Berry's mouth worked convulsively in sheer rage but he had no words left
to contain it. He put his head on his knees and sobbed.
The other psychologists of the research division came crowding into the
laboratory to seek the cause of all the tumult.
"What happened?" Dr. Wilholm inquired.
"Well, Doc Berry has gone an' riled hisself into 'nuther accident," Wims
informed him.
"I suppose you had nothing to do with it," Wilholm snapped.
"Cain't rightly say Ah had. He worked it out all by hisself."
"Just like the rest of us, I suppose," Wilholm said with unconcealed
hostility.
"Well now y'all mention it, Doc, Ah ain't nevah seen sich a collection
o' slip-fingered folk. Always bustin' either their gear or theirselves."
"Listen, you--"
"Now lookit Doc Castle up on top o' that lockah. He's gonna bust a leg
if he don't quit foolin' with that critter."
Wilholm turned to see Dr. Castle up near the ceiling trying to get at a
chimpanzee perched just out of reach on a steam pipe. "Castle, are you
crazy?" he cried. "Get down from there before you hurt yourself."
"But I've got to get Zsa Zsa into a cage before one of the cats gets
her," Castle protested. Just then an ocelot leaped for Zsa Zsa and she
leaped for Dr. Castle who promptly lost his balance and plummeted toward
Dr. Wilholm who foolishly tried to catch him. They all crashed to the
floor and lay stunned for some moments. Castle attempted to rise but he
sank back almost immediately with a grimace of pain. "I think my leg is
broken," he announced.
"Well Ah tole you," Wims said. "Ain't that so, Dr. Wilholm?"
Wilholm attempted to hurl Zsa Zsa at Wims but found to his surprise he
could only wriggle his fingers. The effort sent little slivers of pain
slicing through his back.
By this time the laboratory was resounding with the fury of a riot sale
in a bargain basement. Sounds of destruction, counterpointed with cries
of pain and imprecations increased as the staff pursued maddeningly
elusive animals through a growing jungle of toppled and overturning
equipment. At the far end there was a shower of sparks and a flash of
flame as something furry plunged into a network of wires and vacuum
tubes.
* * * * *
Two hours later, Dr. Titus, the division chief, strolled in just as the
firemen quenched the last stubborn flames. He surveyed the nearly total
ruin of the laboratory. "Really!" he said to a thickly bandaged Dr.
Berry who was attempting to rescue an undamaged electroencephalograph
from a gleeful fireman's ax, "can't you test your hypothesis without
being so untidy?"
Dr. Berry whirled and struck Dr. Titus.
"Of course you know what this means," Titus said calmly, rubbing his
jaw. "I'll just have to have a closer look at your Rorschach."
"You can just go take a closer look," Berry snarled.
"Now, now," Titus said soothingly, "why don't we just go to my office
and find out what is disturbing us? Hm-m-m?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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