"You, too, Ward?" Dr. Allenby said sadly. He was a short, slender man
with white hair and a white mustache. He helped Ward up from where he
had fallen at the foot of the escape slide. "What was it in your
classroom this time?"
"Tigers," Ward said. Standing beside Allenby, he felt very tall,
although he was only of average height. He smoothed down his wiry dark
hair and began energetically brushing the dust from his clothing.
"Well, it's always something," Allenby said tiredly.
He seemed more sad than upset, Ward thought, a spent old man clinging to
the straw of a dream. He saw where the metaphor was leading and pushed
it aside. If Allenby were a drowning man, then Ward himself was one. He
looked at the others.
They were all edgy or simply frightened, but they were taking it very
well. Some of them were stationed at the gates of the Quad, but none of
them, as far as he could see, was armed. Except for McCarthy. The psych
man was wearing his Star Watcher helmet and had a B-gun strapped at his
side. Probably had a small force-field in his pocket, Ward thought,
_and_ a pair of brass knuckles.
"So--the philosophy king got it too," McCarthy said, coming over to
them. He was a big man, young but already florid with what Ward had
always thought of as a roan complexion. "Love, understanding,
sympathy--wasn't that what was supposed to work wonders? All they need
is a copy of Robinson Crusoe and a chance to follow their natural
instincts, eh?"
"One failure doesn't prove anything," Ward said, trying not to be angry.
"_One_ failure? How often do they have to make us hit the slides for the
safety of the Mob Quad before you adopt a sensible theory?"
"Let's not go through all that again. Restraint, Rubber hoses and
Radiological shock--I've heard all about the 3 Rs."
"At least they work!"
"Oh, yes, they work fine. Except that they never learn to read and they
can't sign their names with anything but an X."
"It was progressive education that destroyed reading," McCarthy said
heatedly. "And they don't _need_ to sign their names--that's what
universal fingerprinting is for."
"Please, gentlemen," Dr. Allenby interrupted gently. "This kind of
squabbling is unbecoming to members of the faculty. Besides," he smiled
with faded irony, "considering the circumstances, it's hardly a proper
time."
He pointed to the windows over the Quad where an occasional figure could
be seen behind the glass. Lucky it was unbreakable, Ward thought,
hearing the wild hysterical yelling from inside.
"Mob Quad," Allenby said bitterly. "I thought I was naming it as a joke.
The original Mob Quad was at Merton College, Oxford. One of the old
defunct universities. _They_ had a Mob Quad to shelter students and
professors from the town mobs. Professors _and_ students,
gentlemen--they were a united front in those days. I suppose no one
could have predicted our present circumstances."
"That's all history," McCarthy said impatiently. "Bunk. This is _now_,
and I say the thing to do--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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