Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 32: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

30 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION The ranks of the marchers swelled. Other marchers started. And in the village of Hoxworth, near the university, the residents de- cided they did not need to be reminded of their duty by people from other communities. There sprang from the mind of a fanatic, and couched in the lyrical language so often used by the psy- chotic, a huge placard that was set up at the corner of the library park one night. In one corner of it, there was a copy of young Tyler’s cartoon of Billings. And in bold lettering: HIDE! HIDE! WITCH! THE GOOD FOLK COME TO BURN THEE! All day there was a crowd around it. In the strange manner of disturbed people, some stood for hours just look- ing at it, letting its message seep into the bottom fibres of their beings— awakening ancestral memories. But during the small hours of the night, some student, perhaps equally psychotic in his bitterness against such medieval reaction, added an- other placard below with these scorn- ful words: THEIR KEEN ENJOYMENT HID BENEATH THE GOTHIC MASK OF DUTY! It was a most unfortunate thing, for it struck deep into the roots of guilt, and even where some had hung back, now they raged and stormed with the rest when it was discovered the next morning. A pall of quietness, inactivity, hung over Hoxworth University. A miasma of gloom, apprehension, like the somatics within a prison, filled the grounds and seeped through the halls. Classes were sparsely attended, and in- structors found themselves straying away from the subject of their lectures. Most of the students had gone home in the weeks before. All work on Bossy had ceased at the orders of the Board of Governors of the university. She had been dis- mantled and her parts stored away. The activated brain floes had been carefully lifted out of its case and folded into a thin aluminium box. No one was sure what damage even this handling might do, and no one had the urge to test and experiment to find out. “I tried to warn you, Dr. Billings,” Joe said once, in the dean’s office. “But if you knew this, Joe!’ Billings exclaimed. ““Why didn’t you tell us?” “Fach time I tried, doctor,’ Joe said quietly, “you told me to mind my own business, that I lacked wisdom. I didn’t know for sure what would hap- pen, or I’d have forced you to listen. I knew only that men of science have failed to bring the people along with them, that human beings are capable of terrible things when they are terri- fied. You told me, many times, that scientists are not concerned with these things; that scientists don’t want to hear about doom consequences; that scientists are quite certain everything will be all right if they’re just per- mitted to do as they please.” “People have predicted doom at every single advance of science, Joe,”’ Billings admonished him. ‘Look at all the doom written around the time of atomic discovery. It never hap- pened.” “I know,”’ Joe said. “‘Ti’s a case of “Wolf, wolf’ being cried too often, isn’t it? Too bad. But your history should tell you, doctor, there always comes a time when the wolf really does ‘come.”’ There wasn’t any more conversation connielooolkks.c@ im