempt +blond hair.</p> + +<p>"Working on your car, boys?" Elvin inquired indulgently. He knew the +technique. Put them at their ease, first; then come to the point when +their guard was down.</p> + +<p>"Well, not exactly, Mr. Elvin." Donald said.</p> + +<p>"Mind if I watch? I always say I can learn as much about motors from you +two as you learn from me about grammar."</p> + +<p>Neither of the twins said anything. After an uncomfortable silence, +Elvin cleared his throat pointedly. He had never met with such +disrespect. If they were his kids, they would long ago have been taught +proper courtesy for their superiors! To fill the lengthening void, he +asked.</p> + +<p>"What did you think of the little test I gave this morning?"</p> + +<p>"It was all right," Donald said.</p> + +<p>"You both did pretty well; I'm proud of you."</p> + +<p>"We had everything right," David pointed out without a flicker of +expression.</p> + +<p>Elvin couldn't seem to engineer the dialogue as he used to. In that +case, this was as appropriate a time as any for the question he had come +to ask. He spoke slowly, with a tone of disinterest. "Do either of you +know anything about hypnotism?" As a shocker, Elvin realized, it left +much to be desired; their faces told him nothing.</p> + +<p>"A little," David volunteered.</p> + +<p>"We read eight or nine books on it over the weekend," Donald added.</p> + +<p>"That's a lot of reading. It must have taken a great deal of time."</p> + +<p>"Oh, a couple of hours."</p> + +<p>Elvin clenched his fists in futile anger, but he kept his voice steady. +"Is anybody else in the tenth grade reading up on hypnotism?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," Donald admitted. "I'm not sure. Why don't you ask in +class tomorrow?"</p> + +<p>"It occurs to me that a clever hypnotist could be responsible for what +happened at school today."</p> + +<p>"Some of it; isn't that rather obvious? We'd like to go on talking, Mr. +Elvin, honest. But we have a lot of work to finish. It'll be bedtime +soon enough."</p> + +<p>"But you know about hypnotism, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"We know how it's done, yes, and its limitations so far as genuine +telepathy—"</p> + +<p>"Who created that ridiculous scene in the auditorium?" Elvin's voice +rose as he tried to put on pressure.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't worry about the principal, Mr. Elvin, if I were you. He's +always been a neurotic."</p> + +<p>"Mighty big words you're using these days, Donald. Where'd you hear +them?"</p> + +<p>"The principal is a little man—mentally, I mean. He's afraid of people +because he isn't sure of himself. So he makes himself a tin god, a +dictator, just to show the rest of us—"</p> + +<p>"I want to know where you picked all this up!"</p> + +<p>Patiently the twins began to talk, taking turns at delivering an +improvised lecture in psychology, shot through with an array of highly +technical terms. As Elvin listened to their monotonous voices, he slowly +felt very tired. His head began to ache as his anger ebbed. More than +anything else, he wanted a long night's sleep. Yawning wearily, he +thanked the boys—for what, he wasn't quite sure—and went up to his +room.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Some time before dawn Elvin awoke for a moment. He thought he heard the +sound of a motor in the driveway, but he was too sleepy to get up to see +what it was. Two hours later he awoke to chaos.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Schermerhorn was shaking his shoulder. He looked up into her white, +terrified face. Her hand trembled as she clutched her quilted robe close +to her throat.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Elvin, they'll need your help. Mr. Schermerhorn's waiting for you."</p> + +<p>He shook sleep out of his mind sluggishly. "Why? What's happened?"</p> + +<p>"The bank's gone. Just—just gone!"</p> + +<p>He blinked and shook his head again. "I—I don't think I heard you +right, Mrs. Schermerhorn."</p> + +<p>"There's a jungle where the bank used to be. With tigers in it." She +laughed wildly for a moment, but the laughter dissolved into tears and +she reached for the bottle of smelling salts in the pocket of her robe. +"Most of them have been shot by this time, I think. The tigers. Think of +it, Mr. Elvin—tigers in San Benedicto!" She began to laugh again.</p> + +<p>When Elvin joined Pop Schermerhorn and the twins in the station wagon, +Mrs. Schermerhorn followed him out of the house with a thermos of hot +coffee. As she put it in the car, she saw the rifles they were taking +with them. She began to weep again, clinging desperately to the side of +the car. Suddenly the twins knelt beside her, and threw their arms +around her neck.</p> + +<p>"We're sorry, Mom," David whispered. "Terribly sorry."</p> + +<p>"You've nothing to be sorry about," she replied. "It's not your fault."</p> + +<p>"Better get back inside," Pop Schermerhorn told her. "Mind, keep the +doors locked. Things ain't safe no more around here."</p> + +<p>As they drove into San Benedicto, Elvin was considerably puzzled by the +attitude of the twins. Normally talkative to the point of nausea, they +were now strangely quiet. And this was exactly the sort of thing that +should have inspired their most adolescent repartee.</p> + +<p>The sun was rising as they stopped the station wagon among the clutter +of cars filling Main Street. Elvin stared in disbelief at the neat +square of tropical jungle rising cleanly in the heart of San Benedicto. +Not only the bank but a whole block of business houses was gone. This +could be written off neither as insanity nor hypnotism; it was a madness +existing in actual fact. Elvin gave up trying to discover any logic in +what was happening. Both reason and natural law seemed to have +abdicated.</p> + +<p>The periphery of jungle was surrounded by armed men. At intervals they +shot at shadows lurking among the trees and, as the sun brightened, the +accuracy of their aim increased. They were not worrying about causes, +either; they were responding with excellent self-discipline to the +emergency of tigers roaming the streets of San Benedicto. Afterwards, at +their leisure, they could speculate on how the jungle had come to be +there.</p> + +<p>There was only one fatality. A tiger sprang out of the jungle and mauled +a man who had pressed too close. It happened directly in front of the +Schermerhorn twins. They turned their rifles on the tiger and killed it +instantly; but the man was dead, too.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Elvin was surprised to see tears in the eyes of the twins, but he +credited it to the unstable emotions of adolescence. Both of them had +acted with maturity when they faced the tiger; no adult could have done +more. Still they wept, even though the man was a stranger.</p> + +<p>By eight o'clock the stirrings in the jungle had stopped. The men began +to relax. Waitresses from the Bid-a-Wee Cafe brought out doughnuts and +coffee and distributed them among the crowd.</p> + +<p>There came, then, a new disturbance at the far end of Main Street, a +shouting of tumultuous voices. A mob moved slowly into the center of +town, clinging to the sides of an antiquated dump truck.</p> + +<p>"Gold! Gold! Gold!" It was like a chant shouted with ecstatic antiphony. +The dump truck stopped and Elvin saw the unbelievable—gleaming heaps of +gold shoveled like gravel into the back of the vehicle. The driver stood +on the running board, weaving drunkenly.</p> + +<p>"The whole damn' desert," he shouted. "All of it, as far as I could +see—all pure gold!"</p> + +<p>He took a shovel and scattered the nuggets and dust among the throng. +"Take all you like. Lots more where this came from!"</p> + +<p>The mob stirred slowly at first, and then more and more violently, as +the men began to race for their cars. The vehicles were already crowded +close together. Gears ground and fenders crumbled. The street became +helplessly jammed with locked cars. Only a few on the fringe escaped. +Angry arguments broke out, degenerating into fist fights. The peak +violence cooled a little after a few heads had been smashed, and +grudgingly the men turned to the task of freeing their cars.</p> + +<p>Donald snatched Elvin's arm. "Stay here with Pop," he shouted above the +clatter. "Dave and I are going back to the ranch. Mom may need us. The +desert runs right up to the edge of our property, you know."</p> + +<p>"Going to walk?"</p> + +<p>"I think we can get the station wagon out. It's pretty far back."</p> + +<p>Elvin and Pop Schermerhorn worked side by side helping untangle the mass +of vehicles. After an hour order had been more or less restored, and the +mob had thinned, since each of the freed cars had been driven off at top +speed to the desert bonanza.</p> + +<p>For a moment the sky darkened. Elvin looked up. The jungle had +disappeared and a medieval castle, complete with knights, had taken its +place. The mob shrank back in terror. So did the knights, although one +or two on the battlements ventured to send shafts into this new enemy +that had appeared at the castle gates. But there was no time for real +hostilities to develop, for the castle vanished and a 19th century +factory took its place. The factory survived less than thirty seconds, +before it gave way to the bank and row of stores which had originally +stood on the site.</p> + +<p>For some reason the crowd began to cheer, as they would a victorious +football team. But the tumult died quickly, for the buildings were +covered with a slime of jungle vines, torn up by their roots, and a pair +of snarling lions stood at bay on the sidewalk. After they had shot the +lions, they found a cobra was coiled on the cashier's desk in the bank +and an antelope was imprisoned in the dry goods store. They were still +clearing out miscellaneous wild life when reporters from the city +newspapers, apprised by the <i>San Benedicto News</i> of the gold strike, +descended upon the town. They were followed by a deluge of prospectors, +arriving in anything that would move—bicycles and Cadillacs, Model T's +and Greyhound buses.</p> + +<p>The mob poured into town first by the scores, and then by the thousands. +Primarily male, their prevailing mood was explosive instability, a +glassy-eyed greed flamed higher as each truckload of gold poured back +into town from the diggings. The four-man police force was helpless. The +major telegraphed to Sacramento for the National Guard; in the interim, +he deputized every townsman he could find, among them Elvin and Pop +Schermerhorn.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Elvin worked until he was exhausted, herding the mob into the streets +and through the town as rapidly as they would move; and still there was +no relief, and the number in the throng increased by the minute. +Newsreel trucks, television units, press cars twisted among the vehicles +heading for the desert. Regularly, heavy duty trucks brought tons of +gold back from the diggings and deposited them at the bank until the +aisles overflowed and the precious metal sifted through the windows +forming little pyramids in the street. By noon Treasury men flew in from +Washington. They circled the diggings and landed to inspect the quality +of the gold hoard at the bank.</p> + +<p>Fifteen minutes later a rumor filtered among the deputies: the Treasury +men estimated that the San Benedicto strike would yield upwards of two +or three hundred thousand times the known gold supply of the world. When +the <i>San Benedicto News</i> came out in mid-afternoon, it headlined the +first shock of the economic disaster.</p> + +<p>World currencies were collapsing; three nations were already bankrupt; +international trade was grinding to a standstill, with no medium of +exchange; retail prices in the United States had started to skyrocket, +in the wake of rising stock market quotations. And still the procession +of dump trucks brought the tons of gold back from the desert. When the +bank overflowed the dry goods store was commandeered as an emergency +depository, and later the Five-and-Ten and the sprawling basement of +Montgomery Ward's.</p> + +<p>When the first contingent of National Guardsmen marched into San +Benedicto, it was obviously too small to police the mob. The press +estimated that a quarter of a million people were moving into the valley +every hour. More Guard units were summoned and ultimately, at the +Governor's request, two regiments of the regular army were dispatched to +San Benedicto, along with a Tank Corps and ten thousand Marines from +Camp Pendleton.</p> + +<p>It was nightfall before the deputies were relieved. Tired and dirty, +Elvin and Pop Schermerhorn rode back to the ranch on a prospector's +truck. From the lawn they looked across Schermerhorn's ploughed fields +at the desert, teeming with mobs of men and bright in the glare of +countless searchlights. Mrs. Schermerhorn met them on the porch. She +clung to her husband's arms, trembling.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad you're back safely!" she whispered. "They've been moving +closer all day." She nodded toward the desert. "Like ants, trampling and +destroying everything that gets in their way."</p> + +<p>Pop Schermerhorn clenched his fists. "If they'd broken in here, I'd +have—"</p> + +<p>"If it hadn't been for the twins, I don't know what might have happened. +They got their class over here, the whole tenth grade. All day long +they've been patrolling our fences, without even stopping long enough to +eat. They're all out in the workshop now; they've made it a kind of +headquarters."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The three of them went into the living room. Pop Schermerhorn and Elvin +dropped wearily on a couch, while Mrs. Schermerhorn poured stiff drinks +for both of them. The radio was playing, a smoothly sweet dance +orchestra from San Francisco. But the music faded abruptly, and an +excited newscaster interrupted.</p> + +<p>"It's been like this all day," Mrs. Schermerhorn said. She looked up +nervously as the side door opened and the twins came in.</p> + +<p>"We just wanted some more copper wire, Mom, for the thing we're making," +Donald said, but he hesitated when he heard the news broadcast. Both +twins dropped silently on the arms of an overstuffed chair and listened.</p> + +<p>The bulletin was brief; it reviewed the growing chaos among the foreign +exchanges, the expanding list of bankruptcies. Two European nations, +driven to internal disaster, had gone to war; already the big powers +were choosing sides, framing ultimatums. War seemed to be the one +universal panacea for all things. In New York stores had started to +quote new dollar prices every hour, although purchases made in silver +were still relatively stable at the old value. The grating voice +concluded, "The first estimates of today's yield from the San Benedicto +field place it in the neighborhood of seventy-thousand tons; mining +experts predict that tomorrow the figure may be tripled." As the music +came on again, Donald got up and snapped off the radio.</p> + +<p>"The economy of the world's being wrecked, isn't it?" he asked. "By too +much gold."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand," Pop Schermerhorn answered, shaking his head. +"Gold's valuable; we need it; it makes us rich. But now, when we have +all we want—"</p> + +<p>"The trouble is, it has no use," David said. "Governments buy it and +bury it. If gold becomes as plentiful as iron ore, we still can't do +much with it. You can't make skyscrapers or sewer pipes out of gold; +it's too soft."</p> + +<p>"The government ought to clear out the field and stop the mining," +Donald suggested. "That might help."</p> + +<p>"Not as long as the world knows the gold is still here," Elvin answered. +He studied the twins carefully; their comment on the economy seemed +mature for tenth graders. Suddenly Elvin's weary mind began to piece +together a vague kind of understanding, when he remembered the +transformation of the Bunsen burner to gold. Beyond his shadowy +comprehension loomed the vista of a grandiose dream of how he could use +the situation for his own profit. It was intoxicating, like reaching out +for the stars and finding them within his grasp.</p> + +<p>"It's all crazy!" David cried. "We don't really use gold, anyway, in our +economy. Why can't we just forget it, and go on using dollars the way we +used to?"</p> + +<p>"Because people are fools," Elvin said.</p> + +<p>"Or, perhaps, just children," David replied. He stood up, stretching, so +that his muscles rippled beneath his plaid shirt. "Well, we better get +that wire, Don, and go back to work."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>After the twins had left, Elvin went up to his room to bathe. His mind +skipped pleasantly over the delightful and limitless possibilities of +his new understanding. The whole thing, of course, hinged on his +approach. But, after all, that shouldn't be hard; they were still +children emotionally. Five years of teaching had demonstrated, to his +satisfaction, that he could handle any adolescent.</p> + +<p>He began to dress. The clothes he had worn that day were streaked and +torn. He took his second suit out of the closet. As he hung the coat +over the back of his desk chair, he heard metal strike against the wood. +It was the coat he had worn on Friday night, when he found the rocket; +in the pocket was the strip of metal that had been sealed over the +cylinder of colored spheres.</p> + +<p>He held it in his hand again. It was the first time the full surface of +the metal had touched his skin. As he had before, he felt the sensation +of jumbled words flooding his mind, but now the feeling was more +intense. He could not put the metal down. Instead he dropped into his +desk chair and his eyes were drawn irresistibly to the pattern of tiny, +translucent globes that dotted the surface of the metal. The heat of his +body produced a chemical reaction; one by one the little globes +exploded.</p> + +<p>Pictures filled Elvin's mind, of cities, machines, towering stacks of +books. These dissolved, and he saw planets whirling on the black +emptiness of space around the glowing disk of a red sun. There was a +cataclysmic splatter of light as the sun exploded, and slashing flame +shot out to destroy its circling planets. That picture, too, disappeared +and he was staring at a gray nothingness while an emotional voice spoke +to him deep within his brain.</p> + +<p>"<i>To the intelligent life form, on the Third Planet, System K, Greetings +from the dying world of Dyran. You have located our rocket from the +hypnotichord built into the fins, and, by opening it, you have +demonstrated a condition of rationality that we are able to help. We +speak to you now through hypnotic pictures which you are translating +into the symbology of your own society. Our astronomers predict that our +planetary system will shortly be destroyed, because our sun is dying. It +is useless for us to try to escape, for no world that we can find within +the limits of our telescope has the particular combination of +atmospheric gases which we need in order to live. The only sky-body that +we have ever studied that gives any indication of higher life forms is +yours. To you, then, we send the substance of our knowledge, the laws +and principles that we have developed over a period of two million years +since our recorded history began. We could have sent our machines, our +libraries of records, yet the chance that you would not comprehend them +alone is too great. Instead we send our learning capsules, which we use +in the instruction of our young. Break the container which is sealed +into this rocket and consume one of the colored spheres. It is, +basically, a stimulant to the cerebral cortex of any reasoning animal +which already has a memory of the past and a concept of the future. Long +ago we discovered that, unaided, the mind will function with only a +small portion of its specialized cells. This stimulant forces conscious +activity upon all parts of the cortex; in the process of stimulation, +your brain will receive the full knowledge of basic principles which we +ourselves have developed. We send you fifty of these only, but it will +be enough. You have not, on your planet, the material with which to make +additional capsules for your people, but you will not need them. The +fifty who learn from these will become teachers for the rest. Carry on +for us the culture that we have made on the dying world of Dyran.</i>"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The gray mist faded and Elvin stood up. He felt refreshed, alert; his +mind bubbled again with schemes. He looked at the bottle of colored +spheres still standing on his desk, and he knew they were no more than +bubble gum or candy. On Friday night, while he telephoned, the tenth +graders at the Schermerhorn party had started their bubble gum contest, +but instead of gum they had by accident absorbed the accumulated +knowledge of Dyran, a culture more than three hundred times as old as +the earth's!</p> + +<p>It was overwhelmingly clear what had happened after that. Thirty +adolescents, suddenly possessing more knowledge than the world had ever +known, had run riot, playing with hypnotism, the transmutation of +matter, the Law of Degravitation, the fourth dimensional transposition +of whole city blocks. Within two days their energetic curiosity, their +adolescent love of excitement and experiment, had thrown the world into +crisis. By this time, Elvin concluded, they would be terrified by a +feeling of immense guilt, ready to be told what to do to make amends.</p> + +<p>It was up to him to be the one who did the telling. If, at the same +time, he could get his hands on one of the learning capsules—the +prospect was so dazzling it left him breathless.</p> + +<p>He slipped out to the boys' workshop back of the garage. When he knocked +on the door, Donald opened it two inches and quickly tried to close it +again. But Elvin thrust his hand over the latch.</p> + +<p>"No, Donald," he said sternly. "This time you don't get away with it. +You see, I know what happened when you ate the spheres."</p> + +<p>The door creaked open. Elvin walked into the workshop, where all thirty +of the tenth graders were gathered around the littered work table. The +rocket was there, and they were studying the tiny motor. In a corner was +a hastily constructed forge; three girls were working with it, turning +out curved strips of metal, which a boy was machining on the metal +lathe. In the center of the shop was a tall, gleaming bar of metal, +surrounded by a network of wires and fastened to a wooden base made from +an orange crate.</p> + +<p>"You're cooking up some more surprises for us?" Elvin asked.</p> + +<p>"No," Donald replied solemnly. "We're ashamed of—"</p> + +<p>"As, indeed, you should be."</p> + +<p>"We're doing our best to put everything back the way it was," Mabel +Travis said. "Honestly, Mr. Elvin."</p> + +<p>"It won't help much; the damage is already done."</p> + +<p>"But it can be undone. We've already fixed up part of it."</p> + +<p>"Yes," David Schermerhorn cut in anxiously. "When Don and I came back +this morning, the first thing we did was bring back the bank. Our +machine's kind of crude, Mr. Elvin, so we couldn't get it right at +first. I guess we picked up a castle or something in between; but that's +all right, now. And the gold—well, we're going to turn it back to +gravel again tonight." He gestured toward the bar of metal.</p> + +<p>"We can work from the edge of our field," David pointed out. "The whole +desert will change at once, the way it did last night."</p> + +<p>"And what will you do with all the people on it?"</p> + +<p>"It won't hurt them."</p> + +<p>"But when they find their gold is gravel, you'll have a major +catastrophe on your hands."</p> + +<p>Marilyn bit her lip. "That's why we haven't done anything yet. We don't +want anybody to get hurt but—"</p> + +<p>"So you've considered that at last." The more Elvin rubbed in the guilt, +he reasoned, the more secure he would make himself.</p> + +<p>"We could just transpose the whole area," Charles suggested. "We've +considered that, too. Maybe in pieces, Mr. Elvin. You know, an acre or +two to Australia, another to Germany, another to England. That couldn't +cause much more than local riots."</p> + +<p>"But the men would be mighty uncomfortable for a while."</p> + +<p>"The only trouble is, our machines are so crude; we've had to build them +out of scraps. And something could go wrong. We might try to send some +of the mob to China, and end up putting them in the Pacific, or maybe +back in time."</p> + +<p>"You've done enough tampering," Elvin declared. "I won't help you at +all, unless you promise to leave everything as it is. You have to put +yourselves in a position to help the world, not destroy it."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Elvin had injected just the right tone of nobility into his voice. The +thirty adolescents consulted together in whispers. Then David asked,</p> + +<p>"What do you want us to do, Mr. Elvin?"</p> + +<p>"Let me act as your representative. I'll go to Washington and talk to +responsible men in the government; I'll try to see the president +himself. We should set up a scientific foundation for you, where you'll +have the equipment you need and where your experiments won't do the rest +of us any harm. But, if I'm to convince anybody, I'm going to have to do +some tall talking. If you had one of the capsules left—"</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Elvin; they're all gone." David was not looking at him, and +Elvin knew he was lying; but this was not the occasion to make an issue +of it. Above everything else, he had to see to it that they had complete +faith in his motives.</p> + +<p>"Then one of your machines," he suggested. "I have to make them +understand I'm not a crank."</p> + +<p>"That sounds sensible. Which one, Mr. Elvin? The Degravitational Unit is +the smallest, and it would do the least harm if—" David looked away +again. "—if it got out of your hands."</p> + +<p>"It isn't sensational enough. I rather wanted to show them this thing +you used to transpose the bank and a square of jungle."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" Marilyn broke in. "We couldn't—"</p> + +<p>"Why that, Mr. Elvin?"</p> + +<p>"I've already told you. It's the sort of thing that would attract the +attention of the important officials immediately, because it could be +converted so readily to a weapon of inestimable value."</p> + +<p>There was a long silence, while the thirty youngsters looked from one to +the other. It lengthened. Elvin felt a creeping edge of fear. David +spoke at last,</p> + +<p>"I think you're right, Mr. Elvin. We could show the world how to build a +society adjusted to the needs of man; we could develop techniques for +wiping out disease and mental disorders; we could show you how to +conserve our resources, how to build material things for the mutual +happiness of all people; how to create instead of destroying. But of +course you're right. The only thing that would really interest any of us +would be a new weapon, wouldn't it? All right; we'll give it to you."</p> + +<p>Marilyn sprang up. "But, David—"</p> + +<p>"I know what I'm doing!" he snapped at her in a tense whisper. Turning +back to Elvin he added smoothly, "But we'll want something from you +first, Mr. Elvin."</p> + +<p>"Anything, my boy; anything to promote the welfare of mankind. But no +more of your tricks, mind."</p> + +<p>"This is far from a trick, Mr. Elvin."</p> + +<p>"So long as that's understood—"</p> + +<p>"We're working on a machine—a new one. We have everything we need +except tungsten. They use that in building television sets, among other +things. I want you to drive down to one of the plants in Los Angeles and +get us a pound of tungsten. They won't sell it to you; you'll have to +steal it."</p> + +<p>"Now, David! Only a thick-skulled schoolboy would take such an unsocial +attitude! I'm a teacher, a responsible citizen, proud—"</p> + +<p>"Do you want the machine for transposing matter?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; for the good of the nation. But—"</p> + +<p>"Then you'll have to take this risk. We'll give you a Degravitational +Unit. That'll help you get away. When you bring us the tungsten, we'll +deliver the transportation machine."</p> + +<p>Elvin made the drive to Los Angeles in record time. The highway was +jammed with traffic, but all of it was moving in the opposite direction, +toward San Benedicto. He refused to think of the consequences if he were +caught. The glittering dream was still blazing on the horizon of his +mind. If they refused him the learning capsule, it was unfortunate, but +there was nothing he could do about it. The important machine was the +one that transposed matter through time. With that one device alone, +Elvin could sway the world. Placed in the scales against such a reward, +the moral issue of theft counted not at all.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Los Angeles whirled chaotically in the monetary crisis. The streets were +jammed with people, buying everything they could before prices jumped +again. In the confusion, Elvin had no difficulty breaking into a +television plant. He didn't trip a burglar alarm until he was leaving +the factory, but the Degravitational Unit made his escape easy. Within +four hours he was back in San Benedicto. He hurried to the workshop. But +when he pounded on the door, there was no response. He tried the latch +and the door swung open.</p> + +<p>The room was empty, but on the table was a large envelope addressed to +him. A thin thread of wire was fastened to it; as he picked it up, the +wire broke and somewhere in the distance a motor began to hum.</p> + +<p>"Dear Mr. Elvin," he read. "It was unkind of us to play another trick on +you, but we're sure you'll be clever enough to steal the tungsten +without getting caught. When you came to talk to us, we realized that +the conclusion we had reached was right. Children—adolescent +minds—have wrecked our world. You know all about that, Mr. Elvin; +teachers always do. And you've told us so often in class about the +unstable emotions of adolescents, their tantrums, their +unpredictability, their unsocial behavior, their egocentricity and all +the rest. We'd like to help, but there isn't much we can do, not really; +you just want the machines we know how to make, not the ideas we've +learned. We grew up, you see, on the day we turned the desert to gold. +We found out what happens when you give children dangerous toys to play +with.</p> + +<p>"We made our mistake, and we know how to straighten it out. We've only +waited for you to read this so that you would understand, at least for a +moment. We have isolated ourselves in suspended time; we're right here +in the workshop with you, but you can't see us, naturally, because we +started standing still in time more than an hour ago. When you opened +your envelope, you tripped the motor of a matter transposition machine +which will throw all time backward to last Friday night. None of this +will have happened then. That should straighten everything out, don't +you think?</p> + +<p>"You'll find the rocket again, and you'll open it, just as you did +before. But this time there'll be only a jar of bubble gum inside, +because we've already consumed the learning capsules. There won't be any +memory left for anyone—except ours. We've learned how to work with a +planet of adolescents. We think we can help you mature in spite of +yourselves; but this time no one will ever know how it is being done."</p> + +<p>Elvin looked up, but before the anger and frustration could crystalize +in his mind, the yellow lamp dimmed, the walls of the workshop faded and +vanished. He fought for a moment against the blackness rising in his +mind. The light paled and paled and finally it was nothing more than a +red streak in the sky.</p> + +<p>It moved closer and he saw that it was a falling object followed by a +long plume of red flame. It flashed momentarily overhead and Elvin heard +a dull thud as it fell in a field beyond the ranch house. He sprang up +from the couch and moved off in the darkness. It had been a meteorite, +of course; if it had survived the friction of the atmosphere, it would +make an interesting exhibit for the science classroom....</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adolescents Only, by Irving E. Cox + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADOLESCENTS ONLY *** + +***** This file should be named 32651-h.htm or 32651-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/5/32651/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Cox + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Adolescents Only + +Author: Irving E. Cox + +Release Date: June 2, 2010 [EBook #32651] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADOLESCENTS ONLY *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + ADOLESCENTS ONLY + + By Irving Cox, Jr. + +[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of +Science and Fantasy January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any +evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Sidenote: Elvin wasn't sure how it had started--maybe it was the +Schermerhorn twins--or the mysterious "meteorite"--or else the world had +gone crazy....] + + +He tried to convince himself he had no right to gripe. It was a pleasant +place to live; he had privacy and a bath of his own. And the +Schermerhorns were reasonably broadminded people. They never objected to +his smoking or an occasional glass of beer. Last year at the +Neuhavens'--Gary Elvin cringed inwardly at the recollection. + +Just the same, this was going too far. It was enough to endure their +kids all day long, five days of the week, without the addition of these +juvenile parties. This one had started an hour after dinner and it was +still going strong when Elvin returned from the late show at the Fox. + +Naturally the Schermerhorn twins were popular tenth graders--husky, +blond Greek Gods who had everything, including a red Convertible and a +swimming pool Pop Schermerhorn had built for them at the ranch. Gary +Elvin had expected a certain number of parties when he decided to board +and room with the Schermerhorns, but hardly one every weekend. + +He fled through the cluttered hall where a buxom lass was organizing +something called a bubble gum contest and took refuge on the damp and +deserted patio. He flung himself on a wet, canvas lounge, and looked up +at the bright night sky. + +Bitterly he counted off the weeks. It was still early in November. He +had eight more months to endure before June came with its temporary +illusion of escape. As he always did, Elvin resolved to find a better +job next year. He had been teaching for five years now. He knew all the +tricks of classroom control and smooth community relations. Surely if he +started looking early enough, he ought to be able to get something at a +small college.... + +Suddenly he was jerked back to reality by a curious spot of red that +appeared in the sky. It moved closer and he saw that it was a falling +object followed by a long plume of red flame. It flashed momentarily +overhead and Elvin heard a dull thud as it fell into a field beyond the +ranch house. + +He sprang up from the couch and moved off in the darkness. It had been a +meteorite, of course; if it had survived the friction of the atmosphere +it would make an interesting exhibit for the science classroom. Miss +Gerken would be glassy-eyed with pleasure. + +There was no moon. As soon as he crossed the driveway, Elvin stumbled +over the damp furrows of a newly ploughed field. He was sweating when he +reached the row of palms that lined the irrigation ditch. He paused to +wipe his face. + +And he heard a weird, shrill, rhythmic sound. It might have been called +music, but there was no definable melody or beat. It was faint at first, +but as he moved to the right, paralleling the ditch, the sound came +louder. + +[Illustration: As he cautiously approached the alien object, it seemed +as if a soft melody were being wafted on the night breeze. The sound +made him nervous and instilled fear....] + +Then, beyond the trees, in a glow of blue light emanating from the thing +itself, he saw the rocket. It was not quite five feet long, a slim +projectile of glowing metal nosed deeply into the soft earth. The four +fins were rotating slowly. + + * * * * * + +Gary Elvin might, quite properly, have been frightened, but he was +totally unacquainted with modern fiction dealing with the probable +potentials of science and the universes beyond the earth. Such material +he classified, along with comic books and television, as the pap of +mediocre minds. + +Now, when he first saw the rocket, he came to the somewhat prosaic +conclusion that it had strayed from the government experimental site at +Muroc. He walked closer. The glow of the metal brightened; the slow +rotation of the fins and the weird music became hypnotic. For a moment +Elvin felt a surge of fear. He tried to turn away, but he could not. + +Instead, moving against his will, he took two of the fins in his hands +and pulled on them. The rotation and the music stopped as the tailpiece +of the rocket fell open. Elvin's mind cleared as he looked into a tiny +chamber capped by a small rectangular sheet of metal which was dotted +with tiny globes of a translucent material. Gingerly he picked up the +seal. + +As he touched the metal, a strange sensation, like a flood of jumbled +words, tumbled through his mind. The feeling was neither unpleasant nor +frightening. He was tempted to relax and enjoy it; and he would have, if +he had not been distracted by a second object in the chamber. He thrust +the strip of metal into the pocket of his coat. + +Elvin's second find was a small, transparent cylinder, filled with tiny, +multi-colored spheres, exactly like a jar of hard candy. There was +nothing else in the rocket, except for the motor built into the +tailpiece. The blue glow of the rocket began to fade. + +Vaguely Elvin became aware that something was amiss. He began to suspect +that he had stumbled upon something more than a stray rocket from Muroc. +He wanted to tell somebody about it. Clutching the cylinder of colored +balls he ran back to the house. + +The party had reached one of its numerous climaxes. The hall was jammed +with chattering high school students. They swirled in a flood around +Mrs. Schermerhorn, who seemed to be enjoying herself as much as they +were. + +Gary Elvin grabbed her arm. "I've found a rocket!" he cried. + +"Rocket?" she frowned for a moment, and then smiled brightly. "Oh, the +racket. Yes, but they do have so much energy, don't they?" + +He held up the cylinder. "This was in it!" + +"Oh, you found it, Mr. Elvin. We looked high and low; now we--" + +"It was in the rocket." + +"... now we can have our contest." + +Desperately a new idea occurred to him. "Can you get these kids quiet? I +want to 'phone." + +"But it's so early, Mr. Elvin. We can't expect them to go home yet." + +"No, Mrs. Schermerhorn. 'Phone. I want to telephone!" + +"Oh. Yes; of course. We'll have our contest in the living room." + + * * * * * + +Gary Elvin wormed his way toward the closet under the stairway. It was a +very small telephone alcove, not designed for utility. Yet he found he +could shut out some of the din if he jackknifed himself against the +slanting wall and held the door partly shut. + +But it required the use of both his hands. He set the cylinder on a +bookcase in the hall and squeezed into the closet. With the telephone in +his hand, he hesitated. It had seemed a good idea a moment ago--to call +in the Authorities. But, to bring the generalization down to specifics, +just who would that be? + +In a big city he would have telephoned the police. But San Benedicto was +a California valley town, small, sleepy, and contented. The four-man +police force was more or less capable of handling minor traffic +violations, but certainly nothing else. The State Police? Elvin doubted +they would have jurisdiction. His last, feeble resort seemed to be the +_San Benedicto News_, a daily, four-page advertising circular that +passed, locally, for a newspaper. Elvin called the editor-reporter at +his home. + +After he had told his story, Elvin had to suffer a certain standardized +banter concerning the advisability of changing his brand of bourbon. It +was entirely meaningless, a form of humor enjoyed by the valley people. +Matt Henderson eventually agreed that the strange rocket might bear +investigation. + +"I'll be out first thing in the morning," he promised. + +"In the morning! Listen, Matt, this thing may be--it might--" He was +unable to crystalize his reasons for urgency. He finished lamely, "It's +important, I think." + +"It ain't going to run away, is it?" + +"No, but--" + +"Then we can both get a good night's sleep." + +Gary Elvin turned away from the telephone, vaguely dissatisfied. He felt +that something ought to be done immediately. What, he didn't know, or +why. He went to get his cylinder of colored spheres from the bookcase +where he had left it. The jar was gone. + +He heard a burst of talk in the living room and he was suddenly +frightened. From the archway he looked in on the guests, some thirty +youngsters, all of the tenth grade of San Benedicto High School. They +sprawled over chairs and couches, or they sat, Indian fashion, on the +floor. Mrs. Schermerhorn stood in the center of the room, like a judge, +smiling patiently. All thirty of the guests were chewing industriously. +On the floor stood Elvin's jar of colored spheres, open and more than +half-empty. + +"Oh, dear," Mrs. Schermerhorn protested, turning to Elvin. "Something +seems wrong with their gum. They've tried and tried, but I haven't seen +a single bubble. And it did seem such a clever game! I suppose if the +gum were stale--" Her voice trailed off when she saw the horror on +Elvin's face. + +Wordlessly he pointed at the open jar. The room fell silent. All thirty +of the youngsters looked at him. Their chomping jaws became motionless. + +"Is--is that mine?" he whispered hoarsely. + +"The jar you brought in?" Mrs. Schermerhorn asked. "I don't know, Mr. +Elvin, I'm sure. Mabel Travis was supposed to bring the gum for the +contest, and she forgot where--" + +"But mine wasn't gum." He licked his lips, uncomfortable in the focus of +so many staring eyes. "A--a rocket of some sort fell in the field, just +beyond the irrigation ditch. I found the cylinder inside. It might +be--it could be--anything." + +Elvin had the strange sensation, for almost ten seconds, of looking at a +motion picture film that had stopped at a single frame. Then, as if the +projector had started to run again, all thirty of the youngsters broke +into activity. For another second the analogy of the film persisted; +Elvin had the elusive impression that each of the youngsters was +carefully playing a part. + + * * * * * + +They clamored to go out and see the rocket. Mrs. Schermerhorn protested +that they would ruin their clothes trailing over the fields after dark. +The guests allowed themselves to be talked into putting off their +curiosity until morning. As their excited talk faded, Mabel Travis +looked up at Elvin. + +"Was your jar the one on the bookcase, Mr. Elvin?" she asked, eyeing him +with her enormous, blue eyes. + +"Yes. Is that where you got--" + +"No." The room was still again, and all the youngsters were looking at +her with a peculiar anxiety. "I thought that was one of the prizes. You +know, when we played forfeits earlier in the--" + +"Of course," Mrs. Schermerhorn put in. "Bill Blake did win a jar of +candy, didn't he?" + +"And that's what I thought the jar was when I saw it on the bookcase," +Mary Travis continued. "So I took it upstairs and put it with our coats +in the bedroom. I'll get it for you, Mr. Elvin." Slowly she picked up +the nearly empty jar on the floor and recapped it. "I'm going to take +this back to the drugstore tomorrow morning and demand my money back. I +certainly don't like being cheated!" + +When she returned to the living room, she handed Elvin his cylinder of +colored balls and slowly his fear dissipated. Until a competent +authority analyzed the contents, the jar represented unknown danger. It +might be harmless; but it could also be an explosive, a form of fuel for +the rocket, perhaps even germ colonies used in biological warfare. If +Bill Blake had taken it home with him as an innocent jar of candy--Elvin +shuddered. + +The party broke up and Elvin went to his room. He hung his suit +carefully at the back of his closet to preserve the creases and thereby +cut down on his cleaning bill. After five years of living on a teacher's +salary, such economies had become second nature with him. He brought out +his blue serge and hung it on the door; it was the suit he would wear +next week to school. + +Saturday dawned crisply sunny. Elvin shaved and dressed leisurely. +Through the dormer windows of his room he saw the rich, black fields +that surrounded the ranch house and the distant ridge of misty mountains +beyond the desert, one or two of them crested with snow. + + * * * * * + +The Schermerhorns, of course, were already awake and busy. Elvin heard +the clatter of dishes in the kitchen. He saw the twins, David and +Donald, tall and muscular in their tight jeans and brilliant plaid +shirts, working in their shop back of the garage. Pop Schermerhorn was +in conference with a score of day laborers clustered around the +half-dozen tractors in the drive. Through the open garage door Elvin +could see the Schermerhorn Cadillac, the station wagon, and the red +Convertible that belonged to the twins. + +The scene could be duplicated, with minor variations, on any day of the +week. Elvin always resented the Schermerhorn prosperity, even though Pop +Schermerhorn had been kind enough to offer him board and room when it +was obvious the family did not need the additional income. + +Elvin never allowed himself to forget that the Schermerhorns owned one +of the largest ranches in the valley as well as the feed store in San +Benedicto and a half-interest in the bank. Yet Pop Schermerhorn actually +boasted that he had never gone past the eighth grade in school, and his +kids were fortunate to be considered mentally normal. Elvin had the +twins in class; he knew the limits of their ability. Donald had an I.Q. +of 89, David of 85. + +Yet such a family literally rolled in money, while Elvin was like a +slum-dweller staring emptily into a crowded shop window. + +Matt Henderson turned in from the main highway as Elvin finished +breakfast. He joined the reporter and they walked out to the field +beyond the irrigation ditch. In daylight the terrain was very different. +Elvin backtracked over the same ground several times before it dawned on +him that he could not locate the rocket. + +Perspiration beaded his face. That was impossible! The rocket was large +enough to be seen from any point in the field. Even if some part of the +mechanism had caused it to rise again during the night, Elvin would have +found the gaping hole the point of the projectile had torn in the earth. +But there was nothing. Not a furrow in the ploughed field was disturbed. + +Visibly amused, Matt Henderson departed, repeating his formula about +brands of liquor. This time, Elvin thought, the reporter actually +believed it. Elvin walked back to the ranch. He was very angry; but, +more than that, he was coldly afraid--and he had no idea what he was +afraid of. + +The Schermerhorn twins stopped him as he crossed the driveway. + +"You sure made us bite on that one, Mr. Elvin," Donald said good +naturedly. + +"Yeah," David added. "All the kids came over early this morning to see +your rocket." + +"I guest we deserve it, though," Donald went on philosophically, "for +pulling that deal on you in class last week." + + * * * * * + +Gary Elvin went up to his room in a daze and sat staring at the bottle +of colored spheres. It seemed entirely clear what had happened last +night; yet, conceivably, the rocket could have been an hallucination. If +so, it was because of the grinding frustrations of his job. But Elvin +had a good mind; he did not have to let a bunch of discourteous +rattle-brained kids get him down. David and Donald had given him the +clue: the rocket was simply a practical joke he had played on his class +of tenth graders. + +The second step in driving out the "dream" was an appeal to authority. +He must understand the limits of scientific possibility in the use of +rockets. That meant a trip to the library. Although it was four miles to +San Benedicto, Elvin decided to walk; the exercise would help clear his +head. + +He entered the library at eleven-thirty, half an hour before the +building was closed for the weekend. It was a good library. The +assessment rate in prosperous San Benedicto was high, and books had been +purchased wisely. In the card catalogue Elvin found listed a number of +up-to-date references that he could use; but there was nothing on the +shelves. Five minutes before closing time, he asked the librarian for +help. + +"I don't suppose there's anything in," she answered. "We've had a +perfect run on books all morning." + +"You mean everything in the library is out?" + +"Everything worthwhile." She beamed. "And most of the borrowers were +your tenth graders, too, Mr. Elvin. You've certainly done a wonderful +job of inspiring that class to do serious reading. Why, do you know +Mabel Travis has been in here three times today? She took out seven +books as soon as the library opened, and she had them back by +nine-thirty. Said she'd read them all, too." + +"Seven books in less than two hours?" Elvin laughed. + +"I suppose she thought she had. Poor little Mabel! She hasn't much to +work with, you know. But it was her new attitude I liked--so intense, so +serious. And she was doing such heavy reading, too." + +Elvin walked back to the Schermerhorn ranch, enjoying the noon-day +warmth. San Benedicto was crowded with Saturday shoppers. He met his +students everywhere, and always they commented on the practical joke he +had played on them. By the time he was back in his room, the fiction of +the joke was thoroughly established in his own mind. He almost believed +it himself. + +He glanced again at the transparent cylinder of spheres. A chemist might +be able to analyze the contents and say where the jar had originated. +Perhaps Miss Gerkin could do it. She had taught science for more than +twenty years at San Benedicto High. Yet Elvin knew he couldn't ask her +for help. If the colored balls turned out to be nothing more than hard +candy, then by inescapable logic he would have to accept the fact that +he was suffering from a major hallucination. It was more comfortable not +to know the truth. + +The idea of candy, however, brought up another association. Mrs. +Schermerhorn had said that earlier in the evening Bill Blake had won a +jar of candy as a prize. Bill Blake was the prize joker of the tenth +grade. Elvin had what seemed to be an intuitive flash of understanding. +The rocket had been a joke, all right, but it had been aimed at Elvin. +The kids had rigged it up before he came home from the show. During the +night they had come back and taken the stage setting away. + + * * * * * + +Elvin spent the rest of the weekend planning his revenge. He didn't +think of it as that, but rather disciplinary action. Yet he knew the +class would get the point and possibly even heed the implied warning. In +five years Elvin had reduced the complex process of teaching to one +workable rule: break the class, or the kids will break you. + +Now he chose the classical cat-whip of a surprise test to crack them +back into line. He spent Sunday planning it and duplicating the pages. +He was scrupulously careful to be fair--at least as he defined the term. +The examination covered nothing that had not been discussed in class. +But Elvin taught grammar, and no field of the abstract allows such +devious application of the flimsy nonsense passing for rules. + +On Monday morning, with a thin smile, Elvin was ready for them. He had +tenth grade English first period. As he passed out the mimeographed +pages, he waited for waves of groaning to sweep the room. Nothing +happened. He felt an annoying pang of anger. A hand shot up. + +"Yes, Charles?" he snapped. + +"If we finish before the end of the period, can we have free reading?" + +"I doubt you'll finish, Charles. This test is ten pages long." + +"But if we do--" + +"By all means, yes." + +Gary Elvin leaned back in his chair and surveyed, with satisfaction, the +thirty heads bent studiously over their desks. For perhaps five minutes +the idyll lasted, until Donald Schermerhorn brought his test up to the +desk and asked permission to go to the library. Elvin was both amazed +and disappointed; but at once he reassured himself. The test had been +simply too hard for Donald. + +Nonetheless, as soon as Donald was out of the room, Elvin checked his +examination against the key. As he turned through the pages, his fingers +began to tremble. Donald had answered everything--and answered it +correctly. Before Elvin had finished checking Donald's test, ten more +students had left theirs on the desk and headed for the school library. + +Within ten minutes Elvin was fighting a disorganizing bewilderment far +worse than the rocket-hallucination. Every examination was completed, +and none that he checked had as much as one mistake. Elvin wished he +could believe that whole-sale cheating had taken place, but he knew that +was impossible because of the precautions he always took. + + * * * * * + +All of the tenth graders were back from the library by that time. They +had each brought two or more books. Elvin's body went rigid with anger +when he saw what was currently passing among them for the skill of +reading. They were methodically turning pages almost as quickly as they +could move their hands from one side of the books to the other, all with +the appearance of engrossed attention. + +Elvin banged a ruler on his desk. One or two faces looked up. "This has +gone far enough!" he cried. "You asked for the privilege of free +reading, but I do not intend you to make a farce of it." A hand went up. +"Yes, Marilyn?" + +"But we are reading, Mr. Elvin. Honestly." + +"Oh, I see." His voice was thickly sarcastic. "And what's the title of +your book?" + +"Toynbee's _Study of History_." + +"You've given up Grace Livingston Hill? Could you summarize Toynbee for +us, Marilyn?" + +"In another ten minutes, Mr. Elvin. I still have sixty pages to read." + +Elvin turned savagely to another girl. "Mabel Travis! What are you +reading?" + +The buxom girl looked up languidly. For a split second her big eyes +seemed focused on a distant prospective. "Why--why this, Mr. Elvin." She +held up her book so he could see the title. + +"_Hypnotism in Theory and Practice_," he snorted. And Mabel's I/Q was +71! "You've outgrown the comics, Mabel?" + +"In a sense, yes, Mr. Elvin." + +Elvin was saved from further disorientation by the interruption of an +office messenger with a special bulletin announcing a second period +assembly. By the time he had read it, his anger was under control. He +let the reading go on and spent the rest of the period plodding through +the examinations. There was not an error in any of the papers. From the +prospective of the day's events, Elvin later realized that, however +personally unnerving, his own particular crisis had been a minor one. + + * * * * * + +The first full scale public disaster came during the assembly, when the +entire student body--nearly one hundred and fifty youngsters--was +gathered in the auditorium. The principal, as always, rose to lead them +in the Alma Mater. He was a huge, hatchet-faced, white-haired man, the +terror of evil-doer and faculty members alike. He had a tendency to give +a solemn importance to trivial things and to overlook the great ones; +and there was no mistaking the awed, almost religious fervor with which +he sang the school song--which was, perhaps, only natural, since he had +written it himself. + +On that disastrous morning he suddenly burst into a dance as the student +body barrelled into the first chorus. He snatched up the startled girls' +counselor and improvised a little rumba. Slowly the students' voices +fell silent as they watched. Under the sweating leadership of the music +teacher, the school orchestra held the pace for another bar or two, +until one of the players stood up and rendered a discordant hot lick on +his trumpet. + +A trio of caretakers carried the struggling principal off the platform +and shouting teachers herded the students on to their next classes. +Thirty minutes later the word-of-mouth information was carefully spread +through the school that the principal had been taken to the hospital for +observation and he was doing nicely. But by that time his fate seemed +unimportant, for the girls' tenth grade gym teacher was having hysterics +on the front lawn, convinced that all her students had turned into fish; +and the boys' glee club teacher had abruptly announced that the nation +was being invaded by Martians. He, too, had been carried off to the +hospital in haste. + +The rest of the faculty was badly shaken. When they met at lunch, they +unanimously wanted the school closed for the rest of the day. But the +principal had been too small a man to delegate any of his authority; as +long as he was hospitalized, the teachers could do nothing. + +After the ominous activity of the morning, however, most of the +afternoon passed in relative order. True, the counselor gave pick-up +tests to three tenth graders whose earlier I.Q. scores had been so low +the validity had been questioned; and this time the same three outdid an +Einstein. And the tenth grade math teacher was almost driven to +distraction by a classroom discussion of the algebraic symbology +equating matter and time--all of which was entirely over his head. + +Nothing really happened until five minutes before the end of the school +day, when Miss Gerkin knocked weakly on Gary Elvin's door. As soon as he +saw her face, he gave his class free reading and joined her in the hall. +Fearfully she showed him a yellow Bunsen burner, which glowed softly in +the afternoon sunlight. + +"Do you know what it is, Gary?" + +"It's one of those gas burners you have on the lab tables in--" + +"The metal, I mean." + +"Looks like gold. Aren't these rather expensive for a high school +classroom?" + +She sagged against the wall, running her trembling fingers over her thin +lips. "It's that tenth grade, Gary. I have them last period for general +science. Bill Blake and the Schermerhorn twins got to fooling around +with the electro-magnet. They rewired it somehow and added a few--well, +frankly, I don't understand at all! But now when anything--metal, glass, +granite--when anything is put in the magnetic field, it's changed to +gold." + +"Transmutation of atomic structure? You know it can't be done!" + +"Yes, I know it. But I saw it happen." She began to laugh, but checked +herself quickly. + +"It's a trick. I know that bunch better than you do. It's time one of us +had it out with them." + + * * * * * + +He strode along the hall toward the science room, Miss Gerkin following +meekly behind him. "I'm sure you're right, Gary, because the rest of the +class hardly showed any interest in what the boys were doing. I actually +asked Marilyn if she didn't want her necklace turned to gold, and she +said she was too busy to bother. Imagine that, from a high school kid!" + +"Busy doing what?" + +"Working out the application of the Law of Degravitation, she said." + +"The Law of Degravitation? I never heard of it." + +Miss Gerkin sniffed righteously. "Neither have I, and I've taught +science all my life." + +Gary Elvin flung open the door of the science room. It was one minute +before the end of the period. For a moment he looked in on a peacefully +ideal classroom. Every student was at his bench working industriously. +Then, row by row, they began to float upward toward the ceiling, each of +them holding a tiny coil of thin wires twisted intricately around two +pieces of metal and an electronic tube. The breeze from the open window +gathered them languidly into a kind of huddle above the door. + +The bell rang as Miss Gerkin began to scream. Elvin fought to hold on to +his own sanity as he tried to help her, but a degree of her hysteria +transferred itself to him. His mind became a patchwork of yawning blank +spaces interspersed with uncoordinated episodes of reality. + +He remembered hearing the bell and the rush of the class out of the +room. He remembered the piercing screams of Miss Gerkin's terror echoing +through the suddenly crowded halls. Beyond one of his black gulfs of +no-memory, he was in the nurse's office helping to hold Miss Gerkin on +the lounge while the school doctor administered a sedative. + +Slowly the integrated pattern of his thinking returned when he was +driving back toward the Schermerhorn ranch. It was late in the +afternoon; the sun was setting redly beyond the ridge of mountains. As +Elvin's fear receded, he was able to think with a kind of hazy clarity. +He had seen a metal Bunsen burner that had been turned into gold; he had +seen the crusty principal of the school break into a rumba, and three of +his colleagues driven to hysteria; he had seen a tenth grade class +floating unsupported in the air. All of it manifestly absurd and +impossible. + +But it had happened. Elvin could visualize only two plausible +explanations: mass insanity or mass hypnosis. Hypnosis! A sluggish relay +clicked in his mind. He remembered a book. One of the tenth graders had +been reading it--_Hypnotism in Theory and Practice_. + +Everything seemed clear after that. The tenth grade was an obstreperous +bunch of unsocial adolescents. Somehow they had stumbled upon hypnotism +and learned how to use it. + +The time for an accounting had come. Because of where Elvin lived, he +was admirably situated to break the Schermerhorn twins first; and they +were, perhaps, the weakest members of the group. He would have them +alone, without the support of their peers. It would be easy. After all, +he was a mature adult; they were still children. Once he had a +confession from them, it would only be a minor operation to clear up the +whole mess. + +When he reached the Schermerhorn ranch, dinner was on the table. He had +no time to talk to the twins until afterward. Both David and Donald +bolted the meal and rushed back to their workshop behind the garage. +Their usual bad manners, Elvin realized, but what else could be +expected? + + * * * * * + +Elvin finished a leisurely pipe in the living room, and then sauntered +out to the boys' workshop. Surprisingly, the door was locked, the +windows thickly curtained; they had never taken such precautions before. +He knocked and, after a long wait, both David and Donald came outside to +talk to him. They were naked to the waist and their husky, tanned bodies +gleamed with sweat. A smudge of grease was smeared over David's unkempt +blond hair. + +"Working on your car, boys?" Elvin inquired indulgently. He knew the +technique. Put them at their ease, first; then come to the point when +their guard was down. + +"Well, not exactly, Mr. Elvin." Donald said. + +"Mind if I watch? I always say I can learn as much about motors from you +two as you learn from me about grammar." + +Neither of the twins said anything. After an uncomfortable silence, +Elvin cleared his throat pointedly. He had never met with such +disrespect. If they were his kids, they would long ago have been taught +proper courtesy for their superiors! To fill the lengthening void, he +asked. + +"What did you think of the little test I gave this morning?" + +"It was all right," Donald said. + +"You both did pretty well; I'm proud of you." + +"We had everything right," David pointed out without a flicker of +expression. + +Elvin couldn't seem to engineer the dialogue as he used to. In that +case, this was as appropriate a time as any for the question he had come +to ask. He spoke slowly, with a tone of disinterest. "Do either of you +know anything about hypnotism?" As a shocker, Elvin realized, it left +much to be desired; their faces told him nothing. + +"A little," David volunteered. + +"We read eight or nine books on it over the weekend," Donald added. + +"That's a lot of reading. It must have taken a great deal of time." + +"Oh, a couple of hours." + +Elvin clenched his fists in futile anger, but he kept his voice steady. +"Is anybody else in the tenth grade reading up on hypnotism?" + +"I suppose so," Donald admitted. "I'm not sure. Why don't you ask in +class tomorrow?" + +"It occurs to me that a clever hypnotist could be responsible for what +happened at school today." + +"Some of it; isn't that rather obvious? We'd like to go on talking, Mr. +Elvin, honest. But we have a lot of work to finish. It'll be bedtime +soon enough." + +"But you know about hypnotism, don't you?" + +"We know how it's done, yes, and its limitations so far as genuine +telepathy--" + +"Who created that ridiculous scene in the auditorium?" Elvin's voice +rose as he tried to put on pressure. + +"I wouldn't worry about the principal, Mr. Elvin, if I were you. He's +always been a neurotic." + +"Mighty big words you're using these days, Donald. Where'd you hear +them?" + +"The principal is a little man--mentally, I mean. He's afraid of people +because he isn't sure of himself. So he makes himself a tin god, a +dictator, just to show the rest of us--" + +"I want to know where you picked all this up!" + +Patiently the twins began to talk, taking turns at delivering an +improvised lecture in psychology, shot through with an array of highly +technical terms. As Elvin listened to their monotonous voices, he slowly +felt very tired. His head began to ache as his anger ebbed. More than +anything else, he wanted a long night's sleep. Yawning wearily, he +thanked the boys--for what, he wasn't quite sure--and went up to his +room. + + * * * * * + +Some time before dawn Elvin awoke for a moment. He thought he heard the +sound of a motor in the driveway, but he was too sleepy to get up to see +what it was. Two hours later he awoke to chaos. + +Mrs. Schermerhorn was shaking his shoulder. He looked up into her white, +terrified face. Her hand trembled as she clutched her quilted robe close +to her throat. + +"Mr. Elvin, they'll need your help. Mr. Schermerhorn's waiting for you." + +He shook sleep out of his mind sluggishly. "Why? What's happened?" + +"The bank's gone. Just--just gone!" + +He blinked and shook his head again. "I--I don't think I heard you +right, Mrs. Schermerhorn." + +"There's a jungle where the bank used to be. With tigers in it." She +laughed wildly for a moment, but the laughter dissolved into tears and +she reached for the bottle of smelling salts in the pocket of her robe. +"Most of them have been shot by this time, I think. The tigers. Think of +it, Mr. Elvin--tigers in San Benedicto!" She began to laugh again. + +When Elvin joined Pop Schermerhorn and the twins in the station wagon, +Mrs. Schermerhorn followed him out of the house with a thermos of hot +coffee. As she put it in the car, she saw the rifles they were taking +with them. She began to weep again, clinging desperately to the side of +the car. Suddenly the twins knelt beside her, and threw their arms +around her neck. + +"We're sorry, Mom," David whispered. "Terribly sorry." + +"You've nothing to be sorry about," she replied. "It's not your fault." + +"Better get back inside," Pop Schermerhorn told her. "Mind, keep the +doors locked. Things ain't safe no more around here." + +As they drove into San Benedicto, Elvin was considerably puzzled by the +attitude of the twins. Normally talkative to the point of nausea, they +were now strangely quiet. And this was exactly the sort of thing that +should have inspired their most adolescent repartee. + +The sun was rising as they stopped the station wagon among the clutter +of cars filling Main Street. Elvin stared in disbelief at the neat +square of tropical jungle rising cleanly in the heart of San Benedicto. +Not only the bank but a whole block of business houses was gone. This +could be written off neither as insanity nor hypnotism; it was a madness +existing in actual fact. Elvin gave up trying to discover any logic in +what was happening. Both reason and natural law seemed to have +abdicated. + +The periphery of jungle was surrounded by armed men. At intervals they +shot at shadows lurking among the trees and, as the sun brightened, the +accuracy of their aim increased. They were not worrying about causes, +either; they were responding with excellent self-discipline to the +emergency of tigers roaming the streets of San Benedicto. Afterwards, at +their leisure, they could speculate on how the jungle had come to be +there. + +There was only one fatality. A tiger sprang out of the jungle and mauled +a man who had pressed too close. It happened directly in front of the +Schermerhorn twins. They turned their rifles on the tiger and killed it +instantly; but the man was dead, too. + + * * * * * + +Elvin was surprised to see tears in the eyes of the twins, but he +credited it to the unstable emotions of adolescence. Both of them had +acted with maturity when they faced the tiger; no adult could have done +more. Still they wept, even though the man was a stranger. + +By eight o'clock the stirrings in the jungle had stopped. The men began +to relax. Waitresses from the Bid-a-Wee Cafe brought out doughnuts and +coffee and distributed them among the crowd. + +There came, then, a new disturbance at the far end of Main Street, a +shouting of tumultuous voices. A mob moved slowly into the center of +town, clinging to the sides of an antiquated dump truck. + +"Gold! Gold! Gold!" It was like a chant shouted with ecstatic antiphony. +The dump truck stopped and Elvin saw the unbelievable--gleaming heaps of +gold shoveled like gravel into the back of the vehicle. The driver stood +on the running board, weaving drunkenly. + +"The whole damn' desert," he shouted. "All of it, as far as I could +see--all pure gold!" + +He took a shovel and scattered the nuggets and dust among the throng. +"Take all you like. Lots more where this came from!" + +The mob stirred slowly at first, and then more and more violently, as +the men began to race for their cars. The vehicles were already crowded +close together. Gears ground and fenders crumbled. The street became +helplessly jammed with locked cars. Only a few on the fringe escaped. +Angry arguments broke out, degenerating into fist fights. The peak +violence cooled a little after a few heads had been smashed, and +grudgingly the men turned to the task of freeing their cars. + +Donald snatched Elvin's arm. "Stay here with Pop," he shouted above the +clatter. "Dave and I are going back to the ranch. Mom may need us. The +desert runs right up to the edge of our property, you know." + +"Going to walk?" + +"I think we can get the station wagon out. It's pretty far back." + +Elvin and Pop Schermerhorn worked side by side helping untangle the mass +of vehicles. After an hour order had been more or less restored, and the +mob had thinned, since each of the freed cars had been driven off at top +speed to the desert bonanza. + +For a moment the sky darkened. Elvin looked up. The jungle had +disappeared and a medieval castle, complete with knights, had taken its +place. The mob shrank back in terror. So did the knights, although one +or two on the battlements ventured to send shafts into this new enemy +that had appeared at the castle gates. But there was no time for real +hostilities to develop, for the castle vanished and a 19th century +factory took its place. The factory survived less than thirty seconds, +before it gave way to the bank and row of stores which had originally +stood on the site. + +For some reason the crowd began to cheer, as they would a victorious +football team. But the tumult died quickly, for the buildings were +covered with a slime of jungle vines, torn up by their roots, and a pair +of snarling lions stood at bay on the sidewalk. After they had shot the +lions, they found a cobra was coiled on the cashier's desk in the bank +and an antelope was imprisoned in the dry goods store. They were still +clearing out miscellaneous wild life when reporters from the city +newspapers, apprised by the _San Benedicto News_ of the gold strike, +descended upon the town. They were followed by a deluge of prospectors, +arriving in anything that would move--bicycles and Cadillacs, Model T's +and Greyhound buses. + +The mob poured into town first by the scores, and then by the thousands. +Primarily male, their prevailing mood was explosive instability, a +glassy-eyed greed flamed higher as each truckload of gold poured back +into town from the diggings. The four-man police force was helpless. The +major telegraphed to Sacramento for the National Guard; in the interim, +he deputized every townsman he could find, among them Elvin and Pop +Schermerhorn. + + * * * * * + +Elvin worked until he was exhausted, herding the mob into the streets +and through the town as rapidly as they would move; and still there was +no relief, and the number in the throng increased by the minute. +Newsreel trucks, television units, press cars twisted among the vehicles +heading for the desert. Regularly, heavy duty trucks brought tons of +gold back from the diggings and deposited them at the bank until the +aisles overflowed and the precious metal sifted through the windows +forming little pyramids in the street. By noon Treasury men flew in from +Washington. They circled the diggings and landed to inspect the quality +of the gold hoard at the bank. + +Fifteen minutes later a rumor filtered among the deputies: the Treasury +men estimated that the San Benedicto strike would yield upwards of two +or three hundred thousand times the known gold supply of the world. When +the _San Benedicto News_ came out in mid-afternoon, it headlined the +first shock of the economic disaster. + +World currencies were collapsing; three nations were already bankrupt; +international trade was grinding to a standstill, with no medium of +exchange; retail prices in the United States had started to skyrocket, +in the wake of rising stock market quotations. And still the procession +of dump trucks brought the tons of gold back from the desert. When the +bank overflowed the dry goods store was commandeered as an emergency +depository, and later the Five-and-Ten and the sprawling basement of +Montgomery Ward's. + +When the first contingent of National Guardsmen marched into San +Benedicto, it was obviously too small to police the mob. The press +estimated that a quarter of a million people were moving into the valley +every hour. More Guard units were summoned and ultimately, at the +Governor's request, two regiments of the regular army were dispatched to +San Benedicto, along with a Tank Corps and ten thousand Marines from +Camp Pendleton. + +It was nightfall before the deputies were relieved. Tired and dirty, +Elvin and Pop Schermerhorn rode back to the ranch on a prospector's +truck. From the lawn they looked across Schermerhorn's ploughed fields +at the desert, teeming with mobs of men and bright in the glare of +countless searchlights. Mrs. Schermerhorn met them on the porch. She +clung to her husband's arms, trembling. + +"I'm so glad you're back safely!" she whispered. "They've been moving +closer all day." She nodded toward the desert. "Like ants, trampling and +destroying everything that gets in their way." + +Pop Schermerhorn clenched his fists. "If they'd broken in here, I'd +have--" + +"If it hadn't been for the twins, I don't know what might have happened. +They got their class over here, the whole tenth grade. All day long +they've been patrolling our fences, without even stopping long enough to +eat. They're all out in the workshop now; they've made it a kind of +headquarters." + + * * * * * + +The three of them went into the living room. Pop Schermerhorn and Elvin +dropped wearily on a couch, while Mrs. Schermerhorn poured stiff drinks +for both of them. The radio was playing, a smoothly sweet dance +orchestra from San Francisco. But the music faded abruptly, and an +excited newscaster interrupted. + +"It's been like this all day," Mrs. Schermerhorn said. She looked up +nervously as the side door opened and the twins came in. + +"We just wanted some more copper wire, Mom, for the thing we're making," +Donald said, but he hesitated when he heard the news broadcast. Both +twins dropped silently on the arms of an overstuffed chair and listened. + +The bulletin was brief; it reviewed the growing chaos among the foreign +exchanges, the expanding list of bankruptcies. Two European nations, +driven to internal disaster, had gone to war; already the big powers +were choosing sides, framing ultimatums. War seemed to be the one +universal panacea for all things. In New York stores had started to +quote new dollar prices every hour, although purchases made in silver +were still relatively stable at the old value. The grating voice +concluded, "The first estimates of today's yield from the San Benedicto +field place it in the neighborhood of seventy-thousand tons; mining +experts predict that tomorrow the figure may be tripled." As the music +came on again, Donald got up and snapped off the radio. + +"The economy of the world's being wrecked, isn't it?" he asked. "By too +much gold." + +"I don't understand," Pop Schermerhorn answered, shaking his head. +"Gold's valuable; we need it; it makes us rich. But now, when we have +all we want--" + +"The trouble is, it has no use," David said. "Governments buy it and +bury it. If gold becomes as plentiful as iron ore, we still can't do +much with it. You can't make skyscrapers or sewer pipes out of gold; +it's too soft." + +"The government ought to clear out the field and stop the mining," +Donald suggested. "That might help." + +"Not as long as the world knows the gold is still here," Elvin answered. +He studied the twins carefully; their comment on the economy seemed +mature for tenth graders. Suddenly Elvin's weary mind began to piece +together a vague kind of understanding, when he remembered the +transformation of the Bunsen burner to gold. Beyond his shadowy +comprehension loomed the vista of a grandiose dream of how he could use +the situation for his own profit. It was intoxicating, like reaching out +for the stars and finding them within his grasp. + +"It's all crazy!" David cried. "We don't really use gold, anyway, in our +economy. Why can't we just forget it, and go on using dollars the way we +used to?" + +"Because people are fools," Elvin said. + +"Or, perhaps, just children," David replied. He stood up, stretching, so +that his muscles rippled beneath his plaid shirt. "Well, we better get +that wire, Don, and go back to work." + + * * * * * + +After the twins had left, Elvin went up to his room to bathe. His mind +skipped pleasantly over the delightful and limitless possibilities of +his new understanding. The whole thing, of course, hinged on his +approach. But, after all, that shouldn't be hard; they were still +children emotionally. Five years of teaching had demonstrated, to his +satisfaction, that he could handle any adolescent. + +He began to dress. The clothes he had worn that day were streaked and +torn. He took his second suit out of the closet. As he hung the coat +over the back of his desk chair, he heard metal strike against the wood. +It was the coat he had worn on Friday night, when he found the rocket; +in the pocket was the strip of metal that had been sealed over the +cylinder of colored spheres. + +He held it in his hand again. It was the first time the full surface of +the metal had touched his skin. As he had before, he felt the sensation +of jumbled words flooding his mind, but now the feeling was more +intense. He could not put the metal down. Instead he dropped into his +desk chair and his eyes were drawn irresistibly to the pattern of tiny, +translucent globes that dotted the surface of the metal. The heat of his +body produced a chemical reaction; one by one the little globes +exploded. + +Pictures filled Elvin's mind, of cities, machines, towering stacks of +books. These dissolved, and he saw planets whirling on the black +emptiness of space around the glowing disk of a red sun. There was a +cataclysmic splatter of light as the sun exploded, and slashing flame +shot out to destroy its circling planets. That picture, too, disappeared +and he was staring at a gray nothingness while an emotional voice spoke +to him deep within his brain. + +"_To the intelligent life form, on the Third Planet, System K, Greetings +from the dying world of Dyran. You have located our rocket from the +hypnotichord built into the fins, and, by opening it, you have +demonstrated a condition of rationality that we are able to help. We +speak to you now through hypnotic pictures which you are translating +into the symbology of your own society. Our astronomers predict that our +planetary system will shortly be destroyed, because our sun is dying. It +is useless for us to try to escape, for no world that we can find within +the limits of our telescope has the particular combination of +atmospheric gases which we need in order to live. The only sky-body that +we have ever studied that gives any indication of higher life forms is +yours. To you, then, we send the substance of our knowledge, the laws +and principles that we have developed over a period of two million years +since our recorded history began. We could have sent our machines, our +libraries of records, yet the chance that you would not comprehend them +alone is too great. Instead we send our learning capsules, which we use +in the instruction of our young. Break the container which is sealed +into this rocket and consume one of the colored spheres. It is, +basically, a stimulant to the cerebral cortex of any reasoning animal +which already has a memory of the past and a concept of the future. Long +ago we discovered that, unaided, the mind will function with only a +small portion of its specialized cells. This stimulant forces conscious +activity upon all parts of the cortex; in the process of stimulation, +your brain will receive the full knowledge of basic principles which we +ourselves have developed. We send you fifty of these only, but it will +be enough. You have not, on your planet, the material with which to make +additional capsules for your people, but you will not need them. The +fifty who learn from these will become teachers for the rest. Carry on +for us the culture that we have made on the dying world of Dyran._" + + * * * * * + +The gray mist faded and Elvin stood up. He felt refreshed, alert; his +mind bubbled again with schemes. He looked at the bottle of colored +spheres still standing on his desk, and he knew they were no more than +bubble gum or candy. On Friday night, while he telephoned, the tenth +graders at the Schermerhorn party had started their bubble gum contest, +but instead of gum they had by accident absorbed the accumulated +knowledge of Dyran, a culture more than three hundred times as old as +the earth's! + +It was overwhelmingly clear what had happened after that. Thirty +adolescents, suddenly possessing more knowledge than the world had ever +known, had run riot, playing with hypnotism, the transmutation of +matter, the Law of Degravitation, the fourth dimensional transposition +of whole city blocks. Within two days their energetic curiosity, their +adolescent love of excitement and experiment, had thrown the world into +crisis. By this time, Elvin concluded, they would be terrified by a +feeling of immense guilt, ready to be told what to do to make amends. + +It was up to him to be the one who did the telling. If, at the same +time, he could get his hands on one of the learning capsules--the +prospect was so dazzling it left him breathless. + +He slipped out to the boys' workshop back of the garage. When he knocked +on the door, Donald opened it two inches and quickly tried to close it +again. But Elvin thrust his hand over the latch. + +"No, Donald," he said sternly. "This time you don't get away with it. +You see, I know what happened when you ate the spheres." + +The door creaked open. Elvin walked into the workshop, where all thirty +of the tenth graders were gathered around the littered work table. The +rocket was there, and they were studying the tiny motor. In a corner was +a hastily constructed forge; three girls were working with it, turning +out curved strips of metal, which a boy was machining on the metal +lathe. In the center of the shop was a tall, gleaming bar of metal, +surrounded by a network of wires and fastened to a wooden base made from +an orange crate. + +"You're cooking up some more surprises for us?" Elvin asked. + +"No," Donald replied solemnly. "We're ashamed of--" + +"As, indeed, you should be." + +"We're doing our best to put everything back the way it was," Mabel +Travis said. "Honestly, Mr. Elvin." + +"It won't help much; the damage is already done." + +"But it can be undone. We've already fixed up part of it." + +"Yes," David Schermerhorn cut in anxiously. "When Don and I came back +this morning, the first thing we did was bring back the bank. Our +machine's kind of crude, Mr. Elvin, so we couldn't get it right at +first. I guess we picked up a castle or something in between; but that's +all right, now. And the gold--well, we're going to turn it back to +gravel again tonight." He gestured toward the bar of metal. + +"We can work from the edge of our field," David pointed out. "The whole +desert will change at once, the way it did last night." + +"And what will you do with all the people on it?" + +"It won't hurt them." + +"But when they find their gold is gravel, you'll have a major +catastrophe on your hands." + +Marilyn bit her lip. "That's why we haven't done anything yet. We don't +want anybody to get hurt but--" + +"So you've considered that at last." The more Elvin rubbed in the guilt, +he reasoned, the more secure he would make himself. + +"We could just transpose the whole area," Charles suggested. "We've +considered that, too. Maybe in pieces, Mr. Elvin. You know, an acre or +two to Australia, another to Germany, another to England. That couldn't +cause much more than local riots." + +"But the men would be mighty uncomfortable for a while." + +"The only trouble is, our machines are so crude; we've had to build them +out of scraps. And something could go wrong. We might try to send some +of the mob to China, and end up putting them in the Pacific, or maybe +back in time." + +"You've done enough tampering," Elvin declared. "I won't help you at +all, unless you promise to leave everything as it is. You have to put +yourselves in a position to help the world, not destroy it." + + * * * * * + +Elvin had injected just the right tone of nobility into his voice. The +thirty adolescents consulted together in whispers. Then David asked, + +"What do you want us to do, Mr. Elvin?" + +"Let me act as your representative. I'll go to Washington and talk to +responsible men in the government; I'll try to see the president +himself. We should set up a scientific foundation for you, where you'll +have the equipment you need and where your experiments won't do the rest +of us any harm. But, if I'm to convince anybody, I'm going to have to do +some tall talking. If you had one of the capsules left--" + +"No, Mr. Elvin; they're all gone." David was not looking at him, and +Elvin knew he was lying; but this was not the occasion to make an issue +of it. Above everything else, he had to see to it that they had complete +faith in his motives. + +"Then one of your machines," he suggested. "I have to make them +understand I'm not a crank." + +"That sounds sensible. Which one, Mr. Elvin? The Degravitational Unit is +the smallest, and it would do the least harm if--" David looked away +again. "--if it got out of your hands." + +"It isn't sensational enough. I rather wanted to show them this thing +you used to transpose the bank and a square of jungle." + +"Oh, no!" Marilyn broke in. "We couldn't--" + +"Why that, Mr. Elvin?" + +"I've already told you. It's the sort of thing that would attract the +attention of the important officials immediately, because it could be +converted so readily to a weapon of inestimable value." + +There was a long silence, while the thirty youngsters looked from one to +the other. It lengthened. Elvin felt a creeping edge of fear. David +spoke at last, + +"I think you're right, Mr. Elvin. We could show the world how to build a +society adjusted to the needs of man; we could develop techniques for +wiping out disease and mental disorders; we could show you how to +conserve our resources, how to build material things for the mutual +happiness of all people; how to create instead of destroying. But of +course you're right. The only thing that would really interest any of us +would be a new weapon, wouldn't it? All right; we'll give it to you." + +Marilyn sprang up. "But, David--" + +"I know what I'm doing!" he snapped at her in a tense whisper. Turning +back to Elvin he added smoothly, "But we'll want something from you +first, Mr. Elvin." + +"Anything, my boy; anything to promote the welfare of mankind. But no +more of your tricks, mind." + +"This is far from a trick, Mr. Elvin." + +"So long as that's understood--" + +"We're working on a machine--a new one. We have everything we need +except tungsten. They use that in building television sets, among other +things. I want you to drive down to one of the plants in Los Angeles and +get us a pound of tungsten. They won't sell it to you; you'll have to +steal it." + +"Now, David! Only a thick-skulled schoolboy would take such an unsocial +attitude! I'm a teacher, a responsible citizen, proud--" + +"Do you want the machine for transposing matter?" + +"Yes; for the good of the nation. But--" + +"Then you'll have to take this risk. We'll give you a Degravitational +Unit. That'll help you get away. When you bring us the tungsten, we'll +deliver the transportation machine." + +Elvin made the drive to Los Angeles in record time. The highway was +jammed with traffic, but all of it was moving in the opposite direction, +toward San Benedicto. He refused to think of the consequences if he were +caught. The glittering dream was still blazing on the horizon of his +mind. If they refused him the learning capsule, it was unfortunate, but +there was nothing he could do about it. The important machine was the +one that transposed matter through time. With that one device alone, +Elvin could sway the world. Placed in the scales against such a reward, +the moral issue of theft counted not at all. + + * * * * * + +Los Angeles whirled chaotically in the monetary crisis. The streets were +jammed with people, buying everything they could before prices jumped +again. In the confusion, Elvin had no difficulty breaking into a +television plant. He didn't trip a burglar alarm until he was leaving +the factory, but the Degravitational Unit made his escape easy. Within +four hours he was back in San Benedicto. He hurried to the workshop. But +when he pounded on the door, there was no response. He tried the latch +and the door swung open. + +The room was empty, but on the table was a large envelope addressed to +him. A thin thread of wire was fastened to it; as he picked it up, the +wire broke and somewhere in the distance a motor began to hum. + +"Dear Mr. Elvin," he read. "It was unkind of us to play another trick on +you, but we're sure you'll be clever enough to steal the tungsten +without getting caught. When you came to talk to us, we realized that +the conclusion we had reached was right. Children--adolescent +minds--have wrecked our world. You know all about that, Mr. Elvin; +teachers always do. And you've told us so often in class about the +unstable emotions of adolescents, their tantrums, their +unpredictability, their unsocial behavior, their egocentricity and all +the rest. We'd like to help, but there isn't much we can do, not really; +you just want the machines we know how to make, not the ideas we've +learned. We grew up, you see, on the day we turned the desert to gold. +We found out what happens when you give children dangerous toys to play +with. + +"We made our mistake, and we know how to straighten it out. We've only +waited for you to read this so that you would understand, at least for a +moment. We have isolated ourselves in suspended time; we're right here +in the workshop with you, but you can't see us, naturally, because we +started standing still in time more than an hour ago. When you opened +your envelope, you tripped the motor of a matter transposition machine +which will throw all time backward to last Friday night. None of this +will have happened then. That should straighten everything out, don't +you think? + +"You'll find the rocket again, and you'll open it, just as you did +before. But this time there'll be only a jar of bubble gum inside, +because we've already consumed the learning capsules. There won't be any +memory left for anyone--except ours. We've learned how to work with a +planet of adolescents. We think we can help you mature in spite of +yourselves; but this time no one will ever know how it is being done." + +Elvin looked up, but before the anger and frustration could crystalize +in his mind, the yellow lamp dimmed, the walls of the workshop faded and +vanished. He fought for a moment against the blackness rising in his +mind. The light paled and paled and finally it was nothing more than a +red streak in the sky. + +It moved closer and he saw that it was a falling object followed by a +long plume of red flame. It flashed momentarily overhead and Elvin heard +a dull thud as it fell in a field beyond the ranch house. He sprang up +from the couch and moved off in the darkness. It had been a meteorite, +of course; if it had survived the friction of the atmosphere, it would +make an interesting exhibit for the science classroom.... + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adolescents Only, by Irving E. 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