In the morning, Dan and the Milbuns ate a hurried breakfast. Dan helped
Mr. Milbun grease his rowing machine, weights, springs and chinning
bar, so they wouldn't rust in his absence. Milbun worked in a somber
mood. All the Milbuns, in fact, were unusually quiet for a family going
on vacation. When they went out into the hall, carrying no baggage,
they even took the elevator to the third floor.
"Better save our strength," said Mr. Milbun.
The street seemed to Dan to have a different atmosphere. People were
walking quietly in groups, their eyes cool and alert. The Milbuns
walked in front of the apartment houses Dan had passed the day before,
and across the street he saw the place where the chiseled motto had
read:
Freedom
Devisement
Fraternity
It was gone. Some workmen nearby were lifting a stone slab onto a cart.
Dan blinked. The motto now read:
Alertness
Devisement
Vigilance
The Milbuns plainly noticed it, too. They drew closer together and
looked around thoughtfully. Carefully keeping away from brass plates
labeled SWEEPER, they followed a devious route that led to the statue.
The statue had changed, too. The hand that gripped the circle was now
hidden by a massive shield. The other hand still held what looked like
a magnifying glass, and the motto was still "I Devise." But the shield
gave the whole statue a look of strange menace.
Across the street, near the place where Dan had seen the Trans-Space
agent, stood several men wearing orange capes, barred black across the
shoulders. Nearby, the brass plate opened and a man in work clothes
handed out a box and went back in.
At a store entrance up the street, watching them, stood an
average-looking man in a purple cape, his look intent and calculating.
Mavis glanced at the statue and took Dan's arm. "Devisement," she said,
"they won't take you now, will they, before vacation?"
Dan kept an uneasy silence and Mr. Milbun said, "Of course not, Mavis.
Where's the belt?"
Mavis glanced at the statue. "Oh."
Dan looked at the statue, then at Mavis and Mr. Milbun, said nothing
and went on.
They came to a large building with a long flight of broad wide steps.
Across the face of the building was boldly and sternly lettered, high
up:
HALL OF TRUTH
Lower down was the motto:
"Speak the Truth--
Live Yet a While With Us."
V
On one side of the stairs as they climbed was a statue of a man,
smiling. On the other side was an urn with a bunch of carved flowers
lying beside it.
A big bronze door stood open at the top. They walked through into a
large chamber with massive seats in triple rows along two walls, and a
single row of yet more massive seats raised along the farther wall.
A bored-looking man got up from a low desk as the Milbuns sat down in
three of the massive seats.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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